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 84 : Shower and bath tub

I'm back in business again (with a working computer). There has been lots of progress since end of August and I will describe various topics in separate blog entries.

The first one is about the guest bathroom shower and our main bathroom tub. The hardware arrived and got installed in the meantime. While we only have a shower in the smaller guest bathroom, we opted for a good sized round model (36+ inches). It was the largest size we could fit in next to the entrance door! The glass door is here as well, but will be installed last.

In the master bath, we have a new-angle shower base (that has been here for a while) and a large air-bath tub from BainUltra. We always wanted to have a tub like this and will finally be able to enjoy this system. It is not a whirlpool with large, ugly and hard to clean water jets, but has a row if tiny holes at the bottom which will blow pre-heated air into the water. In addition, the backrests are heated! It is a drop-in tub, so a platform has too be built (see last photo) which will be tiled eventually. You can see the air pump in the first photo below mounted to the tub, but we decided to move it into the utility room below to keep the noise level down. The utility room location in that back corner of the basement turned out quite convenient for this.

Day 78 : Heat pumps

Some more photos from the plumbing activities: Water is hooked up now (see the pressure tank) and the heat pumps are being installed. There will be a 1 ton (12,000 BTUs) pump on the basement floor and a 1.5 ton (18,000 BTUs) heat pump on the main floor.

Water supply pressure tank

Outdoor compressor units for the two mini split heat pumps

Indoor head of the main floor heat pump

Reference photo 2014-08-27

Day 76 : Plumbing progress

While the framing crew is currently dealing with another job site before wrapping up on our house, the plumbers were working on the ducts for our ventilation system, hooking it up to the ERV unit un the utility room (looks quite elaborate, see photo). They also completed the hot/cold water lines as you can see with the red and blue plastic pipes in the photos. In the old house we still had all copper lines. But nowadays, only the very ends of the lines are copper so that any end-point valves etc. can be soldered on. It looked like the system was being pressure tested while we visited today.

Ductwork at the indoor side of the ERV unit

Ductwork and water supply lines below the powder room/kitchen area

Detour ahead: Working around the main load bearing beam in the basement

For our tub in the master bathroom, we needed a larger size hot water heater. With the heat pump unit on top, this looks like quite impressive.

Heat-pump hot water heater

Day 70 : Windows and doors

We are ten weeks into construction since breaking ground today! Hopefully that is more than halfway to move-in day.

The plumbing crew made progress installing the concealed tanks for the wall-mounted toilets

Concealed (in-wall) toilet tanks... not very common in this country (yet?)

At the same time, the framing crew started installing windows and doors. We are still waiting for a few more windows to be delivered this week, but it is looking more and more like a real house now.

It's really amazing to see how a dream on paper becomes more and more a reality!

Dining area window sets

According to the workers, these windows were way heavier than expected. I guess the third glass panel and foam in the frame itself do make a difference. These are all awning and casement windows. No double hung sliders here as they do not close that well. I operated some of the bigger ones (main floor) and the crank mechanism feels smooth and does not translate the weight of the windows at all.

Lowering the ceiling on the main floor has been completed as well. For the living/dining/kitchen area, they used a metal frame that will hold the ceiling drywall just as well as the lumber joists in the bedroom. Now there are only a few smaller things to complete for the framing crew.

Living/dining room with lowered ceiling

Kitchen area with wall brackets to support the cabinets