J & J Log Home

So after looking at several stores around Indianapolis and not finding exactly what we were looking for we finally decided to look online. We found this great website called Lighting Universe and was able to find something! Our electrician is out this week finishing all the electrical stuff, switches, plugs & such. Here's the front done with the doorbell & outside light: We picked up our custom door bell while we were at our good friends Stacey & Travis's wedding in Cannon Beach Oregon. Here's the dining room light, and you can see I finished the trim around the side door. We had to use 5" wide poplar in order to hide the switch wiring. Here's the hall light, there's another around the corner. As you can see we still have no interior doors. They are supposed to be done on Friday. Here's a window all trimmed out: The dirt guys are also out, we are tired of having no room to park 2 vehicles & trying to back out in the dark, so we had them cir

We used a small piece of left over poplar from the window trim to make an address mounting board. I ran my router around the edge to give it a bit of definition, then Jessica stained it & placed the numbers. Turned out good for $3.97 I think :) We'll do the same for the doorbell & outside lights. We also put in a mailbox, I plan to make a "custom" one that matches the house theme, but no time for that now so it'll have to wait:

Jessica & I cut all the angled balusters on the weekend, and I installed them yesterday after work. Everything turned out great, the railing is nice & solid & it looks good. Just have to give it a clear-coat. The carpet guys finished everything on Monday as well. It's nice to have something soft to walk on. Master bedroom: Upstairs living room:

Our stair parts finally came in, so I picked them up the other day after work, along with all our trim (window + door casing, baseboards) It's all poplar, same as the 4x10 beams so it should look good once it's all installed & stained. The newels attach using a long 2 sided bolt, 5" lag on one side, & threaded on the other. The newel had to be drilled to slide over these. Here is the lag bolt installed in the floor, it goes through the 2x6 T&G, into the 4x10 beam below. Here is a close-up showing the curved washer & nut that secures the newel post tight to the floor. This nut is a pain in the butt to tighten, as the 1 1/2" hole in the newel post only allows about an 1/8 of a turn every time. The good thing is these are very solid once tightened. The newel overhangs because we plan to put a small piece of trim on the edge, to cover the cut ends of the 2x6 flooring. Balcony newels installed: So far I've figured out, estimate the time to install a

We found some 4x4 white travertine stone(limestone type material that is harder than limestone but softer than marble). It's "tumbled" so it has soft edges & very random. Seems to fit in well with the logs & such. Here is the backsplash with the grout freshly finished. Jessica does a great job with the tile grout. (More attention to detail than me!). Notice anything different (other than the grout)? We had to "find" the outlet that I accidentally covered with cement board & tiled over. Luckily I had a picture with the framing that showed it, & we were able to pop off 2 tiles, the grout them back on after cutting around the box.

The hardwood flooring is all done finally, haven't taken a decent picture because it needs the dust cleaned off :) We also scrubbed some more chinking off the logs, only a closet to go, then it's all done. I started the kitchen backsplash today after cleaning a bunch of garbage out of the front of the yard. Put in the last 2 electrical boxes, then installed some 2x4 blockings, and put up the cement board (Durock). We had about 2 extra boxes of tile from the kitchen floor, so we cut them down to 4x4 tiles & planned to use those. The tiles weren't the same size, & after the first row I could tell it just was not going to look good. We pulled them off & cleaned the mortar off. Will be buying some other 4x4 stone to put up instead. Will hopefully get this finished up after work, by then our stair railings should be in.