Just had the inspection. I need to put in some additional GFI plugs in the kitchen.
We’re finaled and we can move in!
Month: July 2009
Upstairs Railing and Flooring
The last 2 foot stretch of railing is complete upstairs. On Saturday I laid the oak flooring we needed (yes, it does take pretty much all day to lay about 16 square feet of recycled 2-1/4 oak flooring) and today I got the railing up then started work on finishing the kitchen light install and our temporary deck railing infill (it’ll make more sense with a picture).
While I was working on the floor on Saturday, Amber finished the laminate flooring in the boy’s room (yes, she laid half about 40 square feet in less time than it took me to do 16). Amber’s also been working on bundling some of our leftover oak flooring so that we can get the master cleaned and get laminate flooring down there.
The move-in list has been updated and it really does look like we’re getting close!
Plumbing done – deck and shelf planning
I installed the last toilet last night (in the master bath) so our plumbing is now officially done.
I’ve also planned our deck and done a material take-off for it. Amber’s working on planning the shelves for the pantry so we’ll order all that material tomorrow and have it delivered on Friday. I expect to get the deck built this weekend and may have time for exterior lights as well.
Kitchen
My goal for the 4th of July weekend was to get a working kitchen in the house. I started on Friday morning with backsplash material partly cut, counters still in full-size boards, range and dishwasher just occupying space (but out of boxes) and sink, faucet, garbage disposal and range hood still in boxes.
I’m happy to say that we now have a working kitchen.
A direct shot of the cabinet under our sink. I was trying to keep everything as clean as possible and keep space for storage. To that end, all of the hoses are run in the back and the waste line is very compact – though only having a single bowl sink helps with that. Since we have a pullout faucet and four water valves, I pegged the faucet supply line up on the left to prevent the pullout from getting hung up on anything.
This shot is from further to the right – just another perspective on it. The white box near the top of the picture is our STUDOR® vent. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the black box near the plugs is the controller for our air switch. The dishwasher waste line is pegged to the back wall to keep it stable and prevent it from resting/rubbing on the air switch controller. I used some leftover 7/8″ hose as a buffer between the waste line and the plumbers tape.
Our sink from above with all the bits and bobs installed. I’m not really happy with the air gap (on the right). It’s got a threaded plastic body and plastic nuts and they keep slipping the thread whenever I jiggle the hoses. I’m going to see if there’s a metal one avail and switch it out. Since our countertops are maple butcher block, I bought some maple planks to fashion the backsplash – that’s what you see here. The counter tops are 25″ deep and the cabinets with drawer/door faces are also 25″ deep. It didn’t look very nice to have the countertops and doors/drawers in the same plane so one of the reasons for going with such a thick backsplash was to push everything out. The backsplash is 1 3/4″ thick and we cut a 1/2″ thick, 3/4″ tall rabbet out of them. This gives us an extra 1 1/4″ of countertop past the cabinets and gives us a lip to hide any inconsistency where the backsplash meets the counter.
The sink again, from the side so you can see more of the countertop (and a few of my tools).
The dishwasher is installed and working. I tested it briefly by starting the cycle and then canceling. Beyond making sure it worked, I also needed to ensure that there were no leaks. No, it’s not really blue – that’s just the protective cover.
We’ll post some pictures of the range, vent hood and overall kitchen some time in the next week.
I updated the
Move-In Checklist to reflect these changes.
Change Log for…
Well, I haven’t been very good about getting change log posts up, have I. We’re still plugging away. We have someone working on the stairs and that will be done on Monday. Matt’s working on getting the kitchen together today and this weekend (after working on the oak flooring last weekend) and hopes to be done by the end of the weekend. I’ve been doing some more painting and cleaning, but most of the week has been taken up with kids’ activities. Tomorrow I hope to start installing the flooring we have for the bedrooms. The boys’ room is almost for that. I’m really looking forward to seeing that floor go down! If you look at the move-in list, you’ll see that we really are getting close… We might even be in our house in August. We shall see. I’m not feeling particularly excited, because it doesn’t really seem possible that we might be living there. It has just been too long of a process.