This unpredictable spring continues with weather vacillating between beautiful spring days and winter snow storms but the one thing that seems a near certainty is that we will be done with building this house. We got to visit on a slightly cold but clear spring day to nitpick on all the final details that will be taken care of this week. The final wax/oil finish has been applied to all the wood floors and all the unfinished wood trim has been stained. The stair treads have been stained and polyurethaned, but still need some paint and touch up. In general the house needs some more paint touch up and the greatroom fireplace needs to have some trim pieces installed, but that's about it. We're ready for final inspection, scheduled this Tuesday. It was scheduled for last Friday, but Mike is once again butting heads with the city clerk, who insists upon revisiting every piece of paper we ever submitted and finding some kind of fault. Regardless of the redtape delay, we've continued to move forward with our plans to move in the next few weeks, painting the old house and making Realtor suggested upgrades.
Dumpsters and trailers are gone. Nothing construction related is permanently in front of the house but the garage still houses some ladders and supplies for the painters. A few extra building materials will be moved down into the basement and we have a good stack of shingles that can stay in the garage. We would like to get the floor epoxied, but that will have to wait for warmer weather.
The longest standing structure on the property is gone. The port-a-john was removed from the site last week after being there for more than three years. At $95 a month, I've spent close to $400 for the rental of that thing. I can't say that I'll miss it but it was essential to the building of our house, so I'll always be grateful for it.
The faucet in the mudroom bathroom was replaced this week. We liked the look of the previous faucet, but it didn't extend into the sink far enough and the spray wasn't angled well. It felt like your hands were too close to the back of the sink when you were washing your hands, so we replaced it with this longer necked faucet that gets the water nearly to the center of the bowl. The faucet uses the same single hole and preserves the utilitarian look of the bathroom so combined with the improved performance, I'm happy with the swap. Unfortunately, the old faucet wasn't returnable since it was "used" so we'll keep it around for when we finish the basement. Seriously though, how are you supposed to know how a faucet sprays unless you have it installed?
Here's the final look at the foyer with all the adjoining floors stained, waxed, and cleaned. The small walnut trim piece at the base of the door has been stained to match the floor and door color and all rooms are now accessible and walkable. There's not much touch-up in this area, but the ceiling does have some drywall that needs to be sanded and repainted. They better take care to contain the dust because it can be a pain to clean up.
Here's the final view from the rotunda looking forward. The fireplace still needs some final adjustment, but has passed the gas inspection. The installers need to install some of the faux brick facade and clean up the inside of the glass. There's a little issue with blending the painting touch ups as it's visible with a different sheen. I'm not sure what can be done to mask it, but Mike will raise the issue with the painters to see if they can make the fixes less apparent.
The dining room has been cleared, cleaned, and looks immaculate. Not much else to say except that we plan on putting a 8-10 person dining table in here. We were initially planning on getting something custom made through some contacts of Margaret's, but we're not sure how quickly they can fabricate the thing. We were looking at a metal base with some kind of reclaimed or live edge table top, but I have no idea what chairs we should use.
Here's the study in all it's glory. I'm looking forward to working from home here, just as soon as we can figure out the desk situation. Definitely looking at something "L" shaped, following the built in wall and far window, so we face into the room. I would love to incorporate rising standing desk, but I'm not sure how it would all fit in together. A single socket in the middle of the floor should provide us with enough power for our two towers and multiple monitors, but we'll need to utilize power backup power distribution and be able to hide it all. Wired connections never made it into the floor, but we won't have any trouble with wireless coverage. A few network shared printers and scanners will sit on the counters and the shelves will be used for decorative storage as well as books.
The risers and stringer on the stairs still need to be painted, which will take place this week. The treads were stained and polyurethaned to a very smooth surface. Almost too smooth and we might need to look into some kind of grippy runner for the steps. It's not so slippery that you would slip with normal walking, but we have to consider energetic kids running up and down these stairs.
Distinctive Designs installed this metal piece to make up the gap between the metal fireplace backing and the trim bezel. There was an unfortunate gap between the metal plate and bezel once we finally got it installed and there was no way to remove and replace the plate now that the tile was installed. The border around the bezel closely matches the metal plate back and adds to the "steampunk" look of the fireplace. It's an awesome solution to an annoying problem.
Final finishes on the great room. A little blending issue with the paint touch ups in here, but barely noticeable. The cleaners will return this week to clean from top to bottom again, dusting the high windows and hopefully cleaning up the last of the dust on the floor. I met with The Sound Vision for a final walk through and discussed what happens after we move in. There's primary programming on all the switches so the top button controls the lights in the room. They'll order etched buttons that will display the functions and we can call them back for reprogramming when we've lived in the house a bit.
Here's the view from the second floor looking down on the greatroom. There's still a bit of ice on the lake but the view is still fantastic. The swans were swimming around eating in what little liquid water there was. We had the kids with us this trip and their rambunctious play was pretty loud in the empty house. I'm hoping furniture will dampen the sound a bit.
Final kitchen view. There's a bit of protective film left on the cook top covers but all have been removed from the rest of the appliances. The fridge is running but the freezer is still off. Some packing material remains in the ovens, which we'll remove when we move in. All the cabinet doors have been adjusted and there are a few places we still need to touch up. We'll still have to decide which drawers and cabinets will store what items and we'll need to get some utensil organizers, but that's part of the fun of moving in, right?
Here's the other angle of the kitchen. I'm almost going to be afraid to cook in here and I wonder how long it will take before I start to not be paranoid about every spill and drip. There's no way we have enough stuff to fill all these cabinets, really only occupying 1/3rd of the space. Finding the best place for cups and plates will be the first thing we'll figure out. It should be close to the dishwasher, but not too deep into the kitchen to impede the cooks.
I would have never thought that the rotunda would look so good. The final finishes really make the house. The finish installers and Mike took it from a shell of a house to a beautiful showcase. When I walk around the house, it doesn't feel massive and expansive. I think this is either because I'm getting used to the space or because we really optimized the layout so it doesn't feel excessive. I think the rotunda is the only room that could be labeled "excessive" since a stairway and hall could have been implemented in a smaller space. It breaks a few "best practices" in house design since it's in the middle of the house and doesn't contain any windows, making the room darker. While it is darker than the other rooms, it does receive natural light from the greatroom and foyer, so it's not that bad. It's the center hub of the house and all rooms revolve around it, so I'm glad it turned out as good looking as it did.
Once we get the elevator installed, access to all the rooms of the second floor will be really easy. The master and second bedrooms are close to the stairs and the laundry room and turret room are close to the elevator. There aren't any long halls to traverse to get to rooms and private living up here is both secluded and open at the same time. Having the laundry room that doubles as a craft room on the second floor allows us to live up here but it's still open to the floor below. The first floor is for eating and entertainment. I like how the house is divided in the traditional "front house, back house" design as well as removing the private bedrooms from the common living space. Many homes, especially with first floor masters, integrate in the private bedrooms right next to the public living spaces, which I'm not a fan of.
I'm surprised at how much I like the tin ceiling in the rotunda. When it was first proposed, I didn't really know what to think, especially a dark color on the ceiling, but the color perfectly complements the wood floor. We've discussed a tray or dome ceiling in the rotunda as is more common, but cost and lack of confidence in our former construction crew removed that idea. It would have been pretty impossible to install a skylight here too since it's in the middle of the house and under the peak of the roof, far, far above the height of the ceiling.
The threshold between the master bathroom and bedroom has been stained and polyurethaned. It's too bad we needed a height transition between the two, but it's pretty minimal. The color matching is pretty close and within the variation of the floor. This is the only room with a transition threshold between tile and wood so I think we did pretty well.
Here's the finished master bathroom. This room has been completed for a pretty long time, but we still need to get the Robern medicine cabinets installed, which should be here any day now. It's not needed for final inspection but we will sure need it for move in. There's no current timetable on when we'll get the tub and tile for the feature wall installed, but hopefully soon. I think we'll get the powder room installed before the tub.
Final master closet. I'm going to have fun putting my clothes in here because there will be so much room left over. We're not big wardrobe people but it almost seems like a requirement to have a large walk in closet in a house this size. From design to implementation, we actually lost a bit of space to the laundry room to remove the dead spaces and make walling a bit easier. It's not noticeable in the master closet, but the laundry room feels more spacious and the turret closet it more compressed.
Everything we want implemented in the master shower is present except for the zero threshold. It's pretty low as implemented, but not zero like the guest bathroom. My only other concern for this shower is that without doors, it will be colder since the heat and steam isn't being held in. If we find this to be true, we could always put some glass doors on but I'm hoping the combination of the heated floors and awesome geothermal heat will help us out here.
Here's the final look at the master bathroom vanity. A new controller will be installed for the lighting under the vanity since it was determined that the currently installed one was faulty. The electrician will be coming in this week to install the new controller and tighten up some of the other light fixtures around the house. He'll also install the bus fuses for the NEMA 14-50 in the garage, completing the last of the electrical items on the punch list.
Final look at the turret bedroom before we move all the kids furniture in here. As awesome as the wood floors are, they're not great for play, so we're getting two rugs in here. An 8' round for the turret and a large rectangular for the main part of the room. The rectangular will be offset to the walls since we'll be getting new beds to fit in the corner on the right. That should allow for maximum play area in the open floor space.
We'll probably put a play table and bookshelf on the left wall next to the bathroom door and either have toys in the turret or clean up a play place in the basement. The idea is to keep the toys away from the first floor, especially the greatroom, since that's what our life has become right now in the current house. If the girls don't like having both beds in the same corner, we could always put one bed over in this corner. It's large enough for a twin, but a full would extend into the doorway. I grew up with a twin at my parents house until I left for college, so they should be able to as well. Another option we've entertained is to install lofts that flank the turret, so they could each have their own personal space in the shared room. It's still something we can consider as they get older.
Last picture for this update is the girls bathroom. We still have to paint and mount the mirror and all the door stops need to be installed. The door stops could happen this week but most likely next week since we're still talking about where to put them. We don't have a mirrors for the guest and second bedroom, nor the mudroom, so that's something that we'll still need to pick out, purchase, and install after we move in. We'll also need to populate the house with new furniture since the stuff we have doesn't really match the new house and it's all about 10 years old. It will all work for now, so we can replace them as we encounter things we like.
That's about for this week. We'll hopefully get the inspector to come out this week and obtain our certificate of occupancy. We've already started to move some things to be stored in the basement, but can't move in anything that would occupy the first or second floor. We will be having a pre-move in open house for friends and family this weekend so they can see the house before we move in all our stuff. It's getting really close folks.
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