The walls are up and the paint is on - now it’s time to head for the finish line, so to speak. It feels really good to have the structure done, the wires in the wall, the pipes in and the shingles on the roof. If only this last stretch didn’t seem to go on forever. You’ll constantly hear the phrases “You’re really close” and “You’re almost there” but it doesn’t feel that way. The finish work takes a lot of detail and scheduling that can suck you dry. Now’s the time to buck up and stay strong.

TRIM

Trim really brings out your walls and makes things feel solid. I had initially wanted to do knotty pine trim but ended up going with a painted trim to save money. We wrapped our windows all the way which is becoming less common these days and man did it make our windows stand out. In our first home we replaced all of the doors, windows and trim, and so I know a good finish carpenter is everything. There are tricks to getting things fit and look good when they aren’t perfectly square. A good finish guy can hide a lot. My friend Matt took the honors and went to work, spending a lot of time with his tape, finish gun and chop saw and did a great job.

FLOORS

Carpet, wood and tile shopping is sooooo exhausting. There are a bazillion choices and trying to consider color combos and what should go where is tiring. After much driving and looking and internet browsing, I knew what I would have to pay per square foot of each. From there it was a matter of choosing within those ranges quantities of each that would total to my flooring budget.

By luck 18″ travertine went on sale at the local Home Depot just in time - $2.49 per square foot. The quality was about 80/20 that is about 80% of the tile was good to great and about 20% was bad to not usable. We strategically placed the good tiles in the most visible places and put the not so pretty ones in out of the way places like our utility closet, the corners of the pantry and under counters and appliances. Some of the tiles will be great except for maybe one edge or section, save those for places you need to trim a piece then just cut off the bad part.

We did about 500 sq ft of hardwoods. I tried as hard as I could to find a hardwood I really liked under $4 per square foot. We ended up closer $5. You can get a hardwood for $3 but it will be a narrower plank and typically available only in standard colors. As I mentioned in a previous post, we have a rustic country style and so I wanted something wide planked and a little distressed. The Manchurian Walnut we went with had all of that at the best price we could find.

Carpet is a science. From 50 cents per square foot to several dollars you have to consider what’s important. To be blunt we went cheap. The carpet looks nice but is not a heavy pile. With four kids under the age of 9, and our entries and main living areas all hardwood or tile, we decided the carpet just needs to make it 5 or 6 years at which point we can replace it with something better. The money saved went back into hardwoods and tile that are both something you only want to put down once.

FIREPLACE AND FAUX STONE

Our entrance and fireplace both have faux stone and man there’s a lot of it. As of this writing we have finished the fireplace and it looks great. It took a little bit to get the rhythm, but once we got going it wasn’t too bad. We went with a sorta country rubble stone with wide grout lines as it matched the natural stones around the property. I found two or three magazine pictures I liked and tried to emulate them, which really helped as I could show the two guys helping me exactly what I was going for.

For the fireplace mantle I bought a large timber from a small sawmill and then roughed it up to give a distressed look. It took a full Sunday to do this. Basically, I set it on a couple saw horses and used my grinder, belt sander, vibrating sander and hand planer to form it. After planing and sanding the initial shape, I used a chain and hammer to put some marks into it and the grinder to put some divots here and there. Then a propane torch and spray paint to accent the edges and mars. The vibrating sander then took off the excess paint and burn marks and we stained it. It did take two or three revisions to get each side just right but we are very pleased with the look, it has a very authentic appearance.

LANDSCAPING

As children, both my wife and I always dreamed of some day having a big green lawn. I grew up on the Oregon coast, a mile from the Pacific where sand, scotchbroom and sticker bushes dominated, and she in the middle of the southern Arizona desert where cactus and dust were the only options. As such, we have always enjoyed the luxury of a nice lawn.

This being our third home, I pretty much knew how I was going to attach the yard. This property was very challenging, however, as the amount of rock made trenching and tilling extremely difficult. I brought in a lot of loam and used a single spade plow on my tractor to turn the soil, pop rocks and then to trench. Trying to use a ditch witch would have been impossible. After turning the soil and getting it fluffed up a bit, I chained three logs to the back of the tractor and drug them around our yard for hours to level things out.

After getting things leveled out, I walked out my sprinkler heads, putting flags wherever a sprinkler was needed. You have to know how many gallons per minute your water system, public or private, can provide and then add up your sprinkler heads required gallons per minute, as stated by the manufacturer, usually betwen 1 and 3 GPM each. Our well is 60GPM but the water line from the house to the barn gets about 20 GPM in a 1″ pipe - I used that figure for the sprinklers as they have similar distances and pipe sizes. So I was safe at 20 GPM but kept each branch at 12 GPM or less to be safe.

The first lawn I put in was at our first house and I had sent in all of my dimensions to Rain Bird, as they would design your system for free and send you a plan and parts list. Off to Home Depot I went, and after having nearly filled two baskets with tons of small parts, a guy down the aisle walked up to me. He was wearing a jacket with the name of a local landscaping company on it, and the Rain Bird logo embroidered on the front pocket. He said, “Did you send in for one of those free system plans from one of the sprinkler companies?” I told him I had and he dryly responded that I should put it all back and just get a couple of larger heads to shoot across my yard and call it good. He said “Look, all ya wanna do is flick some water out there, try and hit your corners and get double coverage and you’ll be fine.”

I took his advice and saved a lot of time and money. Where they had specified 15 small heads for the front yard, with several in the middle of the yard, I put 5 large adjustable heads in each corner and it was fine. A lot less trenching, pipe and time. I did the same on this project and it still took me 2 full days just to put the pipe and sprinkler heads in the ground.

I always use 1/2″ funny pipe to connect each sprinkler. This makes it really easy to raise and lower a head or reposition it later if need be. It also will keep your PVC from busting if someone drives over a sprinkler head or drops a rock on it. Once the lines and sprinklers are in you’ll want to groom your topsoil one last time. Use a landscaping rake and make sure there is loose topsoil to accept the seed or sod. I prefer to seed over sod. It is easier and more gratifying, although you need to do it in spring or fall, plus you have to wait for your lawn to become established.

To seed, just spread it with a broadcast spreader and then rake it back and forth with a landscaping rake to work it into the topsoil. Ideally the grass seed will be 1/4″ under where it can stay moist and germinate. If you keep your soil moist and the weather stays in the 60 - 80 degree F range, you’ll see some grass shoots in 7 to 10 days and put your first cut in 4 to 6 weeks. When I seed, I over shoot and simply rake my edges after about 3 weeks. The grass has shallow roots and comes up easy and this is a fun way to shape your lawn.

FINAL WORD

It’s hard to believe we’re almost done. I still have fears of something going terribly wrong, and thus will not feel “done” until we sign the final mortgage documents. I’ve learned a lot, and while I have enjoyed the experience, will not be looking to do it again any day soon. My hat is off to those who make a living building, it takes someone special to do it day in and day out and to do it well. We hope to be moved in within the next 30 days and hopefully get back to normal schedules and routines soon after that.

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