October 8 to 11, 2008—Coming down the home stretch . . .
October 8, 2008  

The top of our chimney—also known as the chimney shroud—is complete. I think the screen is too sheer and needs to be denser. Kai thinks we should spray the spark arrestor inside black. I am not sure what we will do, but it needs tweaking.

The wind was blowing hard and so it was quite clear this morning, as you can see.

The cabinet makers had been at the site Monday and Tuesday to finish installing the details on the cabinets. Some things—such as the kick-plates—could not be installed until the floor finishing was complete. Since our site is a bit of a drive for them, they waited with all the final details to make a few last trips.

The tin panels have been installed and look so great. I am glad that I got the oxidized ones since they go so well with the finish of the wood. Originally, I had planned to get the pewter colored panels, but when I saw them in the store in New Mexico, I liked the oxidized sample better and brought one home. When I ordered them, I went through the same agonizing process, but I think I picked the right color when I see how good they look.

Here is the range hood with the newly installed tin cabinet faces on either side.

The plasterers came to wax the range hood and fireplace today. I told them to wax right over the painted garland, but by the time they got around to the range hood, they had forgotten that and carefully taped off the garland with blue tape.

When I saw what they had done, I told them to take the tape off carefully and wax over the paint. Unfortunately, when the took off the blue tape, some of the garland came off too. Luckily, I was able to touch it up easily and I think it just looks more rustic. Hopefully, the wax coating over the paint will keep that from happening again.

Here are the other tin fronts under the sink. The camera flash makes the wood look very pink, which is not true in real life.
Here is another view of the sink, with the dishwasher next to it.
The can trim had been installed in my dressing room. The sconces should arrive soon to replace the goofy “Hollywood lights” that are there now.
The cabinet makers also installed the shelves in our “drop station” in the back hall. This will hold phone chargers and is also where we will dump the mail. A shredder will live under the counter and the top shelf will hold in-boxes for our mail.
The fireplace looks great with the wax coating. I asked the plasterers to clean the smudges off the hearth front before they waxed it and they did a great job.
The porcelain knobs have been installed in the guest bath and those boxes hold the toilet paper holder and towel bar holders, which Kai is going to install tomorrow.
Here is the light in the little hall between the guest bedroom and library. It actually looks prettier than this in real life, more glow-y and warm. I may send for a new top for it, because I am not keen on the chrome in this location.
We had to move the furniture in my studio around in order to finish painting the floor, so I took this opportunity to move the wooden Thomas Mosier chairs down to the house. They were a little dusty from being in storage for so long, so we set them up in front of the house to wash off before moving them inside.
Click here to see more of this week’s progress  
Back by popular demand—link to the Garden Page Back to top