finishes

More items are getting wrapped up over at the townhouse. Kitchen appliances are going in,

plumbing is nearing completion (this is at the laundry room),

floors await their final layer of polyurethane,

millwork is complete,

our faux skylight is in,

and the exterior fence is up.

bathrooms and stone

The tub and faucets have been installed at her master bathroom!




Look at that great polished nickel finish! And that tub will be a dream to soak in. The chandelier that will be installed over it just arrived on site yesterday as well.

Vanity tops at the other bathrooms are all in as well




It's especially exciting to see this second stone as we were not that excited about the dark brown stone that originally went in. This one is perfect.

The library onyx hearth is in as well. The surround should be installed next week.


It's a little messy now but in a few days it will be stunning.

And progress throughout the rest of the house...


Walnut columns and stair rails are waiting in the library to be installed.


Our faux skylight frame is in.


The ipe deck at the top floor terrace has been completed (as has the ladder to the hvac roof above which is not visible).

Ipe wood waits to be turned into fencing.

The week after next will mark the beginning of finishing the wood floors throughout the apartment! Then things will really be coming together.

plumbing and finishes

The bathroom fixtures and fittings are going in throughout the house.







The top floor bathroom has it's shower fittings, toilet, and medicine cabinet in.



The master bath shower fittings are in as well.






The floors have all been sanded at the top floor of the townhouse and the storage closet is even getting its first few coats of stain.






Here is what are window grilles will most likely look like. They are on every floor at the front of the house.


The sprinkler line has also been connected at the house. A huge contraption for such a tiny mechanical room!

goodbye scaffolding

Almost all of the scaffolding has been removed from the front of the townhouse. The one remaining piece will come down early next week. It's so nice to finally see the new color next to the two existing houses.





Inside the house finish work is progressing quickly.



Our boiler has been installed...


... and plumbing fixtures are arriving on site for installation. Some of the library millwork is also on site and in place.




These have been shop primed and will be hand painted on site. Speaking of paint, we have some colors up on the top two floors. This will eventually be a child's bedroom.



Stone and tile work also continues in the master baths. Here you can see the 3x6 spring white stone tiles that just got put on the walls. Our tile guy is seriously amazing.





Soon they will also install the ipe deck at the rear garden. This is one of the purchased footings that 2x4s will sit on. Then, on top of that is the ipe.

new doors and floors

Last week our concrete slab at the garden level floor was poured. What a difference to walk downstairs and see concrete.

We also had all of our doors delivered last week. At 7'-6" tall and usually 3'-0" wide they are truly stunning. Here is a pair of doors that will get installed on the parlor floor.

Work also continues on the parlor floor stair opening which looks down to the kitchen on the garden floor.

Next week a whole team of sheetrockers are scheduled to close the rest of the walls up throughout the townhouse. This means no more visible plumbing in the bathrooms and much more running millwork and trim up in the house.

In preparation the team has added firestopping at all floors around the pipe runs. It's going to be great to see these walls closed up.

An un-glamorous but very important shot of the firestopping.

Thursday Site Meeting

We saw lots of small things coming together on site today. Our Audio-Video/ Security guys were on site wiring all of our installed windows into the security system.


Here's a shot of the window sill jamb. Can you believe that tiny little white dot is the security magnet? They're so discrete.

We also chose a final floor stain. It's the darkest sample all the way to the lower right of the above photo. It matches our goal stain perfectly. Wood flooring is already being installed at the new top floor.

Door saddles throughout the house were also discussed. Here you can see the fire-rated door frame at one of the elevator doors. That nasty steel piece will be covered with a slightly raised wooden door saddle in a few more days.

We also got our first on-site peak at the master bathroom tub. Sadly, it was another overcast day for our site meeting which made for bad lighting but I still think you can see the shape and size of the tub are stunning.

They were also constructing a small vertical radiator for the parlor floor entry way. This unit will be hidden in the wall behind a decorative grille.

Work in the garden also continues. Here you can see a trench which has been dug to accommodate the back yard drainage system.

garden floor progress

Part of the garden floor slab was poured yesterday! It was so exciting to see a non-dirt floor down there. Soon, after the plumbing inspection, the rest of the slab will be poured as well- probably in the next couple of weeks.

A layer of insulation is laid down before the slab is poured. You can also see the grid of rebar which will give the slab more strength.

The poured slab in all it's glory. Radiant heating and a travertine stone tile floor will eventually be sitting on top of this.

The concrete truck poured concrete right through the front window opening of the garden floor! You can see the new areaway in the background.

There's also a lot of progress being made at the other end of the garden floor: our sump pump pit has been poured and is awaiting installation of the pump and basin.

The blue basin will be set in the poured pit on a bed and surround of sand.

And just because it was such a nice day out I took some shots from the back of the house. You can see the new gutter in the second picture. There will be a fake "extension" gutter to simulate the continuation of the leader.