Guest House Construction: Part 24

Guest House Construction: Part 24

We had a big week around here construction wise.  For the first time since......ever, each thing I hoped would get completed this week actually did. Monday was a complete washout as it rained all day long, but the sun came out Tuesday and so did the crews.  It was busy, and not without setbacks, but we made a lot of progress in some key areas.

The guys finished up doing the cornice work on the porch extension as well as the guest house porch and all the columns.  It took them a couple days, but they did a really good job considering they had no plans to work from and some of the angles were a bit odd.

They managed to work with the brick guys to make all the seams look good.  Obviously, paint is still to come on this part of the build, but it's up.

This house was built without enough outdoor space considering the yard we have.  We are correcting that in a big way and adding shade is key to being able to enjoy your exterior spaces on the Texas coast.

The guys also prepped all the posts for brick by wrapping them and trimming them with Hardi-board.  I wasn't sure what we were going to do with these but the type of posts that were ordered kind of meant that they were going to have to be painted instead of stained so this is the only real option.

The brick guys came back on Tuesday and got back to work.  It took them a couple more days....and raiding my garage for leftover bricks from the original home build....and a small delivery of bricks from my builder at the last minute, but they got it done.

At times it looks more like we're working door to door sweeps in Fallujah than building a guesthouse, but the crews clean up pretty well - when they're done.

Grandma checking out the front of the house.  The brick matched up pretty well.  

The guys did all the columns too.  There are seven of them but it took a lot longer to do these than I thought it would.  They look good though and I'm glad we went with the brick instead of the stone we originally picked.  I also had the brick guys build me a brick mailbox out front.  They're basically all done.  They need to finish up cleaning the last of the new brick, but that's basically a one man in one day job.

Cabinets turned out to be a bit tricky this week.  The original plan was for the same guy who did all the trim work (slowly) to put all the cabinets in this week. He came out to the house and said it would take him about three days but that he couldn't start until Friday.  We need this done so the granite guys can get started.  My builder actually hired the guys who framed up the new porch to do it and they started, but it wasn't looking good if I'm being honest.  I don't think it was their specialty.  We paid them and thanked them for what they had done and then called the company that made the cabinets to come out and do the install.

This one guy came out on Saturday and installed every cabinet in the house, including fixing the ones that had been installed poorly before he got there.  He did a great job and it was the right call to have him do it.  

A bonus this week is that he electricians kind of proactively got started installing everything.  They called and said they could come so we went out and bought every fixture for the house before they got there.  They also installed most of the plugs and switches as well.  What we don't have yet - because they've been ordered but not delivered - are all of the recessed lights and fluorescent lights. 

Nel and I even went out and bought light bulbs.  We have 50 recessed lights in this build!  There are 10 outside spots with two bulbs each, not to mention all of the inside fixtures.  I decided to go LED on all of them.  If I hadn't, I'd just spend the next few years changing light bulbs all the time.

The only other thing of interest we did this week was try to plan out our outdoor kitchen.  We have already purchased one of those ridiculous outdoor kitchens but we need to know exactly where we're going to put it before we get it so we can run the gas and electric lines under the slab to it.  We used boards from the garage and made a sort of template so we could play with it. 

I have a feeling the coming week isn't going to be a productive one.  Memorial Day will kill Monday and it looks like it's going to rain off and on all week.  The granite guys should be able to come out and measure for the countertops, but I'm not sure what else will take place.  I'd like to see some progress on the utilities.

Let's hope I have something to report next week.