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.