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

Day 140 : Central vac

Wow! It's 20 weeks into the building phase already. But we are only days away from wrapping up. The (hopefully) last week of construction started slow. Todays main topic was the installation of the central vacuum unit.

The wall intakes and some piping (the part that is now hidden behind drywall) has been installed a while ago, but the vacuum unit itself and the rest of the piping and control wiring has been done today. Here is a photo of the rather large unit mounted inside the utility room.

Day 138 : Bathroom vanity countertops

Doris wanted to have concrete countertops with integrated sinks for the bathroom vanities. We had a hard time finding someone local for this job. All out of state manufacturers are killing you with shipping/installation cost. Eventually, we discovered a company in Montpelier, called "Anomal". They do custom concrete work, mostly for restaurants (concrete bars like at several fancy Montpelier restaurants or Piecasso in Stowe). We met with them a while ago and looked at some of their installations. After some back and forth we decided to work with them. We met again earlier this month to discuss the design, size and color (matching our tiles).

Today our countertops for Master Bath and Powderroom arrived. And they are gorgeous! See for yourself:

In the meantime, the painters are back to finish the inside trim. We worked all day today in the porch (sanding, applying one coat of UV/stain protection). Light fixtures and electrical components are also being completed. For example, we have the heat pumps working since yesterday!
The kitchen countertops are scheduled to be installed on Thursday.

The bottom line is that we hope to move in next weekend!!! At least we will be moving the bigger furniture pieces to Westford and then do the rest over the coming weeks.

Day 135 : Cable railing, kitchen progress

Just a quick update on the progress: the kitchen appliances have been delivered yesterday and are being installed piece by piece. Here is the wall oven and microwave:

On the outside, the cables are being installed in our railing. We will have the same setup on the interior stair railing. More on that later.

Day 132 : The porch is almost done

Work continued yesterday, even on a rainy Saturday. The result is an almost finished deck railing (with only a few boards and the cables are missing) as well as porch. We'll only need a few more of those shake siding planks in the gable and a coat of oil on the cedar and fir wood. Oh, and the ceiling fan with light. But that all seems like minor items now. We're getting close...

Here are a few photos that I took today (Sunday) with my wide angle lens for a change:

Day 130 : Kitchen progress

Work continued on the porch, deck railing, interior doors and trim as well as kitchen installation. Here is just a quick update on the kitchen status. For those of you who knew the "old" (renovated) kitchen... there are really only few differences. Why change a design that we really liked?

Day 128 : A very busy day...

We had a big day today. I counted at least 12 cars at the site when we visited around noon time. There may have been more... it seemed like an extremely busy place with people almost stepping on each other's toes.

But let's start from scratch: The kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities had been delivered yesterday. By noon today, the first wall cabinets have been installed already.

Then we had one crew painting doors and another one installing all the trim (baseboards, door frames) and the wide hardwood window sills. Here is an example of the window sills:

Next was the flooring team that was wrapping up the floor installation in the basement with bamboo and then continuing with the floor tiles in the master bath.

The electricians were back as well and started installing outlets, lights and switches. However, I found them installing the wrong type of devices. Half a day's work needs to be redone tomorrow when they bring the Decora type switches we specified... It was again an oversight or miscommunication on their side, but it only shows that you really have to watch every single step.

And last but not least: The framing crew was also back, completing the cedar pergola and starting on the deck railing system:

On the porch side, the EzeBreeze windows were installed in part today and one section on the inside got finished with fir tongue and groove boards. All of the sudden, this room has a completely different character. Hard to describe with photos, but I believe this will be one of our favorite places to hang out, not just in the middle of summer.

Today may have been the last really warm day of the season with temps around 80F. We are entering a rainy phase over the next few days, so keep your fingers crossed that at least some work on the outside can continue.

Day 126 : Tiles, hardwood flooring, pellet stove

I wrote about the tiling problem in the bathroom. Luckily, the problem has been corrected in the meantime. Here are the two versions (all black before and with the proper wall tiles after). The second version looks much nicer, doesn't it?

We learned that the kitchen cabinets will be delivered tomorrow, so the hardwood floor in the main living area had to be installed today (tiling work is still not completed). At the same time, the pellet stove has been delivered:

Day 120 : Siding almost complete, garage door, flooring

By now, the siding work is almost complete. You can see the "olive" gable shakes that give a nice accent to the exterior.

The garage door has been installed as well. 

And on the inside, the flooring work has begun. First item is the tile work in the bathrooms. The (electric) radiant floor heating mats have been set in the Master Bath. And shower wall as well as tub platform and surround have been tiled. The tile layers put down wrong tiles around the tub (will have to be corrected), but here is a photo of our shower wall:

The hardwoord floor material (strand bamboo) has been brought to the site as well. Most of our flooring area will be covered with this, so there are quite a few boxes:

Day 115 : Painting, siding progress, garage roof

It was a beautiful fall day with temps in the low 70s again and a busy day at the site today. It is my second day of applying custom colors to some rooms, the siding crew is making good progress, the framers were back to install the little overhang roof on the front of the garage. And the painters came back to work on the outside trim.

Here are a few photos of the siding and garage roof work (and the final result of the day). The interior painting is still taking a bit longer before I can show results...

BTW: We seem to have a bald eagle in our neighborhood! There were numerous sightings although I have not had luck myself yet. But I noticed four ospreys circling in the afternoon thermals over Coyote Ridge.

Day 112 : Siding, interior painting

We entered the finishing phase...

Although there are a few larger framing ticket items like pergola, garage door overhang and porch completion (incl. window installation) still open, I believe we are getting really close now.

All of last week has been used to finish the drywall installation/sanding. But today, work picked up a pace again with interior painting as well as installation of the siding.

The builder will only do one color for walls and ceilings, so we picked an off-white ("standish white") that matches our desired color scheme in at least the big rooms and hard to paint areas like the stairs. I already bought the rest of the colors for all the other walls/ceilings and hope to get a big chunk painted before they install flooring and interior doors and trim. I will go into color details once the rooms get finished. For now, I can only show the base color:

At the same time, the outside finishing work hast started as well. Our main (horizontal) siding color is "Annapolis Blue". The gables will be a light green ("Olive"). The warm evening light does not give a good rendering of the blue, but at least you get a basic idea with this photo:

Day 104 : Ceiling insulation

We past the 100 day mark and the leaves started to turn (there was a frost at night last week that did the trick). They will all be gone by the time we move in, so we have to savor these precious moments...

Foliage colors along our driveway

The drywall taping and finishing is taking longer than expected (at least from my view), but the cool temperatures slow down the drying process. They got some small space heaters going, but the additional problem is our tight shell which makes it difficult for the moisture to exit the house. We just have to be patient.

In the meantime, the first layer of insulation (spray foam) has been applied above the main floor ceiling (in the attic). There is only a small access hatch in the master bedroom closet, but I got a peek at the result today. Soon there will be about two feet of loose cellulose added on top of that to increase the insulation R value to > 60. But the spray foam will close all those little gaps.

Day 99 : Drywall progress, composting

We are still waiting for the siding to go up, but work on the inside is continuing with drywall being installed in the basement area. The main floor is in the process of being taped and finished.

Living room into kitchen area

Basement entertainment area with opening for future "star ceiling"

We have been composting in Williston since we moved in, but when we learned that CSWD is offering composting workshops, we signed up. The workshop was yesterday and we indeed learned a few more tricks. We also got a new compost bin (the old box was way too large and heavy to move).

We got tired of bringing all our food scraps to the compost bins at the local dump station, so we thought why not start composting at the new house now... We found a place for the bin and brought our very first bucket full of scraps to the site:

Starting a new compost bin