12.5 Update

Here are some pictures of the exterior.  The sod is down, the walls are up and the walkways and driveway are complete.  We've moved the majority of our stuff into the house, but we can't live there yet without the final inspections.  We're waiting on the plumbing inspection and then the final.  Here is the gallery, enjoy!

11.21 Update

Lots of new pictures this week.  The floors are in, the counters are installed, the tile is finished, the carpet is going in later this week.  The garage doors look great, the trim is all installed and painted and the light fixtures are up.  We had the well drilled late last week, and the yard work begins this week.  We has sod delivered on Saturday and Steve's guys will start working on the stone walls later this week.  Enjoy the photo gallery, captions to come.  -Chris

10.30 Update

Lots of updates this week. Chris from Sheldon Slate was here to install the counters, the guys made great progress on the trim. The tile and painting is complete and the pine floors started to go in on Saturday. We're inside three weeks now and all the appliances arrived on Friday. The garage doors are up and the well is connected. We got the inspection on the septic and the electrical hook-up. We should see the electricians start to hang fixtures this week. Our closing date is set for Novenber 22nd. The majority of the work is near completion. Check back soon for more updates. I shuld have more pictures on Thursday. To view the gallery from this week, click here.

10.18 More tiling and the septic is installed.

Here are some additional pictures of the tile in the upstairs bathroom and the finished septic system. We are having the septic inspection tomorrow and then they start building the retaining walls and filling the back yard with lots and lots of dirt. The tile in the upstairs bathroom is along the walls that surround the pedestal tub. We should have tile on the floor tomorrow as well as the shower in this bathroom. Sarah picked out a very cool subway style design and a row of mosaic just below the row of trim. We will use the same style of tile in the shower, only sqaure instead of rectangular. Click here to check out the gallery.

10.15 Update

The walls are painted, and the tile is down in the first floor bathroom, the laundry room, and the foyer. Steve also put this really cool moulding on the windows and the proch ceiling is finished. Work on the septic system began and we had 12 dump truck loads of sand in the back yard. Amos loved it. Chris from Sheldon was here on Tuesday and did the templates for the counters. We hope he'll be back later in the week of the 25th to install them. The plan for this week is to finish the tiling, start the wood floors and finish the septic. For the floors we chose to do heartwood pine floors.
We also decided to do stone retaining walls from Keystone Walls, their Country Manor product. We ordered our appliances last week, the Architect series from KitchenAid. They should arrive the week of the 25th. To view the pictures from this update, click here.

Home Depot Design Expo

Sunday was spent at the local Home Depot Design Expo in Braintree, MA. For those who haven't had the
pleasure, this place isn't your run-of-the-mill Home Depot. This place is chock full of model kitchens, bathrooms and more cabinet handles and knobs than you've ever seen. We weren't there buying one of their $15,000 refridgerators, but rather shopping in their "in-stock" section for bathroom pedestal sinks, faucets for the bathrooms and the kitchen and picking out tile for the foyer and the laundry room. We typically refer to Lowes and H.D. and the "$250 store", well for this place....Add another zero. The good news is that we have a meeting today with our builder Steve to review the final finish schedule. Here is a quick building update...The exterior is 85% shingled with just the top 2 peaks left to finish. The main level is 80% plastered and the basement and upper levels are all sheetrocked. The plasterer says they'll be done with the house by friday (my bet is by Sunday) and we can start priming and painting next week. We have the Sheldon Slate guys coming on Monday the 12th to do the templating for the counters, so that means the kitchen cabinets will be in by then. Thanks for reading and i'll post more pictures later this week. For all those in the market for home fixtures and ideas, take the time to visit the Expo, you won't be diasppointed.

steelbuilding.com

A while back we had to decide and order what we wanted for garage doors for our new house. Our builder Steve immediately mentioned a web site called Steelbuilding.com. Sarah and I have never had our own garage before and had never really looked into the difference between garage doors and how to price and configure them. I have to say that the entire experience with the folks over at steelbuilding was one that i wouldn't hesistate to reccommend to others. We configured, ordered and received our garage doors all through the web site. I highly reccommend it. To the left is a picture of the Clopay door we chose that happens to be made of hemlock and will be painted in Benjamin Moores Chrome Green. The image you see is a screenshot of the Clopay door that i turned into Chrome Green.. I also took a picture of the side of the house and dropped in the garage doors to see what they looked like.....

9.22 Update

Lots of progress on the house in the past few weeks. The porch is built, the mahogany is down, the columns are up and the exterior shingling has commenced. There are several pictures in the photo gallery and here is a link to the Maibec web site. We went with their Bleaching Oil Nantucket shingle. Also, i have included a picture of the shingling detail the crew at CCCB did on the corners of the house. Instead of running finish board down the corners, they ran the shings right to the edges. Very cool we thought. Our friend Patrick says Steve saw this done on the Bell Tower house in Marion and has wanted to do it on one of his projects ever since. The insulation is also complete and the drywall has started to go up. As of this post, the entire main floor and 75% of the basement has drywall hung. The posts will start fast and furious now. Look for additional pictures later this week as the guys wrap up the shingling on the exterior and the palster starts to go up on the interior.

8.30 Update

The electricians and plumbers are finished, and we received our electrical and plumbing inspections. Next are building the porch, shingling the exterior and insulating the interior. Here is a picture of the outside of the house and more pictures here.

Hamilton wins the Time Trial!

Here's one for the good guys..Marblehead Mass. native Tyler Hamilton wins the gold in the individual Time Trial today, beating out former US Postal teammate Viatcheslav Ekimov and fellow countryman Bobby Julich. We're glad for Tyler who had to pull out of the TdF this year after yet another crash has finally received some well deserved reward for all his hard work. Tyler is generally know as one of the nicest guys in the sport, and a fellow golden retriever lover. Tyler recently lost is best pal Tugboat...Amos never got to know Tugs, but even he was sad that day. Congrats Tyler, you no doubt earned this one..