Moving along

All the floor installations are in progress... the errant finish nailer we ordered for the floors found its way here on Christmas Eve after being lost in Lacey, WA (about 6 hours away) for a while. It is working well and the kitchen/dining room flooring is almost done. We are pleased with the look of the Ecotimber stranded bamboo.

Here is a sampling of the bamboo.

Tiling is underway also, although we discovered 3 boxes of the wrong tile mixed in with the rest and will need to have them replaced. One good thing, we won't have to take the big truck this time. On a positive note, the replacement part for the truck heard round the world cost only $2.00, so it wasn't a major expense.

This is the entry tile. Ken designed the pattern.

Ken has installed the under tile heating system for the master bath-- Yeah! Now he is filling the space with self leveling thinset to even out the flooring before the tiling begins.



Having some spare time on my hands, I decided to start digging for native rocks/stones to put around the bottom of the pillars at the front of the house. I found some good ones and there are plenty more out there. (I kept thinking of the movie Cool Hand Luke while I was digging.)

Lots of pieces to the puzzle

Well almost all the pieces are here. We managed to get all the almost 100--72 pound packages of flooring in the correct rooms, lugging about half of these up the stairs.

The interior doors and finish woodwork arrived at the beginning of December and the replacement pieces of flooring arrived today.

Installation of the flooring started earlier this week, but ran into a snag as the wood is so dense and hard (which is a good thing in the long run). We have had to order a new tool to install, so that added a couple of days delay.

Yesterday Ken and I borrowed a vintage flatbed truck from our neighbor and drove 100 miles each way to pick up about a ton and a half of tile. It was an adventure as an exhaust gasket failed and we made LOTS of noise all the way home, so much that a Washington State Dept. of Transportation rescue vehicle followed us for several miles to make sure we were ok.

Making progress- finally

The sheetrock is finished, and the interior of the house is painted-- Desert Tan.

The garage now has the following items, waiting for installation:

3 toilets

1 guest bath sink

1 guest bathtub

1 laundry sink

1 washer

1 dryer

6 heaters

several faucets

Door knobs for all interior and exterior doors.

On Thursday, the hardwood flooring (some of it pictured above) arrived-- over 90 packages. Ken is installing the heaters this weekend so the flooring can acclimate to the interior before we start installation. That will probably start the first week in December.

We spent a day at the tile store and picked out the tile for the entryway and both bathrooms. We got a lot accomplished. That should be ordered early next week. None of the above installations (except for the heaters) can be started until the flooring is done.

We have ordered the interior doors and finishing woodwork. That should be coming soon.

We missed the Thanksgiving deadline... we should be well on the way by Christmas.

Appliances arrive

All the appliances arrived today. The delivery truck driver had some bad connections and spent a lot of the day in the ferry line. He was pretty good natured about it though.

It was quite a feat getting the ovens and the refrigerator up the staircase to the second floor. It's a good thing that Ken is strong and was able to help. :) We originally thought it was a bit early to have them delivered, but it was good timing as we probably would have scratched up the walls and had difficulty getting the appliances over staircase railings.

Now as we sit in the "old" Manor, I can dream about a washing machine that spins clothes dry, a dryer that dries in one cycle, an oven that keeps a steady temperature, and a freezer that stays closed and is frost-free. Ken is dreaming of the automatic dishwasher. Pictures coming soon.

Sheet Rocking progress

Chuck and his team have been working on the sheetrocking since the second week in September. All the boards are in place and taped. The first round of mudding is done. We are waiting for that to dry. We hope that the mudding and priming will be done in the next two weeks.





















Ken worked on installing the pocket door frames.

Rain gutters in place

The rain gutters were installed last week and the finishing touches put on today. We had our first real rain in months last night, so the timing was perfect.

Getting Ready for Sheetrock

We spent the Labor Day holiday getting the new Manor ready for the sheetrock installation which starts tomorrow. I swept out all the wood shavings and loose insulation and Ken finished up the wiring and other details. The sheetrock arrived last week. It was quite interesting watching them unload it.

The crane lifting the sheetrock to the second floor. (We got them to load the pellet stove into the house too.)


Piles of sheetrock waiting to be installed. Some in each room. They are 12 foot lengths.