After many months and lots of long days we are ready for opening night. THANK YOU to all that helped to make The Mariner a great home for the 2008 Homearama. At Daniel DeVol Custom Builder we enjoy executing well designed details combined with outstanding craftsmanship……The Mariner is an example of just that.

For additional photos please visit the photo gallery.

Interior Finish......Final Details

We are busy finalizing all the details that will make the home a showplace. In the final weeks we will be painting the woodwork, staining the exterior doors, installing the granite tops and plumbing fixtures, finishing the Heart Pine hardwood floors and much more.

This is the time where I am most grateful to have outstanding sub-contractors and suppliers to work with. I think what is most special about our process is the attitude that everyone has in “fine tuning” the details that make this home and all our homes unique.

Interior Finish......more details

After the hardwood was installed we began installing the interior trim. The door casing for this home is a custom 2 piece casing that will be close to 5 inches wide when it is installed. The baseboards will be 7 inches tall and there will be over 500 feet of 2 piece crown ran. That is a lot of molding!

There will be several columns on the interior that will be used to separate spaces in the home while leaving it to feel open. The staircase that is being installed is a very classy "over the post" staircase with beech handrails and painted balusters. The carpenters that are building the stairs are Mark Muray and Bill Teyber. I have known Bill for more than 20 years and I am happy to to have them involved with this home.

Exterior Finish.....Wow!

I knew the exterior of this home was going to be great, but this is outstanding! There are 18 columns that have been set on the front porch with custom redwood rails conecting them. The decking on all of the porches is Ipe wood with hidden fastners and the ceilings are all mahogany tounge and groove with a clear finish.

Interior Finish.....here come the details

We have the interior of the home primed out and the tile layers are busy installing the detailed bathroom floors and showers. All of the tile work was designed by Kemper Design and our Interior Designer, Sue Leal Kramer. Sue Leal has been a close friend of the homeowners for many years and has done the interior design work on several of their homes. She is always an outstanding asset to have involved while building a custom home! The fact that she is an absolute "Gem" is a plus as well.

At this stage the finish details in the home are emerging. The homeowners have worked very very hard to pull together all the details that will make this home spectacular. One of the key features they researched and incorporated is a Re-Claimed Heart Pine Floor, 2600 square feet of it to be exact. Southern Longleaf Pine trees do not grow anymore and the lumber has to be Re-Claimed from old warehouses and factories that are being torn down. The lumber is salvaged and milled into flooring and millwork. Check out the growth rings in the photo above!

The Entrance

The drywall finishers are working hard to complete what is a "cut up" home. A good drywall job makes for a nice finish and these guys are good! And yes.....the exterior carpenters are still chipping away at the very detailed exterior. The craftsmanship is in the details and these guys are talented.

One of my favorite parts of our homes is the front door and this one is dynamite. This front door is clean and elegant while measuring over 9 feet tall x 9 feet wide, with 60 panes of beveled glass and weighing over 350 lbs. My older brother, Mark DeVol, makes our front doors, his web site is http://www.devolmillwork.com/ . The entire door is Spanish Cedar with a 2 inch thick solid mahogany sill and a solid brass threshold that has a pattent since the 1800's.

Mudding Drywall

While the exterior trim crews continue their tedious work, the drywall finishers are applying the first of 3 coats of mudd on the drywall. The home is loaded with tray ceilings and a huge barrel ceiling that will be faux painted.

In addition to the exterior trim and drywall we had the water service installed as well as the gas and electrical service.

Ready for Insulation and Drywall

Getting to the insulation phase is actually a huge milestone in the construction of a new home and we are there! The insulation is being installed this week and the drywall will be stocked later in the week.

The exterior trim crews are still working hard to complete what is a very detailed exterior trim job. The larger portion of the home is cedar shakes with a semi-transparent stain outlined with cedar trim boards that will be painted in an "off white". Again, this is part of the vision of the homeowners and it looks outstanding!

Mechanicals Continued.....

While Acme Electric continued to pull their electrical wire we moved in Hanson Audio to install a whole house audio system. Troy Hanson has been a part of all of out Homearamas and it is not hard to get him excited about it!

Stevenson finished their heating rough and John Craft is continuing with his plumbing rough. We had Warren County inspect our second floor this week add we should be ready for our main floor inspections later this week.

Installing Mechanicals

This week the plumbing and HVAC roughs will continue and Acme Electric will begin their rough. They will all concentrate on the second floor so we can have an inspection later in the week. The roof was stocked today and the roofers will begin laying the shingles this week.

We have 2 exterior trim crews installing the soffits and facia this week and they will start installing the cedar shingle siding as the week goes on

Framing Punch Out

The framing is being completed on the interior. There will be several "custom touches" that will require the framers to be more like finish carpenters.

Our plumber, John Craft, is installing the rough plumbing and our heating contractor, Stevenson Service Experts, is installing the HVAC system.

2008 Homearama "The Mariner"

We are currently constructing our 2008 Homearama home in Springboro Ohio for the June show. This is a Shingle Style home for the couple that bought our 2004 Homearama, the Bungalow. They had a clear vision of the home they wanted and we sat down with Atelier Design in Centerville Ohio to prepare the architectural drawings for the home. We began construction in December and we are under roof currently and installing mechanicals.

In the coming weeks and months I will update this blog with photos of the construction and show the process of how a custom home comes together.