Week 60: Front Entrance & Interior Doors

This week the exterior of the front entrance is finished. It looks great, with the massive glass door. All the interior frames were installed and the door was installed. A really nice feature is the magnetic latch, it feels just like a regular latch, but no strike plate is visible. The doors are super clean. They are well worth the price tag.
We went to Bowdoin part which Ken had mentioned that he saw our house across the river. It's a bit surreal to look at our house from afar. The long horizontal line made it easy to spot immediately. Also found the local road on our side of the river with a closer view of the house from down the cliff, Mount Rose Road, which is a deadend road that services the houses down the cliff.
We spent the day in Rhinebeck, checking out Sawkille Co. Decided to submit a request for quote on a custom credenza. Rather support some local artists than big city companies. Let's see how it goes. Walnut with bleached sycamore, with 6 drawers.

Week 58 & 59: Local Artists and Furnishings

The last weeks were filled with furniture shopping. We found the artist that does the wood stumps for BDDW. Visited Kieran Kinsella's studio today in Rosendale, NY (just 30 minutes north of us). It's a perfect artists studio with several works in progress. We've commissions Kieran to make 6 pieces for us in the next year or maybe 2 years time. Kieran's pieces were picked up to sell at BDDW, so naturally he's quite busy trying to fill all the orders.

Matt and Adam finished the TV framing this week, the way the mount is set, I think we can hang a 100" TV and it wouldn't be any problem.
Our Solar system is delayed till end October due to the frame not being ready, but as long as we turn on the solar this year, we can still quality to get the tax credits from the gov't.

Week 57: Interior Framing + Last of the wiring work

This was a rainy week, torrential rain poured down on our site. More interior framing was done. We went up on Saturday to finalize the remainder of the audio and video wiring.
The good news is that we should have some resolution on the slope and non-disturbance issue. The drill sample the engineers took seem pretty stable, so the town should be happy about the results to settle the issue.
Once that is done, we can proceed to get a deck plan approved.
Otherwise things have been slow, we are moving on to purchasing interior items and fixtures. Custom designed a chandelier for the dining area. Going to fill it with Edison bulbs. Can't wait.

Week 56: Correct Interior Doors & Tree Auction

Interior Doors! Take two - finally has arrived from Modern Doors (again) this Wednesday and the measurements are good. The old set of doors with the incorrect measurements got returned with the same trucking company that dropped off. These doors are so nice and truly fits the modern aesthetic we were looking for. It's too bad that they do not supply closet doors at a better price. We went with 8 foot high doors for all interior doors, the height of it makes the ceilings appear even higher. It's not some many people focus on and they normally end up getting the standard measurements, but it can really make a difference to the overall look of the interior. Finally, we can proceed with the rest of the interior framing. Matt and Adam had wanted to wait until they arrived to ensure the most accurate fit possible. We love our GCs, they are so meticulous, they've really affected the outcome of this home and our love for it.
We have an area in the front of the house where a lot of water gathers, Matt and Adam spent this week building 2 beautiful rock ponds where the water would run through. It looks..dare I say...AMAZING (inside joke on the word Amazing..because I dread using it because of my work).
We went to the MANZA family farm (Montgomery, NY) this Saturday to bid on some trees. Never again will buy full price trees and plants, they were practically giving it away. Bought several Maples, Cherries, and Plum trees to start us off. Plum tress for $25.00 each and they were about 10 ft high. $65.00 for Japanese Maples!!! We would need a whole lot more. Just haven't worked out the plan yet.

Week 55 : Sealer hmmmm

We had decided to seal the cedar slats to avoid it going grey in the near future. It was a beautiful color to begin with. We decided on Sikkens Cetol 1 as the sealer, it has pretty good reviews. The lightest color is Natural Light. There was also a Cedar color choice, but it makes it very red. Since the Natural Light color was delivered late, we just received it Friday, we didn't get a chance to test it out. Went out to the site on Saturday and started applying, it really makes the wood look much darker, which we do not like because it contrasts so much with the cedar ceiling. I was very disappointed and really hope it lightens up during the next few weeks after it dries out.
The last small window above the Kitchen got delivered and now the house is fully secureable.
The correct interior doors should be delivered coming week.

Week 53 & 54: Leach Fields, gas tank and Space Pak

We missed 1 weekend to go on labor day holiday. The last 2 weeks were full of activity. Leach fields were assembled, gas tank was installed and filled. We finally went with a 500 gallon tank since our swimming pool is no longer in the picture. Space Pak AC system is done in the main house. There were tube after tube of smaller pipes, it was quite a lot of work for our plumber Devan. Majority of electrical rough-in has been done.
Cedar ceiling is almost completely up in the courtyard, it looks incredible!
Our tomato harvest is picking up speed, we missed 2 weeks and this time we were up there, we harvested about 1 full pound of it.

Week 52: Floor Polish and Septic

Our floor polisher finally finished with the last stage and got the courtyard polished and sealed. It looks unbelievably luxurious, completely feels like another room in the house. We are so happy with the results of the floor. There are some lighter spots but that's the natural concrete look, if we wanted a more uniform it, it would have required a lot more sanding to bring it down even more. But the inconsistency is quite beautiful.
The Septic tanks went in this week while the floors were being polished. It was good timing but met with rainy weather. This was the rainiest week all August.
Today we also met with Barry at European Kitchen Center, the company we decided to go with for the kitchen. He's a total kitchen dictator, but that's why we clicked. We also stopped by NYKB last weekend, what a joke that place was, I can't believe anyone uses them.