Occupied!

June 13 was our official move-in day. Our Certificate of Occupancy arrived in the mail Saturday afternoon, just in the nick of time. Thanks to Tony for his hard work, strong back, and big biceps in helping with our move! However, we discovered that someone else has already moved in: a flycatcher has built a nest over the range hood exhaust vent at the back of the house. Boy was she surprised to see us, and two cats!

From Moved in

Last week was spent unpacking a large portion of our "stuff", deciding where to store it, then changing my mind and storing it somewhere else. It's now quite a challenge to locate things and I find myself opening and closing drawers, cabinets, and closets in search of a given item.
And if the neighbors have been eyeing the house at all, they will have noted strange patterns of lights going on and off, especially at night, as we attempt to discern the mysterious ways of our electrician, and learn what light switches work which lights.

I oiled the soapstone counter tops for the first time. Here's a "before" photo:

From Kitchen

I felt a little self-conscious purchasing the mineral oil at our local drug store, as it was labeled "intestinal lubricant", and I had to ask for it. (People really ingest this stuff?!) I got the last bottle that they had. I told the clerk that it was for my soapstone. She was nonplussed. Here's an "after" photo:

From Kitchen

The felines, Otis Spunkmeyer and Jackie Manuel, have settled in, although the first 24-48 hours were a little rough on them. Jackie spent most of Saturday hiding behind some boards in the basement. Otis spent most of the day shedding. By Sunday, both were venturing outdoors, collecting ticks, and now it's as if they've always lived here.

From Moved in

From Moved in

It's an unreal feeling to finally be inhabiting the place. My sister aptly describes it as, "Waiting for the real owners to show up and tell us that we have to leave." We both feel as if we are living in a vacation house, only working.
We are still having a few details attended to:
-The outdoor lighting fixtures arrived this week and are pending installation.
-Colin and Carly finished the outdoor shower surround, so we can now use that without fear of alarming passing motorists.
-Sadly, our beautiful maple butcher block island top was marred last week by the locksmiths who mistook it for a workbench and pounded several deep gouges into it. After we discovered this, D was ready to pound some gouges into the locksmiths. It's the first-scratch-on-the-new-car syndrome, although we would feel differently about it if one of us had been the culprit. Windell will have to remove it, have it belt sanded and refinished. In the meantime we will have a lovely plywood replacement for it. I like to think of it as a sort of "shabby chic" look.
-Still need bar stools for the island, but since the top will be MIA for a while, we can wait.
-We will require the services of W.B. to connect, network, and wire all of the AV and computer components. The outdoor speakers for the screened porch also need mounted, but we are waiting for the lights to go up, first.

K's list of top 10 things that we love about our new house:
10.Geothermal heating/cooling rocks! Very quiet.
9. Screened porch overlooking Paige's Pond.
8. Walk-in-closet with lots of open shelves so that D can stack his T-shirts.

From Moved in

7. Large garage with good lighting.

From Moved in

6. Kitchen and pantry (filled this baby up in no time!). Love having all drawers in the base cabinets. No more crawling around on the floor to reach into the rear of the cabinet.

From Moved in

From Moved in

5. Outdoor shower...fabulous!

From Water

4. All of the interior wood details...reclaimed wood for the wainscoting, office, and bathroom vanities and mirrors, black walnut cabinets, locally sourced red oak flooring.

From Moved in

From Moved in

3. Open kitchen, dining, living area.

From Moved in

2. Energy efficiency...Energy Star appliances, LED lights, foam insulation, deep roof overhangs, solar hot water, Jotul wood stove, rainwater catchment.
1. That new house smell!

Finishing Touches

It's down to the details, now. except for the woodstove installation. That occurred this week, and required 4 strong men to lift and position the 450+ lb. beast. Now all that remains is connecting the fresh air intake.

From Stonework and Fireplace

From Stonework and Fireplace

From Stonework and Fireplace

The big job for D and K has been CLEANING in preparation for moving. After talking with Colin and learning that fees for merely mediocre cleaning crews start around $1200, we decided that maybe we could find the time to do it ourselves. Of course, this translates into D doing most of the work, but armed with a wide mirofiber mop head and duster and a bucket of water, he has completed a once-over of the entire house. We have had to wipe down all of the painted woodwork, clean drywall mud and old sticky adhesive off of the acrylic showers (Avon SkinSoSoft works great!), and run the dust mop over every wall surface to remove the dust left over from the hardwood floor sanding. Now he's working on windows, cleaning more adhesive off the windows and scraping polyurethane spatters from the glass...inside and outside. I've been told that this dust will continue to circulate for the next couple of months! Fortunately, the temperature inside the house has been very comfortable to work in without any climate control turned on. That foam insulation is the Bomb!

Todd has been doing some paint touch-ups and applying stain and polyurethane to the exterior doors. Colin has been doing some caulking that was needed, and he installed the bathroom mirrors that he fashioned out of more of the old barn wood. They look great! Full length beveled mirrors were also installed in the two baths.

Al fired up the solar hot water heater, and the roof temperature today was reading over 140 degrees F, while the temperature in the tank was 130+ degrees. Because the water temperature will vary somewhat during the day, the mix of hot and cold water will have to be adjusted with each use.

The crew finally showed up at the end of last week to install the gutters. They managed to get one long one up on the back of the house, sans downspouts, before the rain cranked up again, so there is still no connection to the cistern and all of this rain is just so much run off.
In other water news, D took the first outdoor shower this week. Never mind that there is no enclosure!
The biggest news this past week, though, is that we had our final inspection on Wednesday and passed!! All that is outstanding is the water quality report, which was supposed to be submitted long ago, but now cannot be located, so we must have it redone. Looks like moving time is fast approaching!!

Power boost

The kitchen is nearly complete with the installation of the GE ceramic top range this week. Only the microwave is still at large.

From Kitchen

We opted for sealing the grout on the backsplash in anticipation of possible future accidents with tomato sauce and black raspberry jam. The soapstone is still in its natural state. Oiling will wait until we have moved in and the majority of the dust has settled. Paul has installed all of the desired dimmers on the lights (island pendants, dining area, LEDs in the living room, and the outdoor screened porch), and we await the arrival of the reordered outdoor Hanover Gemini wall sconces.

Outdoors, the Kohler generator (17 KV) is in, along with the propane tank which is buried nearby.

From Exterior

The last 20+ years of country living have taught us that a secondary power source is necessary if you want to flush your toilets during a power outage...the well pump, after all, is powered by electricity. This baby should support most of the critical household functions, and the house is wired accordingly with a separate circuit breaker box which will be activated automatically in the event of loss of power. No more lugging the little ol' Honda generator outside and jerking the starter cord like a madman in a downpour while lightning flashes and thunder roars. Our lives will be just a little less exciting as a consequence.

Colin has just about completed the backfill around the foundation. Now, D has his work cut out for him in terms of planting grass seed and landscaping, all in addition to the already onerous task of tending the vegetable garden and remaining acres of landscape.

From Exterior

From Exterior

From Exterior

Coming up next: gutters and downspouts!

Fired up!

Well, summer is approaching and you know what that means: time to fire up the woodstove! This week, D broke in the Jotul Oslo woodstove with "burn-ins" in anticipation of its installation.

From Stonework

Inside the house, Paul has installed the Hubbardton Forge Mackintosh pendant in the dining area.

From Lighting

And the grazing lights are in place over the fireplace.

From Lighting

Windell and Trampus's work has been completed on the upstairs closets and the lights are in place.

From Lighting

Out on the screened porch, the ceiling fan is up.

From Deck, Screened porch

We sat out here yesterday and enjoyed a chilled malted beverage. I predict that we will be spending a lot of time out here...really pleasant!
Underneath the screened porch, the stamped concrete has been sealed. The same stamped concrete was used as the deck landing, and at the back door of the garage.

From Exterior

Colin and the crew have been laying the drainage pipes which will channel the rain water from the gutters and downspouts into the cistern tanks. And Todd has painted the foundation parging to match the gables. Here's the house from the northwest corner:

From Exterior

And here's a view from the south side:

From Exterior

Finally, D's garden is undergoing expansion. All of the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are in, and he has planted the second round of corn and green beans. If the strawberries don't all succumb to gray mold, we will have gallons to eat and make into freezer jam. Here's a view of the garden and work area from the second floor window:

From Exterior

Unfortunately, when the Hanover Lantern exterior lights came in, they were not the model that I had expected...slight miscommunication between me and the lighting guy. So, these will have to be returned, after taking about 3 weeks to get here. Still to go in are the vanity lights which arrived last week. I'm looking forward to getting these up because we will then measure for mirrors which we plan to have made from the reclaimed wood.

Lightin' up.

The first wave of lighting fixtures are in. So far, so good. Making a decision about lighting fixtures based on pictures in a catalog or website is a test of your powers of imagination. Seeing the light in a showroom helps, to some degree, but you still have to consider how that light will look in the environment of your home. The scale of the fixture, the quality and amount of light cast, the way a given light will blend with other elements in a room...all virtual unknowns to me as I tried to make these decisions.
In the kitchen, dining and living room, the recessed lights are Cree LR6 LED's, 2700K, and the island pendants are Besa Mia low-voltage:

From Lighting

Also in the kitchen, we have NSL xenon undercabinet lighting.

From Lighting

Upstairs, the Minka-Lavery Iconic hallway pendant and Hubbardton Forge Simple Lines wall sconce are in:

From Lighting

And the Regency ceiling fans are up in the living room and all of the bedrooms:

From Lighting

On the outside, the deck and screened porch are completed.

From Deck, Screened porch

From Deck, Screened porch

The concrete for the pads outside of the basement door, back garage door, and deck landing was poured last week and stamped and stained to match (sort of) the blue stone on the front porch.

From Deck, Screened porch

From Deck, Screened porch

From Deck, Screened porch

From Deck, Screened porch

The screened porch will have a ceiling fan, as well. Still pending delivery and installation: all of the exterior wall sconces, vanity sconces, and the dining area pendant. Stay tuned!

Making a splash

The house is really starting to look like someone could live there. Richard worked on the kitchen backsplash this week, until we ran short on field tiles by about 2 or 3 (so close!), so we're on hold pending delivery of another box.

From Kitchen

From Kitchen

In the garage, the appliances are staged for installation: refrigerator, range hood, washer, dryer. The slide-in range and microwave still need to be ordered.

From Kitchen

Todd has been very busy painting, including the garage:

From Drywall and Paint

In the bathrooms, all of the towel bars, hooks, and toilet paper holders are up. Here's a shot of the mudroom shower:

From Baths

Now that the hardwood floors are finished, the floor registers have been installed.

From HVAC, Electric

Continuing on the subject of ventilation and heating, the Water Furnace thermostats and ERV control are in, and the Jotul Oslo woodstove was delivered...all 450 pounds of it. Colin used his Bobcat to unload it from the trailer. D plans to have a couple of "burn-ins" outdoors before the actual installation so as to avoid smoke and fumes indoors.

From HVAC, Electric

The smallish back deck is underway now that we've had more ipe delivered. Also, note that the shed dormer has been partially painted.

From Deck, Screened porch

The upright supports for the screened porch and deck railings will be copper pipe and ipe. Colin suggested using copper since the market price has decreased considerably. I suppose that the choice of ipe could be considered one of our "transgressions" with regard to sustainable building techniques since it comes from Brazil. We originally discussed using locust, but local sources are hard to come by, so we elected to use ipe due to its insect and weather resistance, as well as the beauty of the wood. The stuff is heavy! For an outstanding example of the use of ipe on a large deck, visit the Bonsai Garden at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. That's what inspired our eventual choice of ipe for our small deck and screened porch. At the arboretum, they have allowed the wood to weather naturally, with beautiful results. We plan to use some sort of finish on our ipe, as yet to be determined. Here's the materials lying in wait on the garage floor:

From Deck, Screened porch

Colin has installed concrete well covers over the cistern access points:

From Water

In the coming week, we expect to have some lighting installed, more painting progress, and further work completed on the screened porch and deck.

Final Floor

After much rejoicing over the outcome of the NCAA tournament, we also had much joy over the final finishing on the hardwood floors (but without the sofa burning or bon fires). As loyal readers may recall, the red oak was sourced from a nearby mill here in Virginia, and the finish is Bona Traffic. This is a low VOC waterborne polyurethane finish. The wood is laid in random 3, 4 and 5 inch widths. We elected not to stain the floors, feeling that it's hard to improve on Mother Nature's work, and the results are beautiful!

From Flooring

From Flooring

In the past week, we've acquired a Kenmore bottom-freezer refrigerator, an LG front load washer, and an LG dryer. The kitchen backsplash tiles are still "in the mail", but we are hoping for delivery soon, followed by the laying of said tiles, after which the errant range hood may be installed. All of the lights have been finalized and ordered (blogger wipes sweat from brow).
Colin has once again taken up the mantle of cistern designer, and a bit of progress has been made on that front. Here's a photo of Colin and D surveying some additional pipe and fittings, with the pond visible in the background:

From Water

And here's Colin feeding the electrical supply for the pump, and the "water out" line from the cistern to the pressure tank:

From Water

Finally, we'd like to give a big SHOUT OUT to Mark and Dally who will be wedded on April 11, 2009! XOXO

From Mark and Dally

Final Four....months?

Hello, sportsfans! Between a heavy work schedule and March madness, I have not had much to report on the house. But now that the Tarheels have prevailed and there's a whole week before the Final Four, I have time to catch my breath.
On the exterior, Colin and crew have been working on the screened porch...weather permitting. They installed Miratek T&G for the ceiling and Nichiha siding on the house outside of the basement door. And, much to our delight, Steve was able to provide us with our outdoor shower!

From Exterior

From Exterior

The supports for the front porch are complete, made from Azek.

From Exterior

Colin has made a handrail for the stairs out of the same reclaimed barn oak used for the wainscoting. Once Todd applies the finish, it should match.

From Doors, Windows, Trim

All of the interior doors now have levers.

From Doors, Windows, Trim

From Doors, Windows, Trim

Windell and Trampus have installed all of the various knobs and pulls for the drawers and cabinets throughout the house.

From Wood, cabinets, counters

From Wood, cabinets, counters

From Wood, cabinets, counters

In the next week, we hope to have the hardwood floor finishing started, towel bars installed in the baths, a refrigerator and tile for the backsplash delivered, and President Obama's pick for men's NCAA Championship fulfilled.

Finished Wainscoting

This week, Todd gave the reclaimed barn oak wainscoting a coat of the water-based polyurethane that's been used on all of the natural wood surfaces in the house. It darkened it a bit, and it looks even better!

From Doors, Windows, Trim

From Doors, Windows, Trim

From Doors, Windows, Trim

Wainscoting

So, not a lot of substantial progress to report. The main focus has been on installing the wainscoting on the stairway using more of the reclaimed oak.

From Doors, Windows, Trim

From Doors, Windows, Trim

The cultured granite vanity with integral sink for the upstairs bath is in place, after drilling the needed additional 2 holes for the faucet (a little mix-up in the ordering process...better not enough holes, than too many!).

From Baths

And the hand-held spray is up in the master bath shower. Cardboard on the floor is optional.

From Baths

Todd the painter has been back at work putting on a second coat of BM Aura on the doors and woodwork. With spring just around the corner, we hope that work can soon resume on the exterior siding and painting.
Windell and Trampus stopped by with some of the knobs and pulls for the cabinets and drawers, and decisions were made regarding their placement.
Lighting decisions are pending, but getting closer.
The saga of the errant kitchen range hood has nearly concluded. Here's the short version: Broan Energy Star undercabinet range hood ordered via the Internet. Range hood shipped via UPS. Tracking the order, range hood languishes in Secaucus, NJ for days after the expected delivery date. Internet vender contacted. Vender promises to contact UPS. One week goes by. UPS calls: "Did you receive your package?" "No." "OH! I am SO sorry! We will contact the vender." A few days later, UPS calls: "Did you receive your package?" "No." "OH! I am SO sorry!" But sure enough, a few days later an email confirmation arrives from the vender that another range hood has been shipped. This time, PRESTO! The hood arrives and despite the aggravation surrounding UPS, I am a satisfied customer. All that remains is installation.
Kitchen backsplash design is in flux, but is linked to range hood installation (see above rant).
D is keen to get the gutters up so that we can begin to collect that rain water in his cistern. That 10 inches of snow last week is viewed as a wasted resource. After attending the Virginia Association of Biological Farming last weekend, he's all fired up to get that garden going. Meanwhile, his digging continues. In other garden news, snow peas were planted 2 weeks ago, but no sign of them yet, even though we did, indeed, have snow.