| On Friday Nov, 14th, commercial wallboard
installers started hanging our Magnum
Board magnesium oxide wall board. Dan Z.said he called a number of
installers and told them we were using Magnum Board as a replacement for
ordinary gypsum board and if they balked at all he just kept on calling.
MgO board doesn't score and break easily like Sheetrock and one must use
screws instead of nails to put it up. We have some tall ceilings and
wanted some enthusiastic workers. Here you can see the beginnings of
the ceiling in the main bedroom.
Below: I took these fellow's pix when they were
taking a break. Andrews is in the front in plaid shirt. These guys took
several breaks and left for the day at 3 p.m. This crew
got replaced the next day by a much more energetic bunch of guys ! 
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| This is the south wall of
master bedroom w/ MgO board on it. The two small rectangle places that
you can see are new fangled Onsia Speakers that go in
your wall and are flush with the surface of the wall. You do wall
board mud right over them and make them invisible in your wall. It will
be really interesting to see how the speakers sound when we get them
hooked up.
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The Magnum
Board is a bit of a challenge to hang. It is a brand of MgO or Magnesium oxide wall board. We are
using magnesium oxide wall board as a gypsum drywall replacement. It
takes a little longer to hang. We are using screws
instead of nails and it is not so easy to cut as gypsum board. You
cannot score and snap it as easily as gypsum board. But the bit of extra
time is well worth it for the long term. |
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| The sky lights make a huge difference.
This is in the master bath. It is a Sun
Dome tube light with a tough spherical clear cover on the roof.
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| In the master bath, the shower is going to
have to be covered in tile. Originally Dan Z. had said we could get some of
it made of glass, but when I went up there and looked, I was a bit
surprised to see that it is gonna be rather enclosed and by the time we
get cement tile all over the walls the interior is gonna be sorta small.
But then, on the other hand, it kinda looks old fashioned. My
grandfather's house had a tile shower that was not much different
(except it was not in a corner). This shower does have provisions for a
overhead light inside, so that is good. Only problem is that I didn't
order enuf cement tile to cover so much square footage. I may have to
use some that is intended for closet floors and then order more for the
missing places in the floor. It takes 6 to 8 weeks to get them so it is
not like I can just quickly order more. I will probably have some extra
solid color tile, but they will be pastel colors and the master bath
floor has only black, taupe and white in it.
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The wall board installers
have gotten excess 'mud' on the concrete blocks. I do not think it is
going to be so easy to remove as they think. The pits and uneven surface
is going to make it a lot harder than regular walls. I will probably
lightly sand and paste wax my interior walls, but I have not had time to
do that yet.
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The niche area, above, is getting
covered over for now. We are suppose to have Dac-Art pieces for a
handsome focal point in the foyer, maybe they will come later.
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Foyer on first floor.
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I got the guys to put a row of boric acid
powder on the toe plates in the walls between the wallboard in case bugs
ever try to take up residence in my walls. Supposedly they walk thru the
boric acid and get it on their legs, then they go home and lick their
legs and die...
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The house is really looking different
with the wall boards and ceilings going up. This is the guestroom.
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| What a difference the Sun
Domes make ! These two small rooms are next to each other and neither
has a window. The one on left is washer/dryer room and it was really
dark in there in the middle of the afternoon. The room on right is the
little office and it was pleasantly lit at the same time of day. I hope
to be able to go back and add more Sun
Domes later.
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This is the new top floor hall looking towards the water. Looks like it
might be a good place to hang my Shrimp Festival posters.
Also it will look much more cheerful w/ the Villa Lagoon Tile "Surf
Agua" tile rippling down the passage.
If I were going to go for a plaster wall
look, I'd use one of the Venetian
plaster products from this page.
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This is how the same hall looks if you are in the kitchen area and
looking towards the main bedroom.
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Aaron is building rails for the porches from
2 x 4's for now. Ted has said that he wants to make special Venetian
style balustrades but we have to have something to get a final
inspection. I can paint these and they will look a bit more finished, or
leave them as-is and the color kinda matches the house.
Aaron has also built me storage
shelving in the basement (below) to store tile samples on. The tile weighs a lot so my
shelves are very sturdy and attached to the wall.
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The final inspection is going to require
us to have no more than 4" of space between the steps, so we plan
to add a board to the lower part of the steps riser part to keep dirt
from getting kicked off the back of the steps but we will still get a
little light past the steps by using a narrow board that doesn't fill
the whole space.
Thank goodness I can stand up in almost
all parts of the basement. I have to watch to avoid the light bulbs that
are in metal cages suspended from the ceiling and maybe a couple larger
plumbing drains, but mostly I can stand up...no problem. |
We have 3 locations where we have pocket
doors. Aaron has installed a pocket door frame where they are to go. And
speaking of doors, I am overjoyed to get turned on to Custom Millworks Inc
[7882 County Road 24 Fairhope, AL 36532 ] who is making my interior
doors and two exterior doors. Patrick from Builder Resource hooked me up
and Mark at Custom Millworks is making solid wood doors for us. The
style is 4 panels, one over the other. Some are odd heights. I am not
sure how he is going to deal with that, maybe I should call and ask. The doors from
the foyer to the garage and the door from guest room to basement have to
be exterior rated. The wood will be stain grade, but I will probably
paint them anyway. The 'exterior' ones have to be painted on all sides.
I wanted doors that were something
different than the std. 4 panel design and I wanted solid wood. I kinda
have a 'thing' about not liking hollow core doors of any kind. |
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 Aaron has his workshop area set
up in the garage and makes quick work of carpentry jobs. |
Dan has been real aggressive on clean-up. He has the men all cleaning up
after them selves and he has had a lot of debris hauled off. He is
getting ready for sewer and water supply digging and putting in our new
driveway. |
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Kitchen counter tops--I stopped in Cabinet
Masters in Gulf Shores the other day and happened to see this sample on
their wall of this incredible quartz material called Arco Baleno. They
called and said the supplier had 2 slabs of it. I did a bit of research
and found that many people refer to this stone as granite even tho it is
actually a quartzite. Anyway, early Saturday I drove up to
Summerdale to see the slabs and while they did have a bit of blue in
them, they were mostly grey and not nearly exciting enuf to warrant
spending that kind of money. You can see the floor tile sitting on the
ground. The slab looks good color-wise but the grey is kinda drab.
So now I am considering using my Villa
Lagoon Tile in a solid color on the counter tops. I don' t have enuf of
one solid on hand, so I would have to use some that are suppose to be
for the guestroom and order more for it. I do not have to have my floor
tile down for the C. of O. |
Stephen and the other fellow up at Natural
Stone Distributors in Summerdale were really helpful in pulling
these huge slabs out for me to see. |
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I did see some other way-cool dark slabs
with color changing crystals in them, but they are expensive and overall
the counters would be very dark. The name of this stone is Volga Blue granite. |
  Now
I have also found that Granite
Transformations has this new color in their glass/resin series, so I
will ck on it tomorrow. Their specialty is putting granite veneer tops
on existing counters, but I do not see why they could not do new
construction. The color looks like it would be a good one w/ my floor
tile in the kitchen and the price might be right.
Note: I called the the rep for Granite
Transformations is coming out on Thurs. Can't wait to see how this color
looks w/ my floor tile. |
Sealing the exterior walls continues.
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We (esp. Dave Perry) have been spraying
Miracle 511 Impregnator sealant on our exterior walls. We need the man
lift to get to most of the areas. Today I took a hose w/ a sprayer on it
and squirted all the walls to look for dark areas that get wet and are
skips in our wall treatment. Of course we found some since this has been
done over about a week, with lots of starts and stops. I took photos and
printed them out so we can reference them when going back tomorrow and
catching all the skips. We purposely didn't do some areas that are not
crucial at this time or are easily reached from inside or the porches.
We also limited the spraying near the lower porch slab. If I want to lay
cement tile there, the sealant might prevent a good bond w/ the mortars. |
| We have used 14 gallons of the $100 a gal
(inc. tax) Miracle 511 sealant, and we need some more. This was an
expense we did not expect but by doing it ourselves, we saved a
bundle. |
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Yipee !! Looks like I have a buyer for my crane. I
am waiting for the money to get transferred to my bank account and then
they will have a trucking co come pick it up. I am making copies of the
service records that we have from the time I owned it. I will miss it,
my old friend, but with building in a major slump, and a lot of
equipment on the market, I feel fortunate to have a buyer. |
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