November 21, 2011 – 9:08 am
November 15, 2011 – 8:28 am
November 11, 2011 – 2:56 pm
Our carpenters are replacing a large window unit and an exterior door for a client. Both were custom orders, with the
window from Marvin Windows and the door from Taylor Door. The window fit nicely and will look great when it is trimmed out on the interior and exterior. This is an older home where the side door is only 6′-2″ high. But replacing it with a steel insulated door will lessen the heating bills and make it much easier to enter and exit the house.
With cold weather approaching again it is wise to think about the condition of your doors and windows. We can generally remove and install windows in a day or two. It makes a tremendous difference for overall comfort and maintenance to have quality windows and doors in a home. Give us a call if you are interested in such home improvements.
November 9, 2011 – 11:32 am
Things are looking great at the new home we are building in rural Northfield. The owners have not been in a big rush to
move in, which allows us to take our time and complete things in proper order and in dust free environments. The home has red oak floors throughout which have been finished to a beautiful luster. Both stairways in this home are hardwood as well, with balusters and a newel post at the lower portion of the stairs.
The kitchen cabinets are also oak with a very light natural stain applied. We used the same cabinets int he bathrooms. The
owners selected standard plastic laminate counters for the kitchen as they liked the ‘soft’ and warm appearance. We use a lot of stone countertop materials today, but stone can be very unforgiving with glassware and it has a slightly colder appearance. The bathrooms incorporated cultured marble countertops with integral bowls, creating an easy to clean surface.
The mechanical room is good sized on this home, but it still ends up getting full of equipment. Between the whole-house
ventilation system, the furnace, the electrical panels, the sump and sewer pits, the well system, the water conditioning systems the room quickly fills up. We try to organize the equipment during the planning phase so floor drains, stand pipes, and vent locations are determined and located properly.
November 8, 2011 – 3:09 pm
We have just about finished our work on our East side renovation project. The new windows and the patio door have been
installed and look very nice. We used some Marvin units which match the existing windows on the house well. We retained the existing windows in the sunroom. The new electric service has been installed as well. This is one of those things that most homeowners do not like to deal with as the are costly and don’t ‘show’ at all. The existing service in the house was a 60 amp panel that had been added on to a couple of times. As part of our work we added central air conditioning to the house. The 220 volt load for the new AC unit simply would not work with the existing electric panel. So we upgraded it to a 200 amp service. That provides plenty of fresh circuits for the home.
One of the final things we have to do for the new patio project is install a low seat wall around the perimeter. We are using tumbled concrete block products for this. The are about 7″ wide so they work well for a seat wall. They set in place easily and should work well for the owners.
November 3, 2011 – 5:46 am
We just completed a small office remodel for the Edward Jones office at the corner of Jefferson Parkway and west frontage road of highway #3 in Northfield. This work took place in a fully occupied building so we had to take precautions not to be too disruptive. We decided to work evenings to complete the project. We would start about 4:30PM or so and work until about 1:00 or 2:00AM. This allowed us to complete the tasks for that night and to clean up the space for the following work day. It went very well and the newly created offices were put to work right away by the staff.
November 1, 2011 – 5:59 am
We are in the home stretch of our classroom expansion project at ArTech charter school in Northfield. A few days ago the electricians completed mounting the photovoltaic panels on the south wall of the new expansion. These panels are fairly light weight, but pack a big punch for developing electric energy. The school monitors performance of the panels on a regular basis. It looks to me that the position of the photovoltaic panels will also shade some of the south windows during the high summer sun times.
The interior work has moved along nicely. VCT floor tiles have been installed in most of the new areas. One of the classrooms is being used for
science teaching so there are cabinets with sinks. All the areas are bright and vibrant. I can imagine children filling the spaces and working on learning. It is fun to work on a project like this. Parts of our work have been viewed by the students and used as learning experiences.
October 27, 2011 – 7:03 am
From Deadwood we traveled to Rapid City. What a lovely city! It has a nice downtown are that is vibrant and full of shops,
restaurants and all sorts of venues. There are many historic buildings in this city too. They vary from Italianette architecture to basic, solid 1920′s brick storefronts, to more contemporary buildings. I especially like the adaptive reuse of their downtown fire hall into a restaurant.
Rapid City is know as the ‘City of Presidents’ . This is because they have life sized bronze statues of each of our Presidents on downtown corners. It is fun to walk around and view this artwork. I’m shown here with Ronald Reagan. The statues were all created with private funds.
Of course, no trip to South Dakota is complete without a stop at Mount Rushmore. We had absolutely perfect weather to see this magnificant
carving, as well as the Crazy Horse carving. Both of these boggle the mind as how to accomplish such enormous carving jobs. The interpretive centers at both locations are very good, giving a fine feeling for what a job it is to accomplish this work. The walk down the avenue of state flags leading to Mt. Rushmore is a beautiful walk. The Crazy Horse Memorial has the face completed and much of the extended arm, but many, many more tons of rock still need to be removed.
On the way home we stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest stop at Chamberlain where we crossed the Missouri River. This is a
wide, powerful river. The rest stop had an interperative center that told stories of the Lewis and Clark expedition into this area. And of course, we had to stop at the corn palace in Mitchell to see the current version of the corn palace. It is really remarkable artwork to see the pictures that they make with varieties of corn.
Lots to see and do in South Dakota!
Our ‘up north’ lake cabin project is winding down now. The painters have been busy the past two weeks on site completing
their work. They have done a beautiful job matching the wood colors. The lake side room received true half log interior as well as half log trims around the windows and doors. The painters matched the color of the stain to the existing logs in the cabin and finished the logs with a nice, well-sanded clear finish coat. Half logs were installed on the ceiling as purlins to match the rest of the log cabin work. We installed pine boards on the ceiling which are finished in a nice golden color.
Other areas of the cabin have vertical pine 1×6. When we cut in the new opening to the bedroom/bathroom addtion we
continued the pine 1×6 wall and ceiling finish. Again, the painters did an excellent job matching this new pine to the existing pine boards. The bedroom and bathroom walls are finished with drywall, but the bedroom and bathroom ceilings have pine boards, again giving a nice golden hue to the room. All the new window trim and doors are maple, finished with a natural clear coat.
