The Powah is On!

The powah is turned on, and we have lights to prove it now. The rough electric is finished for the entire basement level and part of the main living level. That work will continue this coming week. The electrician knows our move-in date, and he's on board with finishing his work in time for that.The outlets along the South wall.
Wiring and a smoke detector hardwired into the wall on the North end of the dining room/South wall of Chris and Karen's bathroom.
We put up some more railing sections in the loft on Saturday. They came out straight and sturdy, just like the house. We think the look matches well. These will end up with a coat or three of poly just like the rest of the non-floor surfaces in the house. We ripped 2x4s to make the ballisters, and a single 2x4 was cut to length for the top and bottom rail. Each ballister is ripped from a 2x4, cut to length, jointed, sanded, drilled with four holes, and finally installed. They take a lot of time, but it's happy work, and it's fun to see them put in place.
Mindy was busy this week on the basement floor. The acid stain is down, and on Monday she'll be back to apply the neutralizer. The color is called "Old Hickory". It's certainly a big change from the natural grey. We are excited to see the finished surface, and have one floor surface totally done.

Like I said... Mindy was busy this week. She also spent some time in Chris and Karen's bathroom, working on the floor there. We chose a dark tung oil as the finished surface for the upper floors. This room will end up with a water-resistant finish, so it's unique in that respect, but the color will be the same everywhere. It's great to see it go on, and Mindy said it was very simple to apply.
Andy is working on the ballisters for the loft. He had a smooth system set up, like a one-man assembly line. While he wasn't taking this picture, Chris was in the loft assembling the kits Andy had put together for each section of rail.
Ahh, we hope Benson will remember with fondness the good old days of playing in the leach field.
Eli being Eli. We used the back "steps" as a mixing area. There was a constantly changing mix of paint, oil, and cement there this week.
Light grey to dark grey. The dark grey will be the finished color for both doors. By the time we left the house on Saturday evening, both doors were painted, reinstalled, and the mudroom door latch was installed. The door to the kitchen will require some drilling for the different style latch the girls chose.

We bought the slate for the mudroom floor on Saturday. Eventually we will install this everywhere in the mudroom, and possibly near the other entrance as well. For now, we will focus on the mudroom bath, since the fixtures are dependent on the floor being in place.We thought this was great to see, so we have pictures of each step so far. The first layer is milky white paint. This took awhile to dry, and the dogs stepped through it at one point, so there are white paw prints leading into the kitchen before they slowly fade. Quite poetic, really.
The second layer is 1/4" of mortar, applied with a trowel made specifically for this purpose. You can add this to the list of things we've never done before - building a house really makes you stretch into new abilities.
The third layer is wonderboard, a 1/4" board of mesh and concrete. This is pressed onto the mortar, and then screwed in place. On top of this will be another coat of mortar, then the slate and the grout. Can't wait to see the next step! We ran out of time on Saturday, so the slate will need to wait until next week.