Week 22: Nov 23 - 27

Cabinetry installation has begun. I learned that there are basically two methods of building a cabinet, one with a face frame and one without. Both methods are structurally sound and capable of accommodating solid surface countertops. The main difference is with appearance. Cabinets with a face frame have a strip of wood that separates all of the doors and drawers from one another, whereas a cabinet without a face frame is built such that the door and drawer fronts all come in close contact with one another. Unless you know what you are looking for you can easily miss the difference between the two types of cabinets. We chose the cabinets without the face frame primarily because the cabinet builder with the best bid and references happens to build this type of cabinet.This is a picture of what will become the kid's study area. Kid's bathroom. Only one sink! Rather than two sinks here we opted for increased countertop and drawer space.
Upstairs bath. When I was pulling the wiring I made a guess as to where I expected the outlet should go. It ended up right behind where the sink will go. Kevin helped me fish a short piece of wire over to the side for the new outlet location over the future countertop area. Per electric code the old outlet/now junction box is suppose to be easily accessible. However, it will be covered with a mirror. I ended up counter sinking the cover plate flush with the sheetrock so the mirror can sit tightly against the wall. The box isn't necessarily easily accessible but isn't inaccessible either.

This is the half bath. Bathroom lights were also installed this week. This was quite the project as the wiring had to be fished out from behind the sheetrock. Taking advice from "This Old House" website the lights were mounted 75 inches off of the floor. This height is suppose to provide good lighting with less shadowing on the face when standing in front of the mirror.
This is the master bathroom.
Laundry room with adjustable shelving that will serve as the pantry. The rest of the laundry area with the adjustable shelving for each of the kid's laundry baskets.
Kitchen area. All of the cabinet faces are built out of knotty alder. The kitchen is painted white with a dark brown glaze highlighting the corners, sand through and distressed areas. The rest of the house is stained brown but has the highlight of the same glaze as used in the kitchen. We went with a slightly distressed look to help blend in the expected future dings and scratches.
I installed the stairway lighting. It took some thought and several visits to the lighting store to figure out how to light this stairway. Initially, I just wanted to put a light up on the ceiling. However, it would have either required a ladder or a special tool to change the light bulbs, so the lighting store people encouraged us toward the sconces. When I asked them how high to place the fixtures they reached up above their head and just slightly forward with an outstretched arm and said about here. I thought there would be a little more science behind the decision.
Kid's bath with tiling around shower/bath.
Flooring in the bonus room is finished. It is called "Spalted Maple" and is manufactured by Lamipro. It was a much quicker process than installing the solid wood on the main floor. Oddly enough, the stars must have been aligned in my favor, as I was able to lay full floor planking from one side of the room to the next. No need to cut a plank down to get it to fit nicely to the wall.
Viki has been busy adding more color to the house.
The garage has become the work center. Thank goodness for power tools.