The a/c is on...!

This past week has been somewhat quiet, save for a few pretty substantial advancements... (many of the subcontractors were working on other projects during some or most of the days... thus there's not as many photos this time around and only the one update since last Sunday)

Tuesday saw the most significant item when the granite countertops arrived in the kitchen.

The cabinet suppliers were back on Wednesday and installed some of the remaining few cabinets that weren't in yet and added all the door and drawer hardware to the cabinets too. Also, the first appliance showed up and was put into place;  the dishwasher was the first one installed (by the plumber).

in the kitchen

our dishwasher is here!

the master bathroom tower

tower again...

the laundry room cabinet hardware

the laundry room

Also this past week the replacement countertops showed up for the girls' vanities....

Just to see what it'll look like, we set one of the sinks into the countertop in the master bathroom.

It was getting dark out, so I thought I'd light up the outside and see what it looked like, since the electrician has been at the site on and off this week getting more and more items finalized.

The electrician in on vacation next week, so next weekend we'll be delivering all the light fixtures to the site so he can install them the following week.

The plumbing and hvac sub contractors have been busy this week.. with the hvac work looking like it's nearly completed. The air conditioning is now working at the new house, a fact which I'm thinking will make the guys working in there happy next week.. lol

Ken Stencil is scheduled to arrive Monday to pour the driveway and the sidewalk, so Robin and I laid out the path of the sidewalk using a garden hose to mark it.

The finish carpenter has begun working on the stairs.... we'll have some photos of that this week.

The painter is schedule to be on-site this week as well, to do all the finishing touch up work he has to do.

The gutter and downspout installer should be there this week too, as should the excavator to complete his grading work after the driveway is poured.

I know the lawn installer will be itching to get out there this week too.

We're still on schedule for our final inspection date of August 6, with the carpeting scheduled to go in August 3rd, the same day the rest of the appliances are scheduled to arrive.

By the end of next week the house should be really close to being completed!

Paul

Stone completed!

The last few days have seen all of the work being done by three specialties:  The finished carpenter, the flooring guys (tile shower), and the stone mason.

The stone mason finished up the stone on Friday (with the exception of the address stone, which you can see the space for on the left-hand entry column by the front door...).

Above the stone, and just below the bottom of the siding, you can see a cut limestone sill that caps the stone.

Wednesday... still working on the stone

Thursday... stone done, sill to be done yet.

Friday, exterior stone and sill all done

Exterior finishes completed!

While the stone mason was finishing up the exterior of the house, the flooring contractors were finishing up the tile shower in the master bathroom....

floor

"nook"/shelf in the corner

walls

 

The finish carpenter began his work on Wednesday....(the finish carpenter is responsible for interior wood trim, doors, columns in the living room, window seats in the girls' room, stairs, etc) he began by doing the interior window trim first. Then he moved on to installing some of the doors and the base trim along the bottom of the walls.

I made a visit to Sears today and got the delivery of the appliances all set up. The dishwasher will arrive today and the rest of them will arrive on the 3rd of August.

Tomorrow morning I have a meeting with the excavator. He'll be doing the finish grading. Tuesday the granite countertops are scheduled to arrive, and some time early this week I'll have a meeting with the guys installing the gutters and downspouts.

Either tomorrow or Tuesday the mason will build the fireplace in the living room.

By the end of the coming week, we're told the finish carpenter should be done.

Paul

The trim arrives, tile shower begins to take shape!

(just a note here.. I've created 4 posts here covering the last 4 days of progress on-site. Enough has been going on that I needed to dedicate individual posts for everything, so please make sure to check them all out!)

Today (Tuesday) we saw the interior wood trim has arrived!

We got a call this morning asking us to meet with Dennis, Joe, and the finish carpenter on-site this afternoon to go over all the work that he has to do. We talked about the columns on top of the half walls in the living room, trim pieces on the nooks up high in there, and the girls' window seats (among other smaller details)

He told us he was going to start with the trim around the windows first...

pile of trim and base pieces

master bedroom window

At the same time, the crew from the flooring supplier was here to begin their week-long job of building the ceramic tile shower. They poured the "leveling grout" on the floor and began installing the tile on the walls. They also got the little nooks (two of them) installed inside the shower and the corner "seat" as well.

three rows of the glass tile inserts are in place

see one of the nooks?

Today also, the mound system was completed... You can see in the foreground left the three access caps for the underground septic tank. In the background you can see the completed mound system (see the little white vent pipe sticking up?)

The plumbing installer was back today doing more plumbing, including installing some sinks.

laundry room sink

Unfortunately, that led to the discovery of another "oops".... the sink in the half-bathroom got installed today, but the faucet was the wrong finish (it's supposed to be a dark bronze instead of a stainless steel)

The air conditioning unit arrived and was installed on a pad in the back yard today.

...and the masons were back again today. They basically have the walls done all the way across the front now and have started on the columns and entryway canopy.

Also today, Matt (security) was back at the site while we were there meeting with the finish carpenter. He completed his installation of the security system and tested it out. He then gave us a very brief run down on how it worked (we'll get a more in-depth lesson just before we move in), and set off both the fire alarm and the burglar alarm (they're both VERY loud!! lol).

The granite countertops in the kitchen are schedule to show up next week, so they had a guy out there today as well to measure up the cabinets. For the granite, they have a single big slab of granite back at their shop. Being that it's a natural product, every slab is a little different. So we chose ours slab, and then they measure the cabinets after they're installed. Then he takes those measurements back to the shop where they do all the cutting.

The granite for the kitchen countertops will show up in two massive slabs and that's it. The backsplash will be smaller pieces of course, but just two huge slabs for the countertops.

Tomorrow should see even more exciting progress!

Paul

Septic and mound system

The biggest new arrival today (Monday) was the beginnings of the septic system and mound system in the back of the house....

Dion's crew arrived today and began digging a hole for the septic tank (a 6'x12' underground tank), the trench for the piping from the house to the tank, and the mound system in the back of the yard.

While they were making a mess in the back yard, the cabinet installers were very busy installing yet more and more cabinetry, including alot of doors and drawers.

living room built-ins

master bathroom almost done

kitchen...now with doors and drawers

kitchen.. there's even some glass

kitchen... soon a sink will live there

half-bathroom with cutout for the sink

lockers in the hallway

We also found two "oops" situations with the cabinets today...

They did a cutout in the countertops of the girls' vanities.... you may recall that we have "vessel" sinks there, which sit on top of the countertop, not set inside of it. 

This was due to a miscommunication between the plumber and the cabinet installers. The installers asked the plumbers for the template to cut out for the sinks and he didn't specify that these two cutouts were actually for the master bathroom, and not the upstairs vanities.

So, at the plumber's expense, the cabinet installers have to take those two countertops off, build new tops, and replace them in about a week.

Also, the built-ins in the living room are supposed to have glass doors on two out of the three doors on each cabinet so that the tv remote (etc) can communicate with the equipment. The cabinet installer will be fixing those (easy fix: they remove the panel on the doors and replace it with a glass panel) themselves.

 I wonder what Tuesday (today) will bring!

Paul