Decks Ahoy

The 4 decks are basically complete. There's a small deck in back, one in front, and two landings for the stairs. The stairs will run next to the house then turn 90 degrees at the lower landing.

There continues to be progress inside. Ivan has the inside stairs complete, Wes stopped by to tidy up the cabinets, attach the hardware, install the desk areas, install the media center door, and install the bar top, which was made from a tree that we had to cut down. It looks beautiful. The dishwasher also got installed.

The water tanks are full up to about a foot from the top. That's a little over 10,000 gallons and that makes me feel a whole lot more comfortable.

Grout Redeux

After much consideration we requested that the grout in the bathrooms be removed. We had speced a much lighter color than what was used the first time. I had almost talked Anne into keeping it until we went back to our place in Phoenix and saw the grout there. Then we both decided it had to come out. Oh well, a few steps forward a step or two back.

Belongings

It cost $4000 to ship this? It would have been cheaper to show up at UPS with 65 boxes.

Progress - Inside and Out

SLOW progress

Well we didn't meet our goal of moving in during 2010. The holiday season and weather definitely took it's toll on the schedule. Our new target is the end of January. Our belongings are also in transit and will need to be placed in storage until the house is ready to accept them. At least our belongings will be on Orcas Island. That's half the battle around here.

There has been some progress on the decks outside. The deck out back (not in the plans) was built to allow us to enter, the two landings for the front stairs were also built. The large deck off the living room will be framed this week.

Ivan continues to do fine work inside. The ceiling in the spline and the doors are installed. We'll need to rethink the laundry closet a bit so that the washer and dryer fit, but Anne and I believe we have a solution. Ivan's also been working on the window sils.

The mechanical room is also up in running for the most part. One of the pictures shows the solar tubes on the roof.

There's some last minute design going on to ensure that the front steps convey the proper

feel for the entrance of the house and meet my requirement for easy maintenance.

We'll try to be patient as Method wraps up their work and hopefully we'll be in our new home by the end of the month in the comfort of our new bed. Wish us luck.

A blower door test is scheduled for Monday - enhanced by Infra-red imaging. I'll have Anne report on the results. We'll see if the test results and the remaining capital allows us to go any further under LEED.