Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Family Room Beam Wrap Progress
We hired the finish carpenters that did such a beautiful job wrapping our attic beams to wrap the structural steel beam installed in our family room. They started while I was away in Colorado. In addition to gluing wood planking together to make panels, they have also been constructing three "beam skeletons" that run parallel to the steel one. See picture below:

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Stairs and Railing Installed
Today the stairs and railing were installed. The fabrication and installation was done by George of George's Spiral Stairs.

In order to install the stairs and railing, we had to rent a crane to drop it into place. I was a bit worried about this, since the road behind our house is a private road owned by the home on the lake front and the crane would occupy the entire width of the road and would prohibit traffic flow for a couple of hours. However, after talking with my lake front neighbors (and explaining the entire project to each of them - at length), we were able to secure permission to use the road.

Originally, the plan was to just carry the stairs around the side of the house, but since we used solid-core material for the stairs (with the exception of the center support) the weight required the use of the crane. If your are wondering, the cost to rent such a crane for half a day runs about $600. Ouch.

Here are some pictures of the crane while lifting the spiral stairs into place:

And the subsequent install of the stairs and railing:

Here is a picture of the footing that was installed at the bottom of the stairs... some 18 bags of concrete were used (each bag weighs 80 lbs iirc):

And pictures of the final product:

Looks fantastic!

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Interior Painting
The trim around the deck doors and the cased opening in the family room was done today. The cased opening between the family room and the kitchen was painted white on one side and black on the other to match the respective colors of the room trim. Not sure we made the right choice with the black wrapping around or we should have gone with the white. *shrug* Oh well.

As can be seen, we emptied the family room and our master bedroom of the furniture (Kristy and I have been sleeping in the Murphy bed for the past week and our bedroom dressers are lined up in the upstairs hallways). I'll move the furniture back in tomorrow.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Playhouse Interior Paint (Revisited)
Kristy snapped some additional pictures of the job she did on the playhouse interior painting. The playhouse is "play central" up in the attic right now... it is where the kids congregate most often (especially the girls) and rightfully so given the ages of our children. What's funny is that the playhouse was not part of the original design of the attic; we just kind of came up with the idea on the spot while the framers were putting up the interior walls. In fact, it was almost a year ago to the day that the framers roughed in the playhouse... check it out:

That was taken on October 5th, 2007. Fast forward, one year later and here is what the playhouse interior looks like on the outside:

And on the inside:

You'll notice that Kristy has included close-ups of the fireplace, potted, plant, and bookshelf she painted. Nicely done!

(Update Wed Oct 15 06:51:45 PDT 2008 // added exterior shot of playhouse)

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Family Room Opening Cased
The new framed-in opening that connects the kitchen and the family room has been cased. It looks great and adds a bit more of a formal separation between the two rooms.

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Project Update
The drywall subcontractor finished up the repair of the family room walls today. This evening Kristy and I spent some time taping and painting the walls. It took a couple of coats to cover the drywall primer, but it looks great now that it is complete. It was great to have Kristy help with the taping, we were able to knock it out in just a couple of hours. The family room is almost back to a pre-steel-beam-installatation state. We need to wrap the beam yet of course, but that process won't start until the 13th. Between now and then we hope to have the millwork installed and painted (not by us) and the ceiling repainted (something we will do).

The light at the end of the tunnel of our ongoing home renovation is getting brighter. Today our new patio doors were tied into the home security system and the carpet in our master bedroom was re-installed (it had been rolled back for the benefit of installing the new door). There are only a few things left to do!

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Final Touch-Ups
The painters showed up today to help me finish up the final touch-ups around the house. I worked side-by-side with Yuri and his son Oleg and we were able to paint all of the new material with the exception of the new trim Baxton installed around the three rear dormers. Yuri and Oleg will be back tomorrow for the last little bit and then the project will be done. The rain is due to start on Wednesday or Thursday. So I'm really happy that everything will be done before then.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: New Window Trim
We decided to have Baxton install cedar trim around all of the windows on the house. The trim matches what was done around the doors in the back and what has always been present on the front of the house. Yes we should have done this before the house was painted, but we didn't really realize how much the trim was needed until after the paint was done.

The last of the window trim was installed just yesterday. I've notified the painters that we are ready to go with the new stuff, but I decided to take matters into my own hands today and get a jump on priming the new material. The seasonal rain is forecast to roll in late next week and once it is here, it will rain 6 days out of 7 until April or May. I was able to get all of the material primed today except for the stuff on the 3rd floor that my ladder won't reach.

Home Renovation Project: Attic Conversion: Playhouse Interior Wall Painting
Kristy had been busy for the last couple of months painting the interior of the playhouse. First she painted a fire, a bookshelf, and a potted plant on the back wall. Then (more recently) she has painted the other three walls. Last weekend I installed some trim (that Kristy picked out) and then spent the last couple of days priming and painting the installed trim. Finally... it is done! Here are the pictures:

(Update Sun Oct 5 22:48:30 PDT 2008 // renamed entry)

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Progress Report
Now that the steel beam is installed, Baxton came out today and installed the master bedroom patio door.

Baxton is pretty much done now... we are only lacking the spiral stair and the handrail around the deck. That is scheduled to be installed on October 8th.

Meanwhile, Reid's helper re-affixed the drywall that they had carefully removed and put up new stuff where required.

The drywall tape and mud is scheduled to begin tomorrow. That should probably take two or three days to complete. After the drywall is done, then we can paint and start working on wrapping the steel beam in ash (similar to what was done up in the attic). I've already got the same carpenters lined up to do the beam wrap. They start on the 13th.

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Steel Beam Installed
Reid and crew installed the steel beam today. They used a total of 137 screws to keep it in place - 46 screws in each of the end brackets, and an additional 45 screws running the length of the steel beam that are drillled vertically up into the pre-existing wood beam that is immediately above it.

(Update Mon Sep 22 07:11:50 PDT 2008 // "and and" -> "and an")

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Beam Work Started
The steel I-beam that will be installed under the existing wood beam (that spans across our family room) was delivered today. Reid and his helper have been prepping the family room for an install tomorrow. Here is a picture of one of the heavy duty brackets:

If all goes well then Baxton will be able to cut in the master bedroom door that opens out to the new deck next Monday.

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Bar Counter Complete
Last Saturday, we distressed the apron that wraps around the support for the bar counter top. Kristy then sanded it down and stained it. I applied an oil varnish on it Sunday and yesterday and then today installed the solid surface slate counter top. It looks pretty good for something we pretty much made up on the fly... and should be eminently useful too as both a serving area and for seating.

Kristy is checking out a sliding screen for the kitchen window tomorrow. The goal is to be able to just hand out food from the kitchen window to be placed on the bar countertop. Cool beans.

Home Renovation Project: New Garage Doors: Hardware Installed
The final touch on the garage doors - the door latches and clavos - were installed. A full view of the hardware on the smaller garage door can be reviewed here. I have also snapped a close-up shot of the hardware on the larger garage door. See bleow (click to enlarge):

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: New Cedar Siding
I have a problem with letting the most minor of details bother me. Call it obsessiveness, or compulsiveness, or whatever. But I just could not get over the fact that the near-textureless uniformly-colored hardiplank installed around our smaller garage door clashed with the new stained garage door that we just had installed. Before the door and the hardiplank were painted the same color... that is no longer the case.

So I had Baxton rip off the hardiplank siding and replace it with cedar siding. The cedar siding will be stained using the same stuff that we used to stain the garage door. Problem solved (hopefully).

Last week, when I informed the head of the painting crew, Yuri, about what I was planning on doing... he laughed at me in disbelief (and perhaps with a little bit of annoyance since he had just finished painting the same area). My sister-in-law was more direct; she called me "crazy!" with an exclamation point. Probably true.

In any case, here is a picture of the new material Baxton installed today. Also note the new garage door hardware.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Gazebo Deck Stained
The painting crew sanded down the deck today and then painted it with a solid color stain that matches the house exterior color. Hopefully it will weather well.

The gazebo is now done... just need to re-stain the cedar shake roof and repair a few of the shingles. But I'll do that myself.

Home Renovation Project: Back Patio Deck: Distressing the Bar Counter Apron
A couple of weeks ago, Joe from Kenis Loven was out to install our bar counter on the back patio. Today the five us spent some time distressing the apron that surrounds the supports for the bar counter.

After we distressed it, Kristy sanded it down, and then stained it. I'll snap some pictures later of the finished product.

Home Renovation Projects: Exterior Painting: Gazebo and Front Door
The painters pressure washed the gazebo a couple of days ago, primed it yesterday, and then today put the top coat on all of the white railings, posts, and interior roof trim. It looks great!

Our front door also was painted a deep Chianti red:

The pictures were all taken late because after Berkeley's soccer practice and game today, we went over to Red Robin for some dinner.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Third Coat of Stain
We had the painters put a third coat of stain on the cedar shingles. The shingles didn't stain as dark as the cedar skirl siding, but a third pass seems to have done the trick. I snapped a few pictures of the house in the mid-afternoon (3:30ish) after the painters were pretty much done.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Final Trim
The painters have finished painting the trim. I snapped a couple of pictures in the evening just before dusk, so the sunset gave the trim a bit of rosy tone to it. But it's a very dull cream color, not the slight pink that is pictured at left below.

Now that the trim is done I scaled up on the roof and re-installed our antenna for the benefit of over-the-air HD reception:

The painters are essentially done now. They still have to paint the gazebo in the backyard, the front door (a Chianti red color), and put one more coat of lacquer on the garage doors. And, of course, we still don't have that door installed in our master bedroom (pending installation of the steel beam), so once that is in, then the painters will need to come back and touch up around that door.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Painting the Trim
A couple members of the painting crew started work on painting the trim today while the other one finished up painting the siding the new house trim color. Here are some pictures to document the progress made:

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: New House Color
So, yesterday we decided on a paint color: one called "Cowboy Boots" available at Lowe's. The painters matched it up and applied it on two sides of the house today... see pics below:

I'm wringing my hands about the color. It doesn't look as good as I thought it would where the new color is immediately adjacent to the small garage door and also where the paint is up against the soffit material on the rear patio. But, I guess I'll get used to it... maybe.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: Second Coat of Stain
A second coat of stain was put on all of the new cedar material today. It has darkened up considerably, but may need one more coat to get it as dark as the old stuff. Perhaps we didn't color match well?

To be fair... in the picture above, the new material is in the sun and the old material is mostly in the shade. I'll have to give this a closer inspection tomorrow at midday.

Home Renovation Project: Exterior Painting: First Coat of Stain
We are finally starting to stain and paint the exterior of our home. This is the culminating step for two projects: our attic conversion and our back patio and deck. We aren't completely ready for the paint around the back patio and deck, but we can't put off the painting crew any longer without getting so far back in their schedule that they might have to push us back until next spring. We are still waiting for the stell beam to be installed in our family room so that we can cut in our master bedroom door out to the deck. And there is a bunch of siding repair around the future door that has yet to be done as well. *sigh*

Today the first coat of stain was applied to all the cedar siding and cedar shingles. See below:

We are also trying to decide on a house color, but nothing seems to really "pop" out at us.

Pictured from left to right: "Chocolate Cocoa", "Gardener's Soil", "Roasted Coffee", and "Cowboy Boots".

Home Renovation Project: New Garage Doors: Installation
Our new garage doors were installed yesterday and today. Included with the installation: new openers, new tracks, new everything. Here are a couple of pictures:

All that is lacking now is a final coat of varnish and the garage door hardware (which includes decorative iron latches and ornamental clavos).