Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Professional Pictures of the Kitchen and Powder room.

    The banquette in the kitchen and powder room have been finished for a few months now and we've been thoroughly enjoying both of them.  I'm still very careful when using the powder room because it feels way too nice to be using.  The kids have been sitting on the banquette bench and the Sunbrella  material has been holding up really well to their eating messiness. There have been a few spills that clean up well regardless of sitting time, so far.  I've had to put some grippy shelf liner between the bench and seat cushion to eliminate sliding and it seems to be a good solution.

   After all the dust had settled, Margaret came back through with Beth Singer, an architectural photographer, to take professional pictures of the completed project.  We spent days cleaning and polishing in preparation, which is good because it seems like it should take place more than annually.  The day before the shoot, Margaret brought some items to stage with the option to purchase most of them.  We did decide to take her up on the offer since we really don't have much in the way of decorations yet.

  The photography session was interesting to watch.  Beth came with one assistant and a few cases of equipment.  The camera output was monitored on an attached laptop and the process seemed to involve taking pictures with and without flash, later to be composited into the ideal picture.  Elements like wall switches, power outlets, doors and HVAC registers, were digitally removed from the final picture.  In some shots, wall art was held up in place and digitally added so they didn't have to actually be hung on the wall.  They even added a whole beverage fridge in the butlers pantry since that space is still vacant.  Ultimately, I think the photos are amazing so I'll share them, with permission.

The rarely clean kitchen!  While the wall art was digitally added and some wall sockets and ceiling speakers were removed, nothing else was modified.  It's a composition of pictures with different lighting conditions since you can't really get that natural light color while having the table light on.


The banquette has been really great for everyday eating and some homework.  The basement door was removed from this picture as it probably detracts from the primary subject and we usually have one more of those chairs around the table.

This is the piece I made for the wall opposite the banquette.  It sits on a small wall section between the exterior door wall and greatroom opening.  We're planning on using it as a landing pad for mail and phone/tablet charging area.  The outboard partitions of the live edge front are press to open, slow close drawers for storage.  The middle section is a door that houses an additional hiding place for charging cables.  The walnut front was sourced locally from a small sawyer near me.

The white portion is hardwood edged plywood painted with a high gloss oilbased paint.  I incorporated two wireless chargers through the top, indicated by the white stickers.  The post processing of the photos made the stickers whiter than they are in real life, to highlight their presence.  The paint was the hardest part of the build.  Getting it perfectly smooth and shiny took a lot of sanding and polishing and it's not entirely scratch proof.  I'm hoping I'll figure out a better paint to use.  Maybe a dyed epoxy or something.

While no changes were made to the butlers pantry during our most recent additions, the beverage fridge was added digitally.  It's something we definitely want to get in the future, but just haven't had the time nor need for it yet.

The powder room was very tricky to photograph.  As shown in my earlier blog post about it, the low lighting and small space makes it difficult to capture well.  Of course, I'm not a professional photographer that can put out this high quality of a photo.

Combining shots to get enough light to see details while still highlighting the fixture lighting is the most impressive part of these pictures.  In rea life, the lights provide enough lighting, but it's darker than what you see here.


Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Finished Powder Room

    One of the things we didn't finish before moving in was the first floor powder room.  It's a small space right off the rotunda next to where the closed-in elevator shaft is.  We knew what we wanted to do with the space, but couldn't muster the money to fulfil the completion at the time.  We've been using the mudroom bathroom or guest room bathroom in the interim for our first floor needs and it's been working out well.  Earlier in 2020, we started working again with Margaret Skinner of Margeaux Interiors, who was entirely responsible for the interior design of the rest of the house, as well as instrumental in the success of building the entire thing.  If you can remember, she was the one who introduced us to Mike Perri, the second builder, who came in and rescued our build after the first builder failed us.  She once again worked her magic on realizing our dreams for the powder room.


   I usually post update and build process pictures, but this was a different circumstance.  The Covid pandemic has dramatically delayed the production of all materials an, while this was a smaller project, took at least 7 months to complete.  All materials, furniture, and finishes are being produced at a reduced rate with doubled shipping times.  Business shutdowns make it difficult for Margaret to even obtain samples to show her clients with some samples coming directly from the manufacturers.  Regardless of the delays, we've finally finished the build, so on with the pictures.


  I think my fisheye lens was a little dirty so I apologize for the dust.  The walls and ceilings are covered in a metallic woven wall paper.  It has a cloth like texture and metallic sheen and seems to be a little delicate as rubbing it vigorously could damage it.  It looks wonderful though, so hopefully it won't cause any future issues.  The vanity wall is Duchateau Kubic in a Stout color.  They come in 1.28 sq ft pieces that are attached to the wall.  The ridges provide a nice shadow play from the back lit mirror.  The pendants are Hubbardton Forge Luma.  They don't have any symmetry to them so they're not mirrored to each other, but it still works.  

   Obviously, the center piece of the room is the under-lit black cloud onyx counter top.  It's lit by LED panels and controlled on the same switch as the back lit mirror.  The sink is a Badeloft countertop sink made from a matte stone resin.  It sits entirely above the onyx so minimal cutting was required.  The faucet is Hansgrohe Axor Citterio, which matches much of the style throughout the house.  More of the wall panel was used on the doors of the floating vanity and the baseboards and back of the door were painted a dark smoke black.

   The walnut dot is a hand towel hanger, the only towel hanger in the bathroom.  We used more of these in the guest room closet as an interesting and functional decoration.  The backlight from the mirror shines across the wood paneling and illuminates the side walls.


The painted black door and trim complete the dark elegance of the room.  The exterior of the door is still the original white color and the trim is split at the door stop.  The wall plates, recessed lights, and vent fan were all painted the same color.

   The black cloud onyx has natural opaque mineral inclusions that make it ideal for backlighting.  The LED light color used underneath is colder than 3000k but warmer than bright white.  The stone lends itself the natural amber color that shines through.

   Enough illumination can come from the accent lighting, without the overhead recessed lights.  The room is almost too nice to go in and I don't want to be the first to make a mess in there.  I'll enjoy the feeling the small room and dark accents have.

   Besides the obvious multi year plan on the landscaping, the only thing left to complete from the original build is the completion of the master bathroom.  We're still missing a feature tile wall and bathtub, which we'll hopefully be able to complete soon.  The basement remains unfinished so far, but we have some plans to implement in the near future.  Along with the powder room, we furnished the guest room, had glass shower doors installed in the guest and mud room bathroom showers, and had the kitchen banquette completed.  I'll post updates to those next.


Tuesday, December 1, 2020

1+ Year update

   Life happens and things really get away from you.  We've already been living in the new house for over a year and memories of the old house are starting to be brought up as blissful reminders of how great the new house is.  We've found the house itself to be very livable.  The design lends itself well to easy routes of travel and always feel like it "lives small" despite its obvious size.

Changes/updates
Gutters
   One of the first things we got completed after the move in was getting the copper gutters installed.  I looked at a few different companies for the installation but landed, again, on the company that installed our copper roof and redid the copper flashings, Copper Bays (http://www.copperbays.com/).  Two other companies installed copper gutters, but neither soldered the joints, only using a standard gutter caulk.  While the cost was rather high, clocking in around $40k, I think it was worth it.  The gutters are a 6" half round with 6" downspouts.  The connectors between the gutters and downspouts is a large funnel, which will make clogging with debris difficult.  We opted to forego the gutter screen for now to determine if we actually need it.  So far, any leaves or needles present in the gutters have flowed out with heavy rains and once or twice annual clearing isn't too difficult
Februrary 2019

   We had the backyard lawn leveled and installed in the fall of 2019 so it really came in during the  spring/summer of 2020.  Landscaping improvements could be a post on their own so I won't detail everything now, but we had everything leveled, mixed in top and compost, had a new wall installed, and everything sprayed with hydroseed.  We chose hydroseed over sod because while it does take longer to fill in, I think seed sends down better roots than sod, making it more drought tolerant.  Along with the installation of the lawn came the installation of irrigation.  We had irrigation installed for all future beds and lawn areas, all fed from a pump on the lake.  It has worked out fabulously and with the Rachio controller, we can keep water usage to a minimum.
Early Spring Lawn 2020






   Little Things
   I'll start off this post with my favorite little things about our new house.  I think they mostly fall in the category of "things that make my life easier but are totally not essential".  The top of the list has to be the Brizo Vuelo  touch faucet in our kitchen. It has a pull down hose and can either spray or stream, but the touch feature is so useful.  You just touch anywhere on the faucet to turn the water on and off.  You have to have the handle set on and at the temperature you desire, so we usually have it set to a medium volume on hot.  The little LED at the base of the faucet indicates the temperature of the water.  Soapy hands?  Just touch the top of the faucet with the back of your hand or arm.  The touch feature is so useful, I often find myself touching non-touch faucets from muscle memory.

   The Softlite casement windows have been working out wonderfully.  No frost on the inside of the windows during the winter time and the glass is the only colder thing about it.  The single lever locking mechanism is nice and they crank out easily.  I've had to scrape some paint over spray and washed all the windows a few times.  Opening the casements full allows me to get the outside of the window from inside the house; useful for those few that are high up.  The only windows I haven't been able to fully get to are the four highest in the great room.  I can use an extension squeegee and a ladder to almost reach the top of the windows from the outside, and I used the tallest ladder I have that can stand alone to squeegee the inside.  There's still some over spray to scrape off on those windows, but it's not as visible way up there.


   Big Things
   Of course there are bigger things we designed into the house that make it great.  I think these are more of the purposeful things that worked out well.

Geothermal
   The geothermal heating and cooling has been working well.  I have to admit that the electricity costs have been higher than I thought it would be, considering the ICF nature of the house and tight windows.  For our nearly 8000 sq ft house, which includes the basement, I've seen electricity costs between $200 and $600 a month, depending on the season.  I think I'll have to take a look at the air intake for the kitchen hood because it always seems to be leaking, and is supposed to be closed off via electronic damper.  The electric heat is the energy efficiency killer and shouldn't need to come on, but I've seen it on a few times during the coldest winter nights.  The cooling has been phenomenal.  We keep the house around 72 degrees F and even on the three digit days, have no problem maintaining that temperature.  Cooling bill for July this year was $160.

Hot water loop
   The hot water loop has been a nice convenience, given the size of the house and the distance of the kitchen and bathrooms to the water heater.  I did discover that constantly having the loop on was an energy hog since it caused the water heater to basically always need to heat.  The water returning to the water heater would lose enough heat on its trip around the house to signal the water heater to kick on.  The water circulation pump we have is supposed to be smart, and remember times when the attached sensor detects hot water usage and automatically circulate at those times. Our usage schedule is so variable, it wasn't useful, so I've resigned to using a wifi connected switch and programming two automatic cycles for the circulation pump.  I can also use a 1-tap shortcut on my phone, or Google assistant to turn on the circulation pump.  

Control4 programming
   The Control4 system and distributed audio/video system has been nice.  There are been a few times when the TV system wouldn't work properly but the Sound Vision has been fantastic for support.  With the hardware they installed in conjunction with Control4, they can remotely resolve most issues and reprogram the system when requested.  We did have one of the "Just Add Power" video distribution units fail on the Tivo Bolt, which is currently being RMAed for replacement at no cost.

Motion detection lights
   In addition to the convenience the Control4 system has provided for installation and lighting control, I've gain access to some of the higher level programming functions through the proprietary "Composer Home edition" software.  All of the lighting controls programmed by the Sound Vision is protected and unalterable, but I can add controls on top of it.  First, there's an easy to use "if-when" programming available on the Control4 website when you log into your system.  Also, the Composer software allows for more complex programming.  Now, I'm a software engineer by trade, so maybe I could grasp the programming concepts a bit quicker, but it's a high level programming language that's pretty easy to pick up.  I've programmed the kitchen undercabinet lights to ramp on for 5 minutes if motion is detected during the night time hours, only if someone hasn't manually turned on the lights.  There's lots more you can do, and I haven't begun to fully explore all the interactions.

Peace and quiet
  Best of all, is the peace and quiet.  It's not perfect quiet, but you'll not find that unless you're 50 miles from the closest civilization.  I can hear some road noise way off in the distance and there's still the sound of yard machines from neighbors around the lake, but it's all distant and quiet enough.  On our property, we've seen deer, turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, snapping and painted turtles, swans, geese, ducks, sandhill cranes, hawks, a bald eagle (fly over), and something that looked like a mink.  There's no end to the wildlife entertainment and our windows give us a great vantage point while leaving them undisturbed.  I've made it out on the lake a few times to fish and have caught large and small mouth bass, bluegill, sunfish, crappie, perch, and a pike.  All the fish were in great health with no parasites, so I don't want to overfish and stress the population.  I always catch and release.
A view from the greatroom



Least favorite things
   Of course, not everything can be perfect and a few things have cropped up so far during our time here.

  With the long driveway comes the issue of clearing it all of snow during the winter.  For the past two winters, we've hired a local with a truck mounted snowplow to clear it.  He would come out when the snowfall was greater than 2" and it only cost $25 each time.  Pretty good price considering he didn't need to plow more than 10 times during each winter season.  There were some drawbacks though.  He didn't always make it out before we had to drive on it, so we would make compressed icy car tracks in on the driveway that his plow couldn't scrape up.  I tried to salt the tracks, but if wasn't warm enough, the salt wouldn't melt it all away, only perforating it, then refreezing.  Also, the plow scraped up a good chunk of grass and destroyed a sprinkler head.  Not a super expensive repair, but annoying.  This year, I bought a new Troybilt Artic Storm 30 to handle the snow removal.  
Troybilt Artic Storm 30
While I will have to handle it all myself, Covid has me working from home so I can do it when I please.  The driveway area at the house takes a bit of time, but I can clear the length of the driveway in 5 or 6 passes.  Self propelled with heated handles, I'll have no trouble clearing it.

   That's it for now, but I will be making some more updates.  We're finally finishing off the powder room and have the banquette installed with some new furniture, so there are updates to post.

 

Monday, March 26, 2018

Moved In

   The move went pretty smoothly on Thursday and we got most of our stuff from the old house to the new.  All the large furniture and as much stuff as we could get packed into boxes made their way over eight hours from the old house to the new house.  Furniture is in place and beds were reassembled.  Boxes were stored in the garage to be brought in one by one at our leisure, and we've probably gotten through about half of them. 
   Three days living at the new house and we're just getting used to things.  The kids seem to be settling in well but have reverted to coming into our bed early in the morning.  Things are starting to make their way into drawers, and a quick shopping trip to Bed Bath and Beyond and Costco have filled in the gaps for storage and food.
   The move wasn't without mishap though.  The new TV we purchased for the house was to be installed by the Sound Vision on Friday, but discovered to be cosmetically broken.
   Although both the shipping and product boxes were intact, the back glass on our Sony XBR-65A1E was shattered around the mounting bar points.  For now we have the old Samsung hanging in the great room.  Also the Miele Dishwasher isn't running and is displaying a "fault 78".  Google tells me that it might be a stuck impeller and there are ways to get it unstuck that I might try out tonight.

   We haven't had much time to really relax and enjoy ourselves, but I'm hoping that after the fervor of the move dies down, we'll get some much needed relaxation before we tackle the next project: getting the old house rehabilitated to sell.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Final Inspection Passed

   Well, we've passed the final inspection.  Mike met me a the house early this morning and waited for the city inspector to show up.  He look a look around the house at the grade around the house, then walked around the inside, looking at the fit and finish of the build.  The inspector liked what he saw and that was that.  Signed the green sticker for the final inspection and will submit papers for the Certificate of Occupancy tonight.


Monday, March 19, 2018

Move-in Week. Final Inspection Pending

   If "final inspection pending" and "move-in week" sounds dichotomous and stress inducing, it's because it is.  We've finally met all the township requirements for final inspection, which is scheduled for Tuesday morning.  We have the moving company booked for Thursday, so as long as the inspection doesn't turn up with anything, we're good for moving in.  I'm not sure what will happen if something is found, and if we'll get a conditional approval so we can still move in.  All the paint touch ups have been completed this week, but there are still a few tape marks on the wall denoting something, so I'm not sure what's going on with that.  Everything else looks great in the house.  A cleaner was cleaning on the Sunday that we visited this week and will also be there on Monday so the house will be clean from top to bottom.

   Besides the door stops, everything is completed in the house.  The fireplace installers came last week to install the last of the brick facade and fix the pieces already installed.  They cleaned fingerprints of the second floor fireplace glass and verified all the installations.  The greatroom fireplace looks excellent with all the brick pieces in as it finishes the illusion that there's no glass in there.

   The Robern medicine cabinets were installed in the master bathroom.  They have a dim LED night light on the bottom edge that's supposed to be switch controllable, but I have to ask Mike where the switch is.  They both open to the left and the clean design really compliments the modern appearance of our vanity.

   The inside has a mirror on the back of the door as well as a mirrored back, so it's like there are three mirrors in one.  There are magnetic sections on the edge of the mirrored door that can accept accessories, like a magnifying mirror.  There's also a magnitic section on the left side of the strip to store small tools, like nail clippers and tweezers.  It came with two accessories, a general holder for things like glasses and cylindrical tools, and a razor hanger/phone holder.  Since there's power inside the cabinet, you can plug in your electric toothbrush or phone charger and keep it hidden inside while it's not in use.  We should be able to keep all the stuff we currently have on our countertops, inside these medicine cabinets so we can keep the counter clean.

   Here they are both open.  There's a switch on the lower edge of the mirror/door that activates the heating elements in the mirror to defog.  There were some models that had built in TVs, but we opted against those.  Other's also included built in lighting in the mirror iself, but our wall sconces should provide enough close lighting.

   That's about it for this week.  Next week will be a post-move-in update with a couple of days of living.  I'll keep updating with any changes or installations we implement, but I think we might take a break from building to just live in the house a little.  There will be lots still to implement both inside and out so I can guarantee that we'll still have updates, the frequency will be the only factor yet to determine.  Moving is going to be super stressful, but at least we don't have to get everything out of the house in one run.  We'll move all the big things and as many as the little things as we can, then go from there.  We'll have to rehab the old house a bit to make it marketable, so we're not completely out of the construction phase, but we'll just shift our focus a bit.  It never ends, does it?

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Two Weeks to Move In

   The last puzzle pieces are falling into place as we wrap up the four year odyssey that was building our house.  The city demanded a bit more documentation on our sewer connection before they would agree to send out the inspector.  Mike said he would submit the requested pictures of where our sewer line connected to the main, which required the plumber to come back again, open the manhole cover and take pictures.  The builder that made my neighbors house actually made that connection but didn't pull a permit to do so, so when we wanted to connect to it, we had to go through the process of getting a permit and having the county inspect all the connections before burying it.  The township still wanted more evidence on top of that and you can't argue with them, so we'll comply.  Hopefully we'll get an inspector out this Thursday and we can get our Certificate of Occupancy and finally move in.

   I'll be posting a few final updated pictures of the house in these next few weeks since there really isn't much progress happening.  Temperatures refuse to rise much and we keep getting small snowfalls; enough to be annoying but not enough to get a snow plow on.  Hopefully we'll be done with snow in a couple weeks when we move.  The painters were in on the Sunday that I visited applying the final touches.  They painted the risers and stringer on the first floor stairs last week but still had to remove the masking tape.


    The doorbell was installed, but I had to adjust it.  I saw that there would be an issue with installing the doorbell due to the profile of the molding.  There wasn't really enough flat for the doorbell to sit on, so I carefully created a mounting piece that matches the profile of the molding, made from the same mahogany the rest of the door is made of.  Unfortunately, the electrician ignored the backer piece, even though it was basically attached to the doorbell, and proceeded to drill and install it on the flat of the molding that was available.  That made it so the doorbell did not sit flush and was canted a bit on the first edge profile of the door.  Luckily the holes made from the incorrect installation are covered by the doorbell and mount so the fix is invisible.  I'll get some stain on the wood after we move in.  A hole was bored into the brick molding to accommodate the electrical components of the doorbell.  I could see through the hole that there wasn't much insulation between the door and buck, so if I remove the doorbell, at least I'l be able to get some spray foam in there to block any air infiltration through the brick molding.

   I haven't done a long shot of the house in a while so I though it was time to update the exterior pictures I have.  They haven't changed much over the winter since we got everything painted, but the copper on the house continues to darken.  The dragon, with the three composition metals of copper, brass, and gold is oxidizing appropriately.  The copper body has darkened, the brass wings have darkened to a different color, and the gold spines, claws, and webbing remains a brilliant gold.  All the other copper on the house has darkened to an even brown and will probably remain that way for as long as I'm alive.

   We'll paint those red posts gray as soon as the weather warms up enough for paint to stick.  It should help blend them away into the surrounding landscape and finally erase the last vestiges of the previous builder and his crew.  I think this is the first time I'm posting pictures of the finished railing during the day time.  We haven't had much time to enjoy it since we got it installed right before winter hit.  I think the decision to make the railing black was the right one and I'm satisfied with how the curve came out.


   The front wrap around porch will be a great place for entertaining and reading.  It's really nice that it sits so high off the ground and I hope we get a lot of rain because sitting out here and hearing the rain in the forest will be awesome.  It will be a nice quiet place to get away from any parties happening inside.  A good amount of snow can make it onto the deck during the winter time, especially on the back corner, but it doesn't make it to the house, so there's still a good path to walk.  We'll probably get some chairs out here, but I'm not sure what style yet.


   For some reason, this is my favorite corner of the porch.  I think it's because it's high up and has great views, but it's also really accessible to the greatroom.  It will be a little odd having easy access from the front of the house to the primary interior living space and I don't think we're planning on covering the large window in the exterior door with anything.  You'd have to go pretty far our of your way to snoop through this door though.

   Here's the final side elevation, which faces north east.  I've noticed a lot of icicles forming on the roof line, but not from heat loss since they're also forming on the porch room. We'll definitely need to get gutter installed as soon as possible to avoid damage to the house.

     Here's the final look at the north corner of the house.  Generally you don't want the wall with the largest windows facing north, but we didn't have much option on house orientation due to the lay of the land.  Final landscaping plan will include a nice patio at the side basement walkout that will be covered by the porch above, and a patio on the rear walkout that looks to be a nice sunny place.

   Here's the rear elevation of the house that faces northeast.  This side has the best view of the lake from the greatroom, but will also have a really nice sitting area outside the rear and side walkouts.  The back corner of the wrap around porch here is probably my favorite as it has views of both the forest and water, but does have some line of sight with the next street over.  It's more private in the summer time vs the winter, but plenty far away from the closest house.

   There's a new house going up in the neighborhood, across the lake.  I drove by the site and could see the windows of our greatroom from the street, which won't be visible when that new house is constructed, but will be visible from that house.  We were hoping to get away without window coverings in the greatroom but now we'll have to see how much privacy we're losing.  The master bedroom balcony will still be shielded from view and will remain private as will the gazebo.  A good long lens would be needed if someone wanted to spy on us, but it's still a consideration.

   Here's a long shot of the backyard and northwest corner of the house.  One of the first things we need to sort out in the spring is getting topsoil in and planting grass so the yard doesn't weed out too much.  Definitely going with seed over sod.  Every sod lawn I've seen browns out a lot during the winter time and requires more water to maintain.  It seems like seeded lawns send roots down deeper and are more resilient to drought.  Although we'll be able to hook the irrigation into the lake to draw water, I still like to conserve.

   A little closer look at the "back" of the house.  Eventually, landscaping will define the grassed area of the yard, which will mostly be the flat area.  The areas of slope will either be the transition planting beds or retaining walls.  For now, we'll seed where the grass will go and make beds of wood chips where the planting beds and walls will be.

   This side of the house will be the true back of the house.  It has the yard access from the house and and access to the garage.  Once the side deck is installed, it will have the quickest access around the house to the front.  We'll probably implement the garden up against the back porch between the gazebo and stairs on or own.

   More snow gets into the gazebo that I thought would so we'll need to keep a snow shovel back here to keep it clear during the winter time.  There's a little bit of mortar flaking at the base of the seat near the fireplace that looks concerning, but might be more cosmetic than structural.  We also never got weep holes through the seating for water that accumulates in the gazebo.  I'm not sure if this will be an issue and should be fixed or if we can just let it fly and figure something out.  The gazebo isn't really sloped for drainage, but water does accumulate against the seat when it rains, so we might have to figure out a solution.

   The precipitation in the gazebo tends to collect against the built in seating, which is a little annoying.  Snow is fine and can be shoveled out, but I'm not sure how much water will puddle there in the rain.  We were wondering if we would need weeper holes drilled through the benches, but that might introduce more issues.  For now, we'll see what happens and if it becomes and issue, we'll address it.  We're planning on getting some seating around the fireplace and an outdoor table that can seat at least 6.  That furniture will quickly fill up the space, so we have to be careful not to make it too cluttered.  We're bringing our old grill to the new house for now and planning on purchasing the built in when we can, probably during the summer time.  We'll take the old gril up to the cottage and replace the old one up there.

   I'm not sure if I ever got a great picture of the mudroom shower, so here it is.  We have quotes to put glass doors in the mudroom bathroom and guest shower and it's not outrageous so we might implement that sooner rather than later.  The nice thing is that we already have all our towel bars installed so we don't have to worry about that, only mirrors, which should be an easy purchase.

   The mudroom is still a depository for the painting supplies, but that will change after this week when the painters finish and clear out all their stuff.  They were there the day I visited, applying the final touch ups.  There were some pretty big issues in places with cracked drywall needing to be sanded and repainted, so I hope they  account for all the issues.  We won't be able to take a look during the week, but we'll want a final walk through on the paint to make sure everything was addressed.  We still need to purchase hooks for the mudroom locker and really haven't started looking.  It shouldn't be difficult to find something, and I was thinking something in an oil rubbed bronze with a double hook.

   Here's an angle of the dining room light and ceiling that I've never taken.  When we eventually get a table in there, I won't be able to get this shot again unless I somehow move the giant table we get.  During our little open house we had for friends and family last weekend, we didn't get any comments on the ceiling treatment in the dining room, which surprised us a bit.  Maybe it's one of those little details that adds to the look of the room, but is overlooked because it doesn't stand out and scream, which I'm okay with.
   The office is clean and ready for us to move into.  We know how we want to arrange the room, but won't have the final table in place for move in.  We've gotten some preliminary designs for a custom desk, but haven't pulled the trigger on purchasing it yet since it's so expensive.  For now, we'll use an old desk and modify it so we can sit on the correct side.  This TV location might remain unpopulated for now unless we can find a TV to put in there.  We're still trying to figure out the Chromecast integration into the distribution matrix but ideally, we'll be able to cast video to any TV and stream audio to any room.

   We used the kitchen for the first time at the open house.  Tanja made snacks in the double ovens, but we didn't use the microwave or cook top.  The ovens worked spectacularly, quickly preheating and providing more than enough space for cooking two things at once.  We had to figure out how to set the timers between the two ovens but each oven has it's on rotary dial controls, making setting the cooking mode and temperature easy.  I think this corner of the kitchen will be the perfect place for the toaster oven, if we decide to still use it.  I like to use it for toasting bread and making dinner for the kids, so we'll need some kind of solution.  This space keeps it out of the line of sight but is a convenient place to use it.

   We didn't need to use the dishwasher yet, but t he sink was used to great affect.  There was still a trash bag in the mudroom so we just disposed of our plates and cups in there.  I'm not sure how we'll use the double trash can pull out. We generally only use one 11 gallon bag a week and I think these are the same size as the can we're currently using.  Maybe one of them can be used for recyclables that we can occasionally empty rather than keeping them on the counter and having to carry them to the garage.

   Just a picture of the dishwasher opened up.  People said it looked small, but I think it's about the same capacity as the current Bosch we own.  There is a third cutlery rack on top, which might make it seems smaller but it seems like the layout will be more efficient.  This one doesn't project a light on the floor but it's still pretty quiet.  We tend to put dishes and utensils in the dishwasher and run it when it's full, but also hand wash some knives and specific bowls and dry them in a rack.  I'm not sure we'll want a drying rack on the counter, so we'll have to see how we live in the space.

   The cooking center of  the kitchen is pretty self contained.  We'll put pots, pans, and lids in the two drawers under the cooktop, spices and oils in the pullout on the left and cooking implements in the pullout on the right.  We'll probably line the drawers with something to reduce wear on the drawer bottom and make cleaning easier.

   I still have no idea what to put in where in the kitchen, let alone these long corner drawers.  The longest items in the kitchen are rolling pins so I guess this would be the best place to put them since we also wouldn't need to access them often.  Spatulas and spoons are already stored in the pullouts so there's not much else that needs to use the depth.

   We primarily used the kitchen island for food serving during the open house and it worked out really well.  There was more than enough room for people to stand around the island while allowing people to move around the room.  We used part of the soapstone counters for drink service, but most of it was unused.  When we move in, I'm thinking about using these drawers for daily utensil storage.  It's close to the dishwasher and properly sized to hold everything.  The only problem is that it's deep in the kitchen so someone wanting to retrieve utensils to set the table might get in the way of someone cooking.  There are a few other drawers in the island that would be more convenient to the outside of the kitchen, but they would be farther away from the dishwasher.  Other dishwashers use a basket for utensils that can be removed when storing things away, but the Miele uses a top rack without a removable basket, so moving utensils from the dishwasher to the drawer will be done by hand.

   As I mentioned earlier, there's a new house being built across the lake to the north.  It's on a street in our neighborhood and hasn't been started yet, but the ground has been cleared and the house has been staked.  I drove by the lot on my way to the house and could clearly see our house, and particularly the great room, across the lake.  Thankfully, the greatroom windows don't open up the rest of the house to external viewing so privacy is only lost in one room.  The distance is great enough where you would need magnification to see very much, but it's still annoying.  I'm not sure how much of the other house we'll see when it's built, but it will at least be in our view.

   I don't often take a picture of this side of the greatroom and I wish the tarp wasn't in the picture because everything looks so crisp and clean.  In our old house, the greatroom was open to the front door and was the center hub of the house. You have to pass through it to get to the adjoining master bedroom, kitchen, and other bedrooms.  It will be nice to have the greatroom set outside the main paths of the house since that role will be taken up by the rotunda.

   We ordered a new TV for the greatroom that will be delivered this week to the old house.  I've initiated the change of address process with the USPS, but until that's completed, the house doesn't have a real location and can't ship things there.  Once we get that address, we'll order the new beds for the girls and have it delivered directly to the house.  We needed to get the TV so that the Sound Vision could install and calibrate the sound.  I'm not sure when they'll come to complete the install, but they've been notified of our selection and will order the appropriate sound bar that will be used for center, left, and right channels.  I'm told that the audio in this room will be so nice, that we won't need to install a theater in the basement.

   So we'll need mirrors in the mudroom bathroom, second bedroom on the second floor, and here, the guest bathroom.  The powder room isn't functional as a bathroom right now so we don't even need to think about a mirror in there right now.  A glass door in this room would make sense since we have a zero threshold shower, but a shower curtain will work in the short term if we entertain guests.  We're thinking about getting a new bed for this room too since our old queen sized bed is in really bad shape after throwing it away in the old house purge.  We'll also need some night stands and possibly lamps for this room. Oh, and window treatments.

   One of the most liked things in the house during the open house was the dividing wall in the master bedroom.  People liked how it divided the space, but also like the LVP on the wall.  I think it's because the distressed, reclaimed wood look is popular right now.  Seeing how it's LVP, we'll be able to relatively easily replace it if the look becomes too outdated.  We'll need some furniture to populate the sitting area of the master bedroom since we don't currently have anything like that in our old house.  All our current bedroom furniture will make its way into the new house since it's well made and looks nice.  This is the only room that can house the California King sized bed we have as the other two rooms, not including the turret, have windows that frame a narrower space.  We have a dresser and entertainment hutch that sits on top that we don't need, but might put in some how, minus the hutch.

   Still loving the master balcony view.  I'm only hoping that I'll find enough time to come out here and enjoy myself, what with our busy lives.  That piece of tape from the exterior painting is still hanging on to that overhang, visible in the upper left corner of the picture.   The copper finial on top of the gazebo has oxidized out to an even brown already as did most of the copper on the house.  We're planning on getting either two chairs, two loungers, or a combination of the two out here since we have enough space.  I saw a little snow up here during the winter, but not much and it doesn't stick around.  The solid glass railing helps prevent snow from blowing in.

   The Robern medicine cabinets for the master bathroom are finally in, but still need to be installed.  Apparently, the installation size listed in the instructions have fine print stating that the opening size should be 3/4" smaller than the installation size.  While the actual dimensions of the mirrors are 24" x 30", the opening should be 23-1/4" x 30, so Mike needs to install some spacer strips on the sides in order to get these installed.

   The basement is clean and all the extra material has been neatly stacked in the theater area.  There's still a fine dust everywhere on the floor despite all the cleaning Mike attempted down here.  Brushing and mopping removed most of it, but if you walk down here, you'll still make dusty footprints upstairs.  I'll try to vacuum and mop more after we move in since the kids love playing down here and I'll definitely be setting up the workout room.  The screens for all the windows are currently stashed under the stairs and will remain there until the weather warms up.  No need to install them when we're not opening the windows.  It's nice having the clear view of through them, as the screens add a little visual obstruction.

   The mechanical room has been sorted out as much as it will be.  I would like to epoxy the floor in here and might attempt it myself.  It's not a huge space since I can install a footer for the wall that will divide off the bathroom from the mechanical room.  It also might be nice to tape and mud all the drywall for a more finished look.  I would also love to get some sound insulation on that curved stairway wall since some of the mechanical room sound can transfer directly to the stairway and upstairs if we leave the door open.  There are many thing attached to that wall so insulating and finishing will be difficult but a spray foam might be sufficient.

   That's about it for this week.  I'm not sure there will be much of an update next week since we'll be busy packing and the cleaning people will be at the house all weekend, but I might be able to make a delivery run out there to take a look around at the paint touch-ups and confirm that they're up to standard.  This week is super busy trying to get everything into boxes so they can be moved and I'm finding very little time to do it.  I'm taking some time off from work next week to have some dedicated time to pack.  Luckily we haven't put the old house on the market yet so as long as we get the bulk moved, we could take some small trips ourselves or even rent a small moving truck if necessary.  Most important it to get the large furniture moved and as much stuff as we can in this trip.

  The city is requesting some changes made to the sewer connection before they send an inspector for the final inspection.  The county already inspected our connection and said it was okay, but since the city owns the sewer, they're requesting an additional trough be installed where our connection is to help prevent backflow.  That's happening this week and we'll hopefully get our inspection scheduled and passed next Tuesday so we'll be ready to move in on Thursday.  It's cutting it close to the wire and I wouldn't have thought that it would be this close when I booked the moving company a few weeks ago.  As if we needed more stress in our lives.