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.
