September, 2020 - Finishing Touches

This will be the final entry on this Blog. The house and garage are now completed. I took this picture on one of the last nights I was there this year. I turned on as many lights as I could to see what it looked like at night.

In the last few days, I had some stone brought in, and some road mix. The stone was spread out around the perimeter of the house over some existing stone that had spread out some in the last 9 years. The road mix was spread around the garage, in front of the house, and on the circular driveway around the house.

This year I completely satined or clear coated the entire exteriors of the house and the garage, as well as the handrails on the house deck. This included all exterior window and door trim. Prior to staining, all logs and joints were checked for cracks and caulked accordingly. 

I want to thank my wife, Betsy Freedland for putting up with me the last 12 building seasons. I may have been in Montana working hard on this project, but she was at home alone taking care of everything there on her own. This included a move from New Hampshire to St Louis.

I also want to thank my cousin, Jim Hendrickson of High Country Concrete, for all the help, advice, council, etc. during the entire building process. Without his help, I would still be building, possibly for years to come.

People ask me, "How many of these homes have you built?" I say one and done!

 

September, 2020 - Kitchen Countertops & Sink

 

The countertops are finally installed. You can see on this picture the GFI outlet in the island.

The sink is a 60/40 stainless steel. I installed Kohler stainless steel drain in each one. The faucet is a brushed nickel from Kenyon Nobel in Bozeman. The dishwasher drain is plumbed into the right sink.

The island countertop extends off the right side shown here by 12 inches.

September, 2020 - Kitchen & Master Bedroom Ceiling Lighting

Today I installed the lighting in the ceiling of the master bedroom.

Once the kitchen cabinets were installed I installed the track lighting in the kitchen above and the dining area below. All the lights are dimmable LEDs. The kitchen and dining area lights operate off separate dimmer switches.

 

September, 2020 - Basement Window/Door Trim, Kitchen Window Trim

I finished trimming out the basement windows and door on the daylight side. I then installed the baseboard trim.

I had originally trimmed out the two windows in the kitchen in 2018 or so. When I decided to install a flat, studded, sheetrock wall, to make installing the kitchen cabinets easier, I ripped out the the first trim boards. Just before the countertops were installed, I retrimmed the kitchen windows and rehung the shades.

 

September, 2020 - Decking and Kitchen Island Finish

I sanded the entire deck off the main floor with a hand held belt sander. I went through about 35 belts in the process. The goal was to flatten any 2 X 6's that were  cupped, and remove all of the original finish.

We then stained the entire deck with a solid stain from Sherwin Williams. The deck, and the stairs going onto the deck is close to 1,400 square feet of surface.

The cabinet people delivered the panel and two end caps for the back of the Kitchen Island. I installed them the next day. The back panel was one piece.

 

August, 2020 - Island Plumbing/Electrical Wall

When I started the 2 X 6 wall behind the kitchen island, the drain and vent pipes, the power wire, and the hot and cold water lines were all coming through the floor at the corner of the island.

I installed three outlets in the island. One is on the outside end of the island where everything came out of the floor. This has the GFI that controls the other two outlets. One interior outlet is for the built-in microwave, the other is for the dishwasher. The hot water line has a T behind the sink area with a separate line going directly behind the dishwasher. There is also a coax cable coiled behind the microwave in case anyone should want to use it in the future. It runs to the mechanical room.

August, 2020 - Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen cabinets were installed this month.

I now have to install a 2 X 6 wall behind the island to hide the plumbing and electrical.

 

July, 2020 Basement radiant heat, flooring and trim

 

I installed a mini boiler in the mechanical room to heat only the basement floor. I installed 5 zones in the concrete when we poured the floor. You can see here there are 5 input ends and 5 output ends.

I then installed the floor in the rest of the basement and trimmed it out with knotty alder, which I purchased at the end of 2019.

July, 2020 - Dryer exhaust vent and exterior door trim

I drilled a 4 inch hole through the log wall in the mudroom for the dryer exhaust vent. This is tricky to do with a 4 inch hole saw when you have to go through about 13 inches of log; hoping you don't hit a lag screw that hold the logs together.

I also trimmed out the main floor exterior doors on the inside.

 

July, 2020 Basement access railing and Benches

There was a gap at the ends of the hand rails around the basement stair well where they met the landing. I decided to build two short rails to fill the gaps. The above are the rails I built, below they have been installed.

I had 3 extra 48 inch stair treads built for the stairs going from the main floor to the loft.  I made legs out of blue pine and created three benches. One went in the mud room, one in the loft bathroom, and one I cut to 36 inches and put in the main floor half bath.

 

June, 2020 Basement Ceiling

This week I finished installing the ceiling in the basement.

I installed a trap door to access the plumbing for the master bath tub and the master bath toilet.

September 2019 final project

This was my final project for 2019. I had to scribe in 2x6 and 2x4 studs, 16 inches on center to make a flat wall seven feet high in order to mount the kitchen cabinets. I sheeted the wall over with 1/2” sheet rock, after installing outlets, and plumbing the water line for the refrigerator. I’m having the cabinets built in Gold Creek Montana. They will be installed in November. I will have countertops installed next year. 

August 2019 Main floor doors and trim

All four interior doors on the main floor have been installed.

The master bedroom closet clothes racks have been installed.

All baseboard trim and the trim around the ceiling on the main floor is complete. 

August 2019 Basement stairs

Here are the completed stair rails going to the basement.

Again, all that is left is to fill nail holes, light sand and clear coat.

All posts were secured with eight inch screws recessed into the wood. I'll fill the holes with 5/8 inch dowels, and sand them flat before applying the clear coat. Some of the posts on the stir sections are secured with 1/2 inch diameter lag bolts, twelve inches long, pre-drilled and screwed in from the bottom of the stair treads. All railings are very solid.

August 2019 Loft and stair railings in house

This week I installed the railings around the loft of the house and down to the main floor.

I had to purchase a special laser guided drill to  get the proper angles on the stair railings and spindles. All the posts for the railings were cut in the mountains above Butte, and hand peeled.

The railings, which are four inches in diameter, and the spindles, which are two and a half inches in diameter material were purchased from Marks Post and Pole near Helena Montana. They all came in twelve and a half foot lengths, which I cut to size, hand peeled and installed. I used a special machine to put tenons on the ends of all rails and spindles.

August 2019 Garage ceiling and end gables

I finished installing the ceiling boards this month. I also replaced the long tube florescent lights with angled cans inset into the ceiling with LED lights.

As you can see, all windows are now trimmed out, and all trim around the end gables is complete.  The garage windows on the main floor have been trimmed out and finished with a clear coat. I have also installed shades in all nine garage windows.

August 2019 Loft and stair railing Garage

We finished installing the railings in the loft and down the stairs in the garage.

All that is left is to do is fill some nail holes, do some light sanding and clear coat the railings. 

July 2019 Finished rest of floor on main level

We finished installing the rest of the flooring on the main floor. There is in floor heating under the flooring in the master bedroom with its own thermostat. There is also in floor heating in the family room and the kitchen, each with its own thermostat. You will also notice I installed the last two steps off the landing to the main floor above.

Here is the kitchen area. I had the cabinet people in to measure for the kitchen cabinets and island. I have to build a flat sheet rock wall, seven feet high on the north wall to facilitate the cabinet installation. I will also install electrical outlets in the wall I build.