"Paradise Road"......first house on the right

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Looking good. Where's your little helper at? That looks like a project he
would really enjoy. Keep on keeping on.

Well when he's not inspecting cabinets.....



He can usually be found climbing on something.........



Or driving me to work......



Yesterday while I was having lunch at his house he figured out how to operate the childproof catches on the cabinet doors. :rolleyes: Daughter said she thought it was a fluke the first time but after closing them and opening them about 20 times we decided he's figured them out :p
 
That little man is growing like a weed. Seems like it was just yesterday your daughter was packing him around on her back.:)
 
That little man is growing like a weed. Seems like it was just yesterday your daughter was packing him around on her back.:)

That little guy just makes me smile every time I see him.
A happy little ball of fire for sure.

Yeah, he's growing fast that's for sure. And he is a happy little guy, I think having a stay at home Mom that gives you 100% of her attention will do that to a kid .....and Grandparents that spoil you helps too. :D He's at our house as we speak, stays with us every Friday night and loves to take a bath in the kitchen sink. :D



One of the toughest things about building this house is going to be when it's finished and I have to go back to my regular job. It sure has been a blessing to see him and have lunch with him every day for the past 14 months.
 
I like the concrete counters! Never seen that done before. Wondered how it worked.

I hope that's how they work, I've never done them before. :eek: Being cast in place white and trying to make them as slick as possible is probably the worst case scenario for ones first attempt but we are pleased with them so far. Anxious to get them sealed and see the final results though. They will get a penetrating sealer, then a satin sealer and then an occasional coat of bees wax to maintain them.

And I'm happy to report that the "Big Island" is poured! Had a great day with my daughter helping me get the mix in place and screeded down.....









Big load off having all the tops poured!



Chipping away at it. :cool:
 
That's awesome, I do counters and custom concrete for a living. That looks great! I go heavy on the reinforcement though. You can sand it all you want. Buddy Rhodes makes a nice sealer for it. Then use a bees wax so it's food safe. The bees wax is a pain though, lots of elbow grease.
 
Yeah, he's growing fast that's for sure. And he is a happy little guy, I think having a stay at home Mom that gives you 100% of her attention will do that to a kid .....and Grandparents that spoil you helps too. :D He's at our house as we speak, stays with us every Friday night and loves to take a bath in the kitchen sink. :D



One of the toughest things about building this house is going to be when it's finished and I have to go back to my regular job. It sure has been a blessing to see him and have lunch with him every day for the past 14 months.

You could say to heck with the job thing and do what you really want to. I did and I wouldn't go back to that nonsense. It does help if your bride loves her job and makes plenty of money to share with her dead beat husband.
 
So now after you are all good and practiced up on doing this..... how long do you have to work with it before it sets?? I have always thought they were pretty neat looking. Might be something to do at my homestead when we get around to fixing up the kitchen....
 
That's awesome, I do counters and custom concrete for a living. That looks great! I go heavy on the reinforcement though. You can sand it all you want. Buddy Rhodes makes a nice sealer for it. Then use a bees wax so it's food safe. The bees wax is a pain though, lots of elbow grease.

I actually purchased the Buddy Rhodes sealer system for this job and that's what we are struggling with right now. It is supposed to be a satin finish and they recommend 4-6 thin coats wiped on with a cloth. It builds nicely but by the third coat it is so glossy you can see to shave in it! :eek: We've been experimenting with some Spar Urethanes but the oil based ones have too much of an ambering effect....I hate it when I learn something I already knew :rolleyes:





Got a couple water based ones that look better but still not sure it's what I want to go with...



One thought was to go with the Buddy Rhodes sealer and try to buff the shine off it but it comes right back with a little polishing so with some use and cleaning I think it would be glossy again. [S

I don't know....been wrestling with it for three or four days...thought something might come to me in a dream or something, so far no epiphany. I whittled this beauty out yesterday.....




....I'm thinking if I go to the job this morning and can't make a decision I'll probably take it and start gouging my eyes out. :eek:

I have been moving forward on a couple other things though like gutters and downspouts.....went with galvanized to match the roof and keep with the farmhouse look....



And got started on the upstairs back porch with Fiberon solid PVC decking....



Well, better get to work......hope I can still see this evening!
 
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Well folks, last time I checked in I was about to start gouging my eyes out! However I'm happy to report I was able to make a decision on the sealer instead......finally just gritted my teeth and used the so called satin stuff.



As you can see by the reflection it is far from satin but still hoping it will dull with use or that she will get used to it.
Once the tops were sealed we got right to installing the rest of the cabinets...





More "Sweat Equity" for my son in-law.....



There is a total of 50 cabinets in this kitchen so there's a ton of doors and drawers to deal with, plus almost every cabinet has some sort of pull out or accessory in it.

Also kitchen related, we got the wall mounted makeup air fan installed....



The exhaust fan for the hood will mount on the roof.

Been working on several different things, the biggest of which is the trim. With six inch baseboard, four inch door/window casing and five inch crown moulding it makes a pretty big pile of stuff......



^^^ That's less than half of it! All flat with square edges looks pretty boring in the pile but it will take shape on the wall. Got busy easing the edges a bit so they will hold paint....



....and started getting some primer on it.



Hashed out the final design for the header trims.....



.....and preassembled them.



Out of room, few more pics to come.....
 
Here's the first window with full trim....



There will be a candle in every window....



Low voltage hard wired with a central transformer/controller. They will have a slick little mounting base that makes them easily removable for cleaning and also a dust cap if you want to leave them off for any length of time.

So the trim is progressing.....









....along with other things such as the porches. Just finished up the last of the PVC decking and the railing is on order. Hopefully this view....



....will soon be a little whiter and a lot safer.....although I haven't fallen off it yet. :D
 
Excellent details with the trim and the rest of the house. Its getting tons of character.
 
Absolutely beautiful work! Hopefully generation after generation of your family will enjoy the fruits of your labor....
 
Kitchen Is turning out beautiful Snakefarm. I agree with the thought that the finish on the countertops will dull down with use.

I know it's a littlelate in the game but if you guys are looking for cabinet knobs check out what my wife makes.....
http://www.torchlakeglass.com/

Nothing beats the satisfaction of building your own home.(Or your daughters :)...)
Torchie.
 
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Thanks guys for all the great reviews! It's becoming a long project but it's turning out just as we hoped....even better in some respects.

.....I know it's a littlelate in the game but if you guys are looking for cabinet knobs check out what my wife makes.....
http://www.torchlakeglass.com/


Torchie.

Yeah Torchie, they have some polished nickel knobs and pulls picked out, but WOW that wife of yours is quite an artist! Awesome awesome stuff, will definitely keep in mind for future projects. :cool:


Doing a beautiful job. Much better than anything I can ever hope to do. Wish we were neighbors so I could get some help!!!

I have been known to help a neighbor but you'll have to move down here.....our winters are bad enough as it is. :p In fact we had snow on Saturday.

Spent the last couple days on appliances, gonna be lots of cookin' going on in this house.........



....and if you're gonna dirty up that many dishes you're gonna need tow of these too.....



The kitchen is coming together pretty good but there is still a lot of other stuff to do....still I have to look back sometimes and remind myself that I have already come quite a ways. Still doesn't keep me from wishing they were moved in though. :eek:






 

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