water, straight up

Rob ran the water from the street into the house, and set most of the plumbing fixtures. The boys bathroom is finished and looks so nice - all chrome, shiny tile, and a nice blue on the walls.

The venting in the laundry room was on hold, because it was fabricated wrong, but they are scheduled to come in tomorrow to finish.

ooooh, pretty!

Room by room, Rob is painting, then pulling up the paper from the floors. Yesterday he did the boys room and the spare room, today the living room and the kitchen. It looks so nice I can't believe it. (Thats what the boys say about cool stuff - "Can you believe it?" "I can't believe it!") See the photo album link to the left for a couple more pictures. The spare room is light purple with a sky blue closet, the boys room has green walls and a sky blue ceiling. The colors in this picture of the dining room are a bright cream, a brickish terra cotta, and a nice green. Anyhoo, it all means that much closer to moving in...

This was the good news...

A big 'thank you' to Thomas at Reeves HVAC. He's the technician who figures the combustible air requirements for the gas appliances. I explained to him our concerns about the doors to the laundry closet being in the entry way, and not wanting them to be full of grills or louvers. He came out this morning to look at the space, called the tankless water heater manufacturer (Rheem), and hurray! we get to put a hole in the ceiling of the closet! Turns out the w.h. DOES pull air from outside via the double-walled venting, so we only have to pull air for the dryer. That means a 7"x14" hole up high, and a 2" gap under the doors. That almost eases the pain of the $985 cost of the venting. The other good thing is now we think the inspectors will be very distracted by this issue, and not pay much attention to the rest of the house.

Rob is painting today. He's going to finish each room at a time. The trim is done in the spare room and the boy's room, so they will get painted, and be finished! We'll move the misc stuff in there, and then he'll move through the rest of the house this weekend. Then he finishes off installing the plumbing fixtures (I better buy some toilets), runs a water line from the street to the house, and then we will be ready for final inspection. We fully expect to have to fix or change something to pass, but that's okay.

Frank wants to grade our yard, so we will generously let him play with his tractor, disc-er, and smoothers in our dirt. Get some gravel delivered for the driveway, build a goat shed, and hopefully be able to have a summer garden.

This?

This is how exciting the work on the house is right now. We're sanding trim, for the second time.

Current dilemma - trying (still) to figure the venting requirements for the tankless heater and clothes dryer. Apparently, according the technician who was only brought into this today, you can't put these appliances in a 3'x7' closet. So technically it has to be joined to the living room. We were trying to avoid louver doors, but we'll be lucky if we don't have to take out a wall. Well, not really, but we may have to put in two large grills - one in the ceiling of the closet where it would pull from the living room, and one in either the bottom of the closet door, or through the wall to the living room. I thought the double-wall direct vent on the tankless heater meant it pulled combustable air down through it, but it just vents out. We didn't have enough outside wall space (away from a window or door) to put this unit, but the whole thing really required more careful research.

Don't tell anyone, but we don't want pickets on our screened porch. We're thinking of screwing up plywood to pass inspection, then putting up lattice to protect the screen from the dogs.

Let's see... April 15th... wasn't I supposed to send someone some money? A lot of money? no?

sexy curves...

ahh, the joy and the payoff. Finally getting to the fun part of house-building, which is furnishing and accessorizing. Mom visited this weekend, and we shopped. Yeah, Rob was painting and backhoeing, blah blah blah, but we got to look for a couch, curtains, rugs, a dishdrain, stuff stuff stuff! This picture is a chaise from the Ivy Cottage, and was taken with my phone so it doesn't do it total justice. We also found a beautiful orange couch (see the photo album). I know this is a bit off subject from house-building details, but I also know how much you all care, so I had to share.

This just in...!!!

We passed the septic inspection! He called this morning and said we can cover the distribution box. Major kudos to Rob for building this system (and not losing it with the inspector)!!

Don't worry...

there's no electricity in there.
Chase is helping prep for paint. Reese was washing the van.

We're still sanding and caulking, and waiting to hear about the final approval on the septic. I called 3 times last week, and again this morning. We still don't know if he came out Tuesday, and if he did, did we pass or not? If not, then why not? arg.

Well, we picked the colors for all the rooms. We decided against the yellow wallpaper with the cartoon bugs on it that I had bought last year for the bathroom. It would have looked good with the blue tile in the old house, but not with the new tile, which has tan and gray-blue. So that bathroom with go a muted blue. I can't wait to see color up, but the trim is taking lots of prep.

As a side note, the water level in the pond continues to rise. It was stopped up further along the creek than usual, but the little dam at the end of the pond has been collecting debris and backing up the water in front of our house. In back of the house, I mean. We really like it, but I suspect the dam will be dismantled again soon, when someone complains. Rob is still researching how we can create a deeper area on our property in a legal way. We just can't find the right agencies.