Doors & Closets

The doors arrived this week. Steve and Frank (the framer) started installing them right away. And together they have installed most of the shelves and rods in the closets. The doors we chose are a Masonite three-panel door.

We met with Steve Monday to discuss closets. We spent quite a bit of time walking through each storage area discussing our needs. Steve had the best ideas for all these areas. He has a house full of girls and understands their storage needs.

For the pantry, I wanted this door from the first day I saw it at City Lumber. The downstairs bath is located off the kitchen, right next to the pantry. As not to confuse the two doors this was a perfect solution, and very decorative too.

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Stowers Furniture

This is Judith Nabarrete and her husband Rick. Judith is a sales-woman for Stowers Furniture in San Antonio. They drove all the way from San Antonio on her day off to deliver one of our dinning room chairs.

On the day of delivery one of our chairs was defective. I quickly contacted Judith to tell her about the defect in the chair. She recommended I refuse delivery on the one chair and apologised for the mistake. She went on to say she would have to deliver a new chair on her next day off because Stower's delivery department would not travel to Eldorado again to deliver one-chair.

I post this today for those sceptics who doubt those people like Judith are still out there, they are! I am so glad I had the privilege to meet one. Thank you again Judith.

If you have furniture needs please contact Judith Nabarrete at:

Stowers Funiture 210 W. Rector, San Antonio, TX (210)342-9411 or 1-888-STOWERS.

http://www.stowersfurniture.com/

More Cabinetry

It is difficult to describe just how beautiful this cabinetry is with-out paint, or stain. Leon Beimer and his son Eric are fine craftsmen.
The painted cabinets are made of poplar with a MDF material used in the center of the cabinet doors. The inset of the doors are beveled with a softer edge design. The above pictured cabinet was installed above each of the commodes and will be excellant storage space.
The cabinetry in the master bath pictured below is of cherry wood. We saw this similar shaker design at Lowe's. Beimer Cabinets copied the simple design of squared, Shaker lines we chose. Notice the detail Leon added with the inset dots of darker squares on the narrower overlaid pieces surrounding the doors. We chose this same Shaker style cabinetry for the kitchen.
Steve explained to us last night Leon is one of the few cabinet makers who installs his cabinets. Most drop the cabinets off with a diagram explanation, then the builder has to install them. Steve also pointed out the crown detail work around the top of the cabinets. He said the Beimer's install this themselves where other cabinet makers do not. The owners have to call on the builder, or someone else to apply this finished detail work later. I am learning so much.
This last photo is of the upstairs cabinets in the laundry room. It was difficult to take photos in such a small space, no room to back up.

Cabinetry Arrives

Leon Beimer and his son Eric brought their first trailer full of cabinets Thursday. They wait until they have a full trailer of cabinets before they start delivery and installation.

We chose two designs of cabinetry for the house. One design for the utility rooms and two of the bathrooms, which will be painted by the painters later. They other design we chose was a Shaker style cabinet for the kitchen and master bath, which will be stained to match the wood flooring. The cabinets installed Thursday are the cabinets which will be painted. They thought the rest of the cabinets should be ready sometime next week.

All the cabinets are just beautiful. When the men started placing the cabinets through out the house I stared humming and finally singing a happy tune. It was a happy day!

I will take more pictures tonight of the installed cabinets and post them tomorrow. We were in town all afternoon yesterday and didn't get back until after dark.

Before and After

Steve continues building the wood trim around the windows and doors. Above is a before and after picture taken from the third bedroom for comparison. We think he is very talented.

Steve set up his work area on the balcony. With the windy weather this week all his cuttings blow right off, no clean up! He started on the crown molding in the hall way today, which is looking very nice.

Trim and Design

Elizabeth and I were trying to hold back our little dogs who were anxious to go outside. They were not the least bit interested in admiring the first beautifully trimmed sliding door. It was really too windy and cold last night to let them out on the balcony. The weather has turned in West Texas, it has become a windy crisp chilly fall.

To be certain of our paint selections we decided to call in a little help. Ken Phillips, a local designer came out to the house this morning to give us a hand. Our builder had recommended we speak to Ken regarding our concerns. In preparation I painted many pieces of dry wall samples before Ken arrived. He liked all the sample colors we had selected and said they would work very well. He listened intently to Elizabeth's concerns regarding her room colors. He decided to take a set of our house plans then asked us to meet with him again next week to hear more of his thoughts and ideas.

Trimmed Windows

The builder has started the trim around the windows. I love the finish product, he is a talented wood worker. It looks like he chose to start upstairs in the master bedroom and will work his way downstairs.

We enjoy when friends and family stop in to see the progress on the house. Paul's brother Dan and wife Debbie, Kobi and Molly stopped by for an updated tour. They had lots of nice compliments.

Granite and Tile

We left for Dallas early yesterday to select the granite pieces we need for the counter tops. We had a list of several wholesale companies we were directed to visit. We visited four different warehouses before locating the exact peacock-green granite we had in mind. These warehouses were all with in a few blocks of each other making travel easy for us. It was a long 12 hour trip, but worth the effort.

We were up early this morning to meet with the Kiser Carpet and Tile salesman. He was very patient and helpful directing us with all our needs. It feels good to have all this behind us.

Color Doubts

The men completed texturizing the walls they look very neat and ready for paint. However, we still struggle with paint color. We know what we like, but are not confident with our choices.

The builder has noticed my many containers of Sherwin Williams paint samples around and offered a suggestion today. He suggested an interior designer to help us nail down our colors. We agreed, he contacted the designer he knows who can meet with us next week. Whew! No more struggling with paint color.

Steve installed the last screen on the porch. Tomorrow he works on the inside redwood paneling. This paneling will cover the little bit of exposed plywood under the screened openings. It will not cover any of the rock on the porch.

Tomorrow we drive to Dallas to pick out the exact pieces of granite for the bath and kitchen counter tops. Every piece of granite is different and the granite shop recommend we make our selections from their supplier in Dallas. This will be a whirl-wind one day trip, ten hours.

Finishing Touches

We had a big rain storm early this morning which did not stop the inside work on the house from moving forward. The men continued their finishing touches today before they start plastering the walls.

Steve had some redwood paneling to show us this morning. The paneling is for the screened porch. We have to choose between the wide, or narrow grooved redwood. We think we like the wide grooved paneling.

Stilts, Screens and Samples

Elizabeth saw the mud-men working on their stilts in the garage when she ran out the back door of the screened porch urgently motioning me to hurry into the garage area and get their picture. They are graceful walking on those things while working over their heads smearing plaster. We were told by the builder today their work on the house would be completed Monday.

Steve started applying the screen to the back porch today. He suggested finishing the inside of the porch with redwood which will look really nice.

We had a nice afternoon at the house with Paul's parents looking through the many paint samples we picked up in town this week. Rita is a well known landscape artist and her talents with color were the greatest of help. We have struggled over our paint choices, but with Rita's help we narrowed down our selections today. An old friend of Dan's, Ed Harris, drove by the house today checking on our progress. They had a nice visit catching up on all the local news.

Quiet Still Frustation

The air was so still this morning the flags were limp and quiet. I could hear all the many birds at our house busy about their work. The house was just as quiet because neither the builder or mud-men were working. Where was everyone?

Building a home can be very frustrating. We want the men to work faster than what they are, and to stay on our job until they finish our job. I called our builder, who is the nicest man, he was off in another town working. I told him how quiet the house was (meaning where is everyone!), he assured me the mud men would be there later today after they finished up at another job.

Everyone is busy working just not at our house today.

Taping

This team of brothers work so fast together it was hard to get a still picture of them. I interrupted their work and ask them if they would give me a one second photo pose. They agreed and told me they have been doing this work for over 26 years together, six days a week. They certainly know what they are doing.

Arturo posed with a tool he call the bazooka gun, it tapes the seams. His brother George posed for me while wiping the taped seam. This team of brothers have stilts they use in order to reach tall ceilings. I arrived too late this afternoon to get a picture of them on their stilts taping the seams downstairs. Upstairs the ceilings are lower and with a little streatch Grorge can reach the ceilings. I would have liked to tried their stilts, but probably not a good idea, they were busy at work and didn't need another interruption.

Our Home

I tell Paul many times that our house doesn't seem like it is really ours it seems like it belongs to someone else. This house has just been a project we work on together. After telling him this I decided we needed a way to mark this house as our own.

Paul's mother, Rita, had suggested a sleep-over in order to make this home a reality to us. We all decided yesterday this was a great idea. We quickly packed up our beds and headed over to the house at dusk. Rita joined us for a night of fun, and brought a thermos of coffee for in the morning.

Once the beds were set up we enjoyed the rest of the evening on the balcony staring at the far off lights in San Angelo. We shared a bag of popcorn Rita brought and talked about the many thoughts we had for our new home.

From this day forward the house has been marked "Our Home." Great Joy in my heart today, this last year and a half has been a long journey.

Rita Ann, whose feet are these in my jacuzzi?

Dry Wall Complete

"The dry wall is complete," the builder said when he called us this afternoon for payment. Paul drove over to pay Julio Borrego, the dry wall man. Afterwards he took time to look around at all their fine work. During his inspection he noticed a couple of fixture openings had been boarded over! He talked to the builder who quickly brought this to Julio's attention and problem was solved.

Afterwards we thought we had better walk through the house with our plans in hand to double check on all the outlet and fixture openings making sure no others had been boarded over with the dry wall.

Before the sheet rock went up our builder suggested we take pictures and a video of all the walls noting plumbing and outlets. Just a note to anyone else out there building a house, it pays to take the time to take these photos so corrections can be made if needed.

Wood Trim

While the men were hard at work applying the dry wall upstairs today, we met with the builder downstairs. He asked us to meet with him this morning to select the style of doors we wanted for the house . He also brought many samples of wood trim work, many of these were samples he made himself.
We discussed different wood trim styles around the doors and windows. Which rooms should have crown moldings and those which should not. Steve pointed out the ceilings downstairs are high enough for the crown molding we liked, but not a good idea upstairs because the ceilings are lower. Steve had wonderful ideas which made our selections an easy task this morning.