Foyer Tile Installation and Fireplaces

   An unexpected family adventure day ended with a visit to the house on yet another unseasonably warm winter day.  Even though it's still January, temperatures this weekend are in the 50s with some clear skies and sun.  Knowing Michigan weather, we can probably expect at least one more snow dump, but at least we can enjoy a hint of spring.  The tile installers were in full force today with five guys working to finish up all the tile installations.  Back splashes were being grouted, tile was being installed, and finishes were being refined.  We also saw more progress on the final touch ups, but the wood floor in the turret bedroom remains missing.  Mike says that the wood is delivered so we can hopefully expect installation this coming week.  A few more visits from the electrician puts us a bit closer to perfecting all the lights and now the circuit to the car charger is connected.  We're still waiting on a meter, but everything is in place on our side.

   The packed in ice is finally gone from most of the driveway, and is at least clear in the front of the house.  Three trucks were at the house today for all the tile installers and Mike, recovered from his hospital visit earlier in the week from flu like symptoms, was present to supervise.  As warm as it was this weekend, we're expecting a snowstorm early next week with a chance it will all melt away later in the week again.  I wish mother nature would make up her mind.
 

The tile installers were on site during the weekend to start laying the foyer floor tile.  They prepped the floor earlier in the week by leveling and applying a scratch coat.  The day were visited, they were dry-laying down the tile so we could confirm the spacing and orientation of the tile.  Since it's best to have a full pattern tile layout in the center basket weave center, they started in the center of this field and worked their way outward.  There will be a 17" border around the basket weave that will be made up of three layers, a large white tile edged by a thinner marble border tile.  The border will be installed after the center field is set and the white tile will be cut to take up any variance between the sides.  The diagonal walls that house the foyer art nooks aren't perfectly 45 degrees (of course) so unfortunately, the tile cut at these locations won't follow the 45 degree tiles in the pattern. 

   Once the position of the basket weave was confirmed, the tile installers carefully removed the tile while keeping the reference straight edge in place near the door.  The used this reference to start applying thinset to the concrete floor and carefully place each sheet of the mosaic basket weave into place.  They work pretty quickly, managing to install the entire field be the end of the day.

   The tile installers work wasn't isolated to the foyer.  While three workers were installing in the foyer, one was grouting all the backsplash tile that had been previously installed in the other bathrooms.  This is the finished tile in the second bedroom upstairs, with the matte mosaic tile and dark pencil edge top.  All the tile is now completed in this bathroom.


   The glass mosaic tile in the mudroom has also been grouted, completing the tile in this room.  One of the tilers was working in here when we arrived and it looked like he was also cleaning up the floor tiles.  We had concern in this room about how the tops of the baseboard tile would be completed.  The tile installers confirmed that it's not a good idea to apply grout to the top edge of the tile since it would most likely just fall off, so Mike said we'll have to paint it.  I think this will be an acceptable solution.  The faucet in this room also still needs to be replaced.

   The round glass tile has been installed in the turret bathroom, but not yet grouted.  The tile comes on a 12"x12" sheet, but the tile installers didn't want to install half a sheet, cutting through the rounds.  Instead, they removed each round from the sheet and installed them in the thinset by hand.  The tile isn't installed on the side like the tile in the other bathrooms, but we confirmed this design with Margaret. I'm not sure if it will be odd to deviate from the other bathrooms, but this vanity is also a bit different, with two columns of drawers in addition to the door cabinets.  I think having the tile only on the back makes the vanity look more like a piece of furniture, rather than a fixture so there's some justification in that design.  The grout on this tile should be installed by the next update.

   The fireplace installers returned to confirm the installation of the gas fireplaces and install the screens and bezels.  There's a protective screen on both fireplaces to prevent someone from burning themselves on the hot glass.  The screen gets warm during normal operation, but not dangerously hot.  This is the first time I'm seeing these in operation and I like the appearance.  The "embers" below the fire are lit with LEDs and there are two orange halogen bulbs inside that throw light against the side of the fire box for an added ambiance.  Additional "brick" needs to be installed on this side of the fireplace to complete the installation

   Here's the greatroom side of the fireplace with the additional brick pieces installed between the glass and screen.  When installed, it gives the illusion that the glass isn't there and the screen is the only thing between the fire and the room.  There's still a little condensation on the glass that gets burned off each time the fireplace is used and the flame height isn't set very high but everything looks functional and the fireplace provides a good amount of heat.

   Here's a closer look at the "embers".  The under lighting and transparency of the embers gives a pretty realistic effect.  I'm happy with the over all appearance of the fireplace and the performance it provides.  I think there's a way to turn on the lights only without the flame so you can have the ambiance of the glowing embers without using gas.  Since our house is so efficient, it will be interesting to see how running the gas fireplaces will heat the entire house.

  All functions of the fireplace are controlled with these remotes.  I wasn't aware, but there's actually more buttons on the remote and the white is just a shell to protect those buttons.  Next time I'm at the house, I'll have to play around with the other features as I understand it, the flame height and temperature settings are adjustable with those other buttons.  The remotes act as a thermostat and can adjust the height of the flame depending on what you set the temperature to.

   Here's the fireplace on the second floor.  I'm not sure if the log arrangement is final but I'm hoping that they'll adjust some of the logs so they're not so far forward.  If not, then I'll figure out how to get in there and make my own adjustments.  There are also some fingerprints on the left side of the glass that need to be cleaned up, and are only visible when the fire is on.  This fireplace doesn't have halogen bulbs, but the embers do glow.

   Here's a close up of the glowing embers.  If they weren't so perfectly contained in the fireplace, I could mistake them for real.  This fireplace also performs well and looks great.  We originally had some other fireplaces picked out, but Mike decided to purchase these due to availability and his good experience with the installer. I'm satisfied with his decision.

   The replacement mullions for the glass front cabinets in the kitchen were installed this week.  They're just loosely held in currently and will be attached permanently when the glass is installed next week.  Apparently, Mike and Margaret weren't satisfied with the slight gaps in the curve pieces and got them replaced.  The Sound Vision and the electrician also got the puck lights in the upper cabinets operational.  They weren't controllable by the Control4 system and it seems that something wasn't connected.  While he was there, the Sound Vision diagnosed some issues we've been having with our rotunda lighting.  After diagnosing and conversing with Control4, it was determined that the controller itself was at fault and will need replacement.

   The electrician sourced puck lights that can work with the amperage output of the mis-installed transformers in the butlers pantry.  Unfortunately there are now holes where the light strip was mounted, so those will now need to be touched up some how.  If it were up to me, I would drill them out a bit bigger and glue in a dowel to color match the wood.  It shouldn't be too visible through the seeded glass that will be installed in the door but we'll still be able to see it when the door is open.

   The final PEV meter hasn't been installed yet, but the circuit is ready for installation.  DTE came to the house, but didn't have access to the inside of the house and didn't want to be responsible for energizing the circuit.  They requested that the circuit breakers are turned on and left small metal bars that should be installed across the meter contacts.  Basically the circuit is live and the DTE technician will remove the bars from the live circuit and  install the meter.  I'm surprised that's how they want it done since it's dangerous to work on a live circuit, but that's their requirement.  As a result, the Tesla charger is powered and "free" energy is being supplied.  I plugged my car into the charger but found only 12A being supplied, so it seems like the electrician didn't set the charger to the correct output amperage.

   The shutoff breakers next to the Tesla charger have been switched from 80A to 100A as per my request.  This matches the rest of the circuit going to 100A so the charger can output a maximum of 80A.  With the opening of the Supercharger near me, high amperage home charging isn't much of a necessity, but it is a luxury.  I'm opting for a flat monthly rate of $45 since I calculated that this will be the less expensive option with my daily commute.

  The breakers in the basement for the dedicated charger have also been changed out to 100A.  The other circuit is correctly at 50A for the NEMA 14-50, which can be used with the travel charger or any other battery vehicle, as well as welders.  If we ever get another battery vehicle, both chargers could be used at the same time and the cost would be the same monthly, greatly saving money.  If we get another Tesla, we could install another dedicated wall charger and daisy chain them together since they communicate and can balance the charging between the two vehicles.

   That's about it for this week.  Next weeks update should show a finished foyer tile, and probably finished tile in general.  Hopefully a finished wood floor installation and continued touch ups.  Like I said, we're getting really close, but we're also going into February so one more month has passed us by. 

HVAC and Plumbing Inspections Passed

   Although there's no sign from the wood floor installers, finishing work continues around the house as we push towards completion.  The turret bedroom still needs to have the wood floor installed and after the material mix up, we should see it happen this week.  All the tile for the foyer has been delivered and Castro is ready to install it.  We had a design meeting last week to lay out the final design pattern so everything should be squared away.  We passed final HVAC and plumbing inspections last week, so all that remains is the final building inspection.  As for remaining tasks, all that's left is the remaining tile install, turret wood floor, installation of the rest of the shoe molding on the second floor, final paint and touch ups, then final floor finishing.  It's getting really close now.

   Mike was worried about the final building inspector flagging the front step urn pedestals since they could be misconstrued as steps when walking off the front porch so we needed to purchase something to put there.  Rather than wasting money on something temporary, we purchase these Nichols Bros Heller House Vases.  They're stone cast, meaning they're made in molds from stone materials and will weather like stone.  They come in three sizes, 22", which we purchased, 33", and 44".  The pedestals could have supported the larger sized urns, but we wanted room to sit.  They're large enough to prevent someone from accidentally walking onto the pedestals, but still allow enough space to sit.

   Here's a picture of the hanging light from Copper Smith, installed in the front door barrel vault.  It's the same style as the copper lights flanking each garage door and also has the Weiyan LED flame simulation bulb.  We were concerned about the hanging height and initially wanted the yoke installation so we switched to a straight pipe installation.  It hangs high enough that I can barely touch the light so I don't think we have to worry about anyone hitting their heads.

   Sitting to the sides of the foyer are the two piles of tile that will be installed in the foyer entry way.  Some prep work to flatten the concrete will need to be performed before the tile can be installed, but at least all the material is on site.  Castro and his team will begin installing the tile this week and hopefully finish grouting all the back splashes in the bathrooms as well.  The tile picture here is the basket weave tile that will fill the field of the tile "rug".  They're mounted with a film on the surface that's removed after the tile has been set.  The basket weave will be laid with the pattern perpendicular to the front door and will be bordered by three layers of tiles.

   The office is storing the border tiles, carefully packed in these styrofoam boxes.  The large white tile will be sandwiched between two narrower courses of marble tile.  These layers will run the perimeter of the foyer and will frame the basket weave.

   We spent a good amount of time on Thursday deciding on how the tile will be laid out.  Ideally, the basket weave tile would be installed so it landed on a full pattern when it hits the border tiles.  We found the center of the front door and started laying tiles out from there.  Turns out that none of the four borders of the room are square with each other and the room is slightly trapezoidal shaped.  To combat this, we'll slightly alter the width of the large white tiles in the border and keep the basket weave tile dimensions static across the floor.  That way, you don't see differences in the tile pattern on any of the sides.  Careful cutting will be needed to make the transition of the white tile border width seamless as you go around the room.  The plan is that the tile will be dry laid so we can confirm the implementation, then give the go ahead to mortar it in place.

   The LED puck lights in the art nooks around the house have been recessed into the nook box.  When they were surface installed, they weren't flush with the surface and in general not visually appealing.  Since the electrician didn't want to take responsibility for modifying the drywall in the boxes, Mike took it upon himself to recess the puck and we're very happy with the results.  There's just some touch up work needed to the surfaces and these will be completed.

   The finished bezels and screens were brought out of storage in anticipation of the fireplace installers this week.  They'll be coming in to perform the final log setup and installation test.  By next week, we'll have functioning gas fireplaces.  Distinctive Designs is making some filler pieces for the metal fireplace surround since the inside edges were cut a bit short.  We thought the bezels would cover this, but it during the last dry fit, Mike realized the gaps would still be visible.  The original fabricator of the metal surrounds is being difficult to reach so Distinctive Designs, once again, stepped up to the plate to fix something.

   The hardware was installed on the guest bathroom vanity last week.  Elsewhere in the house, the new touch up painters were hard at work filling, sanding, caulking, and repainting all the small blemishes that the original painter made or that were made during floor installation or house settling.  We're seeing a lot of movement in the house that's affecting the finish.  The round windows on the exterior wall had to be recaulked a few times since they were separating from the wall.  The crown molding on the kitchen wall cabinets had to be recaulked as they were also separating from the wall.  We're not sure where the source of the movement is, but it's a little disconcerting.  I'm just hoping that all the problems are resolved and we're not looking at a seasonal shrinking and expanding.

   Although it's still getting chilly at night, we're seeing some warmer temperatures this week.  The day we visited, daytime temperatures were in the 40s so we finally got the opportunity to light a small fire in the gazebo fireplace.  The fireplace performed well and drafted all the smoke up the chimney, but it will take a much larger fire than what we had to give off an appreciable amount of heat in this cold.  Still, it was nice to pretend we were already living in the house and enjoying the fruits of our labor.  When we left, we drove to the neighborhood across the lake to see what the view of our house was.  I was able to turn on and off the exterior and interior lights to see how much visibility there was.  It was a nice view, and unless someone has high powered optics, we have a good amount of privacy.

   Short update this week.  Lots of changes are in the form of touch ups and don't make for good visual updates.  I'm hoping we'll see the foyer tile installed next week, but the tile installers seem to work on the same schedule as the wood floor installers.  Speaking of which, we should be seeing the turret room completed if they decide to make it to our house next week.  I was looking forward to having the EV meter installed this week, but got news that there's one more thing the electrician needs to install in order to have the meter hooked up.  I think he's coming back so I'll need to reschedule the meter install.  Not much else left to accomplish before final inspection so these next updates might be a bit boring.  At least it's a good kind of boring since it means we're almost done!

Final Electrical Inspection Passed

   After a brief thaw of 50F during the week with a good amount of rain, winter returned to freeze all the precipitation into a dangerous icy sheet.  The once cleared driveway is now a treacherous sheet of ice under a crunchy layer of snow.  Mike called someone out to plow the snow off, but it didn't look like they could penetrate the ice.  Temperatures are dipping down into the single digits at night and barely breaking double digits during the day so salt is useless.  Despite the ice and cold, progress continues in the house as we push towards the finale.  The first step of the final four steps has been completed, a passing final electrical inspection.  Next week will be the plumbing and HVAC final inspection.  After all the touch ups and installations are completed will be the final building inspection after which we'll obtain our COO and can move in.  It's getting real folks.

   Nothing is sweeter in the house building business than those lovely green stickers.  Previous rough inspection stickers were just put on the sliding door glass, but this one was placed on the EV charging panel.  There are three panels in the basement so I'm not sure why they decided to put it on that one, but I'm happy it's there.  The electricians got the EV charging circuits installed so I called DTE to have the PEV meter installed.  That will happen on the 22nd.

   Here are the two circuits in the EV panel.  The top double breaker is 80 amps and powers the dedicated Tesla wall charger.  The lower is a 50 amp circuit and is connected to the NEMA 14-50 socket in the garage.  It can be used to power a welder, or any other car charger.  The 80A on the Tesla charger means that with an expected 10% drop, I'll be getting 72A at the plug, which is exactly what my car can charge at outside of the Superchargers.  The 50A is similar to what I have currently and charges at 40A in my car.

   Here's the installed NEMA 14-50 socket in the garage.  There a local cutoff switch but it's not as convenient as a throw switch.  I won't be using this on a daily basis for charging, but we have the option to use it if we ever get a second electric vehicle.

   Here's the dedicated Tesla wall charger that I'll be primarily charging on.  I'll have to get some cable management installed since I won't always be using the full length of the charging cable unless I back into the garage.  With the circuit at 80A, I'll get 40 miles of charge per hour so my daily commute should charge in one and a half hours.  I did specify a 100A circuit and Mike confirmed that the wire installed can handle 100A so we'll have the electrician swap out the breaker for a higher amperage, which will net me about 45 miles per hour of charge.

   The singular dome light was installed above the rear garage door.  It had to be lower profile than the other LED shop lights because of the garage door clearance.  Looking from the ground, it doesn't seem like there would be an issue with ceiling clearance, but Mike said the LED shop lights installed around the rest of the garage couldn't fit in the space between the door and ceiling when it was open.  There's more than enough light, but the dome will help illuminate the space a little bit more.

   This metal vent was sitting on the board that's blocking the heat duct in the foyer.  The tile for the foyer has arrived so we should be expecting the tile installers to come in one more time to finish grouting the back splashes and install the foyer tile.  There's still some design decision needed in the foyer.  We're pretty sure we want the interface between the foyer and rotunda to match the curve of the rotunda, but Mike was trying to convince us to make the interface straight.  Straight makes some sense, since the transitions between the office and dining room to foyer is straight.  Unfortunately, there isn't a straight line across the rotunda, so the tiles will need to be cut to make the pattern square.  A curve will automatically take up that correction.  That will be decided this week.

   The electricians reinstalled the foyer sconces after finally getting them repaired from the manufacturer, and after replacing the glass that the painters broke.  Unfortunately, one of the sconces was returned without the chrome metal stem.  They also installed the hanging light in the barrel vault on the front porch, but I forgot to take a picture of that.  All the worry about the height of the light was for naught as we don't have any friends that would ever bump their heads on the light.

      The pucks in all the art alcoves are connected to the Control4 system and functioning.  We've had some issue with the installation of these pucks.  We were hoping that they could be installed more flush, or recessed into the box a bit.  We had to have the electricians adjust them because the installation hole was put on the front of the installation.  Also they're not perfectly flush against the box ceiling so they don't look great.  I'm hoping it will be fixable.

   A few pieces of walnut quarter round is being stored in the great room.  I think these will be used for the shoe molding around the kitchen island and butlers pantry cabinets so they match the cabinet materials.  There isn't a lot and those are the only two areas where walnut cabinets touch the floor.  Distinctive designs is hard at work installing the remaining shoe molding around the house.

   The wood vents were installed on the first floor in all the floor vent locations.  We've had these stashed away somewhere, but they were in the raw wood form.  Now they're stained to match the wood floor color and secured in place.  The first floor is the only level with in-floor vents since the second floor and basement have in ceiling ducts.  The vents don't seem to impede the air flow much and they're not closeable, which isn't a good idea anyways.

   The remainder of the hardware has finally been delivered to the house so we'll finally get the full hardware implementation.  We were missing handles in the master bathroom, guest bathroom, and some in the kitchen.  These are the handles being installed in the guest bathroom.  I couldn't remember what handles we chose for this room, but the probable reason why they were delayed was because we wanted the two-tone look to match the floor tile.  They're a clean and simple handle, and will look nice in this bathroom.

   The stainless steel panels were finally installed on the fridge and freezer columns this week.  They're still protected with a black sheet of plastic, but cut outs were made to fit the handles and other access points.  One of the panels arrived damaged, but since the installers that Mike hired to set the appliances are Wolf/Viking certified installers, they could quickly obtain a replacement and warranty their installation.  I'm not sure if it's up to us to remove the film or if Mike will remove it when there's no more risk of damage.  I wouldn't mind removing all the film.  The fridge and freezer are currently operational, but turned off.  I haven't tried running the filtered water but I'm assuming both the water and icemaker are hooked up properly.

   The electricians finished installing the wall receptacle plates in the kitchen.  We went with a white plate that was devoid of any face screws for a cleaner look.  We have sockets installed at a good interval so we shouldn't have any issue with power.  We considered installing power strip under cabinet things, but decided against them.  They may seem convenient because you can install power where ever you want and aesthetically they get rid of the plates on the walls, but we didn't like the idea of having to bend down to look under the cabinet just to plug something in.  We're not planning on having anything permanent plugged in and sitting on the counter top so the number of plugs we have installed should be just fine for us.

   To be installed next week, the air switch for the garbage disposal is sitting near the sink.  PMP stone is supposed to come back this week to drill the hole this switch will be installed in.  It's an air switch because pressing the button pushes air in a tube connected to the electrical controller for the garbage disposal.  I'm not sure why this needs to be an air switch, but I suspect it has to do with electrical switches in the surface of a wet location.

   Other electrical installations were completed in the kitchen.  This plug was installed at the end of the kitchen island, closest to the sink.  The microwave drawer in the island is the only thing that will be plugged into this and it's fairly inaccessible and not convenient to plug anything else into.  I'll have to take a look at the breaker panel in the basement to see if this is also tied into the island receptacle on the other side of the island and I suspect they are.  A microwave doesn't pull enough current to warrant it's own breaker.

  Now that the microwave drawer plug is installed, the microwave drawer finally has power.  We've never had a drawer style microwave so it will be interesting to see if it's more or less convenient to put things in from above rather than take them out from the front.  The drawer opening and closing is powered, actuated with a touch surface press.  All buttons are on the front, so there is a small element of bending over a bit to read the buttons but the timer is pretty clearly visible from the standing position.  We don't generally use all the built in cooking features in our current microwave, so I'm not sure how useful these features will be in the new one.  There's no turntable in drawer units, and generally there isn't a need for it.  In counter top microwaves, the magnetron is located in the side of the microwave and the normal wavelength for the microwave is about 5 inches.  That means that across a standard plate, the amount of energy imparted varies within 5 inch increments, which is why you can have hot and cold spots in dish cooked in a microwave.  A turntable will rotate the dish moving the food in and out of these varying locations, allowing the energy to be imparted more evenly.  The magnetron in drawer style microwaves is located in the top, pointing down.  This means that, unless the food you're heating is greater than 5 inches deep, you'll get a fairly consistent heating across the width of the dish, and more variation from top to bottom.  Since food on a dish is relatively thin, there's less variation in temperature across the cross section.  Sorry for the science deviation.  The drawer opens fully in about 3-4 seconds which seems slow enough to not spill soup.  I think it will be pretty convenient.

   The bottom hinge plates of the swinging pantry doors were masked and painted.  There was a can of black paint in the pantry that was probably used on the hinges that were previously silver.  I'm fine with this addition and wouldn't have been offended by either color.  It would have been easier to paint the hinge plates before installing them, but it was some kind of last minute design decision.

   An unexpected design change again.  The electricians replaced the LED puck lights that were installed in the upper butlers pantry cabinets with the LED under cabinet strip lights installed in other locations.  I'm not sure why these were changed, but we're not sure we like how it looks.  There might have been some voltage issues that prevented it from lighting properly, but we were not notified about the change.  They're installed in a very visible location in the middle of the cabinet and while they provide good, even light, they're kind of distracting.  I think a better implementation might have been closer to the doors so you don't see the light, and maybe make it shine back into the cabinet for more indirect lighting.  I'll have to see what we can change.

   Moving upstairs, Distinctive Designs has started installing the shoe molding on the wood floor.  They've already finished the installation in the master bedroom and have plenty of pre-painted molding the basement ready to install.  There's less to install on the second floor since we don't have a space above the great room, so installation of this should happen quickly, if the wood floor installers can every finish.  There was no progress on the wood floor installation this week and they still have the turret bedroom left to finish.  Apparently, after needed to order 300 square feet more of flooring, much of the delivery was ordered from the wrong dye lot and had to be returned.  I'm not sure who's error it was, but I'm hoping it will be resolved quickly and we can get past this bottle neck.

   The triangular piece of tempered glass railing was also delivered and installed this week, completing the railing installation everywhere around the house.  This piece was previously measured or cut incorrectly and had to be replaced.  I'm happy with the outcome here and really glad we spent the extra money to get glass railing on the master balcony.  The view is so much better with glass, especially since it will allow better view from the seated position, which I plan on being in for the majority of my time on the balcony.

   Here's the piece of wood that will be used for a flooring transition between the master bedroom and bathroom.  It's wider than the piece used between the master bathroom and closet, which allows for a nicer foot feel.  It will be stained to match the floor and won't be covered by the door when it's closed.  I'm okay with this implementation and the difference between the closet and bedroom doesn't bother me.

   Waiting installation is the replacement shower heads for the second floor bathrooms.  We replaced the square shower heads after trying them out because they're too much like a rain shower with a low flow and we wanted something with a a higher stream.  The plumber will be back this week to install four shower heads on the second floor.  I don't think there's anything else left for them to do in the house so we're all set for the plumbing inspection.

   A minor note, the switch plate in the master closet was installed, but still needs to be painted to color match to the walls.  It looked like this location was going to be too tight to fit a plate, but they either installed a narrower plate or the install was better fitting than expected because there it is.

   The washer and dryer were hooked up and set in place last week.  There was some water in the washer, so it looks like they run through a cycle to test the connections.  I didn't run the machines, but I did power them up and play with the controls.  They look like they're going to be nice machines and are easy to use.  One snag, the latch on the dryer pedestal is broken and needs to be swapped out.  They open with a push and the broken one isn't latching at all.  Mike would have preferred a new latch, but Witbeck is sending a whole pedestal as a replacement.  It's probably easier to send a whole unit then to order a single part.

   The backsplash tile for the turret bathroom has finally arrived and is waiting to be installed.  We have a meeting on Thursday with Castro, the tile installer, to go over the foyer tile layout so I'm assuming that's when they'll be in to install this tile and grout the other backsplashes.  Mike had to actually go online and hunt this tile down since they discontinued it.  The sheets will probably be cut in half for the actual backsplash height and will be topped with a frosted pencil glass tile.  When this and the foyer gets installed, we'll be done with all the tile installation.

   Well, that's about it for this week.  Next week should see more Control4 programming, hopefully more wood floor installation, most likely more progress on the shoe molding and touch ups around the house, and probably more tile installation.   If we pass the final HVAC and plumbing inspections schedule for this week, the last inspection to be performed will be the final building inspection and we can finally get a COO and move in!  Just because we have a COO doesn't mean all the touch ups and floor finishing will be completed, so we'll have to wait for that to be completed, but at least there's no more red tape to cut before the house is ours.  It won't be long now!