Painless sheet rock and pretty doors

It still amazes me how much can be accomplished when you actually pay people to come and work on your house. It took less than three days to have all of the sheet rock hung, and now the finishers will be done by Friday!! That means we will be priming and painting by Christmas!

Below is a picture of our new guest room with a small loft area. We took pictures of everything, but as exciting as we are finding sheet rock, we do still realize that it basically looks the same throughout the house, so we'll wait till we paint for the full house tour:)

So what did we do while others worked diligently on our house? This:

Matt, once again astounding me with his skill, built four beautiful solid cherry doors. I love them!

Icynene

We have made two decisions that we are very happy with (well, that's not all of them, just the ones pertinent to this post).

• First, we decided a long time ago that we wanted to insulate the house with icynene (http://www.icynene.com/). Several of the houses that Matt has built have used this and he has been very impressed with it. It seals the house up to, insulates exceptionally well, and acts as a noise/vapor barrier. Based on our research, Matt's previous experience, and the recommendations of others who have this in their house, we felt it was worth the extra money. But, I've got to say, it was A LOT of extra money - so if you are in the market for insulation, brace yourself and look around. We received quotes from all of the installers* in the area, and their bids differed by more than $4000 for our 1400 sq. ft. home.
  

* If you are in NC/SC, I highly recommend Glenco Foam Division out of Greenville SC. Larry and his guys did a fantastic job!!!

• Second, we hired out the drywall. I have read enough DIY blogs to realize that absolutely no one on the planet enjoys hanging or finishing drywall. I have also learned that if you undertake this project you will be doing it forever, with no light at the end of the tunnel. With this in mind, Matt started keeping a look out on his job sites for drywallers who would be interested in side work. This enabled us to hire a couple of guys relatively inexpensively.
  
  So, this is what it looks like right now, but by next week it will be completely drywalled and ready for the finisher!!!

Exterior stain

We (I) decided to stain our shingles. Originally we thought we’d leave them natural, but halfway through I decided that I really liked the way they looked when they were wet from the rain. The best way to achieve that look was with a weatherproofing sealant that was just slightly tinted. We tried several things until we very happily settled on Cabot Clear Solution in Heartwood. It is very subtle, but will just allow the siding to weather more slowly. The pictures show the difference if you look really closely. Over the past two weekends I have gotten our front gable and the two back gables stained because we needed to wrap up anything involving-bolt through staging brackets (http://www.lynlad.com/catalog/item/1985389/1408659.htm). These brackets are fabulous, and allow for quick staging set up and take down. The only downside is that because they bolt through the wall, once you near insulation and sheetrocking you can’t go around drilling holes through you exterior walls. And, since we are at that point (!!!!), all future staining will be done from a regular old ladder.

In the picture above the entire gable and the lower portion of the side wall have been stained.