The Palamino House

Week 34/35 – Let There Be Light

Posted by admin on Sep 28, 2014 in The Palamino House | No Comments

Light indeed. Both physically and metaphorically. Light in the form of the sparkies (Our contractor’s term for electricians) connecting fixtures, light in the form of the plywood getting swapped out for real glass, and light at the end of the tunnel. We are SO CLOSE to moving in! We had actually set this weekend for our move in date. Our notice to vacate our apartment was set for 9/30, along with our rented furnishings, and storage units. Unfortunately, too many things were working against us. The gas has not been connected yet, the stairwell railing is not installed, and one of the fixed windows as fabricated incorrectly so we had to cancel our blower door test. What can you do? We asked our apartment complex for an extension to 10/13, along with the furniture rental, and the storage units. I hope we don’t have to extend again, but I’m not going to force it if it isn’t there. We want a move-in ready house.

As mentioned in previous blogs we decided to take on 100% of the interior painting. What a job! We’ve worked seven days a week for the past two months, including taking three weeks of PTO from our real jobs to commit to the house. While chewing up valuable vacation time I believe being on-site for this important phase of the construction was very beneficial. It would probably have been November before we moved in if we hadn’t! Anyway, it’s been crazy busy, which hopefully explains why there wasn’t a week 34 blog. I’m combining it with week 35 here. On to the pics…..

The money shot….Looking really good now with the glass in. Still missing some siding (backordered), the ridge trim, some exterior stops, and the 4×4 posts need to get their stain. Seed and straw has been sewn. All we need is some rain. Funny how it rains every single day the house is without windows and gutters, then after they get installed, Knoxville turns into a dustbowl….

Lots of plants got installed to create a hedge along the drainage easement

Some new trees got installed too! Considering how many we chopped down to clear the lot, it feels a little bit better to see a few go up…

Shot from across the street. Even though we cleared a lot of trees, as you can see, we’ve still got a TON left behind the house

Another shot of the south elevation with the twin oak in view

A new, almost fully grow Japanese maple got planted next to the guest bedroom. Beautiful!

The exterior P5675 Progress lights were hand picked by our architect and on the plan. We LOVE it when we don’t have to make these kinds of decisions! They almost match the round gutters in diameter, but are a dark bronze color. Can’t wait to see these lit up a night!

The gutters got installed in week 34. The plan called for some custom gutters to be made out of some flat sheets of the same Kynar metal roof material, but they would have been about four times the price, and the roof color actually didn’t go very well with siding Chestnut brown. While the profile of the these gutters is somewhat traditional we LOVE the look of the round downspouts

By moving to larger gutters we were able to eliminate the downspout on the front of the Southeast elevation. One of my pet peeves is seeing an ugly gutter on the front of an otherwise nice looking house. We also eliminated the hose bib on this side of the house because I didn’t want to hang a hose visible from the road. There is a hose bib on the other side of the dining/playroom for washing cars etc

Is it a reflection or are you seeing inside the house? Only the absence of ridge trim on the exterior is the giveaway…

View of the new glass in the guest bedroom. The posts will be stained the Chestnut Brown color and a piece of trim will go over the egress window. Really cool seeing the reflection of the trellis in the glass. While there was going to be a deck here at one point, the trellis still adds a lofty light texture that made it worth while to build it as per plan

Even with all the “appurtenances” (our architect’s fancy word for all the stuff sticking of the wall) the west elevation looks beautiful, especially with the new plants. The planning for this couldn’t have been better. Three sides of the house, including the entertaining areas, has none of this stuff. We’ll never have to hear the HVAC units while we are on the deck or side patio, though they ARE some of the most efficient and quiet models on the market 😉

A shot of the west elevation showing the drainage easement and the new plants installed to cover it

The beautiful new Japanese maple

Northeast elevation showing the new gutters and exterior lights. The downspouts are in a different location than what was called for in the plan because we wanted the downspouts to hug the wall wherever possible. The eaves are so large, even on the sides, that the elbow in from the gutters to the wall looked awkward. It was unavoidable on the west elevation but done like this everywhere else. Siding should be here next week to complete this elevation!

The almost complete kitchen! One of the cabinets needed adjusting before the tile guy could finish the backsplash and the plumber needs to install the water supply line for the fridge. After that, the fridge can get installed, along with the range, and range hood. We couldn’t be happier with how the waterfall island turned out. I’m glad our builder found TNK Designs. They were about 25% cheaper than the Cambria dealer in town. They sale HansStone and we like the colors even better than Cambria 🙂

The deck got installed last week as well. We wanted to go with Trex but it was WAY too expensive. We didn’t want to go with pressure treated wood because of the maintenance. We found this Veranda decking (A Trex composite competitor) and we really like it. Of course, less than 18 hours after install the appliance guys come in with the 384 pound fridge and scratch it all up….

Another view of the big deck. Can’t wait to lounge back here sipping a cold beer and watching Liam play

West elevation shot taken from the back of the house

Another view from the back of the house. The huge master bedroom fixed windows got installed. Massive!

The one lone piece of plywood remaining on the house. The measurements were correct, apparently, but AGC fabricated it incorrectly. This is going to cost us another couple of weeks before we can move in 🙁

The living room fixed glass got installed, but not all the stops. Both this corner, and the guest bedroom look amazing from inside. Keep scrolling…

Another shot of the kitchen with a view down the “grand hallway”. Grand indeed, and look at the light coming through that front door. Whew! My palms are getting sweaty…

The sparkies actually got a few fixtures lit up this week. These beauties in Liam’s room really pop. 95% of all lighting in the house is LED

The big boy 36″ George Nelsen bubble lamp is going up tomorrow!

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The row of Galaxy sconces have been installed, though not fired up yet. There is about 12 of them throughout the public areas of the house

The half-wall received a beautiful piece of HanStone quartz countertop

The half-wall “cubbies”. This is a modification of the plan, which called for cabinets. We found our built-in cubbies in our old house were so handy we used that here. Great for backpacks, purses, etc. Anne added a splash of color here. I imagine the countertop will become the mail collector, though we DO have a desk in the kitchen for that stuff. We purchased a model of the plan from the architect and that will go in a glass rotating case on the half-wall top

More of the Galaxy sconces. We purchased these handmade versions from Etsy. They are less expensive than the Rejuvenation model, better designed, and MUCH higher quality!

Because coffee is important!

The Ikea Abstrakt high gloss gray cabinets look stunning next to the appliances and backsplash. Big shout-out to the wifey for putting these finishes together. And the architect, of course, for the excellent design. It’s amazing how big this small kitchen feels

The Jonathan Adler sconces installed in the guest bedroom. Pretty enough but crappy design! As mentioned previously, we are at 95% LED, unfortunately these have a candelabra base. A CANDELABRA BASE! In a HUGE two way sconce??? To make matters worse, there are two wires running next to the bulb in the top so I had to remove the hot ass incandescent bulbs so they wouldn’t catch fire. BOO on YOU Jonathan Adler!

One of the Possini LED fixtures in the master bedroom. We really love the bronze finish

Another shot of the fixtures along with the big, new windows

A fuzzy pic of the master bathroom. Quart countertops got installed, along with the in-wall faucets. Lot’s of his and her storage 🙂

One of the few sconces lit up right now. So beautiful…

We were going to install the laundry cabinets ourselves, but with time running out, and seeing the great job they did in the kitchen, we handed it off to Cirkel Design and they knocked it out quickly. We mis-measured the wall dimensions somehow so we are going to replace the 24″ cabinet that would have been sitting next to the one below with an 18″ version. Should still have plenty of storage, and a very functional laundry room

LED sconce above Liam’s sink

The wall o’ glass in the guest bedroom

The Cree LED ceiling cans got installed. FINALLY, we can see in the basement…

A shot of the baking and pantry area. Love the reflection of the door in the high gloss cabinets

This was one of our better ideas. The waterfall counter extends beyond the 1×6″ on the post and created a gap between the cabinet and the waterfall wall. The solution? Ripping a toe kick, which is thicker than a cover panel, to fill the gap. Looks GREAT!

I don’t normally make cat calls to cabinets, but I just made an exception 😉 Bosch 800 series dishwasher on the end. Really like the clean look of the front