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!