cleansing her by the washing with water through the word - Ephesians 5:26
Lots to do in this house still, but it feels good when something like this, which speaks to the heart of the work, is completed.
House Update - Misc. Projects
Time once again to catch the blog up with some of the projects that have been happening around the house...
Boy's Bathroom Sinks (Alape Bucket Sink) & Medicine Cabinets. Hopefully this will be an easy (easier?) space for the boys to keep clean.
Wall Mounted Soap Dispenser and Wall Mounted Mop Sink Faucets
Concrete poured this summer in the courtyard area. The ground level decks that will wrap under and around the south end of the house, along with final grading, will have to wait till next summer.
Concrete walk out to the driveway with stairs. This has become a great covered, outdoor room as well as a passage way.
The first light box was constructed for the ceiling. These are not easy and will be slow going. What an amazing impact they will have on the light in the space!
After the concrete work was done, we got some grass growing to complete the inlay pattern in the courtyard. We also got these shelves built to hold some of our wood supply for the winter. This is a great place for the wood to finish drying and is an amazing wall of texture in the courtyard. Both highly ordered samples of nature, along with the framed view to the south of the open field and vegetable garden. These stand as a contrast, as the house transitions into the more untended woods setting.
While aesthetically tempting to not take wood for daily use off this wall, it has been perhaps more meaningful to see the passage of time showing itself by the depletion of wood on the shelves. This doorway in the shelf leads into our utility room where the wood boiler sits. Great proximity, that makes grabbing wood easy.
This is also proving to be a great setting for parties and a band!
Washing this wall of wood with light gives it a stunning effect at night.
This view shows me how much work there is still to do, but I also see the finished work beginning to emerge. This repetition of form and void is primary to the experience of movement through the house.
Floors/Railings/Stairs/Cabinets...and Siding Starts!
The last photos I posted of the house were from April...yikes, time gets away from me. May into June we laid the pine flooring at the upper level. The office here was the first room I did. Christine did the finishing work- a light sand, Woca Wood Lye, and Woca Oil- buffed in.
It was amazing seeing the transformation as the wood lightened from the lye. This is a Scandinavian technique that brings a lot more brightness into the space and gives the wood a beautiful even tone.
June and July was all about stairs and guardrails, more pine and more finishing. The stairs received the same Woca wood Lye so that they would match the upper level floors, only they have a polyurethane finish coat instead of the oil. And the rails are actually an eastern white pine so they started out with a lighter appearance.
Doors starting to get hung... eventually all the interior doors will be painted black.
Our cabinets were built and installed by Dwell Well, I showed these being installed back in April. But Christine and I finished the cabinet fronts, installed the counters and built the floating shelves. So here is a partial finished shot. The lower cabinets and drawers all got a black stain allowing the grain to still be present. The counter is a maple butcher block that has been oiled, and everything above was finished in white to match the walls. The floating shelves were first framed out, then clad in plywood on top and bottom, with a clear pine board on the face and finally sanded and painted in place. This gave them a seamless appearance as though they had been carved out of the walls.
And of course, the moment we have all been waiting for, the beginning of the siding. We are getting all the cedar up first, this is the most time consuming part and then we will come back with the corrugated steel, which requires no pre-finishing by us and no furring strips. The cedar, which is a ship-lap, mostly being installed vertically, is being finished with Cabot's Bleaching Oil. This gives it a bit of a grey pigment, and then over the course of the next year will give it the weathered silver look that usually takes years to accomplish.
Next time photos go up, I hope to show a fully sided house...
