Starting New House Finally!

[sr160009]

Your home is looking great, my wife and I really love your countertops. We are looking at something simular for our house. We also are going to do the same type of water heater also. Do you have 1 water heater or 2? The way we have our house designed we was going to do 2 water heaters, 1 external (just like the one you have) and anouther internal, due to the long runs between bathrooms. It really looks like you are going to have a really great home. I really have enjoyed your post on this house, most of the stuff you have done (insulation, waterheater ect.) is some of the same stuff I was planning on doing on our house and it really has helped me out, and also made me feel a lot better about it knowing someone else out there also thinks is a good idea.

 

[gsganzer]

Alan, any pics of the guys scraping your floors? As a retired woodworker who has never ever dealt with scraping hardwood floors, I'd sure enjoy seeing the implement used.

Mike,
When they did ours, they would take a sponge and wet a 3' x 3' section with water to get the grain to raise. Then they took a double edged scraped like the photo attached and pulled it perpendicular to the grain. Extremely tedious job.

 

[Michael_E_Tx]

But it was 2 guys, each equipped with a tool that had a convex blade about 2" wide at the end of about an 18" steal handle. They would put the left hand on top of the blade and pull it back toward them with the right. They did 900 square feet like this, all on their knees.

Alan and gsganzer, thanks for posting back about the scrapers. That is really amazing to me! I've used 2" scrapers many times on furniture, but I never would have guessed that folks would use something that size for entire floors. Tedious and strenuous indeed! I was picturing a scraper 10-12" wide on a 3-4' handle. How wrong I was!

Mike

 

[Alan L.]

Your home is looking great, my wife and I really love your countertops. We are looking at something simular for our house. We also are going to do the same type of water heater also. Do you have 1 water heater or 2? The way we have our house designed we was going to do 2 water heaters, 1 external (just like the one you have) and anouther internal, due to the long runs between bathrooms. It really looks like you are going to have a really great home. I really have enjoyed your post on this house, most of the stuff you have done (insulation, waterheater ect.) is some of the same stuff I was planning on doing on our house and it really has helped me out, and also made me feel a lot better about it knowing someone else out there also thinks is a good idea.

Feel free to come take a look. We went with one water heater although there could be a wait for hot water in the kitchen about 40 feet away. At $1500 a pop I couldn't budget for 2. It was either one tankless or 2 standard heaters. We'll see how it works out. This one will put out almost 9 GPM so it should be plenty of hot water.

 

[sr160009]

Thank you for your offer, we do not have much time right now. We are trying to sell our current home, and with a 9 month old child it is very hard to make much time. But I will tell my wife.

Thanks again.

 

[Alan L.]

Alan, (I apologize for misspelling your name earlier) that kind of installation is difficult to judge on a by foot price even though that's the way it's quoted. The reason is on the installation a crew is going to tie up as much time installing twenty feet as they are sixty if everything is normal. So twenty feet might be fifty dollars per foot while sixty might be thirty.

I would consider powder coating if you can. Unless of course your contractor has an oven and is baking on the paint.

If you can look at his work. Look for fit and finish of course but also look for picket spacing. A critical eye will get ill if the spacing is different at the ends than it is elsewhere in the panel.

The current trend in cheap iron is to buy it in powdercoated sheets by the container load from China. It is better stuff than poorly made local iron. But it can look like crap because production minded installers will cut it with a one inch space at one end and a four inch at the other.

Good work will have the spaces even across the panel end to end. Sometimes to do this you have to shave a quarter of an inch off of each spacing to make it work out.

If you have doubts about the price and or contractor get a second bid. Your deal maker should be custom made (spacing) and powder coating. If you can get both of those and a competive price you've done good.

I don't know how I missed this post back when it was done. Wish I had read it.

I ended up paying $26 per running foot, total $832 with tax installed. The railings are not powder coated. They said they could do it for "more" but I unfortunately didn't ask how much more. I hope it holds up OK, at least its under a covered porch so won't get much sun/rain on it. The spacing seems fine - I will post pics when I get a chance.

 

[rox]

Alan or GSGanser,
I am most interested to see a picture of a shaved floor. I must confess I ahve never seen one. So no rush but before this thread closes out I would love to see a pic of the floors you describe.

Alan I'll jsut second what everyone else has said. You ahve build a beautiful home. Actually the granit you picked out was almost exactly the same as I had picked out for our lst home.

I have been without internet for a short time while in the USA to visit my mom for Mothers Day. She has dial up so I didn't go back to far to read form where I had left off. I will though when I get back to France and have DSL. Did you end up picking a different dlab of granit after they miscalculated the first slab? Please tell Mrs AlanL that I love the tile she picked out. Especially I think in the bathrooms how they did that small row of square tiles above and below the tile set on the diagonal (or perhaps it was jsut decorative). I jsut might steal that design form you one day. And you know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

 

[Alan L.]

Rox, after a week delay, they got the new slab out of Dallas (about 50 miles away). Before they redid the island we went and looked at the new slab.

It was not even close, so we reverted back to the original slab that we really liked anyway. On the dining room end of the island, the entire end of the island cabinet work is about 8" adjustable shelving that Mrs. Alan L. plans to use for cookebooks and other whatnots. The way they cut the granite for the sink, the back of these shelves were in the way of the bottom of the sink.

The solution was that they cut out the back of the shelf unit so that the sink would then fit. They then cut a piece of the granite and covered the side of the sink that was then visable from the end of the island. They actually laminated 2 thickness of the granite together to do this.

They also put a granite shelf at the very bottom, plus there is a little cubby hole in the side of the island just below the counter top to the left of the sink. The purpose of the cubby hole is for liquid dish soap and such, and inside the opening is the switch for the island garbage disposal and a double outlet. They put a piece of granite on the floor of this little cubby hole (about 10" wide by 10" tall by 10" deep) and it looks great.

Frankly it worked out great, I think we ended up ahead on the deal. The only drawback is that the light fixture designed to hang directly over the sink is a little off.

They will be putting the final finish on the hardwood Tuesday and we will have to be off it for 3 days. After that, the painters have some touchup (should have already been completed but we can't keep putting off the floor people) and the tile people need to come back can fix a couple of things, then we can move.

We have scheduled great room and dining furniture to be delivered a week from next Wednesday.

I will try to get pictures of the floor. It is pretty rough, but warm and beautiful at the same time. The best thing is that as every day goes by the finish is flatter with less gloss, and I don't feel like the floor is fragile at all, which is the reason for the scraping.

 

[rox]

Alan,
Just goes to show you that when screw ups happen to keep a level head (like you and Mrs AlanL did) and work throught he problem. In the end you came out ahead and you cna't get any better than that. You may not have built a huge 6,000 sqft mansion but everything in your home shows forthought and quality. It is a very spacious home and most importantly it does look like a warm home. We get to know you a little bit by listening to you describe your options and why you went with X vs. Y. I bet there is not much at all you would change is there?

 

[Alan L.]

Thanks, Rox, theres always something you would change, but I can't think of it right now. It is certainly no mansion, but should be adequate for our needs.

Anybody know how to get paint overspray off window glass? And labels off fiberglass showers and the jacuzzi?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Thanks, Rox, theres always something you would change, but I can't think of it right now. It is certainly no mansion, but should be adequate for our needs.

Anybody know how to get paint overspray off window glass? And labels off fiberglass showers and the jacuzzi?

WD 40

 

[EddieWalker]

WD 40 works great on all those things.

Eddie

 

[Alan L.]

WD40? Great, I'll try that. Mrs. Alan L. now wants to know how to get WD40 off a window......

 

[wroughtn_harv]

WD40? Great, I'll try that. Mrs. Alan L. now wants to know how to get WD40 off a window......

Soap and water.

Miss Glenda has WD 40 stashed all around the house. It's the great remover in her book. I think she used a half of a can of it yesterday when we were doing the spring cleaning thing in the garage.

 

[gsganzer]

Rox,
Here's some pictures of a hand-scraped oak floor. I didn't want to put in a picture with the zebra rug, but it's the only one I have where the lighting is right to show the floor texture,color and grain.

The scraping gives the floor a relaxed and rustic look. It helps hide imperfections, scratches and dirt. I think it also makes a place feel "comfortable and warm".

 

[rox]

gsganzer,

yes that is quite a different look than the wood floors we put in. It is a more "relaxed" less formal but still very beautiful floor. Thank you for sharing.

 

[EddieWalker]

Nothing adds to a floor like a zebra skin rug!!!!!!!!!!

Very nice.

Eddie

 

[Alan L.]

Finally got some pics! In this batch should be a couple of the hand scraped floor. As time goes by it won't be as shiny - this is the final coat they put on 4 days ago.

Also some of the dining room wallpaper, and the island granite fix where they cut the back out of the shelves and covered with granite, also put some on the bottom shelf, and some in the little cubby hole where Mrs. Alan L. plans to put liquid detergent and such. Note the outlets and the switch for the island garbage disposal.

Painters and gutter contractor are coming tomorrow to wrap up. My buddy (the builder) and I put in the garage doors and openers today. Saved $1000 doing it ourselves (he didn't charge me except the sonicburger for lunch).

 

[Alan L.]

39 - view from kitchen to the front of the house. Thanks to about 12 inches of rain in the last 30 days my tank if finally full.

43 - 36" cooktop and microwave., view of tile & granite. Still kinda dusty as we haven't done final cleanup yet.

45 - a cool light fixture in the ceiling of the mudroom bath.

46 - another Texas style fixture in the mudroom bath. We also have 2 of these in the master bath. We had another one in the upstairs bath but it hung down two low on the short wall and we had to get something else.

51 - stairs view from below.

 

[Alan L.]

53 more stairs

55 - master bedroom paint color

56 - view into master bath from bedroom

57 - my shower

58 - Mrs. Alan L's tub