Appliance Time!

   December is officially upon us and there's still no end date in sight.  Mike is taking a well deserved week for vacation, and we'll see if the mouse do indeed play when the cat is away.  We received all the appliances we ordered during the week and many of them were installed so a big milestone is being passed.  No progress on the tile and wood floor this week, which is confusing, but unfortunately starting to become expected.  Some more lighting circuits were brought online, but there needs to be a bit more coordination between The Sound Vision installers and the electricians to trouble shoot circuits that are still not functioning.  More finished plumbing was completed this week and we now have functioning toilets in almost every bathroom.  Great Oaks was on site to lay some top soil and seed in grass areas at the front of the house, and create and plant a bed on the retaining wall at the back of the garage.  The biggest rate limiting step now is the wood floor and tile.  The wood floor required an additional 300 square feet to be ordered, but should be delivered soon.  I have no idea what the hold up on the tile installation is since there's lots of work to be completed and no reason why it's not being done.  Hopefully we'll get over this last bottle neck and we can finally start to wrap up this build.

   Great Oaks Landscaping was on site last week to lay some soil and seed, plant some beds, and fix the grade in some locations.  They scraped away some of the high banks on the land side of the driveway to reduce the slope and gather some additional fill sand for low spots in the back yard.  We're keeping the approach to the house as natural as possible and this slope usually just has wild grasses and forest ground cover holding back the erosion.  Like the rest of the forest, there's a thin layer of soil, but it's mostly this sandy loam so the plants in the scrapped areas should quickly become reestablished.

   The sloped area off the driveway near the house received a layer of topsoil, seed, and straw mat for erosion control and seed retention.  There's a light mesh that holds the straw down, but I'm not sure if that will eventually decay or if it will need to be removed when the seed finally takes purchase.  The decaying straw will help nitrify the newly placed topsoil and there's some sign of starter fertilizer sprinkled throughout.  This seed will remain dormant for the winter time and hopefully sprout in the spring.

   Small sections of the beds in front of the house were also seeded and matted.  It's a little confusing where they decided to lay seed because as per the plans, there's also supposed to be a grassy section on the left of the front stair landing that connects to the area that's currently protected by straw.  A planting bed is sandwiched between that grass and the house, so it's expected that this remains currently unplanted, but they did spread some top soil in the area.

   The weeds were pulled from the stepped planting beds and topsoil was spread to fill to the final height of the bed. This area will be primarily planted with bushes and ground cover and will have to wait until we have the budget.  It's possible we might do this ourselves since it's easy to dig holes and we have experience implementing the landscaping plan in our current house.  What will require professional work and planning is the installation of underground irrigation.

   This level of the beds are pretty isolated, so I'm not sure how they'll install irrigation here.  Ideally, we would have drip irrigation to reduce water waste from evaporation but I'm not sure if it's possible to run the lines into this location and remain invisible.  The only other alternative is to have sprayers that can hit the whole area, which would also water the rocks.  I'm pretty sure rocks don't have a water requirement, so it would be a waste.

   The retaining walls on the back porch near the storage door also received some additional grading.  The grade was smoothed out from the main flat to the beds, but no top soil was installed.  Some of the grading spoils were placed up against the back deck so less of the ICF foam is visible in the areas below grade.  This is another spot that we could put some sweat equity into to dump some top soil and plant some bushes.  The only problem is that this area changed from the original plan, so we don't have a well defined plan for what plants to install.

   This bed, as defined by the landscaping plan, was implemented early to try to appease inspectors signing off on the certificate of occupancy.  Since the retaining wall installed here is higher than four feet, some kind of barrier is required.  The planting of this bed and all the shrubs will hopefully fulfill that requirement.  The plantings in the bed include three viburnums, three hydrageas and four burning bushes near the garage.  One of those burning bushes will be removed to make way for the walkway when the side deck is finally installed.  There isn't much edible on plants, but we have low expectations for deer proofing, especially since we're already seeing hoof prints in the freshly laid mulch.  I didn't see any evidence of nibbling, but there's always the possibility.

   The garage is still being used as an overflow for all the packing material waste from the finish installations.  Added to the pile is all the boxes from the installed appliances, the toilet boxes, and a few surprises.  I found a box for the garbage disposal that will be installed in the kitchen.  It's obviously needed, but I wasn't sure when we would be getting it.

   The sconces in the foyer were removed to be sent back for adjustment so the glass actually fits in the base.  While they're removed, the electricians cut out the drywall and foam to shift the mounting boxes over to center the lights in the panel.  Drywall will need to be reinstalled, patched, and painted before the lights can be reinstalled.  It should take a couple of weeks before the lights are returned to us, but it's somehow faster than the 4-6 weeks it would have taken to order new ones.  Not sure how that works out.

   LED puck lights were installed in the two art nooks in the foyer.  When we talked to the electrician, we discussed trying to set the pucks up into the box as much as possible, but it's mounted flush to the surface without any inset.  I don't know if he forgot, or didn't find it possible to do, but I can't see why it wouldn't be possible.  I'll have to take a look at old pictures to see how the boxes were constructed.  There might be a plywood box under drywall, so the drywall could be cut out and the light installed more flush.  If it's just a plywood box, then it would be more difficult to recess since there would be nothing left to mount the puck to where you to cut a hole in the wood.  These lights are on the Control4 system but not yet programmed so we didn't get to see how they looked lit up.

   The scaffolding makes a return visit to aid in the installation of the rotunda chandelier.  Tanja visited the site in the middle of last week to work with the electrician to hang the rotunda chandelier.  During an earlier visit with Margaret, we determined the best hanging height would have the top of the chandelier at the top of the rotunda railing.  This would place the bottom of the light near the bottom of the railing, so your sight across the rotunda isn't blocked, but it's also not hanging down to low into the rotunda.

   The Comet 21 from Maxim lighting has a center sphere from which all the G9 bulbs connect into.  It's kind of Sputnik looking thing surround by the support hoops that will hold all the little metal leaves that make up the bulk of the look.  One brave electrician volunteered to install all the leaves, which doesn't seem like it will be too difficult a task, just tedious.  The light came with white gloves to wear when installing the metal leaves to reduce fingerprints because I don't even want to think about cleaning it.  I hope he uses the gloves because, while we probably won't see finger prints, the oils can attract dust and will be visible in time.  We discussed how we would clean this thing in the future and really didn't have an idea.  Maybe every once in a while, we could hit it with some compressed air to blast the dust off, but if any real soil gets on it, we'll have to remove the leaves and soak them or something.

   Here's what the light looks like half way up the stairs at eye level.  It's kid of a diamond or polyhedron shape, but the hard lines get obscured when the leaves are installed.  The leaves are kind of a flat metal that has been shaped to get some 3 dimension, embedded with crystals.  From the install instructions, it looks like they kid of just hang over the skeleton, or attach with a bracket.  The center lighting structure is almost completely obscured when the metal leaves are installed.  The light bulbs provided are xenon, but there are G9 LED bulbs available.  We'll probably just have the xenon bulbs installed and replace them with LEDs when we need to.

   These bags are full of the metal leaves that will be installed on the comet.  They're all individually wrapped for protection so there's a bit more bulk to the bags than the leaves themselves.  We did take the opportunity to take a peak at one of the leaves, but I didn't take a picture while we had it out.  I'm not sure when the electricians will be in to complete the install, but if I get the chance, I'll take a good picture of them next time I visit.

  The Sound Vision was in during the week to complete more lighting programming.  Previously, they programmed the switches closest to the exterior doors to control all the lights in the house, but all the other switches were not functioning.  Now there's one switch that controls all the lights in the house, but the switch in each room has been programmed to only control all the lights in that room.  Eventually, the switches will control the various light circuits in each room if there's more than one, and maybe even have pre-programmed lighting schemes.  Now that the room switches are programmed, we can finally see what the greatroom looks like with the overhead lights on, kind of.  One of the six lights isn't functioning for some reason, so the electrician will need to trouble shoot the installation to see what's going on.

   The floor plates for the electrical receptacles were installed in both the study and greatroom.  We opted for a brushed nickel finish on the plates.  They have screw on plug protectors and sit just a little proud of the floor.  These two in the great room will probably be placed under side tables or a couch and will be used for lamps placed on the tables.

   On to the really fun stuff.  Witbeck appliances delivered all the appliances we ordered a couple of weeks ago.  Most of the appliances were installed by the electrician and Mike, but any of the appliances that require water have yet to be installed.  The electricians also installed the under cabinet lighting and are working on pulling power through the island for receptacles and the microwave.

   The fridge and freezer were moved close to their install location but there's still some work to be completed before we can get them into the final location.  From this angle, they look massive but the freezer is 24" across and the fridge is 30".  Much more than the amount of space we have now, but remember that these are counter depth so not as deep as a full depth fridge.  Despite the counter depth, having individual freezer and fridge columns are a huge increase in food capacity vs a stand alone fridge/freezer combo and will give us much needed food space.


   The pendants still need to be adjusted to their final height, and we haven't seen them illuminated yet, even with the most recent programming.  The fridge and freezer come panel ready, but instead of purchasing panels to match the cabinets, we opted for the stainless steel panels from Subzero.  Stainless steel tubular handles would be visible anyways, so there's no reason to hide the glory that will be our cold food storage.

    Sitting where the banquet will eventually be is our Miele dishwasher and the boxes that house the stainless steel fronts for our fridge and freezer.  The dishwasher will accept the cabinet panel and should disappear into the rest of the cabinets.  To further camouflage the appliance, there's no exterior handle.  You knock on the front and the door pops open for you to grab and further open.

   Or 48" Wolf cooktop is installed, but not functioning.  I turned the knob but didn't hear any pilot firing nor did I smell any gas, so I'm not sure if either of these two are turned on.  We went with the four burner with griddle and infrared charbroiler since we didn't find ourselves using more than four burners at a time.  It came with steel covers for the griddle and charbroiler when they're not being used, and we swapped out the standard red knobs for stainless.

   The Wolf microwave drawer was also delivered and installed, but doesn't have power.  The electricians are still routing power from the floor penetration under one side of the island to the microwave and electrical receptacle on the other side of the island.  We were a bit surprised by how proud the microwave sits on the cabinet face, even sitting out from the counter top by a small amount, but I'm, hoping that it won't be a functionality issue.  Using a microwave drawer will be an interesting experience.  Lifting hot items up and out will take some getting used to.  I'm just hoping it will heat evenly considering it doesn't have a turn table built in.

   Here's what's going on under the kitchen sink.  The garbage disposal was brought in, but not installed.  It's an Insinkerator Evolution Select.  I've never really had any troubles with any of my garbage disposals so I expect this to perform just as well.  It probably has better sound insulation than our current model so I'm eager to hear it in operation.  We're planning on putting less down the sink since it also has to make its way through the grinder pump before getting to the sewer.  The silver thing is a batter pack for the touch functions of the sink.

    The Viking double oven and Wolf warming drawers are also installed, but not functioning.  In general, we went with Wolf appliances, but the Viking electric double oven was the only in a single unit configuration that had the french doors.  Bluestar and GE cafe both have a french door, but only in a single oven configuration.  We currently have a slide in from Siemens with four burners on top, a gas oven, and warming drawer below.  Having a double oven will be a definite convenince to us but only on less requent occasions.

   The upper oven has a french door in which both doors open jointly.  The top and bottom rack are on sliders while the middle rack is more easily removed.  I think the top has a smaller capacity than the lower, but both have the same functionalities.  All electric, it has convection baking, protected heating elements, infrared broiler, a temperature probe and the list goes on and on.  Pretty fancy oven for making french fries.  With the lower door open, there's still more than enough room to both stand in front of the door, or walk between the oven and island.

   The warming drawer below is a pretty simple affair.  We use ours from time to time and find it useful to keep food warm when you're making a larger dinner, or keeping food warm for parties.  This one has its own digital controls and is probably a little bigger than the one we have under our stove.  This is another one of those features that you don't realize is a convenience until you get one and then can't live without.  We figured if this was going to be our forever house, we better plan for the future when we have grand kids running around and big family dinners

   Both the Subzero 24" freezer column and 30" fridge column require a water input, ice in the freezer and cold water in the fridge, so here's the solution the plumbers came up with.  I questioned if we would need two separate valves, but as long as this doesn't leak, I'm okay with the installation.  More joints make for more points of failure, so I'm going to have to keep an eye out on this in the future.

   California Closets finished their installation of our closet systems.  Although the pantry door still needs to be adjusted, it doesn't get in the way of the installation of the pantry shelving.  I think we're at least tripling our pantry capacity in the new house as well as having better shelves.  The corner shelves are static and non-removable but the other two columns have removable and adjustable shelves.  There are two solid drawers and two baskets, but I'm not sure what we'll use either of these for.  I guess items that we want to group all together, but still want access to, without having to move other items aside.

   The electricians installed the undercabinet lighting.  It's an LED strip that provides a nice 2700k - 3000k dimmable light source for tasks on the counter. Since these are on the Control4 system, we'll be able to set it to a night scene, while simultaneously turning off all the other lights.

   The LED strips are cut and stick.  Aluminum channels are installed in the cabinets into which the LED strips are stuck.  A piece of diffusing plastic unifies the glow of the individual LEDs so you don't get a spotlight effect.  The underside of the cabinets needed to be trimmed out when the LED strip crossed the cabinet edge.  You can't see it unless you're sitting on the ground, so I'm not worried about the aesthetics of it.  I like how the lights work and they seem like they provide enough light to work with.

   The under-cabinet lights were also installed in the butlers pantry, giving us the first good look at the quartzite counter top.  The under-cabinet lights provide a great lighting backdrop for the surface and really highlights the character of the stone.  The color temperature is at 3000k so it's not too white and not too yellow.  This will be a great station for snacks and beverages when we're entertaining.

   The protective masking was removed from the butlers pantry sink and the near polished stainless steel is now revealed.  It looks better than I expected, especially with the under-cabinet lights making it sparkle.  Stainless steel sinks usually have a brushed finish, which scatters the light and reflection.  This sink has a much lighter brushing, so the sides are more reflective and sparkle more.  As a side affect, we'll need to clean up water marks more and it's more susceptible to visible scratches but we're not planning on washing much in there.

  Some of the cabinet hardware is on site and ready to be installed this week.  Here's our selection for the dining room built in.  They'll be installed just as shown, with the wider gap towards the door so you can get your finger in there.  It has a distressed metal appearance and is more black than bronze, but the darkness matches well with the metal top on the built in.  It's kind of a mix of the refined walnut and industrial distressed metal.

   The same handles will be installed on the study built in, but in a distressed white.  We'll probably have them installed vertically, again with the large notch up so you can slip a finger in there to open it.  The tables in both of these rooms will be some kind of live edge wood top with a more metal industrial base, so I think it will match well with the installed hardware.

   All the toilets were delivered to the house and all but the mudroom were installed and functional.  These are Toto Legato single piece at comfort height with an elongated bowl.  They have a slow close lid and seat and although they don't have a dual flush, only use 1.28 gallons per flush.  They're comfortable to sit on and I think will serve us well for the lifetime of the house.

   Rather than having the water wash the bowl from a rim, this rimless design has two water ports that do a good job getting water everywhere in the bowl.  The water level is a little low so it's possible to "run a-ground" but we might be able to adjust that level a bit.  Cleaning should be easy.  The bowls have a special ceramic glaze that's supposed to make a very smooth and hard surface that resists stuff sticking to it.  Also without a rim, scrubbing will be much easier.

   Here's something odd that escaped our reviews.  It looks like an electrical receptacle was covered during the drywall stage and the electricians just found it.  There's no plate for it and the drywall dust and pieces left on the floor are evidence that recent work was done.  I'm sure the wire and box was already present since no other drywall is removed, so the electricians must have figure one was installed here due to the length of the wall and lack of receptacle.  I wonder if anything else was missed.

   Here's the toilet installed in the second bedroom upstairs.  All the toilets are the same Toto Legato, but some needed a bigger rough in due to the location of the pipe in the floor.  When you order a toilet, you have to specify the rough in length, which is the distance from the wall to the drain.  The guest and second bedroom needed a 10" rough in because the pipe needed to be installed farther away from the exterior wall.  I'm not sure how much adjustability there is when installing the toilet, but it's the perfect distance from the wall.  It could be to the credit of the plumber that installed the toilet drain pipe,.

   Our Electrolux washer and dryer with pedestals were delivered, but not installed.  We'll need to  cut a new hole through the dividers between the two machines to run a power cord and water supply to the dryer since it has a steam function.  Mike should be able to get these machines hooked up pretty soon once they determine what they'll need for the dryer exhaust venting.

   The light in the art nook on the second floor was also installed, not flush.  We haven't gotten these to light up either, and I think they're only on the Control4 system, so it's yet another thing that still needs to be programmed.

   California Closets installed the closet system in the girls walk in closet.  We lost a little space in this closet between the blueprint and the walls but there's still enough room to divide the closet in half so each girl gets four drawers, shelves and four hanging sections.  I'm not sure how long we can keep both girls in the same room, sharing the same bathroom and closet but they should be good for a long time.

   The only unfortunate thing about this closet is that the door opens inward and gets in the way of one side of the divided closet.  In order to access this side of the hanging closet, someone will need to close the door.  The drawers can open to full extension with the door open, but those hanging clothes will be more difficult to access.

   This is the hardware we're installing in the girls bathroom.  Their made by Richelieu located here in Michigan.  Made of glass and chrome, they offer a little sparkle and glamour to the bathroom.  These will go well with the crystal mirror light and glass sparkle backsplash we're installing in this room.

   Here's the current state of the turret bathroom.  We have a good idea for a mirror to get in this room so all that's left is the other hardware, towel bar and toilet holder, and the door knob.  We're going to be installing curtain rods for move in and consider sliding glass doors ant a much later date.  It's easier to give baths with a shower curtain but they might want a glass door when they get older.

   The final faucets still need to be installed in the master bathroom, but all the lights are now functional.  The electrician installed the under counter lighting and got all the sconces lit.  The Sound Vision programmed everything to run in this room so there's little left to hook up in here.  We're noticing that a lot of these wall sconces aren't sitting solid and flush to the wall.  I'm not sure if they loosely install them first then tighten them down when they're sure all the electrical connections are sound or if we're catching mistakes.  Hardware in this room is a little delayed and won't be delivered until the end of the month; not a requirement for COO.

   The tile under the vanity is installed and you can see the LED strip in the reflection of the tile.  I'm not sure why it's installed this way, but we're going to request the same treatment as the kitchen undercabinets; aluminum channel and diffuser.    These LED strips are completely dimmable so we'll be able to use them as a night light, probably programmed into a night time setting or something.

   The strips are just adhered to the underside of the cabinet.  You can see the electrical box installed for the transformer to plug into.  When we finally complete the powder room on the first floor, we'll be using similar lights for the internally lit stone countertop.

   Here's a glamour shot of the master bathroom with the overhead lights turned off.  All the recessed cans in this room do function, as well as the vent fans.  The wall tile still needs to be grouted in some places and we still need to purchase and install the medicine cabinets but it's coming together.

   Here's a close up shot of the vanity sconces.  They're LED lit so we'll never have to replace the bulb and they offer a bright, even light from top to bottom, something that couldn't be achieved with standard incandescent bulbs.  I think these are my favorite sconces in the house.  They look kind of steam punk/magic alchemist which blends nicely with the natural stone and modern touches in the room.

   The most important chair in the house, the master toilet.  It's the same as the other toilets, but I'll be spending the most time on this one.  The in floor heating controller is also installed in the water closet.  The only light in this room is integrated into the vent fan.  It's not particularly bright, but should provide enough light.

   The master shower is getting its finishing touches with the installation of the shower heads.  The large wall tile still needs to be grouted and the shelves need to be installed in the bottle nooks.  The threshold tile also needs to be installed across the opening, but the tile job is really wrapping up here now.

   The curved shower wall received all the finished plumbing installations but the joints still need to be caulked.  The two shower heads operate independently with the hand shower operating from the left.  The hand shower slides on the pole rail without any mechanical buttons or lock downs.  Although the pole is currently a little loose, I'm sure it can be tightened or will become more secure when caulked.  The shower heads are functioning, but we didn't try them out since the back wall of the shower isn't grouted yet.  We've never really seen these shower heads in action so I'm hoping they have a good spray pattern.

   The Hansgrohe Axor water controllers were installed in the master shower.  The only difference between these and the controllers in the other bathrooms is the black controls and cleaner fascia.  Thermostatically controlled, The right shower has a button for the shower head as well as the hand shower.  These buttons toggle on and off, but I'll have to check to see if they can both be toggled on at the same time.

   The left shower controller is much more simple with a single toggle button for the shower head above it.  The tile installers flattened the curve a bit to get the plate to sit flush with the tile surface.  It's not really perceivable but it's necessary to prevent water from leaking behind the cover.

   California Closets also installed the master closet system.  We basically divided the closet in half but due to the little access door to the storage space, the side farthest from the door has less storage space and will probably be where I hang my clothes.  We haven't decided how we're going to divide the drawer space, but since we also have a good amount of shelf space, I don't suspect needed much more than a few drawers.

   Here's the view of the closet from the inside looking towards the door.  There are five more drawers that hide behind the door when it's open, but this side of the closet will probably go to Tanja.  It has the long hanging locations for dresses and more shelves and hangers than the other side.  On the right are two columns of general purpose shelves flanking a bench.  These shelves were originally intended for shoe storage, but we don't have that many shoes, so we made it more general.  It's still deep enough for shoes and you can adjust the height to allow for taller boots.  I'll probably use my side for folded clothes.  The bench has a deep drawer under it, perfect for storing towels or blankets.

Five drawers form the center column with a drawer and laundry hamper flanking either side.  The laundry hampers hang on metal rods with built in handles for easy removal and carrying.  The hampers are particularly large, but since there are two, it will be easy to separate whites from colors.  The laundry hamper tilts don't slow close but all the other drawers do.  We opted for handles from California Closets in this room and it closely matches the hardware in the master bathroom.

   Here's a closer look at the hampers.  The front and back of the metal hang rods have a hook that sits on the rails on the front and back of the tilting face.  Handles on both hang rods make it easy to pull the bag out and carry it around.  The cloth is a non-stretch mesh that reminds me of a thick landscape fabric.  It should last a long time and should they eventually fail, they'll easily be replaced with something home sewn.

   Long lengths of shoe molding are new to the basement this week.  Distinctive designs is staging up for the massive amounts of the molding needed to be installed when the wood floor is finally installed.  I'm not sure if the molding will be installed before or after the final floor oiling, but it will cover all gaps between the existing baseboard molding and the wood floor.  I think they'll be painting it before installing so only minor finish nailing heads will need to be touched up, reducing the risk of getting paint on the floor.

   The shoe molding is mostly square with one edge slightly rounded off, continuing with the clean lines of the floor molding.  Most of the shoe molding I've seen installed in houses are either a simple quarter round or cove, but this is a bit more substantial than a quarter round while not being too obtrusive.  Should they take excessive damage, they're easily replaced.

   The hot water heaters are up and running producing hot water from the ground.  The primary water heater, on the right, is running in ground loop only mode, with hybrid and electric the other two options.  I confirmed hot water is available in the house so I know that the geothermal water heating system is doing its thing.

   There's a protective film over the digital readout of the hot water heater, but it's currently set at 120 degrees F.  We'll probably turn it down a bit for scald protection, even though all the bath tubs have thermostatic control.  It doesn't mean you can control the faucets.  The water heater produces a good amount of noise, but I think we can mitigate that by insulating the curved wall shared with the stairwell, after COO inspection.

   The hot water loop pump is currently powered and seems to be running more than needed, but the sensor hasn't been installed on the hot water supply line to the house, so the programming might not have picked up on the hot water requirements of the house yet.  The hot water circulation loop will be a nice, invisible convenience that few people will pick up on. 

   That's about it this week.  Mike will be making his return from vacation later this week and hopefully get the ball rolling again on all the final installs.  We're expecting a bit more tile work this week as well as the installation of the deck railings.  Hopefully we'll get more appliances installed and see the wood floors going in more.  Interior door handles still need to make their appearance but we'll probably need to get door stops to prevent handle damage to the walls.  I'm still a little optimistic that we'll see a completion before Christmas, which would line us up for a January move in, but Tanja is more pessimistic and predicts a February move. Christmas break is the perfect time for me to get our current house in order and start throwing away the tons of stuff we no longer use.