Hurricane Snow

Our house's first snow is from Hurricane Sandy.  That's quite a Christening.  I'm anxiously waiting to hear from my college friend Kathy on Long Island who has been a faithful follower of my blog.  I pray you, Rich and the kids are safe!  

Everyone is here this week scrambling to complete all the loose ends so we can take possession this weekend.  The first task will be to put the final coat of finish on the floors and the stairs.  After that, we'll have to stay off the floors for 48 hours and then no furniture for another 5 days.  We will move everything into the bedrooms and just hold off on the dining room & living room.  Not sure exactly how the logistics of sleeping, cooking and showering will work over those few days, but we made it this far.  It is supposed to warm back up into the 50's and 60's so it will be more tolerable than today's wind chill of 15 - 20 degrees.

The "Home" Stretch

This is the last week of real work before clean up and punch out next week.  Preston and our neighbor put down grass seed and sod today.  Here's hoping for some rain Fri/Sat and maybe some hurricane remnants next week.  The trim carpenter was here all day finishing up odds and ends.

Here is a video clip of our neighbor Paul blowing straw with grass seed in it. (hit the play button) 

 

His wife, Michele driving the truck

Paul and Preston laying sod

Paul blew straw/seed on the hillside

a little sod to keep mud from splashing the edge of the house

the "back yard"

 

We'll put a walk way of some sort in the spring, but some sod here for now.

Can you see Valur looking out over the hillside?  He loves that view.

We had to "raise the ground" so the porch was a max 30" off the ground (code) eliminating the requirement for a railing.  The builder did it the hard way ... build the porch, push the dirt, then fill under the porch with stone.  Actually it wasn't hard for the builder at all ... just for these guys.

bi-fold doors -- closet in mudroom

hardware on cabinets... so the doors above the hood open, but it's not a usable cabinet... just the hood vent.  Should I put knobs on the doors?  Not sure if it would distract from the pretty hood or look like something is missing?  Looking at the picture, I am now thinking knobs.  What do you think?

more hardware ... still waiting for the dishwasher to be installed

More hardware ... my favorite knobs ... see the image below

 

transom windows installed above doorways from living room to kitchen

exterior door hardware installed

pocket door from mudroom to entry ... glass so doggies can see thru if they are "locked" in the mudroom.  Installer didn't have the right size rollers to hang the door today.

masterbath shower door ... this was the door out of our old shower.

ironing board cabinet in master closet... this bump out is where the main HVAC lines run from floor to floor

opened

and the board swivels ... all for a bargain hunter price of $111 on Amazon!!!

I started installing the ceramic knobs we had in the old house.

garage has been painted

pull down stairs to the "party room" above ... just kidding ... but it could be.

A Long Hot Shower

Six months and 3 days since my last long, hot, full-pressure indoor shower.  Finally on Saturday, I was able to shower in the upstairs shower.  It was heaven.  It was all I could do to turn the water off and be done.  Preston is still showering outside, but we are having an Indian Summer kind of a week.  And he has had the luxury of traveling several times during construction, so he's had hotel showers. 

I'm not sure if he's going to move into the house with me.  He's really grown accustomed to living a couple dozen steps from his shop.  He's hooked on getting up in the morning with his coffee and hanging out in the shop for a bit before going to work.  We'll see!

Our trim carpenter left our job to go work on another one for another builder.  He's in high demand right now, so he goes to whichever builder is screaming the loudest, does enough work to calm him down and then to the next builder who is screaming, and so it goes.  He may be back tomorrow.  About 90% of the remaining work belongs to him.

The carpet was put in last Friday night.  They were here until almost 10pm.  It looks great!  The plumber has installed most of the finish plumbing fixtures.  Good news ... the toilet is no longer in the hallway.  He has to finish this week because he's going on vacation next week.

The painter was back this week painting the garage, but there is still a lot of touch up painting to do inside.  I imagine that will continue this week.

They did the final grade on Monday.  Our neighbor, Paul, does commercial grass seed / sod.  He came over tonight and discussed the options with Preston on how to control erosion and what to plant given it's almost the end of October.  He's going to put down some sod and "erosion blankets"... which we hadn't budgeted for.  I was doing so well!!  Still under budget up to now!  But if we don't do it, the winter will wash away all the top soil and it will cost more in the spring if we have to buy dirt, too.  So he's going to start on that this week. 

I put some more shelving up in closets this weekend.  Continued to assemble this stupid vanity cabinet from China...yes, there is one that Preston didn't make, ugh.  I couldn't help myself, I had to clean the house a little bit.  I swept the stairs and taped the cardboard down.  We planed the boards for the island and pantry counter tops tonight.  A little jointing and then they can be glued up.

Preston putting cover plates on the TV / network cable outlets he installed.

The new carpet in Colton's room.

Master bath vanity, toilet and lights from the old house

Master Shower; I would have done a brushed nickel color shower head, but the sink already had oil rubbed bronze fixtures and the shower door frame from the old house is ORB.  Hopefully it will look ok.

Master shower ... you can see the bench and shelf.

More carpet ... master bedroom

1/2 bath

Planing boards

Let the Final Inspections Begin

today...

Garage doors got their 'bling' today

I love these lights!  They are actually outdoor lights.  They have seeded glass and I put the old looking Edison bulbs in them.

So they did the electrical inspection ... we failed. 

I have to give some background.  When they did rough electrical (pre-cabinets), there were outlets and switches all across the walls on either side of the window above.  You now have to have a switch for your dishwasher (!?), there was a switch for the garbage disposal, one for the lights above the sink and one for the above cabinet lighting.  And I think he had three outlets.

Well, with the small amount of wall space left after cabinets and trim (see picture above), something had to go or I'd have electrical lining the wall top to bottom.  So the dishwasher and disposal switches are under the sink.  There are 2 switches in one gang box for the lights.  One GFI on the left.  Then under the right wall cabinet, you can just see a white strip of outlets.  They are also on a GFI circuit.  Sounds fine ... except ...

...the strip is MORE than 24" from the sink.  Code in Greene County requires a GFI outlet WITHIN 24" of the sink.. yes, WITHIN, as in CLOSE TO the source of water. 

So the reason we failed is because I can't quite put one hand under the running water and my other hand inside the outlet and electrocute myself.  Really?  Don't you think if you are that stupid, then Natural Selection should take care of you?  

So we're going to make the county happy and put the outlet above the switches.  Government ... that's where some Natural Selection needs to run its course.

Range top installed

Here's the vent.  Notice the buttons on the right side near the back.  I can't quite reach those without catching my shirt on fire ...hmmmm.  Who designed that? 

Shower fixtures installed in upstairs shower ... one more step closer to being able to shower in the house!!

That's not where I have it on the plans!!

Really??  1000 sq ft of garage and that's the only place you could think of to put two scrap boards with screws in them?