Five Acres of Douglas Fir

Slate Floors, Granite Counter Tops Sealed

2010-10-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

So while we've loved our slate floors and granite counter tops so far, Dawn was perplexed as to exactly how to clean the floors. She can't mop them, the stone just soaks up the water like a sponge - it's very porous. We'd also heard about how granite can stain and also seep water as well.

We saw the Perma-Treat ads on TV and decided to give it a try. The guy came out and gave us the spiel. It seemed like a good idea, and the price was right, so we arranged for a team to come out and seal the slate in both the entry and the kitchen, as well as the kitchen granite.

We had to clear out all the stuff from the kitchen and the entryway - it looked like we'd just moved in again.

They steam cleaned the counter tops and hand-scrubbed the floors - twice - and then put down 2 coats of sealant.

But now the floors look great, if a little darker, and they repel water very well - Dawn can now mop to her heart's content.

New Furniture

2010-08-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

So we've added at least 800 square feet to our living space, compared to our last abode, it was inevitable that we'd have some rooms that ended up.... under-furnished.

I managed to receive a bonus from work recently that's assisted us in solving that problem. We'd been looking at different places for furniture for some time now - Ikea, DirectBuy, Mor, local discount stores, etc. - and hadn't found things that really grabbed us. We were on the way to Ikea again for another look when we passed right by an Ashley store. On impulse, I told Dawn to turn in, since we'd not tried them yet, and I'd been seeing lots of ads for them recently.

Well, Ashley is a funny store. They take a lot of dissimilar furniture and offer it up at the same price across the board for a whole class of products. It's really more like a tiering system - "Low End Couches" all are the same price, regardless of size, style, materials, etc. This makes it easy for them to offer packages and to swap stuff out. But it also allows for some healthy margins. To boot, the love seat for any couch style was always $50 less, regardless of materials used. This tells me they REALLY boost the price of their love seats. Once I'd figured out their system and became disgusted with it, the few pieces of furniture that might have caught my eye lost their appeal. We left the store with no progress made.

On the way back to the truck in the parking lot, I saw the Dania store next door. Dawn's very traditional when it comes to home decorating and furnishing, and the Dania store also looked very high end, so she wasn't even considering going in. I figured it wouldn't hurt to go in and look around a bit - I mean, we were right there - and poke fun at the kooky looking European chairs and couches. So I dragged her into the store.

And believe you-me, there were plenty of kooky looking chairs and couches to make fun of. And some ridiculously expensive pieces of furniture. But then something curious happened. Dawn started seeing furniture she liked. And some of it was actually affordable, if not cheap. The next thing you know, we're seriously considering purchasing something - something that we'd not done in any other store.

We decided we'd definitely come back once we had cash in hand to make a final decision. Which we did last week. It was all delivered yesterday.

I got myself an 'Easy Chair' for my office to sit and read at, or for Dawn to sit and and talk to me while I work:

We also got a much larger dinette table - really a counter-height dining room table and 8 barstool chairs for it:

We'll need to get a new rug for this table, since it's a square table instead of a rectangular one. We also got a nice, durable couch for the downstairs rec room that should fit 4 kids on it while they play Wii:

We also got a bunch of book cases and a pair of desk-hutch combos for the kids for their school work:

Yeah, lots of particle board furniture I need to put together. I'll find some time soon enough...

Dial Tone!

2010-07-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

So the New Frontier technician came out today and installed the line. I have dial tone!

He also told me where my CO is - it's a mico-CO that's just down the hill, and... it has fiber run to it! They don't have a DSLAM there right now (required for DSL service) and their line-length tester doesn't work at this location, but... there's a good chance DSL will be offered within the year.

The downer - since it's still a ways down the hill, I'd probably only be able to get 1.5Mb/s download speed (half of what I get now), but the upside is that it would be un-metered.

Right now, I have a 50 GB/month cap, which if I go over, it's another $1/GB. That sounds like a lot of bandwidth, but... you watch a Netflix streaming movie in pseudo-HD and... well, that's 3-5 GB right there. When either of the kids play their on-line games (Team Fortress 2, etc), it's easily 300 MB per hour, per kid playing.

I got an email from Nathan letting us know we were at 46 GB used at mid-month. We've been watching a lot of Hulu and Netflix at the beginning of the month to give us some TV entertainment until DirecTV could install service, and there was a TF2 update that all three of our computers had to download, I've bought some games on Steam, etc.... yeah, we used a lot.

I replied to him saying we'd try to keep it under control, but honestly, I don't see that happening. We're a high-bandwidth family apparently. I apologized for the overage, but warned him this was going to be a chronic thing for us, and to just bill us appropriately.

I ended up writing a Web App to monitor our usage on a per-host basis, I'm using a Perl script to parse traffic logs sent from my firewall to put into a database, then a separate Perl script to parse my proxy logs to put into the database, a third script to correlate the proxy logs with the firewall logs, and then a PHP application to display it all fancy-like on a web page.

Yes, anyone else would just ground their kids from the computer for the rest of the month. I don't work like that. :)

Telephone Reschedulled...

2010-07-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

Apparently there was some sort of mix-up, partially because I had a fiber team lay copper - in one person's computer, it showed I had fiber installed (when I don't). They also had be assigned to the wrong exchange, which I mentioned to the CSR when she told me my new number.

Apparently it was easier just to delete my old order and do a new one from scratch now that I have the copper in the ground. So they'll be out next Wednesday, hopefully, to get us squared away. Ironically, that's the same date that I'd originally scheduled anyway...

Telephone Installer Missed Appointment

2010-07-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

So right after the Frontier guys left on Tuesday, I got a call from a person asking me about setting up a new install date. I was happy for the call, since I wanted to arrange an earlier install than the 21st.

She took down all my information and scheduled a new time for today between 8 and noon.

We've been here the whole time, and no Frontier/Verizon trucks have come by, which is a bit of a downer considering the exceptional effort they've given me so far. I'll call after lunch and see what's up.

Window Screens Delivered - Finally!

2010-07-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

We've been in the house almost a month now - through a record heat wave and later through a record summer chill - and we've had to keep the house bottled up thanks to the monster mosquitoes and other large flying nasties out here in the woods.

Apparently, the window screen people have cut back (like a lot of companies these days) and now are having a labor shortage resulting in a massive backlog. These screens were ordered months ago, and just now arrived.

I get to install them myself, I suppose. The windows are easy, of course - you just pop them in. The sliding door screens will be a little more involved, but not too much, and nothing I can't handle.

All Finished

2010-07-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

I realized I've not posted exterior pictures in awhile, and none since we were all done. So here's some updated exterior shots:

Copper In!

2010-07-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

The FIOS guys showed up this morning just before 9am. They had quite the army of trucks.

I did a little coordination with them to ensure they knew where the other wires were, and then they got to work.

I was worried because they were going to have to cross Drew and Marsha's driveway, and I'd no idea what kind of damage they were going to do it it. Thankfully, their trenching machine mostly forces a wedge/plow through the ground at about 2 feet deep, and doesn't actually trench up much, so the damage is minimal. I hope they won't be too upset.

All done - they left a nice spool of telephone wire at either end for the installers to finish up with.

They finished just before 11am and packed it up and left. Now they just need to terminate each end. I have an appointment for the 21st, but I may move that up to a sooner date, we'll see what's available.

DirecTV Installed

2010-07-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today we had Mike out from DirecTV to install a dish for us.

He ended up putting it in a slightly different place than where Ryan was looking at, but in the end it was a slightly shorter run. We may have been able to keep the leftmost tree after all, but better safe than sorry, I say - I'm not going to regret dropping both of them.

He had to trench about 75 feet long through solid dried clay with a really flimsy shovel DirecTV provides to him for this purpose. I offered him the use of my better tools, but he declined, stating liability issues, etc.

I worked with him to get it set up just the way I wanted, and also to learn as much as I could about the system should I need to troubleshoot it later. We got the line run under the house and into the control room. I got to use my pre-installed conduit for the first time, and it worked like a charm!

Once we got it all wired, I did all of the connections for him from the box to my entertainment center so I could have it just-so. He was fine with that - less work for him.

It's a little clunky-looking but works fine. He did a signal test and we were getting mid 90's from most transponders, with an occasional 89% or 87%, which is great. After the signal test, we had to get them authorized for the network and then get software updates downloaded to them, which took a bit. He had a widget to authorize them over the cellular network, but he was having trouble getting signal inside the house (like we do), so in the end he had to call it in.

Soon enough, though, it was all set up and working. He double-checked everything and made sure we were okay with it, then left.

We watched Jaws after dinner, and we're already queuing up things on the DVR. We got the 'whole house DVR' option so the downstairs unit can schedule and watch recordings made by the unit upstairs - it's really handy. Can't wait to watch the news tomorrow morning - it will be nice to have 'normal' things again.

First Campfire...

2010-07-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

We had Jennifer and Jonny (and the boys) over for a visit today to celebrate Jonny's birthday and see how we're settling in. We unveiled the new Weber BBQ for the event, which worked great. After dinner, it cooled down outside and so we had our first campfire - good times! (except for the skeeters - I need a bug light)...

BBQ In...

2010-07-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

We went BBQ shopping over 4th of July weekend, expecting to pick up a BBQ on sale.

It turns out all the ones that are on sale are junk. We went to Lowe's, Home Depot, and even Costco to check prices, features, etc. We ended up getting a BBQ from the one brand that wasn't (and never goes) on sale - a Weber Spirit E-310. Weber grills are also essentially the same price anywhere you go - enforced by Weber.

The other ones were completely made of stamped sheet metal - sometimes "Stainless Steel" (that magnets still stuck to for some reason). Some had very sharp edges in surprising places - I got a few nicks just shopping for them. These grills wouldn't hold heat and would rust out in a few years' use. The stamped metal covers all felt flimsy and would flex and warp when opening or closing.

By contrast, the bottom half of a Weber Spirit grill is cast iron - very solid, and holds heat very well. The upper half of the grill was half cast-iron (on either side) connected by a porcelain coated steel sheet. No sharp edges or corners to get cut on.

So since price wasn't an issue, we selected Lowe's as opposed to Home Depot for two reasons:

Weber sells a slightly different model of Spirit E-310 at Home Depot than any place else. Their grill grate is cast-iron. They claim it's porcelain-coated, but it did not feel porcelain coated at all - I think they got their marketing materials goofed up - since the non-HD grill grate is porcelain coated. Despite this other grate being a "Home Depot Exclusive", I considered it inferior to the default grate.

The person helping us out at Lowe's was very knowledgeable about grills in general and specifically Weber grills. It turns out he used to work for Weber, so that was a plus. Also, he offered (and eventually did) work up an entire kit (including pipe goop) to connect it to our whole-house low-pressure LP system. Right as we were walking out after purchasing it, he even gave me his card to call him if I had problems getting it set up - turns out he's also the Store Manager. Definitely customer focused - I'll be checking into Lowe's more often.

So we had to put deck sealer down first, so the BBQ stayed in the garage for awhile, but we finally broke it out for our first BBQ today with Jennifer and Jonny. The kit the manager made up for me worked like a charm - no left over parts. The BBQ fired up the first time and worked like a charm. It looks slick too:

Larry to the Rescue!

2010-07-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

So I had the talk with Dawn - Trees or TV. Since we're on week 3 of TV isolation, it didn't take much. The two offending trees will come down.

We've been making due with watching those pre-recorded COPS and streaming Netflix and Hulu, but we were really used to watching the local news, and Netflix and Hulu don't have everything we're interested in. Dawn deliberated all of 2 minutes before authorizing me to call Larry of A1 Logging and see what could be done.

He came out this morning with his trusty 42" custom Stihl chainsaw and his new log dog - a gorgeous female Shepard puppy. He said he'd take them both down for $100, and I could then either chop them up myself or hire someone to "Buck and Cut" them into firewood for me. He estimated it would cost me another $150 for them to do it for me. He figured I'd get about a cord or so per tree, so... $250 for two cords of wood isn't a bad deal - I just need to season it myself.

I double-checked the cost with Dawn, and she approved, so Larry dropped them both.

A perfect shot - didn't hit a single thing on the way down.

He clipped the fir on the way down with this one, but he was erring on the side of caution - if he'd clipped the maple (off-camera to the left) it would have brought the entire maple cluster down. It was still a good shot.

While Larry and I were talking, we also talked a bit about how things were going with him in the last 18 months or so since we did business. He's had to sell some equipment, but he's bought other stuff to replace it, and despite all the hardships loggers in general have had recently, he's fared fairly well.

He also managed to get a real office space in town, and he had Carryl (his bookkeeper) start in on the webpage like I suggested he try back when we were working before. She's having some problems, though, getting it working right. So right as I'm handing him the check, he instead offers to barter - I help him get the webpage set up in exchange for the felling. It sounds like a deal to me, so I'll be working with Carryl sometime next week to try to get them on the Interwebs.

Now I just hope that DirecTV can get us hooked up. I'll give them a call later today to reschedule.

DirecTV Satellite Abort!

2010-07-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

Well, Ryan of DirecTV just left, and without us having TV service. It's not his fault, though.

He comes by, and I start talking about all the cool cables I paid $300 to have run up the chimney, and he really doesn't even bother looking up there, and instead whips out his pocket sextant, and starts walking towards the north side of the property.

He finally goes to the north edge of the clearing for our house, and looks back south though his sextant. "This is where the dish has to go", he says. He then explains that while he could get the center "bird" (which provides standard definition "SD" signals) no problem, but that two Douglas Firs are basically pointing at the two flanking HD birds. I might get HD signal now, but... 6 months from now, probably not.

He then tells me he can't do a marginal install - he'd get fired for it. This means no bolting dishes to trees, no shooting over treetops, etc. It gets attached to a steel post that is put into concrete in the ground and gets a clear line of sight, or it doesn't go in.

In this case, there's not a clear line of sight, so he's aborting the install now.

Now I get to talk to Dawn about taking down a few more trees...

DirecTV Satellite Coming Today

2010-07-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

Since I can't get OTA, I've decided to go with DirecTV satellite service. The price isn't as bad as I'd feared, but it's still more expensive than free.

I'd justified about $650 worth of purchases (MCE PC, digital tuner, antenna, PC remote control, RF amp, etc) on the basis that "we get this for TV service, and the fees we wouldn't be paying for satellite service will pay for it over a year's worth of time", etc.

Except now I'm getting satellite service anyway, so there's no savings to amortize. Some of the equipment I can re-purpose, but about $250 of it is simply wasted. I might be able to Craigslist some of it, or just put it on the pile along with the other gear I'll never use.

The installer comes out this afternoon - we'll see how things go!

Telephone!

2010-07-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

Ron from Verizon (now Frontier) called me today and let me know that he managed to work out a very special arrangement for me. The copper installers don't have trenching equipment, and therefore wait for builders to have open trenches, etc, but the fiber guys (e.g. FIOS) do have the needed equipment.

Now don't get excited, I can't get FIOS, though I'd love to. "It will be a windless day on Bald Peak before FIOS comes up the hill", Ron explained.

But he worked a deal with the fiber guys to use their equipment to install a copper line for me.

For free.

I am speechless. It's the day after my birthday, and Ron just gave me a $10k birthday present.

He told me to arrange service to start in about 2 weeks (to give the FIOS guys time to install the line), and then give him the order number so he can marry up the install with the service order. I'm calling right now...

No TV Signal

2010-07-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

I've been working the last week or so trying to sort out the entertainment center, etc, and the last element is of course to get a TV signal in.

I installed the Windows 7 Media Center Edition PC in the cabinetry and connected it to the TV. It works fine, and I had the foresight to record a bunch of shows (mostly COPS and a few Jeopardy!'s) to it. Unfortunately, there's no signal at all from the tiny antenna I have.

I've not mounted it to the chimney yet (I'm actually quite terrified to go up there), but if I can't get even a peep of a signal down here, what's 20' of elevation going to do for me? The azimuth I'm supposed to shoot for the towers goes right into the side of Bald Peak. I've a bad feeling we're not going to get OTA (Over The Air) television.

Settling In...

2010-07-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's been almost two weeks since we moved in. The last week or so has been a bit of Limbo as Dawn and the kids worked so hard to get the house clean. I thought I'd share a few shots of how we've settled in.

Back when we were designing the kitchen, Dawn was adamant that we make the entire backside of the island a huge bookcase to hold her massive collection of cook books. She needn't have worried:

It doesn't even fill one of the three bookcases Nathan made for us. Of course her solution to this "problem" is to buy more cookbooks!

The Kitty likes her new perch:

The pantry's filling up nicely:

The washer and dryer barely fit in the laundry room. I wish we'd made this room a little bigger:

And my server room is getting sorted out:

Despite all the hard work so far, we still have a lot left to do. We need to pick out some additional furniture for the downstairs Rec Room - there's only just the rocking chair to sit on for the time being:

And lots of boxes left in the garage to unpack:

Indiana Jones, eat your heart out!

Forest Friends

2010-07-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

So we've been in the house for over a week now and have been enjoying seeing the local wildlife. Rebecca has named most of them, but I'm not quite sure how she knows which is which. I've been taking pictures of them for awhile now, and figured I'd finally share.

We have seen doe and fawns aplenty. There is one doe with a pair of fawns, and another (?) with just one fawn. It's either a different doe or the same doe with one fawn gone a'wandering, it's hard to tell.

Here's the doe with the single fawn:

Here's the doe with twins:

We had a herd of three deer come through the other day:

And I saw a young buck run through just yesterday:

He was pretty skittish and didn't stay long. Still has his velvet coating.

We also have a pair of grey squirrels that run around:

It's been interesting watching the cat react to all this wildlife. Once, she was downstairs when momma and the twins came through. She walked up to the window and the doe walked up to the concrete porch. For a minute there, I was worried the doe would charge the glass. Thankfully, she stayed calm, and eventually left.

It's all very exciting - I doubt we'll tire of it for awhile yet.

TV Mounted!

2010-06-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

It's taken me most of the week, despite making it a priority, to get the TV mounted over the fireplace. The mount is so dang heavy, and there's no template.

In the end, it's not what I expected. It sticks out much farther than I ever anticipated. We essentially don't have a mantel to speak of. I moved the power and low-voltage wires higher up the wall so to not interfere with the mounting bracket.

I ended up putting another board over the top to cover up the holes made by those boxes and to give something even and solid for the bracket to mount to. I also used twice as many lag screws as supplied, since I wasn't going to hit studs on both sides - the bracket is centered in the hole, but the studs aren't.

The extra bolts means the scissor-arms cannot completely recess into the space - they stick out a good 2 inches more than they would otherwise. But if I remove the bolts, I lose 4 of the 6 extra bolts I installed, and risk dropping the TV.

I'm staying on the safe side and keeping the bolts. Here's a few pictures to help illustrate what I mean.

This is with the TV in the fully recessed position. See how the arms aren't fully seated? They're hitting the tops of the bolts I installed. A poor design, if you ask me - no matter where I put the bolts, some will prevent the arms from recessing completely.

It takes up the whole mantel.

It takes some getting used to - being so high, and not recessed - but eventually it's okay. I may revisit the mount someday, but for now it works.

Telephone?

2010-06-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

So a funny thing.

While Dawn was over at the old rental house packing up, she happened to mention to our neighbor Rick the sad saga of the telephone.

He was just as floored as we were about how goofed up things can get with something so simple as getting telephone service - I mean, houses get built all the time, right? And they get telephone service. I just couldn't understand why it had to be so hard, and Rick agreed.

Now to the funny thing.

Rick told Dawn about a guy - Ron Hayhurst - that he met while visiting Home Depot with his dog about two weeks before. Ron was there with his dog as well, which prompted them to strike up a conversation about their dogs. During the conversation, Ron mentioned to Rick that he worked for Verizon as a Customer Service Manager, and that if he ever had any problems with Verizon to give him a call, and included his card.

So right then and there, after talking to Dawn about our problem, Rick calls Ron and relays our story to him. Ron in turn calls me - ironically enough - while I'm at Home Depot. I confirm the details and give him my email address. He said he's not sure what he can do for me, but he'll look into it.

I mention to him that in all honesty, short of them trenching the line for us for free, there's not much we'll be able to do at this point - we're simply tapped for cash. He said he'd get back to me with any options he could find.

I'm hopeful but not counting on a solution at this point. We'll see where this goes...

Washer and Dryer Work!

2010-06-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Dawn used the washer and dryer today for the first time to do a load of towels as a test load (in case they destroyed the load, we figure towels are cheaper and easier to replace than clothes).

They worked just fine, and even play a little song when done - it's so funny. Turns out the oven and dishwasher (which also work fine) do as well. Each appliance plays a different ditty when it's done. I imagine eventually we'll learn which song goes to what, but for now we're still in the "That's so adorable" stage.

Slowly this house is starting to feel like home. It helps when things work right.

Move-In Day

2010-06-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

Today was the big day! We had quite the crew over helping us move - My brother Dean and his son Drew, my in-laws Jennifer, Jonny, and cousin Brad, as well as family friend (and millwork supplier) Travis all chipped in to help us get the furniture moved in. I really appreciate all the help they gave us - we'd not have been able to do it otherwise!

Dawn has been boxing up the house all week, and yesterday we did two trips with the largest enclosed trailer U Haul carries just ferrying boxes over to the garage.

So we rented the biggest truck U Haul carries the night before, and parked it out front - it was ready to go this morning. We loaded it up with furniture and brought it over. Before unloading, I went in and snapped a bunch of pictures:

Looks like a house! Too bad it won't ever be this clean ever again. :)

So now we're in and got the beds set up and ready for bed tonight. We'll see how it goes without blinds!

Fridge Works Fine After All!

2010-06-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

So I went over to the house today to salvage the cardboard for the refrigerator. DirectBuy says a new one will be in on Friday but the old one needs to be boxed up. Well, we have the final clean-up (and trash removal) on Friday as well, so I need to snag the cardboard off the pile before it gets tossed.

I figured, the new fridge is enroute, and this one is going back anyway, let's see some smoke! I plugged it in, and sure enough - Buzzap! - that sound happens again. It startled me so much I unplugged the cord. Steeled, I plugged it back in again, leaving it in this time. The sound happens again, but this time I noticed something about the sound.

I go to the front of the fridge, and wait for the conflagration. Instead, the control panel lights up normally, and I hear the compressor starting. No smoke. No fire. No burning smell. No smell at all, really.

That thing I noticed about the sound gave me a hunch of what might be happening and an idea to try. I tap on the "Dispense Ice" button ever so briefly - Buzzap!

The ice maker dispenser motor engages positively and makes a sudden sound. The dispenser LED lights are bright white with an off-blue light like white LED's can be. That's what the plumber thought was arcing electricity. Perfectly normal operation.

I left it plugged in for half an hour while babysitting it to ensure it didn't burn the house down, then left.

I'll put in a call to DirectBuy tomorrow to cancel the RMA.

Pre-Move Preparations Underway

2010-06-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

Dawn has made most of the preparations for our upcoming move this weekend. She's canceled the local utilities at the end of the month, started all the other utilities in our name at the new place for the beginning of next month. She's called Uhaul and arranged a truck and a trailer. She's also packed up most of the house.

Meanwhile, I've just been sitting on my butt. But... I've been working really, really hard this last week (even pulled an all-nighter - literally - I was up until 6am) making the money that makes this whole party possible, so... yeah.

Dawn's doing a great job.

Neither one of us can wait until this is over, though...

Final Inspection Passed!

2010-06-15T12:16:00.001-07:00

And with a "First Time Go" - no corrections!

Also, DirectBuy called today, they're arranging a new refrigerator. We just need to box up the old one (ugh). I hope I can locate all the packing material for it.

Appliance Nightmares...

2010-06-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

So I went up this morning to meet with the appliance technician so he could install the NG to LP adapter for the dryer. I made several mistakes when calling around this weekend looking for a repairman:

I didn't ask "Are you LG Certified?" - I asked "Do you work on LG?"
I didn't ask how much they would charge
I said yes to the first guy who said he would do it

The guy shows up on time okay, and starts working on it. He took literally half the parts off the thing just to get to where the part needed to be swapped out. I asked him how many LG he had done, and he then informs me this is his first LG dryer repair. Chances are, I've just voided my warranty.

30 minutes later, and he's done. I ask him if he'd hook it up so we could test to make sure it works okay. He says to me, "Are you kidding? This is LP - I don't touch LP, it could blow up in your face!" He then tells me the bill - $120 for a half-hour job. My $750 dryer is now a $870 dryer.

I'm still reeling from the lack of experience, high cost, and flat out refusal to test his work as he walks out the door, when the plumber (who'd been working on getting my LG dishwasher and LG refrigerator hooked up to water) comes by to tell me there's a problem with the fridge.

When you plug it in to A/C, there's this loud "SNAP!" sound like electricity arcing, and there's a bright blue-white flash from the front panel. The fridge is DOA. If I'd bought this from a normal appliance supplier, he'd be on the phone, etc, working to get this all sorted out for me. But since I got this through DirectBuy, well, guess what? I'm the guy on the phone.

Except DirectBuy is closed on Monday, so the earliest I can figure out what to do will be tomorrow.

Thankfully, we have a spare fridge that will be out in the garage. I guess this will be our main fridge until we get this LG working right.

Low Voltage Done

2010-06-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

One of the things the Builder asked me to do before Monday was to finish up my low voltage work - he needs this done so he can pass inspection next week. Since I'm not actually going to hook up Ethernet ports and coaxial cables until we're moved in, this mostly involved putting blank plates over most of my stuff.

I did, however, try to finish the surround sound. I didn't, but I tried. I managed to get the two speaker terminal covers installed for the front left/right speakers, and I did buzz out all the speaker lines (no shorts!) and label them, but I didn't have time to connect them all to the central 7.1 panel I purchased. I had to modify this panel already just to get it to fit in the wall between the stud and the cabinetry, which means I won't be able to use the really nice cover they provided.

In the end, it was getting late (almost 9), and I'd not had dinner yet, so I got everything covered up so we can at least pass inspection. I can finish it once we move in and have time and the tools on-site.

Finishing Touches Coming Along...

2010-06-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

So we delivered the final set of appliances today. Our good friend Travis (who is also our Door, Moulding, and Millwork Guy) helped us get the 380 lbs refrigerator, the 208 lbs washing machine the 144 lbs dryer, and the 45 lbs microwave off the U-Haul trailer we rented and into the house. I was almost-crushed by the 1/5 ton refrigerator only once!

I had to hire an appliance guy to come up to modify the dryer from Natural Gas to Liquid Propane. The supplier provided the part to swap out to make it LP, but after reading the instructions ("Step 1: Disassemble Your Dryer, Step 2: Install Part As Shown. Note: This Should Be Performed By a Service Professional"), I decided against destroying my brand-new $750 dryer. If he breaks it, he's bonded, etc. He'll be out Monday morning to perform the swap.

So we de-boxed and pre-positioned the refrigerator and the dryer, but left the washer out in the dinette so the appliance guy has room to work. The plumber is also coming out soon to hook up the water to the dish washer and the refrigerator, so we should be all set there. We left the refrigerator out so he could get behind it to do the hookups.

When we arrived, we noticed the drive way is complete. They did a great job of cutting the driveway, and smoothing out the dirt that was in it. I'm a bit frustrated, however, at a few things. They used completely different gravel for this part of the driveway, so the two halves look very dissimilar:

The rocks are bigger, and there's this green-gray stuff over everything - perhaps that will help it solidify, I'm not sure, but that leads me to my second issue - it's not packed down at all. You really can't drive up it without throwing gravel everywhere and leaving ruts/potholes. Until it packs down, the only way we'll be able to use it is coming down the drive from the road. My final problem with the driveway add-on - they forgot to set a culvert at the road. I really didn't think that was optional, so I'm very surprised it's missing.

The front porch has balusters on now as well, and looks great. We just need the capstones and finish out the columns now and the porch should be done:

After we put all the appliances in approximately the places they needed to go, we gave Travis the tour. He doesn't get to see the final millwork on houses that often, so it was fun for him to see how it all turned out. When we were done, he wanted to pray over us and over the house, so we had a nice time in prayer.

While we were showing him around, we were noticing all sorts of little details were getting worked out:

Shower Doors/Curtain Rods are in
Mirrors are hung
Towel Bars are installed
The Trash/Recycle Bin cabinet has a door on it

I'll have to take pictures of the completed bath rooms later once Dawn has curtains on them.

No Telephone...

2010-06-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

So I got off the phone with the Builder. This is getting more frustrating by the minute.

Now Verizon says they need an open trench to drop their line in, and to let us know when that trench is dug, so they can come out and drop it in. We had an open trench 7 months ago.

What's worse, the box they need a trench from is 625 feet down the road - so even if we still had our power-line trench open, we still would have needed to trench another 625 feet for just the telephone line.

The Builder says there's no budget for this, and that he's really sorry about it, but there's nothing he can do.

He explained that trenching typically costs in the "tens of dollars" per foot. So we would need 625 feet to get to the point at the street where the line would then come towards the house, plus easily another 100 or so feet to get it to the side of the garage - we're probably looking at a $10k trenching job.

The Builder suggested we look into a VOIP service like Vonage. It's looking like it will be that or a cell phone repeater at this point.

Telephone Update...

2010-06-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

So we're about a month out from occupancy, and I figured it would be a good time to call up Verizon to see about phone service.

I called in on the 800 number and press the appropriate buttons. I finally get to talk to a human and tell him my story. Somehow, I managed get through to a customer service rep (CSR) who understands what's going on, and that he's in over his head. He tells me he need to check with some people and make some phone calls, and that he'll get back to me when he has something. I appreciated his candor and motivation, and let him go.

Sure enough, he calls me back about 45 minutes later (glad I wasn't on hold that whole time!) and gives me the name and number that the Builder needs to call to arrange a "SAG Request". It's advised I have the Builder do it, since they'll talk "builder-speak" that I'll not understand or something.

I've passed this off to the Builder to see what we can do.

Driveway Progress and Garage Doors!

2010-06-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

So I went up today real quick to see why the camera was down. The firewall was up and working, so I had power and Internet access, but the camera was non-responsive.

Turns out the excavator unplugged the system from the toolbox side instead of the garage plug side, and in the process shorted out the camera. I've taken it back home for repair. Aside from this unfortunate turn of events, the driveway is coming along and looks good so far. I'm guessing he has about another day or two tops before it's finished:

And... the garage doors are installed - they look great! We made a good decision with them:

Also, the permanent front door is installed:

And my key doesn't work anymore. Thankfully, I know the combination to the lock-box.

And all the doorknobs in the house. Though to be honest, the doorknobs look upside-down to me:

Travis has volunteered to help us move in the remaining appliances this weekend, so he'll get to see them then. I'll ask him about it and see what's up.

T-Minus Nine Days!

Mr. Tractor Cuts Our New Driveway...

2010-06-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

Dirt Moving and Carpet Details

2010-06-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

So I've been watching the excavator move dirt around a bit from the camera, but most of the action was on the back side of the house where I couldn't see. So Dawn and I went out this evening before the rain came to see what all has happened, and to see how the carpet looks and feels.

I had sent the Builder a note describing how I wanted the dirt moved around, along with a diagram for how I wanted it relocated. I tried to minimize overall gross dirt relocation and instead tried to have them just push it around a bit. He did a great job of sculpting the front and south side of the yard:

He's still working on the massive berm on the north side of the house, however:

It's a really big berm. Apparently, this is where my LP tank will stay as well, since he trenched for it.

After looking over the dirt, we went inside to check out the carpet. It looks really neat - the place is starting to look like a home! We went with a good patterned 'dirt hider' style for most of the house:

And a darker, tight-weave Berber style for my office:

The padding isn't quite as soft as we expected, but it's no worse than our current home. I think in our last home we really splurged on pad, or I could be remembering of better times than what they were, I really don't know.

You'll note in some of the pictures that there's splotches on the wall - looks like the Sheetrock/texture guys came by for some touch-ups of places on the walls that had gotten damaged. Now we just need paint touch up (and a lot of paint in the stairwell) and things will start to look finished.

I also saw the box of doorknobs (not an euphemism, I assure you) in our closet, so I'm fairly certain those will be installed in short order.

Carpet Delivered Today!

2010-06-07T10:39:00.001-07:00

I'm a bit surprised, since it was pretty dirty in the house over the weekend when we were there. I hope they vacuumed first!

Weekend Visit - Slow Week...

2010-06-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

We went up again this Sunday as is our habit these days. Compared to how frenzy things have been recently, it's been a pretty slow week at the homestead. There has been some progress made, however.

First of all, Roth HVAC came by on Tuesday and got everything almost done. I say almost, because I discovered they missed a vent underneath the kitchen cabinets by the cook top. But otherwise, all the register cover vents are in, the return vent covers are in, the thermostat is installed (it looks pretty high-tech), and the air conditioner compressor is finally installed:

They put it on the sun-side of the house, and right next to my office, so I'm not sure this is the optimal placement, but it's sure close to the rest of the system inside.

They also connected the range hood vent to the outside and put the cover over the ducting. Unfortunately, they weren't careful when they removed the protective plastic on the duct cover, and ripped the stainless steel right off the cover where the "Faber" logo is. It looks really bad - I hope they get it fixed soon. Otherwise, it looks nice:

As you can see, the range top is finally installed as well. Dawn really likes it, despite buying it sight-unseen. It even came with a custom-fit griddle (on the left)!

Something Dawn's not too keen about is the size and height of the double oven. She wanted large, yes, but the oven is so large, that with the door open, she can't effectively reach in and pull out a wire rack without touching the door. I hope the door has a cool edge.

Also, the oven is so high, she really can't read the display, and can barely reach the touch panel on the top. This also means she'll only be using the bottom oven, since the top oven's door comes to her elbows. We might need to talk to Nathan about modifying the cabinets to drop the oven down lower - perhaps remove the bottom drawer underneath.

On Wednesday, I watched the mason work on the front of the house, but I couldn't see what he was doing. He got the ledge/cap stone all installed. He also got the rock installed underneath the patio, the center column, and the two half-columns. I really like the railing. It looks really nice, I can't wait to see it finished:

I'm not sure why he stopped one row short for the main column - all the rest of the rock is all on-line, but the column stops about 4 inches short from the bottom. I hope they finish that bit soon.

I also can't wait to see the balusters installed on the front porch and the columns completed.

While inside, I also finally took pictures of the in-wall speakers I installed on Memorial Day:

Nathan's guys also came by sometime this week and installed the shelves:

They are thicker than we expected, because they put a lip on them that we can flip up or down as needed. They look good, just different than we'd anticipated.

I didn't see much activity towards the end of the week, and the dirt movers didn't come out to do the driveway as I'd thought they were. I suppose we'll see how next week looks.

The Builder gave us a firm move-in date of June 19th - just three weeks away. It's hard to believe it's almost here!

Walk Into the Light...

2010-06-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

Sigh... apparently someone left the garage lights on today. This will not help neighborly relations...

Not to mention my power bill...

Sad News From The Builder

2010-06-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

So I'd not heard from the Builder over the long weekend. I'd assumed they'd been out somewhere enjoying the long weekend. Sadly, nothing to could farther from the truth.

It turns out that the Builder's mother-in-law had gone in for surgery last Wednesday and unfortunately had suffered a massive stroke the next day. She then passed on Sunday. Services will be this Friday and Monday.

Despite all of this, he has assured me everything is progressing on our house, and that this should not impact the move-in date. He just won't be quite as accessible for this next week while they coordinate with family about all of the details and whatnot.

We understand completely and grieve with him for this loss.

Low Voltage Work

2010-05-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

So after seeing Steve out most of last week doing the finish work for the electrical, I figured it might be a good idea to go out today and work on getting the low voltage finished up as well.

So imagine my surprise, that, on Memorial Day, that Steve would be out there again, working away at getting all these little nit noid problems solved - fixing switches, buzzing out dead outlets, and otherwise just making sure everything electric works.

He has the oven connected and fired up. I didn't turn on the heating element, but the display was operational, so I set the clock. It has an monochrome LCD (black/white) touch screen, which is really cool.

So I finished getting the surround sound in-wall speakers installed. Steve helped me move our massive hemlock door that's just waiting for final installation - it was in front of one of the two speaker installation locations.

I also got all the blank plates installed over the upstairs low voltage outlets (I'll connect them up later) with the exception of the entertainment center plates, which I'm saving for a little later. I also got a few plates installed downstairs, and also put a cover over the main low voltage panel (after having Steve install the high-voltage power plug inside the panel). I have just a bit more work to do downstairs, and then finish up the upstairs entertainment area, and we'll be good until we move in.

I had to leave at just after 5pm to get home in time to fire up the grill. I checked in with the camera from time to time, and Steve was there until past 8pm. I'm grateful he's working on getting it all done. I'm sure we're both hoping it will be all done soon.

Camera Reposition

2010-05-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

So sometime this next week, weather permitting, we will have some excavators out to dig out our secondary drive way and generally move some dirt around. Since the projected driveway cuts right through where the Ethernet cable for the camera goes, I figured it would be prudent to move the camera to a different vantage point.

Before:

Dawn assisted me while the kids tried out (finally!) the archery kit I got Justin for his birthday back in early April. It was a good thing she helped, as the camera tarp and wires were half buried by dirt from the concrete pad excavation last week.

During:

I picked a tree close to the house to minimize obscuring by other trees. It has a better view of the driveway and road, but no longer has a view at all of the front of the house. Those are the breaks, I suppose.

After:

I'm looking forward to seeing some dirt get moved!

Concrete Pictures

2010-05-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

So I managed to head out to the house today to get some updated pictures. Sure enough, we got a deer trail across the slab:

Thankfully, they're not that deep, so... yeah, a little rural culture never hurt anything right?

The driveway looks good. I wasn't anticipating it sloping like that, but it works. The Builder said it would be another $1,000 for the second driveway (a U-Drive-Thru sort of deal), which seemed affordable to me, so we told him to pull the trigger on that - it should happen next week.

Sometime soon thereafter, I'll need to put a retaining wall in front of the driveway - the land slopes up pretty quick right there. A 3' high wall should do nicely.

The front porch looks different than anticipated - much more black than dark gray I was expecting. It still looks really good (if you can look past the mud!):

Now that the concrete is set, the mason will be back out to put rock along the bottom of the porch, and the framer can set up the columns.

The electricians have been busy, as well, evicting swallows and getting our exterior lights on. Here's the lower back porch:

And the upper deck:

We purposefully chose different style lights for the front vs. the back of the house, but within each area kept the lights the same motif. Here's the front porch light, which is markedly different in style from the back porch lights.

Note the similar lights on the garage:

Inside, the electricians finally got the vent hood installed:

The HVAC guys need to run the ducting for it yet, then they'll put the cover on the outside. It throws a good amount of light, though.

All in all the house is looking pretty good. I can't wait to move in!

Driveway Concrete Poured

2010-05-24T18:59:00.001-07:00

So they surprised me and in the afternoon, another concrete truck came and they poured the driveway slab as well.

After they left, they put a tape barrier around it to keep people off the slab until it dries. Apparently deer don't understand this, and especially liked the water they sprayed on the slab:

This dude was all over the slab - I'm sure I'll have little hoof marks everywhere...

Porch Concrete Pouring Today

2010-05-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

So the truck is here, along with a pumper (no boom this time):

They're pumping the porch right now!

And the stairs!

And... forms off!

Cedar Deck In!

2010-05-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

Love my new deck!

Yesterday was a good test of the overhang vs. rain - it worked! We can be on our back deck in the rain and not get wet.

They also did the garage stairs in cedar as well:

I'm just a little worried about the length of my car vs. the space between the garage door and these stairs. Might be a tight fit.

The slab looks great though!

Rain Delay

2010-05-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

So while the weather last week was great, this week has been mostly rain. Sadly, this has delayed the pour for the front entrance and driveway. Everything else is on hold until these can be poured and cured. I really hope this doesn't delay us too long - we've already given our move-out date to our landlords, and it sounds like they already have new tenants lined up.

The forms are up, the gravel is down and packed - we look ready to go:

We just need a break in the weather. Right now, they're shooting for next Monday as a pour date.

Garage Slab Poured

2010-05-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

Just watching them have a pow-wow around the front porch now - looks like they're working out how to do the forms for it.

House Tour - May 2010

2010-05-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

For those of you who may have been wondering just how all these disjointed pictures I post actually fit together, may I present my first House Tour video:

Camera Up!

2010-05-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

So they got the waterproofing down in the garage and the front porch. I managed to get the camera powered again.

Cabinet Door/Drawer Pulls Installed

2010-05-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

So we'd picked out cabinet door and drawer pulls earlier. When I went up on Wednesday to check out how the house was coming along (what with the camera down and all), I managed to get a look in the house despite the entrance to both doors being all gooped up with waterproofing for the concrete pour next week:

The pulls look great:

After the concrete gets poured and cures, they'll be back in to finish up. I can't wait - June is almost here!

Camera Down...

2010-05-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

For those of you that are real observant, you'll notice the camera hasn't updated since 1:40 on Tuesday.

The power cord for the camera went through the garage and in to the house. Well, they waterproofed the garage floor and the porch today in preparation for the garage and front porch slab and had to yank the cord out of the garage to do so:

The camera will be down for awhile yet...

Remaining Appliances Purchased

2010-05-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

So we stopped by DirectBuy today on the way back from a BBQ at my In-Law's house and purchased the washer, dryer, LG french-door refrigerator and under-counter microwave. The total bill for these came just under $3,600, which is $500 over our $3,100 budget. We went for that really nice LG refrigerator, so the overage was expected and the decision to go over made when we ordered it.

I don't have any ETA yet - two of the items - the gas dryer and the refrigerator - were back-ordered. The microwave and the washer will probably be available very soon, however, so we'll probably end up making two trips.

That refrigerator is close to 400 pounds with the container it comes in, so we'll need some muscle to get it in the house. The good news is, by the time it arrives, the entryway slab will be poured, and we'll have steps to bring it up instead of a huge height to raise it up all at once.

Electrical Almost Done

2010-05-07T14:00:00.001-07:00

So after admiring the rock fascia, I went inside to see how things were coming along with the electrical stuff. Quite a bit of progress has been made, but they're not quite finished yet. If I had to guess, I'd say before the end of next week, which means I need to get out there soon to finish my low-voltage stuff as well here really soon.

It looks like the can lights are completely installed throughout the house...

The oven/cabinet problem is also solved - the oven is installed correctly and looks hugely awesome:

Seriously - two massive turkeys, easily.

The Dining Room chandelier is also installed, but I'm sure Steve is waiting on my say-so for how much chain to remove. I think that's as low as I'd want to go - looks great to me:

The fans are both installed and both work, though I don't know how to change the speed on my office fan. Currently, it's set to "Rock You Like a Hurricane" mode...

Man, that's a big fan. When I ran it on its lowest speed, it wasn't rotating that fast, but it was moving large quantities of air - gently, but a lot!

The Guest Bathroom sconces are also in, and look nice. These sconces are, sadly, the only lights in this room. I really regret not having a pair of can lights installed over the shower tub, but we were already $2,400 over budget, and there's little I can do about that now. The breaker to them was off so I couldn't see how they looked lit up - I hope they throw enough light:

The downstairs flush-mount lights are also almost done:

I shot some HD (720p) video with my newfangled Nikon D-5000 DSLR. Once I figure out the best way to edit it down a bit, I'll post something.

Rocken!

2010-05-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

Do you notice that weird gap at the top? They didn't know which color of ledgestone I wanted. I'd had a choice between dark-dark-gray (black really) and a rust brown, and I didn't like either one.

So this time they brought out 4 for me to choose from. After looking it over, I'm going with the light-gray one, it looks the best I think:

I've let the Builder know which one I want - we just need to have the mason install it now...

Rock On!

2010-05-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

Whoohoo! The rock fascia is finally going up! Can't wait to see it finished. We'll definitely have updated pictures this weekend.

Electrical Install Update

2010-05-05T12:37:00.000-07:00

So we stopped by the house today after selecting cabinet door and drawer pulls at Beaudry's to deliver the Faber range hood. Steve was up there with a helper getting things going along.

The Great Room ceiling fan is installed, and looks awesome:

It's hard to tell, but this thing is HUGE.

The Kitchen appliances are also in various stages of installation. The dishwasher is set and powered, but needs plumbing hook-up now. Dawn likes the shiny stainless steel and lots of space:

The double oven looks good. until you realize it's not completely in the wall:

Apparently the opening for it is about a half an inch too narrow. The Builder knows and is making arrangements with Beaudry's to come out and adjust it.

One thing we were a little surprised with - the electrical outlets are all stark white. I'm not sure if we were asked about a selection. Perhaps it was just a given with the selection of the white trim. They do tend to pop on the wall, though, for whatever it's worth:

So I guess it's a good thing I'd not purchased box covers for my low-voltage stuff yet - I'd have gotten the wrong color.

There were also can light bezels and bulbs installed all over the place upstairs - it looked real nice. We'll go up again this weekend and see how things are coming along.

More Appliance Shopping...

2010-05-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

So the time has come to acquire our refrigerator, microwave, washer and dryer.

Our selection of a microwave hasn't changed. We can get the LG Microwave LRM2060:

For $169 from Home Depot, or $145 from Direct Buy.

I'd originally spec'd out an LG Model LSC27921ST Refrigerator:

But Dawn has since discovered that these catch fire. The issue appears to be an incorrect wattage incandescent bulb used in some side-by-side and French style LG refrigerators, or a problem with the door switch getting stuck in the ON position, or insufficient gauge of wire used to supply these lights with power (there's apparently a few issues with these from 2007 and 2008). This model particular does have incandescent bulbs and we since really aren't interested in a combination oven/refrigerator, this model is out of consideration.

Dawn had been considering a fairly nice, if affordable ($1225) GE GSHS5KGX Refrigerator:

Which sure looks similar enough in a catalog. But having this be right next to all the pretty LG stuff... I just couldn't bear it. Plus, the stainless steel is a slightly different tint - it's definitely noticeable compared side-by-side to the LG ones in the showroom.

I kept walking down to the end of the row, asking the sales guy if he had any other LG refrigerators. Turns out, he did - namely the LG LMX25984ST:

This one has the benefit of having LED interior illumination. This is good for many reasons - near infinite bulb life, low power consumption, low heat, and the best part? It doesn't catch on fire!

But I know what you're saying - "Dave, that's a $2,729 list refrigerator!", and that's true. Also remember only suckers pay retail. We should be able to get it through Direct Buy for closer to $2,000, which, admittedly, is still much higher than the $1,200-$1,500 we budgeted for a refrigerator. Thankfully, we're also not paying retail for our washer and dryer, which have also changed from what we originally spec'd.

We had budgeted $1,500-$2,000 for a washer/dryer pair. The Whirlpool Model WFW9400SW Washer and Model WGD9400SW Dryer we'd been considering:

Is no longer made. They'd listed for about $800-$900 each, which wasn't cheap, but was within budget.

Now we need to shop for something different, we stumbled upon the LG WM2301HW Washer and LG DLG2302W Dryer:

While these list for over $2,000 together, we can get the pair for closer to $1500 through DirectBuy. The $500 we just saved on the Washer/Dryer pair when applied to the additional cost of the Uber Fridge means we're only $300 over budget - not bad!

We didn't like having to pick up our own stuff at the DirectBuy warehouse last time, and were tempted to go with Standard TV and Appliance (since they had our Faber hood) or maybe even Home Depot, but the price difference between DirectBuy and these guys is just too much to ignore - we're easily saving $1,000 on the same or comparable products, which is worth it.

Now we just need to go down and buy the stuff...

Overhead Range Hood Purchased

2010-05-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

So a funny story.

We had specified the Faber Tratto 36" Hood for our vent:

But had basically forgotten about it since then. Dawn had originally seen it on the web, thought it looked cool and well... we sorta forgot we're responsible for acquiring all the appliances - including the range hood. The Builder calls up, letting us know we need to deliver the appliances purchased previously before Monday, and, oh, by the way, be sure to supply the range hood now as well.

The economy being what it is these days, appliance vendors have nearly zero warehouse stock - almost everything comes as manufacturer orders these days. And even manufacturers are keeping wholesale warehouse stock at record lows - we're actually having to wait until June or even July to get some of the lights we ordered back in March. We were looking at 4-6 weeks minimum to get most appliances purchased and delivered.

So what do you think the chance was that Dawn could just randomly walk into, say, Standard TV and Appliance in Beaverton, and they would have exactly one box left of exactly the range hood we wanted?

If you said 100%, give yourself a pat on the back.

Yeah, seriously. She paid for it yesterday, and we went back today and picked it up. We'll be delivering it tomorrow to the site, after picking out drawer pulls at Beaudry's.

Granite Problem Resolved, Plumbing Fixtures Installed

2010-05-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

We went up this weekend for our monthly family photo, and to see how things were going.

The replacement granite slab is in, and looks 100x better:

Can you see the seam? I didn't think so. Go ahead and click on the picture, and then zoom in. It's right in the middle of the photo. Dawn is very happy with this:

The backsplash is also up all around the kitchen, and looks nice:

The sink faucet is also in, and works great:

The disposal is also installed, and looks very nice:

All in all, I think Dawn is finally happy with her Kitchen:

Steve from Bear Electric shows up tomorrow to start installing fixtures and appliances.

The marble slab is also installed in the Master Bathroom, and Steve the Plumber has installed fixtures as well. It looks awesome:

The Guest Bathroom is also plumbed as well:

No, someone didn't leave their Tupperware - that's the sink!

Downstairs, the Kid's Bathroom plumbing is also complete, and the tile backsplash is done:

We also have our water heater finally! It's not plugged in yet, but it should be about ready to go:

This is one of those fancy tankless water heaters that give never-ending (well, as long as the water, gas, and electricity hold out) hot water. It's not actually perfectly tankless - it has a 1/2 gallon tank to work with the water recirculation system that keeps the hot water in the pipes. No more running the water for 5 minutes just to get the hot water going. This is right under the Master Bath and the Guest Bath, so we'd have hot water pretty quick anyway, but it's across the house from the Kitchen, so we wanted this to make sure the Kitchen had hot water quickly. I can't wait to try it out.

May 2010 Family Photo

2010-05-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

Alternate Granite Slab Arrives

2010-04-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

Dawn went up by herself today at 2:30 because I had a meeting to attend. The Builder was there with her to give moral support.

Here's a better shot of the problem area:

Notice the slab to the right is much more orange than the slab to the left. That's what is driving Dawn crazy.

So the new slab finally arrives at 2:48:

And they haul it in and lay it over the top:

It does look less orange. Dawn saw it with her own eyes and liked it. She told them to execute on the new slab, so we'll see how it goes.

On a lighter note, the backsplash on the straight section is completed and grouted - it just needs to be wiped down:

It looks really nice. The rock guys also dropped off the marble slab for the Master Bathroom - I can't wait to see it installed:

The Master Bath bathtub is also grouted now:

Looks great!

More Granite Progress

2010-04-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that they actually had a remnant of the island slab back at the shop:

I'm not sure why this fact wasn't mentioned before. So they've agreed to bring this slab out to the house to compare it to the other slabs there, and if it's a good match, they'll use this to replace the kitchen sink segment.

This seems like the optimal solution if the slab actually matches. We have a meeting at the house tomorrow at 2:30 to see the slab.

Granite Problem Progress

2010-04-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

The Builder called this morning with an update.

So the granite guys are accepting they used the wrong slabs in the wrong locations.

The solution seems reasonable enough, I'm not sure how well it will execute in practice, but I'm willing to try it of course:

They will take the "bad" section of the L by the sink out, along with the "good" section of the L at the corner as well.
They will take the "good" section back to the yard and start looking at other slabs in the same family to try to find as close of a match as possible under the circumstances.
Once they've found a suitable alternative, we'll swing by and verify the new slab ourselves.
Once we sign off on the new slab, they'll cut it for the sink section, then put both the "good" corner section and the newly-crafted sink section and reinstall both.

I told the Builder this seems like the thing to do, and to go ahead and get started. We're just waiting for the call to go down and look at what they've come up with.

Granite Problems...

2010-04-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

So when we were out looking at the house over the weekend, Dawn was certain that the slabs they installed were wrong. She'd picked out a slab that was darker than the other two, and that was to be placed on the Kitchen island. But looking at the island as-installed, it was a lighter rock. It looks like part of the darker rock was used for the part by the kitchen sink instead.

So we went back up today for a big pow-wow with the Builder, the granite guys, and the interior designer. The granite guys are certain they used the right granite in the right places. But looking at it, it sure doesn't seem like it. The granite guys suggested that the lighting at the showroom vs. the lighting here at our home could be the problem.

Thankfully, Dawn took pictures of the different slabs when she was slab shopping. She labeled the pictures, showing which slab she wanted for the island vs. the straight and L counter.

This was to be the island slab ("Slab 2"):

The other two slabs happened to be "bookend" slabs - that is, a section of stone cut down the middle and then opened up like a book - the idea is that those two slabs would then share a common surface and be as similar to each other as possible with a natural material. We were going to use those two matched slabs for the straight and the L counter tops (Slab 1 and Slab 3):

Unfortunately, she changed shooting angles here, which changed the lighting, which is why the lower slab, despite being matched to the one above it, looks much lighter. Here's a picture of Slab 1 (one of the matched slabs) with Slab 2 (the island slab) with Slab 2 being to the left:

It's when you have these side-by-side in the same shot that you can finally tell that the left slab (Slab 2) is noticeably darker and more orange colored, with a coarser pattern than the right (Slab 1). Yet here is a picture of the installed slab for the island:

A particular detail to note here is what I'm calling the 'birthmark' stain on the island slab as-installed. Note that dark slash/splotch in the middle of the island to the left? That's as good of a tale-tell as any to compare to the pictures of the slabs in the warehouse. If you take a close look at the above picture for Slab 3 (lower left quadrant), you'll notice that mark is there:

(The island-as-installed picture was rotated clockwise to help illustrate the matching of the mark)

Granted, the pictures were taken from opposite oblique angles, which distorts the pattern slightly, but the mark is still pretty clear, with two darker spots to the left, and one darker spot to the lower right, in both pictures. This shows that "Slab 3" (as we labeled them) was used for the island instead of "Slab 2" that the Builder put the note on for the slab to be used as the island.

So now what? They made a mistake and installed the wrong slabs in the wrong place. Dawn is really upset about this, not so much that the island isn't as different as she wanted to be, but because of this:

Sadly, I wiggled a bit when taking this picture, but it's the best I have that shows the contrast. Do you notice something funny about the counter top? One of the granite guys was gesturing with an extended tape measure right as I took the picture, which is what that yellow streak is, but it points directly to the problem area. The darker, more orange/gold colored slab (that was to go on the island, but didn't), was placed beside a chunk of the lighter colored slab, causing that contrast line where they are seamed together - that's not a trick of light and shadow - in fact, if anything, it's much more noticeable in person.

Such a little thing, and it's driving Dawn absolutely crazy. She positively hates it. This is supposed to be her Dream Kitchen (or as close to it as we can afford at this time in our lives). If they had just put the right slabs in the right spots like she told them to, there wouldn't have been any side-by-side jarring contrasts like this. But now it's all a done deal, since the slabs are cut.

We looked at taking the island slab out, and putting some other slab in there instead (it could be radically different, since we want the island to be different anyway). We would then take the now-removed previously-installed island slab and chop it up for use as the sink-area slab, since those two slabs - the as-installed-island and the slab in the corner of the L shaped counter were in fact the "bookend" slabs and should match near-perfectly. Except that the island slab is about a foot shorter than what is needed for the sink section. I'm not sure if some creative cutting could be employed to solve this problem that way or not.

The alternative, which no one on the granite guys side wants to even consider, is a complete throw-out re-do of all three slabs in the kitchen. This would also mean stripping out the backsplash that was being done (and is probably completed now) along the straight counter:

This is the first really-big problem we've come up against, I think, that would cost a lot of money to fix. The frustrating thing is, it's not our fault, yet in the end, I fear we may get forced into some sort of compromise that we'll be living with as long as we own this house - we'd see it every day, for every meal.

The Builder knows our mind on this - we'll see what sort of solution we can come up with.

Granite Counter Tops Installed

2010-04-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

We headed up to the house today to see how things were coming along. A lot has happened in a very short period of time.

The kitchen counter tops are in, and look great:

The kitchen sink is also installed - looks smaller than I anticipated, but I suppose it's still a good sized sink:

The grout is also in for the slate - it looks really good!

They also finished the slate on the fireplace:

Looks sweet!

The marble tile is also installed for the bathtub in the Master, as well as the tub itself. It still needs grout, but looks real nice:

Toilets are also installed throughout the house, and the water line is connected to the house pipes - we have water!

Also, our Master Bath shower faucet is installed, I can't wait for the shower-door glass:

All this water has to go somewhere, right? It's a good thing that the septic is finished as well:

That little pale tan circle on the left-center is the septic tank cap. The guys did a great job flatting out the back yard for us. Can't wait to put down some grass seed and get the lawn started!

Slate Floors, Septic Installation Underway...

2010-04-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

So I'm stuck in Amsterdam thanks to an Icelandic volcano shutting down all flights in Europe. Dawn went up on Saturday and took some pictures of how things have been progressing. I managed to convince her to upload the pictures to the server where I can grab them over the Internet and blog about it from the office in Amsterdam.

I'd read the previous blog posting about the floors going down and the septic going in and was very excited to see pictures of it all. Well, here we are!

First, the slate floors. They're not quite done yet - a few more rows to do in the Kitchen, then it all needs to be grouted, etc. But man, it looks good! The Entryway:

And the Kitchen:

I'm really glad we went with a brick pattern - it looks fantastic!

And now the Septic. I wasn't sure exactly where it would go - I knew it had to be lower than the house, and there's not many places on the lot that are both near the house and lower than the house. The land tapers off downhill about 75 yards away, but that's way too expensive (and potentially problem-prone) to do. So we'll have the septic tank right in the back yard:

I guess I'll have to figure out some sort of screen or other decorative cover for it. I hope it doesn't smell...

Slate Flooring

2010-04-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how much the house looks different with all the tape and plastic off of everything. It looks so awesome.

Here's a look at the entryway floor.

Check out the kitchen floor!
The slate looks beautiful with the cabinet color.
I know having slate on the kitchen floor is kind of wierd.
But we were trying to do something different.
Something that wears well.
And doesn't show dirt.
I think we accomplished that.

The master bathroom.
It's a vinyl material.
The bathtub area is now cut out too.

And then if you look at the bottom of the next picture...
yup, there's the bathtub.
Covered in black plastic.

Here's the mudroom.
That bench is where you sit and take off your shoes when you come in from the garage.
There will be some hooks at the top of the wood for coats.
The floor is more of that vinyl I really like.
The vinyl continues on into the laundry room, and the pantry.
Both to the right of the photograph.

This cabinet is in the guest bathroom.

There were a couple of men in the backyard digging big ole trenches for the septic system.
See that concrete bunker in the ground (middle of the picture - slightly to the left)?
I don't know what that is.
Probably the septic tank.

Things are sure moving right along...

Picking Slabs

2010-04-14T15:19:00.001-07:00

This afternoon I went to downtown Portland to the store that carries the granite slabs (and marble too - among other things.)

Here are a couple of pictures of the marble slab we are using in the Master Bathroom.

Right side

And the left side (I think you can see what the colors look like better in this next shot.)

(ignore that blue line on the slab, it's just a reflection from the blue tape on the concrete floor)

(also, because I like using parentheses a LOT, one more thing, my camera decided to stop working right in the middle of looking at slabs so the above pics were taken with my iPhone. okay, just had to get that off my chest. thank you. please excuse the bad photography in other words is really what i'm trying to say. hubby is SOOOOO much better at taking pics than me.)

Whew!

That was a very long note in parentheses.

I tried to warn you how much I like parentheses....

I picked three slabs, two looked nearly identical, and one was quite a bit darker than the other two. This picture shows one of the two pieces that look mostly alike.

This next picture shows the darker slab on the left and the lighter one on the right. I decided to use the darker slab on the kitchen island, and the guest bathroom counter-top.

It almost looks like a different shade/variety of granite altogether, huh?

I also talked to the builder as we were picking out the granite slabs.

He said:

The vinyl floors in the whole house (i.e. - bathrooms, mudroom, etc.) are all finished.
The Formica counter-tops are all done (in the kids bathroom and laundry room).
They are installing the slate today and tomorrow in the entryway and the kitchen (forgot to ask about the fireplace).
All the tape/plastic tarps are gone.
The septic system is being installed tomorrow and the rest of the week.
The granite goes in next week.

I can't wait to see it all again!

Plastic over everything

2010-04-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

I promised Dave I would go up to the house while he was gone and take some pictures.

The kids and I went up there on Sunday after church. The house is completely sealed off from the inside out. There is plastic taped over every door and window to allow for the painter to spray all the trim work. In addition, the doors are all still arranged in Stonehenge fashion to allow for some creative paintwork.

This is the door on the left side of the garage:

Here's the kids in front of the door that leads into the house from the garage. Yes, it's pretty high up there. Eventually they'll build a landing and some stairs that come down from the door, after the concrete garage slab is poured.

The doorway for the stairwell, and the bookcase area that leads into the formal dining room.

That patio sliding glass door in the kitchen area that leads out to the deck.

The laundry room window and cabinetry.

Downstairs sliding glass door that leads out to the backyard.

And then...

A couple of pictures of the pretty wildflowers that are just beginning to bloom on our property. First, a Western Trillium:

Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso Orchid (pretty rare wildflower around these parts):

Finish Painting Starting

2010-04-08T21:14:00.000-07:00

So I was near the house today on some other business and decided to swing by to see what was going on. I'd heard the cabinets were done and was hoping to see them in their glory.

Instead, the painters were back, and when I had arrived were just about done with masking off everything in order to do the trim painting. I took some pictures anyhow to show how things were coming along. I'm not sure if Dawn will do any blog posts on this site while I'm gone, so this may be the last update for awhile until I get back on the 19th.

Here's the Kitchen:

They've finished painting the front door, and it's in the Kitchen for now - It's a pretty close match to the Kitchen cabinets, which is what we wanted:

The biggest challenge is that the door is hemlock, while the cabinets are alder, so there will be a bit of a mismatch regardless, but it's close enough that I'm quite happy with the look.

The Great Room looks, well, great!

Can't wait to pop my TV up there! The Dining Room bookcase/columns are also ready for paint:

Another funny thing - they took all the doors off their hinges and did a neat trick - they tacked a small piece of wood to the top of them and arranged them in a sort of circle - a Door Henge if you like - in order to have them stand up on their own for painting. Here was one in our Master Bedroom:

Another smaller group was in my office. I didn't look downstairs but assume there were similar arrangements down there.

The stairwell's railing was all masked off for painting, but I did notice traces of brown stain on the ground, which tells me it's all stained and ready to go. I can't wait to see what it looks like with the masking off - I guess I'll have to wait until I get back:

While I'm gone, Dawn gets to go stone shopping sometime next week - Tuesday or Wednesday, probably - to pick out the specific granite slabs that go in her kitchen and the two Crema Marfil marble slabs for the upstairs bathrooms. I'm hoping she takes pictures at least so I can retro-actively post what she picks out. Time will tell...

Hard Surfaces On Budget!

2010-04-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

I just got an email from the Builder. Our changes worked! We are now back on budget for hard surfaces, so our design decisions are set. Now I can go to Belgium this weekend and be gone all next week without stressing out about delays and budget.

I'll try to convince Dawn to go up to the land while I'm gone and take pictures and hopefully do a post or two to keep the updates coming.

Hard Surfaces Part Deux

2010-04-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

So we went back today to tackle the budget problem. Some things had to be changed, but others were kept.

As I mentioned previously, the marble slab for the kid's Downstairs Bath was an upgrade from Formica and one we decided to take back out. That alone saved us over $600 of our $2500 overage. We also lost our Black Galaxy granite in the Kitchen, and the pretty backsplash Dawn and Rick worked so hard putting together last time we were there.

We ended up going back to a more affordable color of granite that was in budget, and a nice porcelain tile backsplash instead of tumbled stone and glass tile. Those changes accounted for the rest of our $2500 overage, so we should be good now - we'll have to wait to hear back from Rick about the new quote to be certain.

Some other minor, non-budgetary changes included changing from a Crema Fiore to a Crema Marfil in the Master Bath, since apparently they couldn't get a Crema Fiore slab for the vanity. They are similar enough that the change is almost unnoticeable.

I made sure I took more pictures this time than last, so you can see what the different materials look like.

Here's a picture showing the carpet color we've selected for the house, alongside the color of the slate we selected in the Entry and Kitchen, as well as the wrap for the fireplace in the Great Room:

This color carpet is great at camouflaging dirt. Here's a picture of the color of the counter top Dawn selected, also alongside the slate we'll use for the flooring in the Kitchen:

And here's a small sample of the carpet I'll have in the office, also alongside the slate, since we'll be transitioning from the slate entryway to the office. It's a tight-weave, slightly textured carpet, in a color called "Volcano" - mostly brown with some light green highlights:

While here's a grab-bag shot of all the materials going into the backsplash:

We'll have that tile as the backsplash, on the diagonal. We'll have the medallion that's between the granite and the tile (a floral pattern) approximately every 3 feet, but the medallion will be the bronze color like the larger one directly above the granite. The crown moulding in the picture is the approximate color of the cabinets as a reference.

We're pretty sure the changes we've made will bring us back in line, budget-wise. We'll wait to hear back from the Builder.

Hard Surfaces Over Budget

2010-04-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with the Builder. We're ~$2,500 over budget. I joked with him, saying "you know, $2,500 here, $2,500 there, sooner or later you're talking about real money!".

It seems like no matter what we do, we're always over budget. The unfortunate part about the budget this time is that it's a lot of little things that added up - there's no one "Giant" to slay to get our budget back in line.

We'll be changing the kids' counter top back to Formica, for sure. And we're going to re-do the back-splash to make it more affordable. We'll see about dialing back a few other things to still get the custom look we want, without breaking the bank.

The biggest problem is that this particular showroom, unlike all the other showrooms we've been to in the past (Plumbing, Electrical, Fireplace, Stone, etc) has no price tags. It's all just there to look at - I guess if you have to ask, you can't afford it, or something, I don't know. Dawn is especially vexed by this particular aspect of this showroom - she's trying to make informed decisions on things, and she's not getting the information she needs to do that.

We have a second meeting tomorrow, we'll see how things go.

Cabinets Almost Done...

2010-04-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

We blipped up this Sunday with the In-Law's in tow and checked out how far along the cabinet guys had gotten in the three days since we'd last looked. That poor guy was even out half of Saturday getting work done.

The Kitchen looks great!

Though the center island is supposed to be a darker color, we're not seeing it that much. We'll talk to Nathan about possibly getting it done a little darker.

The entertainment center in the Great Room is also coming along:

Though I'm not at all happy with these large holes in the back for the outlet and speaker connection. I sure hope we can get those covered up some how.

It also looks like my super-expensive ultra-cool 7.1 surround sound connection panel doesn't fit. When I placed it, I'd not accounted for the additional width the columns would make it. I don't know what we're going to do.

The cabinets were out of the way, affording a better view of the Dining Room bookcases today:

So, excited about the Kitchen, concerned about the Great Room. We'll see how things turn out.

Snow In April...

2010-04-02T09:02:00.001-07:00

Honestly, check the time stamp. No April Fool's Joke here, it's the 2nd of April for Pete's Sake!

What a difference 12 hours makes:

Cabinets Delivered Today

2010-04-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

So when we were up for our monthly picture, the cabinets were also being delivered.

It was pretty hectic in there - we'll be up again this Sunday and hopefully they'll all be installed by then. But so far things look really nice. Here's the kitchen - that large cabinet is where the cooktop will go:

And the space for the refrigerator:

Here's a long look down the whole length of the kitchen. Yes, those counters are at the right height, this is a big kitchen!

The bookcase/columns in the Dining Room look great!

We have stair railing now as well:

And crown molding in the Master Bedroom:

Also, the closet organizers are all in throughout the house. They all look really nice:

As well as the pantry shelves:

We'll have to wait until Sunday to see how all the cabinets come together...

April 2010 Family Photo

2010-04-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

Here we are, April 1st, no Foolin'!

Hard Surfaces Shopping

2010-03-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

So we met with the Builder after a long Spring Break. Dawn and the kids went to Idaho, I went to Vancouver, Canada, and the Builder went to California.

Construction on the house progressed in our absence regardless. We'll go out very soon to see how the finish carpenters have been coming along. The Builder mentioned that cabinets would be delivered tomorrow, so we'll be up there really soon to see how things are coming along.

Today's meeting involved selecting the various "Hard Surfaces" throughout the house - counter tops and flooring.

We selected a nice, gray slate for the Entryway and the Kitchen floor. We choose a 'brick' style with the 16" square slate cut in half to make rectangles, and then off-set tiled to the floor in an alternating brick pattern, with the runs going across the width of the room instead of down the long length. This same slate will also wrap the fireplace, which should really link all three rooms - the Entryway, Great Room, and Kitchen - together.

The kitchen counter top will be a "Galaxy Black" marble - a dark black marble with some reflective flecks. To off-set this darkness, we're going for a really light tan tumbled stone work for the back-splash with some 1 inch square tile accents and a pencil border. It's going to look really neat.

Here's a photo of the various materials combined together (we'll have a light-cream colored grout) :

While here's an artist rendition of how it will go together, drawn by Rick, our Macadam Floor and Design Consultant:

The Builder came up with the idea of putting the small tile wrap right down on the counter top so we would only need 1 row of the 'pencil' style ledge-work to separate the detail tile from the rest of the back splash. For the area around where the vent is at, the tile would go up the wall behind it for a neat effect.

For the Master Bathroom, we went with a "Crema Fiore" style man-made marble slab for the counter top, and a matching tile for the bathtub surround. Here's a small sample of the marble with the Master cabinet color:

We'll also have a really nice faux-tile linoleum floor, A Mannington Benchmark "San Tropez":

We went with this flooring in the Kid's bathroom and the mud room as well. For the Guest bath, we went a little different, and chose a Mannington Benchmark "Marina" instead:

Also for the Guest bath, we went for the same Galaxy Black granite that we'd selected for the Kitchen counters. The Kids' bath got a slab of the Crema Fiore marble as well. Here's a sample of the marble with the kids' lighter cabinet color:

Can't wait to see it all put together!

Weekend Visit - Doors Hung, Window Casements Progressing, Exterior Paint

2010-03-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

So we went up on Saturday for our weekly visit instead of Sunday because we're planning on heading to the coast for the day tomorrow. We may have missed the window for the good weather we've been having recently, but it wouldn't be the Oregon Coast unless we got rained on anyhow.

The house is definitely coming along nicely. The exterior paint is on (except for one small spot they forgot somehow) and the color looks great. I like how it contrasts to the reddish shingles on the gable ends.

There is meshing applied to the lower part of the house where we will have stone installed. Looks like we're about ready for that phase - I can't wait to see how all comes together.

Man, the door looks great. Huge, but great. We'll have a concrete porch poured before we're done, which will add about 3 inches of height here. Right now it's a bit of a step down - you can see the black coating under the siding - that's where the porch will be poured up to.

The finish carpenter has been busy installing molding, trim work and casements all over the place. It's not finished yet, but it's coming along nicely and looks great:

When we were walking around the house, I suddenly felt a warm spot in the air. I looked down and realized I was standing over one of the heater vents in the Great Room. The furnace was going, heating the house up to help it keep warm and dry. I stopped and tried to listen for the furnace, and could just barely hear it - it's absolutely perfect - nice and quiet.

Also, we finally have a real railing in the stairwell. It's not quite finished yet, but I love the look, and can't wait to see how it turns out.

Another change - Justin's bedroom is no longer Eastery:

Practical Beige will have to do for now. Rebecca's room remains the same color. The trim looks real nice.

The upper porch looks really great now - I love how the green of the house compliments the cedar planking.

Dawn isn't quite ready to try out the deck yet.

Did I mention we have a huge front door?

All in all, it was a nice visit, the weather was perfect.

Exterior Paint Done

2010-03-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

When I woke up this morning, my house looked like this:

By 6pm this evening, it looked like this:

All done!

Met with Builder about 'Inglenook' for Formal Dining Room

2010-03-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Dawn had wanted to change the original columns as drawn in the plan to something nicer.

She had seen pictures of what's known in the Craftsman circles as an Inglenook - a small room off a main room that has some columns and a divider of some kind - sometimes bookshelves - and a bench to sit at by a small fireplace.

She was hoping for something similar to that to use as a room separator between the Dining Room and the Great Room. I thought it was a great idea, and so did the Builder.

So today the Builder came by just before lunch and showed us a few drawings he'd worked up with his finish carpenter guys. They looked real nice - just what Dawn was looking for.

He wanted to get our feedback on column size and if we were interested in having a recessed panel in the column or not. We went with the 8" (as opposed to a 9") column, and no recessed panel.

Here's the sketch we worked from, and eventually approved of:

The neat thing is, this particular option combination is essentially a wash for cost over the original 3 floor-to-ceiling columns we were bid, so it's nice to stay on budget for a change.

I can't wait to see how it looks once assembled. I'll post pictures when it's completed.

Doors Hung, Window Casements Started

2010-03-16T19:30:00.000-07:00

I swung by the house tonight on the way back from Hillsboro and took a quick peek at how things were coming along.

I was greeted by the following:

It was getting dark, so the quality isn't that great with my iPhone in the dark, but all of our permanent doors are hung! I walked through the dim house and it all looks great. They were starting on the window casements as well. It's looking real nice.

I was about to leave when out through the office window I saw:

He was soon joined by his two siblings and his mom. I tried to get better pictures of them from the front porch, but it was getting so dark my iPhone just couldn't get a decent picture. They moved on as I left.

Weekend Vist - Paint Progress!

2010-03-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

So we went up again this weekend to see how things were coming along.

The sheetrock/texturing is almost done. The stairwell needs some love still - something's wrong with the wall shared with the garage - it needs retexturing.

Also, the skylight in the stairwell isn't right - it's all torn up way at the top - looks like when they took the tape off from the texturing/paint mask that they tore the sheetrock right off the wall. I'm guessing someone thought they could just yank it from the ground. Now they get to go back up the 20+ feet to fix it.

But by and large the texturing and paint seem about done. I allowed Justin and Rebecca to pick out their room colors without any disparagement. In retrospect, I should have used more oversight. Here's Justin's room. Yes, it really is that bright. Yes, it looks like Easter in there.

Rebecca's is similarly light and bright, though a little less Eastery.

The rest of the house looks great.

Though Dawn isn't happy with the yellow in the Mud Room (she's fine with it in the Laundry). I think she'll grow to like it over time. I'm not worried about it right now.

She wants to talk to the Builder about having it changed to the Practical Beige the rest of the house is painted. Since the painters will have to come out for the stairwell anyway, this may be an option, we'll see I guess.

We also got to see all our doors! They had stacked them up in the Dining Room.

Our front door is still wrapped in plastic, but man, is it big!

The Doors...

2010-03-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

Not the band, but our doors - delivered today!

Painters Out Today

2010-03-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

So while at Beaudry's today, the Builder explained that the painters would start today, but do the ceilings first. When I asked why, he said he saw a few places where the drywall plaster wasn't quite right on the walls, and wanted that sorted out first.

When I got back from the meeting, I checked the camera and they were out in the garage, painting away. I can't wait to see the results!

Quick Meeting With Cabinet Maker

2010-03-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

So we've been back and forth with the cabinet maker, Nathan Beaudry of Beaudry's Custom Woodworking in Newberg, over the design of the Great Room entertainment center/fireplace.

While I let Dawn have creative control (while retaining veto power) over the Kitchen, she's let me have free reign in the Great Room with my massive TV/Fireplace/Entertainment Center idea. It's not changed much from the initial concept, but the Devil, as they say, is in the details.

My biggest concern was that we'd spend all this money on a really nice cabinet, and then our brand-new TV and center surround speaker wouldn't fit. So to ensure that the TV would fit (grin), we went out and bought it on Monday (Samsung 55" LED LCD 120Hz for only $1700 - normally $2300).

So Nathan has been real good with adjusting heights of things to accommodate my whims. But we'd always been working from just a front view without any detail to depth. Right as I'm asked to 'sign off' on the final design, I ask to see an isometric view so I can get a feel for the relative depth and inter-relations between the different elements.

Good thing, because... I didn't quite like it.

So we set up a meeting to hash things out in person this morning.

It was a good meeting, and the changes overall were very minor, but they have a big impact on how the final mantel/TV area will look. I think we got it all set now, so I signed off on all the cabinets.

I'm very excited to see how this turns out!

Sheetrock Done!

2010-03-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

I watched the guys pack up the last of their ladders and scaffolding this morning. It's safe to assume they are done with the drywall and texturing.

The painters are due out tomorrow!

Snow In March...

2010-03-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Splatter Truck On-Site

2010-03-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

I checked the camera this morning a few times already. The mud guys were up there before 7am!

I watched them leave around 10:40 and in the process discovered this parked in the driveway, just out of view of the default position of the camera:

I'm pretty sure that's the splatter/texturing truck. Looks like we might have texture on the wall this afternoon!

House is Nice and Warm!

2010-03-07T19:06:00.000-08:00

We went up today to see how things were going. Not a lot has changed on the inside - a little more mud work has been done. But man, it's very comfortable in there now. Upstairs was a little warm and very humid thanks to all the drying mud, but at least its drying! Downstairs was noticeably cooler, which is the exact reason I got a multi-speed furnace - to recycle that hot air back down below.

Many people have been asking me about how large rooms are and whatnot. I realized I've been taking pictures mostly without people in them, so there's little sense of scale when you see these empty rooms. So this time I've purposely made sure people were in the picture when taken. All of my family is right around the same height right now - about 5'2 - 5'3. Keep that in mind when you see the following pictures.

The Great Room (that's a 13-16-foot-high ceiling):

The Kitchen (that's an 11-foot-high ceiling):

The Master Bath bathtub (that's a 9-foot-high-ceiling):

This house is a lot bigger than I expected it to be!

March 2010 Family Photo

2010-03-07T15:00:00.000-08:00

A little late this time, but here we are!

Light Shopping

2010-03-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

So today we met with the Builder again, this time at Globe Lighting. We've been on the fence about whether to use Direct Buy (and the hassle involved) or go with one of the Builder's suppliers. For awhile there, we thought we could save a bunch of money with DirectBuy, but now we're not so sure.

We're way early for picking out lights, but I need to make a decision now who we'll be going with, since there is so much lead-time for DirectBuy, if we ended up going with them, we'd need to start making purchases shortly.

But I wanted to give Globe Lighting a shot at our business before dismissing them out of hand, so we met with Anna Marie and walked through all the lights in the house. We had already selected the whole house outfit using mostly Sea Gull lights and some other brands with DirectBuy so we brought along our list, including the model numbers.

It took 3 hours, and we were pretty burnt out at the end. I think we made some pretty good selections. We had to compromise some and not get a bunch of super-expensive lights, but we made targeted selections on nice items that should look good.

For the front door we selected a Minka Delancy Small:

While for the garage door lanterns, we selected a Minka Delancy Medium:

Anna Marie is pretty sure we're close to budget, which is reassuring, considering with DirectBuy we are about $900 over budget. As long as Globe is close, I think we'll be going with them, we'll see.

HVAC Temporarily Enabled

2010-03-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

The Roth guys were out this morning configuring the furnace temporarily so it can get the house warm enough for the mud to dry. I'm looking forward to seeing how comfy it is next time I go out!

Temporary Gas, Permanent Power In, Ceiling Insulated

2010-03-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

So the Builder was thinking along the same lines as myself. He didn't want to put a gas tank in just yet, since it will need to be relocated once we move the dirt berm on the north side of the house. But the mud is simply taking too long.

So we had a lot of activity today.

PGE and Bear Electric were out this morning, cutting us from temporary power over to permanent power. Unfortunately, they only made 1 outlet work in the whole house - the one in the guest bathroom. So my camera got unplugged and left that way - I lost the feed about 45 minutes later when the UPS battery gave out.

I went out this afternoon to try to restore power to the camera. In the process I brought along a replacement pigtail cord for the one that the insulation installers took. This time, I came prepared with zip ties, and I've securely affixed the extension cord to the pig tail. You could still take it, of course - a few clips from a wire cutter or a box knife and it's yours. But it wouldn't be accidental.

When I got out there is when I discovered where the power outlet was. I was going to have to re-run my extension cord through the garage, then all the way across the house to the bathroom. This meant un-spooling all my slack power cord and making a more direct run. I'd put all my excess power cord nice and neat inside the toolbox I was using for a waterproof enclosure for all the electronics I have on site.

So I take the tarp off and am greeted by Mr. Fieldmouse, who's very upset that I've disturbed his shelter:

I shoo him away and open the tool box, where I'm greeted by Mrs. Fieldmouse, and the moss they've put in there as bedding for their nice, warm, dry home.

Sadly, an eviction was in order. I got a stick and coaxed Mrs. Fieldmouse to join her husband outside. In the process, I discover they've been at the power cords, chewing them up. I get some tape to fix them up some, but it's not the right kind to do it properly. Thankfully, they've just clipped the ground wire and little else. I then shoved a stick from the inside out to block the hole. I hope they don't try gnawing on the power cords some more to try to get back in.

The insulators were also there, and were just finishing blowing the insulation into the attic:

I also noticed the gas tank had been installed sometime this morning, after the permanent power was installed:

I also took a quick look at the new meter installed on the electric panel. It's one of those newfangled electronic ones. We've already used 7 KWh. I imagine we'll need someone from the HVAC sub out now to get the furnace going, then we'll get the house nice and toasty!

Sheetrock Week 2 - Cold, Wet Weather Delays

2010-02-27T16:00:00.000-08:00

So I've been seeing people out at the site, but only about every other day or so. I'd wondered what was going on - why weren't they out there working every day?

Then it sorta dawned on me - well, they're probably waiting for the mud to dry.

Turns out, that seems to be a major problem right now.

We had some rain, but also some dry spells this last week. It's been cool and damp/foggy most every day though, rain or shine. We went up today to see how things were progressing, and, to be honest, while we did see some changes, the difference wasn't that dramatic. There are some places where there still isn't even a first coat of mud.

They put two tiny little heaters downstairs in the Rec Room, and it's a little warmer down there, but it's not penetrating to any other place in the house.

The problem is, while the walls are now insulated, the ceiling is not. So any heat goes straight up and out - leaving the house cold and damp. When the outside does warm up, the wall insulation does its job and keeps the warm air outside. So the house is always colder than the outside - day or night, rain or shine. Which means the mud isn't drying.

When we were there today at around 3pm, the mud on the wall was still damp and soft, despite having been put up on Thursday.

You can see some additional work done, mostly at the corners and the seams in the Dining Room:

And here in the Kitchen/Dinette and on to the Great Room:

But otherwise, nothing's really changed.

I'll see about getting a meeting with the Builder soon so we can talk ideas on how to speed this up. Maybe it's time to get the ceiling insulated, the power hooked up, and a temporary LP tank in so we can fire up the furnace, I don't know.

Sheetrock Update with Photos

2010-02-21T20:46:00.000-08:00

So we went out today after church to take a look at the Sheetrock. Wow!

Mud and tape is progressing nicely. Looks like they're almost done with the first rough coat, and have all the corner edging up as well. They had a big stack of boxes of mud in the dining room, so that should be going up this next week.

Here's a shot of the Great Room:

And the Rec Room downstairs:

Now a shot of the Kitchen:

And a reverse shot from the Kitchen:

And here's the lines in the garage I was talking about in the last post. Looks good!

It was really neat to see the rooms properly defined now. The skylights in the master closet and the stairwell both worked really well - and were very tall! I almost feel bad about the guy on a 20 foot ladder mudding up there.

Also, it seems the insulation works really well - it was at least 15 degrees colder inside the house than outside.

After checking out the house, we went over to my brother's house to visit and ended up staying for dinner. The beef stew was great!

Mud and Tape Begin

2010-02-20T17:00:00.000-08:00

I saw a van out there today - on a Saturday no less - and saw some people working.

By the time they were finished for the day, I could see white lines on the garage wall - they had started mudding and taping!

We'll go up tomorrow to snap some pictures.

Rough-in Sheetrock Complete!

2010-02-18T22:15:00.000-08:00

While the Builder was here, we also talked about the Sheetrock progress. He was out at the site in the afternoon yesterday and said it was an "Ant Farm" out there. They'd sent out *two* crews to knock it out quick, and had nailed and screwed *all* the rough-in Sheetrock in a single day. It almost makes me feel like I'm on Extreme Makeover or something. :)

I checked the camera later today and they had a trash-bin truck out - they were picking up all the scraps and junk from the house so they can put down paper and start mudding - I'm assuming tomorrow, we'll see.

I can't wait to head out this Sunday and see what it looks like with all the walls solid!

Paint and Cabinet Meeting

2010-02-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

So the Builder came by today to talk paint color and to confirm the changes to the kitchen.

We've decided to not paint anything ourselves and leave it to the experts this time. But we wanted additional colors other than the Primary Wall, Secondary (accent) Wall, Ceiling and Trim colors. Rebecca wanted her room one color and Justin another. Each color we add costs another $250.

I agreed to those costs, and now it's sorta opened the floodgates. Dawn wants *two* more color changes for a grand total of an additional $1,000. I'm trying to talk her down to maybe just one more color change, we'll see.

He also brought out updated 3D drawings of the kitchen cabinets with the changes we made. They look AWESOME and are also very functional. We can't wait to see them completed!

The cabinet maker hadn't changed the entertainment center in the Great Room to handle the size of TV I'd wanted - he only has a 50 inch wide space, and most TV's I'm looking at are at least 54 inches. I've asked for a 56 inch wide space to put a TV.

The problem is, with the current design, the width of the TV is the same as the inside dimension of the fireplace, and that, with the decorative tile, has a dependent dimension on the sides and top of the fireplace - whatever left and right sides are, the top has to be as well for it to look right. If I expand the width by 6 inches, (3 on a side), I have to expand the top by 3 as well, which makes my TV just that much higher above the mantel.

I came up with an idea to decouple the TV width and the fireplace width by suggesting a stacked column design. We would make the whole base larger, but not by expanding the area around the fireplace, but by making the lower columns 'fatter'. The upper columns would be smaller and stacked on top of the lower, larger columns. The narrower upper columns would give me the extra space I needed for my TV.

We'll see how Nathan likes that idea, and what he can come up with for it.

Insulation Inspection Passed, Sheetrock to Commence Tomorrow

2010-02-16T15:00:00.000-08:00

So I just heard from the Builder that we passed insulation inspection.

We are clear to being Sheetrock, so the crews should be out first thing tomorrow!

Sheetrock Delivered!

2010-02-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

I checked the camera again this morning (man, that thing is handy!), and sure enough, there's another BIG truck in front of our house. This time, it's delivering Sheetrock!

I didn't get a snapshot of the whole truck before it was almost completely unloaded, but... I'm pretty sure the trailer was also loaded to the top. That's a lot of Sheetrock!

House Annointed with The Word

2010-02-14T21:47:00.000-08:00

We went out today after church so the rest of the family could see how things were coming along.

Dawn came up with this neat idea to write our favorite/relevant scriptures on the studs of the house before the Sheetrock goes up as an "anointing". It sounded like a great idea to me.

I didn't take pictures of all the scripture we put up, but I got most of them.

I put Revelation 3:20 (NLT) over our front door.

Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends.

Dawn put Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) on the left post into the kitchen:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

And put Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) on the right post:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

I placed Genesis 22:8 (NLT) over the fireplace (I figured it was better than in the Kitchen):

“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

And put Matthew 25:35 (NLT) in the Dining Room:

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.

And Hebrews 3:4 (NLT) (paraphrased) in the Entry:

For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God.

Rebecca put two verses in her room. The first one she put by her door was Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV):

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

The second scripture that she put near her window was Proverbs 21:16 (NIV):

A man who strays from the path of understanding comes to rest in the company of the dead.

Justin put Psalms 19:1 (NIV) on his door frame:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

There were a few others, some just a reference, others the reference and the text, but these were the best ones.

Now the house is ready for Sheetrock. :)