Unfinished business

Now that we have settled in a bit, we really love the place! The flow of the house and its size feel right. The amount of time that went into planning really paid off. We also have total privacy here (besides the occasional deer in the meadow), something we missed in Williston.

And we are getting used to new noises (heat pumps, ventilation system) and the location of all the light switches. Temperature settings and operation modes of various components are being tweaked to our own liking and rhythm.

When we moved in, the house was not finished by a long shot. For example, simple things like the toilet flushing actuator plates seemed to be a challenge for the installers (I guess they do not install a lot of wall mounted toilets). It took the plumbers three attempts to get the right parts.

But also on our side there were many things left to be done: Closet shelving needed to be installed, light fixtures to be mounted, the washing machine to be hooked up etc... I do not want to bother you with details, but our list of items to do or finish (either by us or the contractors) is getting shorter every day. Just one thing is bothering us: We still do not have a cable internet connection. Comcast did not get their act together and we had to get a cellular based MiFi hotspot for the time being. We have pretty good cellular reception here, so the data speed is good enough for checking email (and updating this blog). Just the allowed data volume is not sufficient for video streaming or working from home.

Getting into the rhythm

It would have been nice to take our sweet time off work to move in, unpack all our stuff, settle in and then return to our jobs. But we live in the U.S. and (at least with our employers) there is no special paid time off for moving. So we had to get back to work on Monday. We will have to use the evenings and weekends for unpacking.

It is already dark when we typically come back home, but we enjoy the mornings quite a bit. This time of the year, we have breakfast at dawn and it is an amazing sight looking out of the windows at our dining table. Especially when the sun comes up illuminating the hillside across the Brown's River valley like on this day. Tough to get up from our table and leave the house...

View from the breakfast table

Across the Brown's River valley

Moving, Part II

We thought we could move the rest of our "stuff" with our little station wagon, but there were too many awkward size pieces left meaning countless runs between Jericho and Westford. So we got the same type of rental van that we had when moving out. A full weekend was enough time to move a few loads, including our patio furniture that was still waiting for us in Williston.

 
It was a messy weather on Friday, but the weekend was colder and dry. Notice the new color of our Jetta? It's called a "mud accent strip". Yes, we live on a dirt road now!

Another nice surprise and unmistakable sign that we live in the countryside was a local farmer spreading cow manure onto the fields close by. Lucky for us, our ventilation system has an off switch.

Day 151 : Spending the first night in the new home

Okay... time to catch up. The last few weeks have been crazy with moving stuff, unpacking boxes and generally getting things set up and preparing for winter. I will write a bunch of blog entries almost three weeks later, but will date them according to their sequence.

Notice that I did not use the words "moved in" in the blog title. Because there is too much to be done to call it that. Even on this Thanksgiving weekend we are still far from having everything in its place. But I will stop counting the days now.

It was Friday, Nov. 7th when we spent the first night in the house. It's been a long time coming after roughly 5 months of construction. We set up the bed platform during the week, but waited for a new mattress memory foam topper (we discarded the old one when we moved out). It arrived earlier in the week but had to air a bit. On Friday, we called it close enough....

Day 146 : Moving, Part I

We started moving the big pieces to Westford on Sunday. We picked up a 17' moving truck from U-Haul in the morning, headed to the storage unit and packed up about half its volume (still lots of boxes and shelves, tools etc. left). 

Second stop was at our temporary home in Jericho where we filled the truck up some more (plus three cars). Then we headed north...

Taking a break in the late afternoon sun after having unloaded the truck

With the help from two friends, we were able to load and unload everything before too long and even return the van to the rental station before they closed!

There are still many carloads full of "stuff" left in the storage unit as well as in Jericho. And then some woodworking and garden tools in another friend's shed in Underhill. We will either have to load up our station wagon every day for the next few weeks or get another van this coming weekend to speed things up a bit. 

Day 144 : Kitchen countertop, Part II

The kitchen island countertop got installed today. It is a granite called "Rainforest Green", but the photo below does not really do it justice. It is a very wild pattern and a real eye-catcher. We got photos from several available slabs and were able to pick one and even decide which area they were going to use for this piece.

The plumbers also installed more components, like the shower panel for our master bath shower:

So the big ticket items are done after more than 20 weeks of construction. We still have to be patient though with actually moving in as a few minor things need to be fixed or installed. But we are ready to start moving furniture into the  house. Yeah!

Day 143 : Kitchen countertop

The pace of work picked up considerably during the last few days. We are pushing to wrap everything up (well, most of it anyways) on Friday so that we can move some furniture into the house over the weekend. We still do not know when we can actually spend the first night in the new house. Maybe Monday...

The painters are back working on the trim, doors and completing the second coat of the wall paint.
At the same time, the plumbers are installing the faucets and shower fixtures. The electricians also are back installing light fixtures. And the rain gutters have been installed as well (sorry, no photos yet as it was too dark when I got there).

But the most prominent update for today was the outer part of our kitchen countertop. We picked a black quartz material (Silestone "Tebas Black") that is not quite as shiny as granite (hopefully showing less fingerprints and water stains). We plan to install a tile backsplash at some later point in time. The island part is scheduled for Friday (tomorrow) morning.

Kitchen countertop with sink and faucet

Integrated wall oven/induction cooktop and microwave

Once we have moved in and are settled, I will post more photos of the finished rooms, but here are just a few examples of the other components that got installed over the last two days:

Master bathroom shower door

Ceiling fan in our porch