Monday, March 30, 2009

Our Iibiza - Chapter 13: A Stairway To Heaven (With A Side Trip Through Hell)

We were so excited a couple of weeks ago when they were FINALLY going to put the floating staircase in our new house. It's the central architectural feature of the house, and we were a little apprehensive about how it would turn out. There's been a lot of babysitting involved with building the house since our contractor (and many of the sub-contractors) don't get modern homes. I was really excited when I initially saw the staircase; it turned out better than I had imagined it would, but then I saw they had done one of the details wrong. Here's a photo:

The railing was bolted onto the stringer, instead of being welded together as our plans stated. It was just one of about four things that haven't been done right, so we made them take it out and do it over. I just don't understand why our builder has such a hard time following our architect's plans, but we are pretty much having to check everything. Here's how the staircase looks now that it's been fixed:

Much cleaner and, hello, what the architect planned in the first place. They will be putting the wood treads on today, so I'll add a final photo once the staircase is complete. In the end, I think it's going to look great, and it will totally be worth the complaints and taking the time to do it right. On a more positive note, the fireplace looked AMAZING the first time around. Here's a photo:

I can't believe that in not too long I will get to live in this house instead of wasting all my time supervising our contractor. Steve and I often wonder what we will talk about once the house is finished, but I can't wait to have nothing to say to each other.

2 comments:

Take-a-Wipf said...

I'm glad you complained about the staircase detail. It looks so much better welded. The fireplace is looking good too. It appears as though something is missing as it looks like it is floating.

The Ricks said...

You don't like it that way Rich? I think it looks FABULOUS. No, really, there will be a hearth that will be topped with charcoal caesarstone and have the same slats running down the front. I'm sure we'll add more photos as it gets finished. Now, I just hope they don't mess anything up this week.