Kerf Design Kitchen Installation

This weekend my parents met me in NJ to help with a few projects. The first and most important was assembly of the kitchen that arrived last week. As you can see it comes completely disassembled. It shipped in 2 large crates weighing 1600#. The construction team was less than excited about unloading it, but they did and even stacked it neatly on the second floor. The second thing we needed to get done was our annual garage sale. This year was the first year we actually had a garage to have it. While my parents and sister organized the kitchen I set-up for the sale. On Saturday while we worked the sale to help pay for the kitchen my dad put it together, mostly by himself. The assembly went fairly quick and easy. It came out beautiful and is ready to be set in place.

Insulation and Drywall.

It was all hands on deck today. The insulation passed inspection yesterday and now the drywall team is attacking it. To watch a professional drywall team is almost like watching a professional baseball team. They can tear through massive amounts of square footage in hours. I was there for 2 hours in the morning and the entire downstairs was almost done. We even had the president / GC / All around hard worker; Ron Meier, up on the ladder hanging the Speakercraft speaker brackets. It really feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel. I hope we keep progressing this quickly until the end.

The Siding is almost complete!

I stopped by the house this week and was excited to see the siding basically done. The cedar went up last week and looks great. It still needs to be stained and the underside will get soffit, but everything is starting to come together.

Kerf Design Kitchen Factory Tour.

Well it has been a really long time since I lasted posted. We had some major siding problems and lost 4+ weeks. I am happy to report that the siding is just about finished. A couple neighbors have called and said that it look great. I am going there on Tuesday to see it and I will update the photos. Last week I was in Seattle and I went to see our kitchen designer. It was great! He is in a little spot along the water in Seattle, WA. It looks like a great place to work everyone brings their dogs into work with them. He set up the kitchen so that I can could see it. They are finishing the vanities next week and it will be shipped. We are very excited to get it installed. It is going to be great!

Siding!!! Finally!!!

We finally have started the siding. It has been a long time coming. There were delays caused by everything from babies being born to the wrong color J-channels being shipped. We have decided to use metal galvalume siding from a company called Ideal Roofing (idealroofing.com) We went with white for the main portion of the house and the stairwell building is a dark grey. Our builder recommended the product but, he admittedly had no experience with it for large residential applications. He ended up misquoting us the pricing but, decided not to pass along the difference. He is also eating a lot of overtime as it has been a learning process for his crew as well. We appreciate it. It carries a 25 year warranty even in coastal conditions. I think it looks great but has definitely garnished a "Love it or Hate it" opinion from passersby.

Sunday, June 1st.

We went to Toys-R-Us today and bought Brighton a water table. The Easter bunny had brought him one but, we couldn't haul it to Florida so we decided to return it and buy a new one down here. He loves it.

Memorial Day.

We took Brighton to the Tampa Zoo for Memorial day. It was hot but we had a really good time. Brighton loved seeing all of the animals. The Monkeys were his favorite until he saw the other kid's playing in the waterpark. The zoo had a kid's zone that had a place to eat and a great waterpark with sprays for the kid's to run through. He loved it. We could have stayed there all day. The best part though was the giraffe exhibit. They let you actually feed the giraffes. That giraffe was less than a foot away from us. Two seconds after the photo he licked the Little girls arm to our left and picked her hat off of her head. She was covered in slobber. We can't wait to go again!

Gypcrete Pour

Today the crew flooded the entir house with Gypcrete. It went very good. It is very smooth and consistent. It looks like it could get a clear coat and be our finished floor.

Radiant Heat

Hello. It has been awhile since my last update. Construction is moving along again. We were held up by the Gypcrete installers. You do not want exposed tubing with other trades coming in and out. The tubing has all been run and is ready for the Gypcrete flood.

Savannah, GA

The best part of our road trip was stopping to see our good friends, Sean and Sandy Almstead. They have 2 beautiful kid's and 2 more on the way. We were able to go to their son Wren's soccer game. Brighton loved it! We will be buying him a soccer ball as soon as we get to Florida. After the game we went to the greatest restaurant I have ever seen! As a fairly new parent it was like heaven! Picture the bar Cheer's decorated with an Alice in Wonderland theme complete with a playroom for the kid's in the middle of the floor. Anyplace that serves Blue Moon on tap, great southern bar food, and creates a place were your children can play while surrounded by parents "relaxing" with the beverage of their choice is genius! It's worth the trip to Savannah by itself. It was great to see them!

FLORIDA Bound!!!

Well. It is now April 30th. and we have to be out of our rental house as it was only a "Winter rental". The rent is more per week than we were paying per month in the summertime. We loved our rental and our wonderful landlady. Luckily our parents (Kimberly's parents) are letting us stay in their brand new beautiful home in Florida. The trip down went as smooth as could be expected. We made a few fun stops that broke up the trip. We stopped once in VA and once to visit our good friends in Savanah, GA. Sean and his new wife Sandy.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

There were very little changes with our house this week. The HVAC company came and took notes and delivered their duct work. They will begin the install of the HVAC system on Monday. Being that it was St. Patrick's Day we thought we would wrap the house in green! Brighton and Gillian enjoyed their St. Patrick's day!!!

My neighbors are all getting new things as well!

My friend and neighbor Sam bought himself a new toy yesterday. It is the top of the line BMW 1200. It is awesome! He traded in his old 600 and stepped up to the Hummer of motorcycles. He is planning on riding to Alaska on it. Not to be outdone another neighbor decided to have a new house delivered. I was talking to an account on the phone and watching a house dangle from a crane 200' in the air from my office window. The entire house assembly to less than 3 hours from the time I saw the trucks delivering it, to the time the crane left. I will say there is something intriging about having a full house constructed before lunch time.

We have Windows!!!

I decided to drive by the house on my lunch break and found that the windows are now completely installed. They look great! I was second guessing the amount of windows that we had and now I am glad we did. The roofer was also finishing his work. We also received deliver of the building paper. It is a new product that Ron found after his team attended a seminar by Ideal roofing, our siding company. It looks like a great product. I will update it with a link shortly.

Windows and Azac Trim.

Today the builders worked through the wind and rain to get some our windows installed. We are using Anderson 400 Stormwatch windows. These were expensive but, our only choice to pass the strict building codes along the shore. They are impact resistant, argon filled, low-E glass. They are rated to withstand a 2X4 hurled through them at 45mph. They also installed the Azac trim around the roof.

Moving along...

We lost the weekend due to weather, but today we resumed with some work inside. They added stairs and began bracing the interior walls. The metal straps are hurricane straps to help with wind sheer. They are also going to plywood the interior walls on the top 2 floors to help stiffen the structure. This is an added measurement being that we are very exposed to the strong windows blowing across the bay. The stairs make a big difference and change the look and feel of the house.

Fiberglassing the Decks.

Today the fiberglass crew was on site applying fiberglass to the decks and overhangs. They will also be the crew that fiberglasses the roof once the soffits are in place. We are trying to get around using Azac trim and soffit. It is a beautiful product but, it is very expensive and is not very green friendly. We are looking into Hardi products for their soffits. I just don't want to get held up for too long sourcing materials.

Sheeting almost completed.

The exterior sheeting is done. They are still cutting in a few windows but this is a good representation of how the house will look.