Two Weeks

For the last two months, everyone has been asking when we get to move in (and when the parties will begin), and our pat response has been "two weeks."  It became a joke that we would move two weeks from some yet undetermined date.  Well, now it looks like we may be within that window.  We will at least be able to move our stuff in at the end of next week, though we may not be able to pass the inspection to get an occupancy permit quite yet. The exterior work is almost completed, but the pictures aren't much different.

The biggest improvements in the last few weeks have been with the two bathrooms.  Our inspiration for the master bath was the rocky shore of Maine, where the frothy blue ocean crashes on dark brown rocks. The master bath first got a layer of orange spongy stuff, and then the tiles were layed down.

Close-up of floor tiles

Then the shower tile was added.  The shower floor is the same as the bathroom floor but with smaller tile.

The granite tops were installed, along with a glass tile backsplash, sinks from Maine Kiln works, and faucets.

All in all, I love our bathroom.  It will be like taking a shower in the ocean.  Exactly as planned.

Instead of tiling the floor of the downstairs shower, we used a Swanstone shower base, and then tiled the walls. 

Guest sink is also from Maine Kiln Works

We even have a toilet down here!

In addition, we spent our fourth of July weekend working building shelves for our storage area.  Since we don't have a basement or attic, we have built in a storage closet on the second floor.  It actually ended up being a much prettier storage area than expected, so we had to put in nice shelves to match. 

Before

After, with one shelf in place

Finally, to add a bit of color, the master bedroom and downstairs guest bedroom got another coat of paint.

Master bedroom

Guest bedroom

We are really, really close to being done.  The kitchen counter may have actually been installed today, so the remaining plumbing fixtures and appliances can go in.  Almost all of the lighting fixtures are already in.  Interior doors that were ordered six weeks ago will not arrive until August, but we can live without a few doors.  Right now we are just being held up by the porch and stairs, but we're trying to figure out some temporary fixes so we can pass inspection and move.  Our old house is under contract, and except for needing radon mitigation, passed inspection.  This is, of course, a big relief, and the timing should work out very well.

With a Little Help

The last few weeks have been crazy, and somehow three weeks have gone by without a post.  We're still not in the new house, but are getting close.

In the last three weeks, the remaining solar panels were installed,

Solar hot water panels in the foreground, photovoltaics in the back.

and we started generating electricity

After three sunny days

There is an inverter in the utility room that gives a digital readout of the power from the photovoltaics every second.  So far the record is 2.7 kW, at about 2:00 pm (as a calibration, refrigerators use about 0.5 kW).  By watching the inverter and the meter running backwards, we have no need for television. 

The concrete floor was polished (you can see how shiny it is in the pictures below.)  With that done, some of the cabinets were delivered (we say "some" because there was confusion about the space needed for the microwave, so some of the cabinets are not yet complete.)

Kitchen

Part of the island separating the kitchen and dining

Pantry

Pantry with a pass-through to the kitchen

Bathroom vanities

The upstairs floors were completed, and the baseboard trim was added.  The baseboard is actually flush with the walls.  This made sheet rocking trickier, since the bottom edge of the sheet rock is exposed.  But it is awfully pretty once Matt figured out the finer details of the groove between the sheet rock and the baseboard.

Jen's mom Jean and stepdad Dean also came out to visit, and spent almost their entire vacation working.  To save some labor costs, Matt and Dean installed the v-notched pine ceiling for the porch.  It took four days but the result is beautiful.

Day Two

Admiring the complete job

In the process, Matt found a nest of five baby birds on one of the supports under the porch (we think they are phoebes).  No sign of a mother, though the babies were obviously well fed.  We protected them with a board until they flew the coop.

And, we had our first homemade meal in our new dining room.

We are still waiting for the remaining cabinets, a sub-contractor to pour the base of the master shower, the tile, the counter tops, the fancy door hardware, and the stairs.  The plumbing fixtures are sitting in boxes in the entry way and the lighting fixtures are due in this week.

Other than that, we've been incredibly busy getting the old house ready to sell.  Jen's mom cleaned all of the windows, sucked up cobwebs (with a vacuum cleaner), and helped clean out the basement (next time we promise them a more relaxing vacation!)  But the house is finally on the market, and we have a showing this week.

And then, just when we thought we could sit back and relax a bit, the tree in front of our old house was hit by lightning.  The house and tree are fine, but it's been a hassle getting everything sorted out.  However, we do know exactly what time it hit!

This battery powered clock was zapped!

Getting close...

A coat of paint makes a huge difference!

South side of the "great room"

Great room from the other direction

First floor hall

 And baseboard trim makes it look even more complete.

Coat closets in the entry

But with a real floor, the second floor is beginning to feel like a real house.  Also note the baseboard radiators and less obvious in these pictures, the outlet covers.  Those finishing touches really seem to make a big difference.

Upstairs hall

Master bedroom

Guest bedroom

Stair landing

We've also been making more decisions.  Most recently, we spent some quality time at the lighting store, and totally made their Friday afternoon fun (or at least interesting.)  While we are down to a matter of weeks before we can spend the night at the new house, there is still a lot to accomplish before then.  The bathrooms both need to be tiled, the interior doors hung, the remaining baseboards installed, and the permanent stairs built. The cabinets were promised almost two weeks ago, but we haven't seen them yet, and the plumbing fixtures can't be installed until we have cabinets and tile.  There is also quite a bit of exterior work to be done, but that can happen after we have moved in.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we've been gradually moving things to the garage at the new house, building new septic tank covers (don't ask, you really don't want to know), and waiting for a kitchen counter to be delivered (it turns out they have to make it before they can deliver it.)  But, hopefully we'll be able to get the old house on the market in the next week or so.

And we have walls!

Yes, we realize that quite a bit of time has elapsed between blog postings.  And just when things were getting good!  Construction is moving along, though not as quickly as we hoped, partly because our foreman's father became very sick and only the foreman could move his father around.  Our hearts and thoughts go out to Josh and his family, but it did mean that the house progress slowed.

Plus, we've been busy. We spent every weekend for about six weeks going to Portland:  any one weekend included trips to the granite place, the tile place, the rug place, the furniture place, and/or the appliance place. All of that is now done: we've chosen granite for the bathroom vanities and after MUCH deliberation, we chose the tile.  We bought a rug, and we bought a couch.  We still need to order the cooktop and hood, and we found out this weekend we need a new washing machine ASAP.  On top of all of that, we've been removing clutter, packing, and cleaning the old house to put it on the market.

Matt cutting up an old fiberglass canoe with the sawzall so we could take it to the dump

While we were doing all of that, the new house got drywall. 

Living Dining Kitchen (front to back)

Living Dining Kitchen (back to front)

Pantry

Downstairs bedroom

Office at top of stairs

Master closet, cluttered already

Second floor hall

Master bedroom

Just after the ceilings were finished upstairs, we hit another snag.  There are four interior sliding doors, and the hardware for the doors was supposed to be recessed into the ceiling.  In other words, the 8'4" ceilings were supposed to be dropped 4" so the hardware could be recessed.  However, the elevations from the architect did not indicate that the ceiling should be dropped.  Now we have 8'4" ceilings, and no where to hide the ugly door hardware.  We found some beautiful "barn door" type hardware, but it would have added $1800 per door!  So, Matt got the specs for the hardware, and reverse engineered it using parts from McMaster-Carr.  The machinist at Bates is putting together a prototype, and if it works, we'll save a  lot of money but still have fancy door hardware.  No one will ever know that it wasn't deliberate (unless we tell them...)

Although we've said it before, things should really start to move along.  The painter should be done with the primer and part way through a first coat by now (we'll find out how far he got this weekend).  The cabinets are slated to arrive within a few days.  The boiler was hung, and they should be able to test the heat any day now.  The solar hot water and electricity will be finished on May 31.  The hardwood flooring for the second floor and the tile for the bathrooms has been ordered.   All of this means that although they will likely still have some exterior work to do, we'll be able to move in 4-6 weeks!  Yikes!

We're in the pink (and white)

For the first time in many months, there was a noticeable difference when we walked into the house today.  It was absolutely, eerily quiet.  Not that it's ever very loud, but everything was muffled and there was no echo whatsoever.  Why?  Because we are now insulated!

Master Bedroom

All of the exterior walls have blown in fiberglass (in white) in addition to rigid foam on the exterior.  The fiberglass gives us an R-value of about 23, and the rigid adds another 5 (and cuts down on air infiltration.)  The roof is also insulated with blown in fiberglass (unfortunately we can't find the R-value information for the ceilings.)

Living Room Ceiling

The interior walls all have pink fiberglass batts.  Now that the insulation is in, we really get a sense of each room as an enclosed space.  We've walked through the walls for the last time!

Pantry

Guest Bedroom

Masster Bathroom

Things changed quite a bit in the last week, and the giant sheets of dry wall propped up around the house mean that it won't take long before it really begins to look like the interior of a house!

Living Room