Interior Trim and Woodwork

Window trim and interior wood

I'm terribly sorry for the big delay between posts. Time is getting short here so we've been pushing hard to finish everything up. The last few weeks have seen some big changes to the house. All the interior finish is going up, the bathroom and kitchen are getting paint and cabinetry, and the trim is going in all around. Very exciting!

Entryway

The pine interior paneling is almost all up. I just have the south end to finish up over the next couple days, then lots of sanding and finishing all around. All the pine is laid up tight, without any trim or extra layers. It adds a lot of character and light to the interior and I'm very happy with it all around. 

kitchen and loft above

In the living room - looking back at the kitchen

Sleeping loft - there will be a half-height divider to make a 'bedroom' area to the left

In addition - almost all the window trim is in a finished. We added 1x8 Douglas Fir extension jambs to the windows (Doug-Fir frames) to cap the super-thick wall. The interior paneling dies into it at a small reveal. This detail is certainly challenging - everything has to be pretty much perfect all around to make it work, so it has certainly taken to time to get just right. 

Window in the bedroom hallway. 

Douglas Fir for window trim

Now that all the insulation is finished (a big success btw!) - John has been working on getting the Doug -Fir flooring installed. Before the finished floor goes down we have to seal all the subfloor seams as this is the last bit of our air-barrier. Below you can see the tape going down just before the floor.  Should be another week or so of interior work and we'll be just about all wrapped up with the major woodwork.

Bedroom subfloor being taped. This is our air-barrier on the floor under the wood flooring.

Doug-Fir flooring. Looks real darn nice.

looking back towards the kitchen and island - loft up above

White Pine all Around

Well, September is here at last: the leaves are changing, its cooling down a bit, and you can tell the birds are starting to think about heading for greener pastures. But for us, Sept. means we're getting down to the wire on our schedule and we're going to really have to hustle if we're going to get everything done by the end of the month. 

I finished up the last of the exterior woodwork on the north side the other day. Now all that's left is the top of the gable end on the south side, and a couple bits of trim and decks. Very exciting! Next week we'll do some site-work and bring the soil level up, then we'll be able to finish up the decks and really call the exterior finished.

North side all buttoned up. Now just site-work and decks. 

But, even better: the gang has been getting a lot of the interior white-pine paneling up on the inside of the house. They finished both the big loft ceiling and the low kitchen ceiling, and this week we'll get started on the walls. Below, you can see the view from the entry-way with the ceiling boards bending to follow the crook of the house and lead you into the main-space. The slots you see are spaces for recessed lights - LED strips that will be mounted up in the slot, with a white pine valence covering them. Should look like a piece of the ceiling has 'popped' out and light will be spilling out behind. (ala the Parsons/SIT Solar-Decathlon exterior lighting designed by Chris Steffens)

view from the front door looking south

The interior pine is a center-match profile that we had a local lumber yard mill up for us. It has a nice tight face without any V-groove, but has a micro-bevel to give the individual panels definition (and make it more forgiving to lay-up) Below you can see the lumber close up - its all No. 2 or better - pretty nice stuff so far. 

White Pine interior paneling

These next few weeks will be great as things start to get closed-up, with the house's finishes and details beginning to take shape. We've got a lot of woodwork ahead of us over the next little bit - but that's the fun part after all.

Kid's sleeping loft, looking north. The strips left out are to allow insulation to be blown in behind it.

White Pine Siding Going Up

white pine to concrete bloc foundation

I've spent the last little bit finally putting up the white-pine siding on the exterior of the house. I've gotten almost all of the low parts done and hopefully will be getting the gable ends done soon. I think its looking pretty good - the stain will change color a lot as the sun bleaches it out of course, but I like the dark brown and the rustic texture quite a lot. 

north face

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the siding is applied on top of battens, leaving an air-space behind it. This allows air to flow around all 6 sides, making sure we don't get any captured wetness and rotting and prolonging the life of the siding significantly. 

Below you can see the north west side with the siding up on the right and battens showing on the left. 

Siding over vertical and horizontal battens.

The exterior window trim is super clean and without any fussy bits or extra pieces, just deep extension jambs, and the siding cut tight to fit. Takes a bit more time, but is a nice clean detail which juxtaposes interestingly against the textured siding. This combination of contemporary details with traditional materials was one of our core concepts early on and its great to see it finally getting played out in the finishes on site. 

Ext window detail, 2x8 jambs and vertical siding

North side, battened and ready for siding

All in all - its going up pretty quickly and easily. There are some funny spots (like at the entry and south  overhangs), but mostly its smooth sailing so far. 

Inside, things are progressing nicely as well, the windows are all all air-sealed and the gang has even started to lay up some of the interior pine paneling! Can't wait to see it all start to get sealed up. I'll make sure to post more interior shots soon I promise.

windows, nicely and taped and all air-sealed

Loft looking north, pine paneling starting to go up!