Exterior Paint

We finally had the exterior of the house painted this last week. The guys at JMR Painting & Drywall did a really good job on the exterior. The colors are exactly what I had pictured in my head and also what showed up in the early renderings. There are a few adjustments that I need to make. For instance, I want to change the color of the steel columns at the front porch. I think I'll have them painted black. I also haven't decided on the color of the exterior doors. I think most of them should be white, but I'm thinking the front door needs to be a different color. Possibly red or some warmer color. I would do black, but maybe that is a little too dark. Also the house address numbers were installed. I had them custom made for this house. They are 8" tall, 2" thick solid cast aluminum. I think they look great.

view of southwest corner from driveway entry

view of southeast corner

view of front (notice the cool aluminum house numbers)

interior paint and smooth subfloor

The only thing new to report here is that the sheetrock was finished and the tape, texture and paint has been completed as well. Although the paint color that was used was incorrect and the painter is going in to repaint the entire house. I chose a very white white and the color they used is a creamy white - not at all what I wanted. I had to prove to him that it was the wrong color by bringing in a paint chip of the color I gave him and let him hold it up against the wall to see for himself. They actually should have repainted it already. I just haven't been out there to see for myself yet. Here are some shots of the interior. It is starting to look pretty clean. There are definitely some nice spaces in the house. The natural lighting in most of the rooms is great.

view of dining room from kitchen

view of kitchen from dining room

view of living room from entry

Also notice the nice, smooth floor. I had Nevada Gypsum Floors come in and put self-leveling lightweight gypsum down to allow us to have a smooth subfloor on which to lay carpet, tile, and wood. The intent was to have the kitchen, dining room, living room walkway and master bedroom and bathroom done, but when I came back the next day they had done the entire house. This is a huge bonus because one of the biggest hurdles we were going to have to face down the road was how to get a nice level floor to put down the flooring. This is all solved with the lightweight. It looks great. In a way I wish that the lightweight could serve as the finished floor. If it were up to me I wouldn't mind a concrete floor in a house. But the lightweight gypsum is very soft and sensitive. Flooring should start this next week. Things have been moving slowly on the pinkHAUS simply because of the holidays. Not a lot of work getting done on my part or any of the subs, for that matter.

final stucco and sheetrock

view from driveway entrance


view of south east corner at front of house

The stucco turned out very nice. The company that did the work really did do a great job. Now the real question seems to be how to keep the other subs from leaning 200 lb stacks of sheetrock up against it and scratching it. The door subcontractor drove a shim right through the exterior of the stucco from the inside trying to install a door. I've already spoken with the stucco sub and he tells me that he'll be back out at the end to do any patch work that will invariably need to be done after the other subs have done their damage.


garage view almost sheetrocked


living room looking toward front door


view from kitchen looking into dining room

The sheetrockers have really been working fast. I think that they will be completely done within the next few days. Unfortunately they had me call for the drywall inspection and when the inspector showed up they were'nt ready for him and he failed it. I'll call again today to have it re-inspected tomorrow. Once the sheetrock is all taped, then they will texture and then I can have it painted. Everything is coming together rather quickly now. This is good as I really need to get this house finished up.

stucco & mechanical units

Well the stucco was finally started. They did the brown coat and then the scratch coat the very next day. So far it appears that they are doing a phenomenal job at keeping the lines straight and the edges crisp. I was relieved to see this as, in my opinion, the stucco is one of the most critical trades to get good craft. I'm told that the final coat will begin to go on tomorrow (10.31.07) and will take approximately 3 days to complete. The owner of the A1 Stucco tells me that the final coat is all done by hand. Once that is finished we can take down the scaffolding and get the interior courtyard slab poured once and for all. The whole house will really start to feel much more finished once the courtyard is cleaned and slabbed.

The other eventful occurance was the placement of the three mechanical units onto the roof. There are two 3 ton units and one 4 ton. The fortunate thing about the install is that once they were in place, they were not nearly as visible from the ground as I was worried about. From within the property they are almost not visible at all and even from the street they don't really stand out that much.

lath and batts

this last week was a busy week. lath was finished on the entire house. notice in the pictures that everything is wrapped in black felt paper and covered in chicken wire. the stucco will be sprayed directly onto the chicken wire in three separate coats.

the big hiccup is that i forgot to realize that exterior door jambs need to go in before the stucco is applied and therefore now am waiting on those to be installed. they should go in today (keeping fingers crossed).

the other mild hiccup is that the 27' slider that was to be installed on friday was not because the company that produced the door has either misplaced one of the side jambs or failed to ever make it. regardless, they are making a new one and having it powder-coated monday for install on tuesday. notice the door panels for the giant slider in the distance of the photo below.

the insullation was also installed at some point between saturday night and sunday morning. they told me that they would be in to do it during the night on saturday but i didn't believe them. but they did. as you can see in the pictures it is all finished. the next major step is sheetrock which will really define the spaces in the house.

paper on the roof

I have to apologize for the poor quality pictures (i took them with my iPhone late in the day). However, they show the first day of roofing activity. What you see is the first layer of paper that gets mechanically fastened before the torch-down single-ply membrane goes on. In one of the photos you can see the hole where the skylight in the kitchen will eventually go. I'm told that by the end of this week the roof will be complete - minus the coping metal that goes on top of the parapet walls. That is the last thing that goes on after final stucco and final paint.

In addition to the roof, the stucco contractor continues to make progress. The first layer of mud should get sprayed on Monday. The whole process should take about 2 weeks as they require a 5-7 day curing period between the 3 coats.

stucco start

Yesterday the stucco contractor began to prep the house. The photos show the scaffolding and the bottom half of the house being lathed with paper and chicken wire. The stucco is one of the most critical trades in making the house look the way I want it to. I've stressed to the contractor that I need his corners to be crisp and clean and the surface to be a smooth sand finish. We'll see what they actually are able to produce. I'm skeptical to say the least.

This week was also a big week for inspections. We had mechanical, electrical and plumbing roughs inspected Monday along with the framing rough. Unfortunately only the electrical passed. The mechanical failed because the inspector said a strap was missing on the chimney flue (it was there all along, just up in the chimney where he couldn't see it). The plumbing failed because the plumbing contractor is using a new style of washing machine drain box that the inspector had never seen before and didn't think it was up to code. It is. Framing failed because the framers forgot to nail half of the truss hangers to the glu-lam over the kitchen. needless to say, I'm really glad the inspector caught that one. Wednesday we passed roof sheating and shear wall and gas piping. So yesterday I called the mechanical, plumbing and framing roughs again and again they failed - stupidly for the same reasons. This morning the fireplace contractor was out there putting ANOTHER strap where the inspector can simply look up and see it. In the meantime, I need to call the inspector and explain to him that the other items are allowed, just new to him. Hopefully I'll be able to call new inspections for Monday and finally get everything passed off.

The roofers should be starting today as well. I'll post pictures of their progress as soon as they make some.