Puma Studios

It’s been a busy summer so far with lots of projects underway. Some complete, others in process.

So many things have changed it’s hard to know where to begin. This summer we have been focused on improving the front of the house. We went through the winter with a gravel driveway. What a mess and pain! The garage was perpetually covered in small rocks and sand as the cars tracked everything into the garage from the driveway. And snow blowing last winter was interrupted by frequent sheer pin breaks when the blower would pick up a rock too large to handle. No more! We have a beautiful new paved driveway.4186

We also decided we needed a front walkway to do away with the rock path we had. It would frequently get treacherous during the winter and rains as larger rocks found their way to the surface. We hired one of our neighbors to do the work and after a couple weeks we have a nice new front walk.4174 At the same time, we also had him do a pair of retaining walls on the north side of the house.4177

Inside the house there are changes afoot as well. The kitchen is getting cabinet doors. I setup in the garage to finish them and have started the install process.4204 Of the approximately 40 doors, 3 are now installed.

Along with all this work, is preparation for winter. We received another load of logs for firewood and I’ve been at work cutting and splitting for a few hours in the morning before it gets too hot.4198

Improvements in the workshop have also begun.  A chopsaw station is in process of being setup.  The cabinet boxes are complete and storage for lumber is above the station.  Still to do is the addition of drawers, doors a worktable surface and fence system for use with the chop saw.  As most horizontal surfaces tend to do, this one has collected all manner of stuff.  Once those drawers are in it’s going to help organization down there alot!4209

There are additional pictures available in the Photo Gallery.

Photos from May have been uploaded! A few from June too. Work is going very well. The granite counters have been installed and the floors are being finished right now.

Construction and installation of the kitchen and bathroom cabinets is underway. A few photos are in the Photo Gallery. It’s a little challenging since I don’t have my shop totally unpacked but I’ve sorted through the many boxes of tools to locate what I need and have setup a temporary shop in a corner of the basement of the house we’re renting.

I did get my table saw moved into the basement of the new house, located all the parts and assembed it over the weekend. There is a little bit of rust on the surface that I need to get taken care during the move but it looks like it came through pretty well. Now we just need power at the new house and I’ll be able to run it. There is a generator that I should be able to use in the interim but I haven’t yet made the power cord that I need to run the tablesaw from it.
I’m doing all the cabinets in the house and have started on the bathrooms and kitchen. I still need to put together plans for the closets, 2 built-in entertainment centers, built-in desk in a bedroom, built-in cabinets and desks for the study and the cabinets in the laundry room. Plans for the house and bathrooms are available here.

The first stage of installation is the the toe-kick portion that will hold the main cabinet. The first image is of the toe-kick for the 2nd bathroom. And here’s an image of the kitchen toe-kicks going in.

The contractor started the interior painting. So far only the upstairs has been done (as of Sat Apr 9.)
Flooring downstairs in the kitchen and family room is also underway.

Our house looks like a house! There’s paint on the outside and drywall up on the interior. The road in front is a mess, but at least it’s dry!

A set of pictures have been uploaded that I just took this morning.