Changes/updates
Gutters
One of the first things we got completed after the move in was getting the copper gutters installed. I looked at a few different companies for the installation but landed, again, on the company that installed our copper roof and redid the copper flashings, Copper Bays (http://www.copperbays.com/). Two other companies installed copper gutters, but neither soldered the joints, only using a standard gutter caulk. While the cost was rather high, clocking in around $40k, I think it was worth it. The gutters are a 6" half round with 6" downspouts. The connectors between the gutters and downspouts is a large funnel, which will make clogging with debris difficult. We opted to forego the gutter screen for now to determine if we actually need it. So far, any leaves or needles present in the gutters have flowed out with heavy rains and once or twice annual clearing isn't too difficult
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| Februrary 2019 |
We had the backyard lawn leveled and installed in the fall of 2019 so it really came in during the spring/summer of 2020. Landscaping improvements could be a post on their own so I won't detail everything now, but we had everything leveled, mixed in top and compost, had a new wall installed, and everything sprayed with hydroseed. We chose hydroseed over sod because while it does take longer to fill in, I think seed sends down better roots than sod, making it more drought tolerant. Along with the installation of the lawn came the installation of irrigation. We had irrigation installed for all future beds and lawn areas, all fed from a pump on the lake. It has worked out fabulously and with the Rachio controller, we can keep water usage to a minimum.
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| Early Spring Lawn 2020 |
I'll start off this post with my favorite little things about our new house. I think they mostly fall in the category of "things that make my life easier but are totally not essential". The top of the list has to be the Brizo Vuelo touch faucet in our kitchen. It has a pull down hose and can either spray or stream, but the touch feature is so useful. You just touch anywhere on the faucet to turn the water on and off. You have to have the handle set on and at the temperature you desire, so we usually have it set to a medium volume on hot. The little LED at the base of the faucet indicates the temperature of the water. Soapy hands? Just touch the top of the faucet with the back of your hand or arm. The touch feature is so useful, I often find myself touching non-touch faucets from muscle memory.
The Softlite casement windows have been working out wonderfully. No frost on the inside of the windows during the winter time and the glass is the only colder thing about it. The single lever locking mechanism is nice and they crank out easily. I've had to scrape some paint over spray and washed all the windows a few times. Opening the casements full allows me to get the outside of the window from inside the house; useful for those few that are high up. The only windows I haven't been able to fully get to are the four highest in the great room. I can use an extension squeegee and a ladder to almost reach the top of the windows from the outside, and I used the tallest ladder I have that can stand alone to squeegee the inside. There's still some over spray to scrape off on those windows, but it's not as visible way up there.
Big Things
Of course there are bigger things we designed into the house that make it great. I think these are more of the purposeful things that worked out well.
Geothermal
The geothermal heating and cooling has been working well. I have to admit that the electricity costs have been higher than I thought it would be, considering the ICF nature of the house and tight windows. For our nearly 8000 sq ft house, which includes the basement, I've seen electricity costs between $200 and $600 a month, depending on the season. I think I'll have to take a look at the air intake for the kitchen hood because it always seems to be leaking, and is supposed to be closed off via electronic damper. The electric heat is the energy efficiency killer and shouldn't need to come on, but I've seen it on a few times during the coldest winter nights. The cooling has been phenomenal. We keep the house around 72 degrees F and even on the three digit days, have no problem maintaining that temperature. Cooling bill for July this year was $160.
Hot water loop
The hot water loop has been a nice convenience, given the size of the house and the distance of the kitchen and bathrooms to the water heater. I did discover that constantly having the loop on was an energy hog since it caused the water heater to basically always need to heat. The water returning to the water heater would lose enough heat on its trip around the house to signal the water heater to kick on. The water circulation pump we have is supposed to be smart, and remember times when the attached sensor detects hot water usage and automatically circulate at those times. Our usage schedule is so variable, it wasn't useful, so I've resigned to using a wifi connected switch and programming two automatic cycles for the circulation pump. I can also use a 1-tap shortcut on my phone, or Google assistant to turn on the circulation pump.
Control4 programming
The Control4 system and distributed audio/video system has been nice. There are been a few times when the TV system wouldn't work properly but the Sound Vision has been fantastic for support. With the hardware they installed in conjunction with Control4, they can remotely resolve most issues and reprogram the system when requested. We did have one of the "Just Add Power" video distribution units fail on the Tivo Bolt, which is currently being RMAed for replacement at no cost.
Motion detection lights
In addition to the convenience the Control4 system has provided for installation and lighting control, I've gain access to some of the higher level programming functions through the proprietary "Composer Home edition" software. All of the lighting controls programmed by the Sound Vision is protected and unalterable, but I can add controls on top of it. First, there's an easy to use "if-when" programming available on the Control4 website when you log into your system. Also, the Composer software allows for more complex programming. Now, I'm a software engineer by trade, so maybe I could grasp the programming concepts a bit quicker, but it's a high level programming language that's pretty easy to pick up. I've programmed the kitchen undercabinet lights to ramp on for 5 minutes if motion is detected during the night time hours, only if someone hasn't manually turned on the lights. There's lots more you can do, and I haven't begun to fully explore all the interactions.
Peace and quiet
Best of all, is the peace and quiet. It's not perfect quiet, but you'll not find that unless you're 50 miles from the closest civilization. I can hear some road noise way off in the distance and there's still the sound of yard machines from neighbors around the lake, but it's all distant and quiet enough. On our property, we've seen deer, turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, snapping and painted turtles, swans, geese, ducks, sandhill cranes, hawks, a bald eagle (fly over), and something that looked like a mink. There's no end to the wildlife entertainment and our windows give us a great vantage point while leaving them undisturbed. I've made it out on the lake a few times to fish and have caught large and small mouth bass, bluegill, sunfish, crappie, perch, and a pike. All the fish were in great health with no parasites, so I don't want to overfish and stress the population. I always catch and release.
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| A view from the greatroom |
Least favorite things
Of course, not everything can be perfect and a few things have cropped up so far during our time here.
With the long driveway comes the issue of clearing it all of snow during the winter. For the past two winters, we've hired a local with a truck mounted snowplow to clear it. He would come out when the snowfall was greater than 2" and it only cost $25 each time. Pretty good price considering he didn't need to plow more than 10 times during each winter season. There were some drawbacks though. He didn't always make it out before we had to drive on it, so we would make compressed icy car tracks in on the driveway that his plow couldn't scrape up. I tried to salt the tracks, but if wasn't warm enough, the salt wouldn't melt it all away, only perforating it, then refreezing. Also, the plow scraped up a good chunk of grass and destroyed a sprinkler head. Not a super expensive repair, but annoying. This year, I bought a new Troybilt Artic Storm 30 to handle the snow removal.
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| Troybilt Artic Storm 30 |
That's it for now, but I will be making some more updates. We're finally finishing off the powder room and have the banquette installed with some new furniture, so there are updates to post.
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