The Cottage is Finished!

The cottage has passed all final inspections and is officially completed! We hosted an open house this afternoon and met many neighbors who are interested in building a backyard cottage, are working with an architect to develop plans, or have already built a cottage and wanted to check out ours. The builder, Joe Syverson, stopped by for the latter half of the open house and was available to answer questions and discuss the build process. The turnout was pretty impressive, I would estimate somewhere between 40-50 people, which I hope is a harbinger of many more backyard cottages to come. Here are some photos:

Here we are with Joe, just after passing final inspection

And that concludes the build portion of this blog! If you are interested in renting the Crow's Nest Cottage, please check out our Airbnb listing here.

Grading & Parking Pad

This past weekend we had a landscaping crew remove 16 yards (!) of soil, recycle the concrete from the shed foundation we demolished, grade the southern half of the lot, and put over 6 yards of 5/8 gravel in place for the parking requirement. They got it all done in a day!!

Loading up the concrete chunks so they can be taken to Dirt Exchange for recycling

The dry well before it was covered, which will receive all of the run off from the overflow of the rain barrels

The Bobcat getting to work after the site was cleared

Looks better all ready!

It was raining pretty vigorously all day so the soil got pretty mucky

Grading almost complete

The first load of gravel arrives

Smoothing out the gravel and covering the giant patches of mud created by the Bobcat and the landscapers' truck

The finished parking pad

Parking pad as seen from the alley

Parking pad with the cottage. Nearly finished!

Interior Paint

The painters finished the interior last week. It looks great! The electricians were also busy, and finished pulling power to the cottage, and attached (almost) all the fixtures, installed the ceiling fan, and set up the heaters.

Stairs, Railing and Closet Door

 We asked Joe to enclose the stairs, which necessitated some improvisation on the overall design. He did a great job, and modified the railing to match the stair railing. He also built a door for the closet under the stairs to match the bathroom door.

The interior is taped up in these photos because the painters were about to paint the interior.

Stair railing

Loft railing

Custom built closet door

Slab Demolition

The weekend before last we rented a jackhammer and demolished the slab from the old shed. I was struggling a bit, and Amy's father Dan came out to help. He worked in construction his whole life and knows his way around a jackhammer. My favorite quote of the afternoon came from Dan after I thanked him for the help:  "Well, it helps when you outweigh the jackhammer!" Eventually I got the hang of it and we finished up quickly. We were able to give away about half of the broken up slab to a couple of people, but it looks like we'll end up recycling the remainder at Dirt Exchange.

Not at all sure about this

OK...here we go...

Getting some help from Dan

We did it!

The demolished slab pieces

Exterior Paint

The exterior was painted last week, and it looks pretty good! The painters still have a bit of touch-up and cutting-in left to do, but the weather has not been super cooperative. They'll be starting on the interior later this week.

Cabinets & Window Trim

All of the cabinets are in, and three of the windows have trim! Next step is to install the countertops and appliances, which should happen later this week.

Looking at the kitchen from the peninsula

Where the fridge will go

Sink and Peninsula

Kitchen window with trim

Dining window with trim