A LOT OF PROGRESS

It's raining today, so I finally have a minute to upload some pictures of our progress. We've been working on a million projects over the past few months, including the stucco (more accurately STO EIFS synthetic stucco), cedar shake siding, the deck, and the fireplace. Oh, and we actually moved into the place!



The STO EIFS system has multiple steps. You start by sanding down the ICFs with rough sandpaper, and then put on a basecoat and embed mesh into it. I recruited my brother for this project. The photo below is the "big" wall complete with basecoat.


We used a fine grain top coat in a color called Moon dust. The color does not show up in these photos at all. I did all of the top coat myself because it turns out the guys thought that this was a "girl's job" because it took a light touch to get an even finish.



When Izak went to the lumber yard to pick up our siding I NEVER expected him to show up with cedar shakes! They are gorgeous, but quite a tedious process putting them up. Turns out that this is another great "girl's job" because they are light weight and a one person job. So, other than the corner of the garage, I've put up all of the shingles. The smell of cedar actually makes me nauseous now, but I've still got hours of shingling to go.


We are going to let the shingles naturally gray a bit before treating them (if at all). They look great but they are a little pink for our taste.



Turkey the cat really loves the front deck. He had a rough car ride getting to the new house, but he has come to quickly love the country home.




Our view from the front deck is beautiful.


After contemplating what to finish the fireplace in, we went with stucco. The simplicity of it seems to be the best option for the space. Now we just need to get the floating mantles put on to the brackets.

It just stopped raining...so back to those shingles!

Izak built an interesting entry way into the house to keep us from needed a hand rail. It was also designed to eliminate the confusion as the where our front door is (seems it wasn't intuitive). Izak dug all of the rocks out of the hillside behind the house.

We've managed to get trim on some of the windows. This one is in the entry so having trim on it has made a big impact on the feel of the house. It'll look even better when I get around to putting the finish on.

The mirrors in the downstairs full bath are from a Re-Use center here in Cincinnati called Building Value. The mirrors were originally in a school.

We have actually gotten around to hanging a few wall cabinets in the kitchen too. It still looks a little boring, but once we get the remainder of the countertops done and backsplash on I think it will come around.

Last but not least, I can't help but put in a picture of Nola and Otte.

Izak's first Staircase

Random pictures of progress:

Finally got the doors on my cabinet.

I made this cabinet too and Izak made the countertop.

We used zinc for the over the front door. It should patina pretty quickly to a dark grey.

One of my dual flush toilets.

Otte loves sitting in chairs.

Our first time lighting the gas fireplace. Otte really enjoys it!

He's really enjoying the property too. Much better than city life for him.

a bathroom and a place to sit

This is what the soycrete stain, plus two coats of soycrete sealer, looks like before the floor has had a chance to get dusty. I've been really pleased with how great the concrete floors look and how easy the Soycrete was to use. Highly recommended product if you are looking into staining floors.


The masterbath is starting to come together. This is our FANTASTIC walk-in shower. Instead of a glass panel we purchased another reclaimed 3-form resin panel (like Izak used on the handrail). Izak was sealing the bottom of the panel...hence the blue tape. The back wall is covered in beautiful reflective glass tiles.

We finally brought out some chairs (which have terrible upholstery but only cost $15/ea. at an antique store).

The chandelier is a christmas gift that I gave to Izak when we were dating. He lived in a beautiful old home at the time. When he sold the house we took down the chandelier so that we could put it up in our first house together (assuming that it would be another old arts and crafts home. We think that it is a great addition to our MODERN home.

Last sunday morning I watched the sun come up through the sliders while having coffee in these chairs. It was a wonderful way to start a day.

A few details and another rescue dog.

Seems like the pre-requisite to build a Noble Home is to have a dog...or two. So far I believe it is three for three. We love our first rescue dog so much that we decided to pick her up a brother at the local animal shelter. Since Nola is afraid of her own shadow, we thought that our new dog should be a bit more on the "intimidating" side. Here's Otte (the Mastador - half mastiff half labrador, we think):

I believe George Nelson lights (in the background above) may be a Noble Home standard as well.

Below is my main kitchen faucet and a photo of the countertop that Izak made for our master bathroom, which is currently being tiled.

Here's a bathroom vanity and concrete countertop that I made. Some day I'll find the time to put the doors on.

DECEMBER AGAIN

It's been over a year since we began construction. We are tired and bruised, but love our house. Now that we are nearing the end we are enjoying watching it turn into a home.

This is the range I couldn't resist: the Fratelli Onofri Evolution Dual Fuel Double Oven. Izak is in the backgroung making the countertop substrate out of MDF. Originally we planned on making concrete kitchen countertops like we did for the bathrooms, but they are SO HEAVY! I found a supplier of zinc sheets on-line (Rotometals) and we made the countertop out of zinc. We are having a carpenter make the end countertop pieces out of walnut so that we don't end up too industrial looking. Here is the zink in place ready for the sinks.

The picture below is Izak's railing. He made this out of items we had lying around. The panels are reclaimed resin panels from 3-Form that I purchased months ago for "something". Once our final staircase is in Izak will be making the handrail out of the same materials.

With all of the fallen trees on the property we thought we had better put in a wood burning stove. Our love of Scandinavian design led us straight to a Morso. Its a beautiful stove and small enough to fit perfectly into our downstairs den. This picture also shows the stained concrete floors, although not very well. I used a product called Soycrete in Espresso Brown throughout the downstairs and it looks really beautiful. Once I get all of the dust off of the floors I will get some better pictures.