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?