Finishing....wood, tile, steel...

 Outside Wood - the siding...

The siding has been going up for the past two weeks when it hasn't been raining...where the old house meets the new house we matched the type of siding and will paint it the same color as the old house (Dragon's Breath)....eventually...someday...but for now we primed it which is why it's white...

Where the new house extends past the old house our theme was Swiss Minimal and basically that it look like an overgrown tree house...we invested in a nice wide plank of custom milled Cedar - there are two sizes, 7-1/4" and 10-3/4" and plan on keeping it natural and either letting it weather or sealing it clear.  The smaller boards run vertical and the larger ones generally run horizontally.  We have some regrets - some reveals and spacing is off...but overall the Cedar is pretty beautiful and looks good all on it's own despite our design flaws :)

The soffits are also Cedar, but tongue and groove and more narrow.

Here is a detail view of the new palette - concrete, a galvanized metal drip and corner bead, flush framed wood windows and glass..





Inside Wood - floors, ceilings and walls...

Inside we are using wood for the floors, some ceilings and some walls.


Guillermo is installing the wood finish work...he helped us build our addition is Silverlake and we have kept in touch...he is a perfectionist!

Here he is gluing the studs before the ceiling goes up...

The ceiling is glued and finish nailed - either one would probably be fine but we wanted to make sure that 4'x8' sheets of plywood would not come down in an earthquake - so we did both...

Guillermo lays out the boards before they go up to make sure the patterns make sense and will meet in a harmonious way...

...like these...

Tony and Pancho are working on the panelling for the Master Bedroom - it is more tricky than the Family Room ceiling because we chose birch which has a broad range.  Some sheets are very regular and some have a lot of figure...for a while we contemplate sending them back and then Tony comes up with a beautiful composition...it should be done by tomorrow...

Tile

The tile crew started last week...first they waterproof and we get that inspected.  Then they float the floors and walls.  Floating means they bring the rough framing out to where they will install the tiles.  The floors are floated with mortar which is sand mixed with cement - the walls are floated with cement boards.  Here are buckets of sand waiting to become mortar.

The walls covered in board...

Here is the Mortar being mixed

Here is Craig floating the floors...He sets up screeds so that they will be level...

Steel

The steel installation just began today - The upstairs deck is cantilevered about ten feet above the ground and feels quite precarious.  We originally designed a heavy wood rail that was more similar to other elements in the existing house to wrap around the deck - but after living without a railing for so long we realized that we didn't want to obscure the great view and hired our welder to install a light metal railing.