Finally a proper fall weekend after a steamy late summer blast, which will be followed this week by more hot weather. At least we got to enjoy a brief visit to the house with cooler weather and sunny clear skies. This week saw lots of progress, but not on multiple fronts. A little tile progress and a lot of painting. Another piece of the puzzle fell into place with the grading of the back yard. Now that we're officially in October, the last month of the build, it seems like there's a mountain of tasks to complete. Hopefully they'll all be completed without snags.
The big dozer was back with a friend this time. The smaller red dozer had an attachment on the back that looked like a powered spiky roller, I'm assuming used to grade the ground. The grade in the front of the house remains the same and the front steps haven't progressed so I'll shoot an email to Great Oaks to see what going on. The dumpster remains in place and is nearing capactiy, so that will need to move before the driveway undergoes construction, but I think the front of the house is just about at the correct grade.
Here's where all the work went into for the leveling and grading. I didn't see any evidence of dirt trucked in but it does seem like something was added up near the garage door to level out the yard. The protective wood chips around the oak tree were either buried under or scraped off and no longer visible. The three years worth of weeds have been uprooted which makes the yard look really, really clean. This is how the yard will remain until spring, when we get the chance to get top soil and seed down. I'm not sure we'll have time after move in to get soil and seed down right after move in before it gets too cold so we'll have to deal with it next year.
The grade at the rear garage door is right up on the slab, so we'll probably have to scrape some back here to get a good depth of top soil in. There aren't any plans for hardscaping at this door since it's only going to be used as an access door but it wouldn't be out of the question to lay down a few large pavers, just to give something hard to land on.
Here's a view of the back yard from the garage walkout door. There's a slight depression around the tree, which should be okay. There are no plans for a bed around that tree but I might want something right around the trunk so I don't have to worry about mowing against the tree. The final grade once grass goes in might change the contour of the land since the most important thing with this grading is to slope away from the house for final inspection. I could see leveling out the yard a bit and mulching a small bed around the tree to give the appearance of level. More retaining walls and the pool will be added in the future towards the back of the lot so in time the yard may actually be flat.
Here's the back yard from the garage door with some of the gazebo and two three year olds for scale. We're getting a considerable upgrade in the size of our back yard compared to our current, so these two can't wait to move in. It's all dust right now, so getting topsoil and seed down, along with the irrigation, will be a top priority so they can play outside without having to take a bath. You can see how the yard past the gazebo grades down quickly. There will evenually be retaining walls installed back there after the pool construction so the yard may flaten out a bit but for now, that will help shed water down to the wetlands. Once the grass is in, I'll probably define the yard as it lines up with the final retaining wall placement so we don't have to plant and maintain more than necessary.
Here's how that slope past the gazebo looks right now. This will eventually be leveled and retained by walls once we don't need heavy machinery in the back yard. A stone stair will be installed that cuts through the walls, similar to the front yard, to provide access to the back from the basement walk outs. The stairs will be just about at the end of the current walls, with the wall picking up again on the other side to curve along the border of the finished grade. We're not looking to implement this for a few years, so it's important to just grass this area to prevent errosion on this slope. It's not really steep, so walking on it isn't a chore.
Here's the slope of the that section from the ground. The kids don't have any issues with playing on it so that's good enough for now. The question will be how do we deliniate the beds on the walls with the grass, for the next few years. I think we'll just cut a bed coming off the wall that will include the wall stone so I don't have to worry about mowing and trimming up against the rocks. That will give me a clear path to cut grass. Irrigation will have to be installed ith the expectation of the future planting beds, taking care to keep watering heads away from future excavation areas. Considering we're sitting on sand, I'm not sure how much top soil will need to be brought in, and if they'll need to scrape away sand to preserve grade height. Even after we're living in the house, there's still so much to do.
Moving inside, the windows all over the house were open marking the end of window trim painting. That's not to say that painting is completed, because that's far from the truth. On our Sunday visit, there were four painters on all levels rolling, spraying, and prepping in a mad dash to completion. The plan is that they'll be in the house this entire week, priming and laying down color so finished electrical can begin their installation. The same as the last update, the doors to the built-in remain off and painted. I'm not sure if they sprayed another coat on since I've last been there or if they're keeping them there to dry. The masking was removed from the windows so there was much more daylight in the house for this visit.
You can see from this shot that the wall colors aren't up yet. I don't know if they'll roll or spray but the next update should answer that question and provide some pictures of the final paint colors. The masks remain on the glass of the french doors and it will be a glorious day when we can finally see what they look like installed. I was told there will be another painting crew brought in to apply the stain on all the stairs and the counter in here and they'll be working at the same time as the wall painters this week. Once the finishes are installed, Nick and his team will return for final touch up.
Many of the doors are propped up in the dining room after painting. The lower part of the dutch door is able to stand alone in the middle of the room, which is convenient. I'm not sure if they sprayed the doors while propped against the wall or if they sprayed them outside and moved them in to dry, but I'm suspecting the former since it looks like there's some over spray on the floor. It doesn't matter if there's over spray on the wall since the color will be later covering it.
It looks like the ceiling detail was hit with some primer, but most of the ceiling has yet to be painted. You can see some of the pink drywall compound used in the repairs. The entire ceiling will be painted the same color, but the MDF detail needed primer before final paint. I think the final paint will be on the ceiling by the next update.
The rotunda paneling was also all painted, and it looked like it was the final paint since there was a slight shine to the finish. It should be all painted the same satin paint as the baseboard so even if this isn't the final coat, this is the close to the the final look of the room. The side detail of the risers will also be painted white as well as the risers, but the treads will be stained the same color as the wood floor.
All the windows in the greatroom were uncovered so I'm guessing all the paneling and coffer ceiling beams in here has the final color installed. The coffer beams are painted in the same Sherwin Williams Snowbound in satin but the ceiling itself will be painted Nebulous white in flat. The Nebulous white has a slight blue gray cast to it so it will stand out a little from the coffer beams, especially since it's a flat finish. The entire wall is painted in the satin Snowbound and will remain that way, including in the panels.
The painters were working on priming the ceilings on the second floor so I couldn't take a good look around at the progress up there this week. They were using large rollers to apply the primer and with the kids in tow, didn't want to get too close to the work. I did manage to get into the master bedroom to look at the progress in there. The tile installers started on the master shower walls, but only two courses. I'm not sure if they ran out of time and got to this point, or if we're waiting on the rest of the counter tops and shower bench to be set before they continue. The top of the tile on the back wall of the shower, left in this picture is cut shorter than the other wall tiles, so it leads me to believe they're waiting for the bench before proceeding.
These red retaining spacers are being used for the installation of this tile, different from the other bathrooms. It's probably used to secure the larger tiles in place while the thinset dries. The red retainers are held in place in the center by a white piece of plastic, that is inserted in between the tiles and used as a spacer for a consistent grout line. I believe the tile is real stone, but I'll have to take a closer look next time to confirm.
This bottle of sealer was left in the shower niche so I'm assuming it's going to be used in this space. It's sealer for porous surfaces, in this case the stone on the floor and possible the tile on the wall. The bottle claims satisfaction for ten years, but I'm guessing this will need to be applied at a much more regular timing schedule. The master bathroom is the only bathroom with natural stone tile that needs this maintenance. The soapstone counters in the kitchen can optionally be oiled if we like the darker look, but I think we'll be keeping it dry. The quartzite counter in the butlers pantry is the only other natural stone surface, but I don't think that needs any sealing.
Some of the window masking remains in the master bedroom but I think all the trim work has been painted since some of the masking is removed. Slight over spray on the floor indicates all the baseboard molding has been painted and everything was moved to the center of the room, away from the walls. The walls in here will be painted with a color called "Agreeable Gray", continuing with the neutral palate of the house.
Trim in the garage has been painted but the rest of the garage still needs to be painted. Not much to talk about in here this week. We should be getting the replacement garage doors this week and they'll hopefully complete the installation of all the doors. The large door is also not currently functioning. One of the sensors pulled out of the wall and while Mike reattached it, something is preventing the door from automatically opening. The trim on the rear door still needs to be installed, but both the smaller doors are operational.
Porter and Heckman were on site this week to install our primary water heater. It's a Bradford White 80 gallon AeroTherm capable of running in heat pump, hybrid, and pure electric water heater mode. Heat pump mode allows the water heater to use electricity and remove ambient heat from the air around the unit to heat the water. Extremely energy efficient, this mode requires an ambient minimum temperature range of 40-70 F. Pure electric mode uses an electric heating element to heat the water to the desired temperature and is the least energy efficient mode. Hybrid combines these two modes. Since we have the geothermal preheating, I think we'll have no trouble using the heat pump mode, especially since our entire basement is well insulated and not prone to the "cold basement" issues standard cast concrete basement walls provide.
The energy guide sticker says the unit will only cost $170 per year to operate. The fine print below states this estimate is calculated when operating in heat pump mode only so this is the cost of operation in the most efficient mode. When used in conjunction with our geothermal desuperheater, our cost to heat water should be even less.
The plumbing to the water heaters is attached to some PEX up on the ceiling, but has yet to be plumbed to the main water coming into the house. The two copper pipes connected to the red PEX go to the primary water heater and are for the hot water supply loop. The other copper pipe is for the cold water supply to the geothermal preheat tank since all the water first runs through that tank. That needs to be hooked up to the blue PEX and eventually to the incoming water main. The house cold water supply is the blue PEX that's currently installed, and it has to make it's way back to the other corner of the room where the incoming water supply is.
It looks like all the circuits for the geothermal are in place. It's not labeled yet so I'm not sure what all the circuits are for but the panel is attached with all the empty spaces filled with breakers. There's two linked breakers and a single, so I'm guessing the two 240V breakers are for the water heater and auxiliary heat while the single 15A is for the blower fan and pump operation. I'm not sure if the ERV gets wired into this panel too but it would be nice to get a discounted rate for its power consumption.
The Sound Vision started prep and installation of some of the systems this week. They'll be visiting the site to get the entire system up and running over the course of the month. In the basement, the beginning of the security panel was installed. I'm not sure and I'm not stating what either of these boards do, so suffice to say that there's a wireless element involved, a back up battery and sensor wires coming into the panel.
Also installed in the same area is this Wave2 2 tone siren. I'm wondering if it will be loud enough, or maybe there will be a tie into the house speaker system. The Control4 system audio distribution is already handling piping the doorbell chime to the house speakers, so it wouldn't be a far stretch to pipe the alarm through the same system. It's exciting to see some of the final systems go in after years of planning and revisions.
That's it for this week. Painting should be finished by the next update and the wood floors should be delivered, but probably not installed. We had a hardware meeting this week with Margaret and picked out all the interior door hardware, cabinet hardware for the entire house, and towel and toilet paper bars for every bathroom. Almost all the of the finished light fixtures have been fulfilled and are awaiting delivery to the house. The replacement garage door has been delivered and will be installed soon. Old Country Stone is finally on site again installing the bluestone in the gazebo so we can finally see a finished exterior. All the grading around the house should be completed and ready for inspection as we end this first week of October. There seem to be some delays with the kitchen, master bathroom, and butlers pantry counter tops from PMP stone and with this tight schedule could cause some delays. We're really getting to the end of the build here and the finish is becoming tangible. Just a few more weeks and we'll be looking at the end. It almost feels unreal but we're ready!
No comments:
Post a Comment