Counting Our Blessings on Christmas Day

25 December 2013

Christmas morning.  Our first Christmas in our new home.  We have so much to be thankful for.  We not only have all three of our beautiful children with us for the holidays, but Dad is visiting as well.  Our greatest gift is being able to celebrate this holiday season surrounded by our family.

Steve and I woke about 7:00 am.  The house was very quiet.  We have barely figured out where to put furniture, and I am sure some of it will move around over the next couple of months.  But there is a perfect place for a Christmas tree in our Family Room.

I like looking around and seeing "old" things that make this house our "home".  Maybe it's just me, but many objects hold memories for me.  The tiny, child's chair in the corner (picture above) was Dad's, and sat by his fireplace in his house on Bowdoin Street, in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Now it sits by our fireplace.  The large sofa pillows also were handed down to us from Dad.  The Santa on the fireplace hearth was a gift to us from Becky, several years ago.  It always makes us smile when we jiggle it.  The Christmas stockings have stories to tell.  Steve's is the oldest, from when he was a boy.

People started stirring about 8:00 am, and by 10:00 am all the presents had been unwrapped.  (Steve is doing the Santa "jiggle" in the picture above.)

The large cardboard box by Steve holds a "new" tiffany lamp, for Steve's desk in the Office.  A new lamp, for the Lamps' new home.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Moving Day!

14 December 2013

Wow!  We are actually moving.  The day is overcast with rain/sleet/snow in the forecast, but who cared?  We are only moving about 200 yards :o).

We were all packing up in the rental house, and Steve suggested I run over and take one last round of pictures before we mess it all up with furniture.  So Alex and I drove over with some miscellaneous things.  Alex got out of the car and said "It's funny that the first thing we are moving into the house is a lamp."  So I said "Let me get your picture!"

Movers at the rental house

We hired a 3-man crew and 26-foot truck, to do all the furniture pieces.  It took them about 6 hours to move all the furniture.  There are a few heavy things left in the house, but we think we can handle them in the 4Runner.

Movers at our new home

Katherine came to help us in the afternoon.  Lauren and she concentrated on the Kitchen, figuring out where to put everything.  There are LOTS of cabinets.  And yes, I know.  I cannot reach the upper half of all the wall cabinets.  That's what step stools are for.

We were pretty tired by the end of the Saturday, but it was also a great feeling of accomplishment.

We slept in the house Saturday night.  Of course, we are illegal squatters technically.  We still need our final Site Inspection, but the Residential Use Permit will be issued.  Hopefully Monday.

Passing Inspection

2nd Week of December

Okay, so it's been seven months instead of six.  But we are so close I can finally get excited.  Today was a big day.  We had our "final" BUILDING inspections.  (Originally these inspection were to happen on Monday, but thanks to Mother Nature county offices were closed until this morning.)

Please note below, an email notice that Steve forwarded to me this morning.  Our RESIDENTIAL FINAL inspection PASSED!

While this is GREAT news it is not the end of our inspections.  We still need SITE FINAL inspection.  So everyone continue to keep your fingers crossed.  Hopefully that will happen tomorrow.

Enough said for now. 

Front of the House - Sunday, 8 December 2013

Potty Talk

1st Week of December

I have gotten a few requests to see pictures of the bathrooms.  It's hard to take a picture of a small room, which is one of the reasons I have hesitated to show the bathrooms.  Also, these rooms have continued to be "works in progress".  Unfortunately the selections of  bathroom vanities became a real problem, and are part of the reason for the delay in completion of the house :o(

 

Master Bath Shower & Tub

One of the biggest gaps to completing the house is plumbing work.  The electrical, mechanical and plumbing subcontractors like to come back only when there is a lot of work for them to do.  They really like to limit the number of times they come to the house.  The plumber has not wanted to come back to the house to complete his work until everything was ready for him.  And that meant the vanities and their countertops need to be in place.  The bathroom vanity countertops are supposed to be installed tomorrow; my fingers are crossed.  The plumber is supposed to work over the weekend to complete all remaining plumbing work.  Most of the shower fittings still need to be installed, as well as all the lavatory sink faucets.

Master Bathroom vanities - waiting for the countertops

There are several small details left to finish in the bathrooms.  The recesses in the showers need a "ledge", and the glass partitions and thresholds need to be installed at the showers.  We also still need mirrors for the Master Bathroom.  But I will be delighted to get countertops and working faucets.

The Beginning of the End of Construction

1st Week of December

View from the Mailbox

I had to drive home at lunchtime today, to meet the guy doing the hydroseeding.  There was a big push this week to get the last bits of sitework done.  This involved some final final grading, in particular in the front yard where the septic field was re-built.  We had two site inspections by Fairfax County Health Department this week.  We found out this morning that the Health Inspector approved the septic field.  AND we found out that our water passed the lab tests.  So we officially have drinkable water.

These may not seem like big things, but they signal the beginning of the end of construction.  Our inspection process has begun.  With approval of the septic field we were clear to proceed with the hydroseeding.  We have to hydroseed in order to "stabilize" the site.  The site inspector will not approve us for occupancy without the beginning of some grass growth.

There is an order to the necessary inspections.  We needed Health Department approvals before any of the building interior inspections can be called in.  The Builder plans to start calling for his final building inspections at the beginning of next week.

Please keep your fingers crossed that all inspections proceed without any hitches, and we will have our "Residential Use Permit" by the end of next week.  That's the plan anyway.

Punchlist

1st Week of December

Well, the end of November has come and gone, and unfortunately we are not in the house yet.  But we are getting close.  Close enough that Steve and I walked through the house on Saturday and prepared a "punchlist", writing down all the little things we saw that needed to be completed and/or repaired.  One reason we wanted to do this was to help the Builder focus on getting everything done.

Family Room - punchlist follow up

I went over to the house tonight to walk those rooms that will get carpet flooring.  Ideally everything on the punchlist has been addressed in these rooms, because the carpet is being installed in the morning!  All the Bedrooms except for the Master Bedroom will be carpeted.  The Family Room is the only room on the 1st floor that will have carpeting.  Most of the things on our punchlist had been done - the wall outlet covers are on, the dimmer switches for the ceiling lights are in place,  wall surface patching has been completed, and the floor has been cleaned and swept, ready for the carpet.  Unfortunately the fireplace is not completely installed, the hearth stone is not in place and the ceiling fan is not installed.  Now I will be worried about damage to the carpet when these items are dealt with.

Fireplace - not quite done yet



Tools have been moved out of the Family Room, and are now sitting in the  Eating area.  There is cardboard laid out to cover most of the wood flooring to protect it.  There is a big sign at the Garage entry door that everyone must remove their shoes before entering the house.

 

Stairs - still need a lot of paint touch-up

You can see a lot of wall touch-up in progress in the picture above.  The stair risers still need to be painted, and the treads and railings need another coat of stain.  But we are getting there.

How Could Such a Small Room Require so Many Decisions?

4th Week of November

 

Somehow many of the material decisions for the Powder Room took us a while to finalize.  We ended up with a "black and white" scheme for this tiny little room.  We bought almost all the materials ourselves, instead of through the Builder.  I purchased the vanity base from "Restoration Hardware", the  "carrara marble" mosaic wall tile from "The Tile Store", and the mirror from Dulles Electric!  The faucet is mounted on the wall.  The sink will be a "vessel" sink, sitting on top of the countertop.  The sink is in the house, but we are waiting for the countertop, which will be installed some time next week.

Counter Point

4th Week of November

Kitchen - so close to being done!

Lots of progress has been made with the Kitchen!  The granite countertops were installed today.  We picked a granite called "silver gray".  The finish is "honed".  The peninsula light is in, the appliances are in, and undercabinet lights are in.  Many of the surfaces have been cleaned.  We still need outlet cover plates, and base trim paint in some places.  The sink is sitting on top of the counter.  It appears that plumbing connections will be one of the last things to happen in the house.

Kitchen appliances and lots of cabinets!

Most of the appliances are BOSCH, but the refrigerator is a JENN AIR.  I can't believe how perfectly the refrigerator fits.  We decided against the very popular "French door" refrigerator with the freezer on the bottom.  We prefer to have the side-door freezer.  We also decided against a built-in microwave.  Instead we will purchase a countertop microwave and set it in the corner.

Kitchen counter - waiting for sink and cooktop

I'm not sure if I've mentioned previously that we had a cabinet order mishap.  The wrong sink base (and adjacent cabinet) were ordered.  The correct cabinets are in fabrication but I have no idea when they will arrive; most likely NOT before we move in.  The cabinet bases will be cut to allow the sink to fit.  When the replacement cabinets arrive the builder will pull out the wrong bases and push in the correct ones.  He assures me they do this kind of thing regularly with kitchen renovations and have no worries about making it all right.

Desk with Countertop in place

The countertop for the desk was also installed today.  We had a cabinet order mishap at the desk area as well.  All the wall cabinets are supposed to be the shorter height.  The Builder heard today that the correct cabinets are being shipped from the factory on Monday, so hopefully by next Friday we will have the right cabinets on the wall.

And so it goes.  Point counterpoint.

The Blues

4th Week of November



 

I can't explain what was going on with the lighting this afternoon, but it literally looked blue!  It was about 4:00 pm and overcast.  It has been raining almost constantly for the past 36 hours, although it is just a drizzle now.

The Builder's crew of 3 - 4 guys spent a lot of time CLEANING the house today.  The protective plastic film is being removed from the windows.  There are still many little things to be done around the house, but from some vantage points it sure looks done.

Working Weekend - maybe the last?

November 23rd - Saturday

Boxes filled with wood floor planks arrived at the house over a week ago.  But the HVAC system needed to be running, and then the wood needed a few days to acclimate to room temperature.  Finally, on Friday, a crew of about eight guys showed up to install the wood flooring. 

Living Room, looking toward Office and Family Room

By the end of Friday almost all the wood flooring was installed!  There was a lot of wood dust all over the floors.  The only room on the 1st floor that doesn't get wood flooring is the Family Room.

Saturday about four flooring guys showed up.  They finished small areas and did the planking on the stair landings.  They also started preparing the "shoe mold", which is the trim piece that bridges the gap between the edges of the floor boards and the wall base trim.

Master Bedroom and Hallway

We also have all the ceiling fans up in the bedrooms.  We saved all our fans from the old house; its kind of amazing that we managed to save all the parts and pieces for five (5) fans.

Alex's Bedroom

Only the Master Bedroom and Hallways get wood flooring on the 2nd floor.  All the other bedrooms will be carpeted; probably the last thing that will happen.  But as you can see above, shelving is installed in the closets, ceiling fans are installed, doors and hardware are in place, and the smoke detectors (with red temporary cover) are installed.  These rooms just need their final coat of paint and they are done!

Pennsylvania Blue Slate

November 23rd - Saturday

I honestly do not think we could have been any luckier with the seasonal weather during our construction.  It is only now truly "cold" out, and the ground certainly has not frozen yet.  Good thing too, because the final grading - no small task - has been in progress this past week.  Once the grades were final along the front of the house the sidewalk construction began.

We had a little go-around about the riser material for the front steps.  The drawings call for slate pavers on horizontal AND vertical surfaces, but the mason just started laying in stone!  We stopped the work so that we could think about it for a day.  We ended up deciding stone is good, but did ask that they vary the sizes, which they did.  Other finishing touches that occurred this past week were the staining of the entry ceilings and installation of the light fixtures.  Still to be completed is the panel trim boards to the sides of the door.  Oh, and we also have a door bell now :o)

I think it is the same masons doing the sidewalks as did the house stone.  I really like these guys.  They take their time, are meticulous with the details, and definitely know what they are doing.  The sidewalk is Pennsylvania Blue Stone.  This same stone will be used at the hearth of the fireplace!

There isn't much sidewalk to finish, but they did take Sunday off, so I expect them to finish tomorrow.

Some of the other exterior details to be completed are installation of the gutters and downspouts, and finishing the railing at the side entry.  Also, you can see in the upper corner of the picture above the wired location for a flood lamp not yet installed.  Exterior electrical outlets need to finished as well.  We are getting down to the details.

Tools of the Trade

3rd Week of November

Over the past two months we have seen tool migration throughout the house.  It had gotten to the point that it was hard to see daily progress through all the "stuff" strewn all over the rooms.  I have joked with the Builder that he probably has a $100,000 worth of tools in the house.  Today is a bit of a turning point.  With the installation of the wood flooring we are - believe it or not - coming very close to being done!  There are miscellaneous little things to be finished, but the list is getting smaller by the day.



Loading up the Car

I went over to the house to take pictures of the sidewalk work and found one of the Builder's guys packing up his car!  He is moving tools OUT of the house - seems like a real sign that the end is near.  Tomorrow is a big cleaning day, before the painters come on Monday for the final coat of paint.

More tools, lined up in the entry hall

As soon as I walked into the house through the Garage there were even more tools assembled, waiting to be moved out I guess.  By the way, the floor in the entryway is slate.  It has been covered with brown "construction" paper since it was grouted, to protect it.

Kitchen clutter

There is also brown paper over the Kitchen tile floor.  There isn't too much clutter in the Kitchen at this point.  The appliances arrived today, and we are hoping to see the granite countertop on Wednesday (day before Thanksgiving? - probably a very slim chance that will happen).

Believe it or not, the pile of tools is getting smaller

The Family Room has been a staging area for some time.  At this point the room almost looks clean!  This is the one room on the first floor that does not get wood flooring; it will be carpeting.  So that kind of explains why it has been used as a staging area, particularly in the past few days, when the wood flooring was being installed.

Appliances, sitting in the Eating Area

The Builder has been working every Saturday for the past month.  And tomorrow - Sunday - he will be back to install the appliances.  While they haven't overtly stated it, I think the plan is to be as complete as possible by Wednesday.  We are going into the last phase of the project - FINAL INSPECTIONS!  But I will talk about that in my next blog.


Out of the Darkness . . .

3rd week of November

There really is a lot happening at the house now.  While this has consistently been the case, some "new" things are easy to spot while others are not.  I continue to be amazed by how much Steve and I have to do to keep the pace of the construction moving as quickly as possible, but I will save that for another blog, hopefully this weekend.

I am a real "daylight" kind of person, and the change of seasons combined with daylight savings time (what a misnomer), means that I literally cannot SEE the house much at all during the week.  I leave home just before dawn and arrive home after dusk.

Light fixtures arrived on Tuesday, and Wednesday almost all of them were installed!

Looking into the Foyer from the Dining Room

We had to give the Builder all of our light fixture selections for purchasing through a distributor.  I was focused on what I consider "decorative" lights, and didn't realize that we also have to select the "utilitarian" lights, for rooms like closets, garage, and laundry room.  I thought the Builder would just give us something generic from what we indicated on the drawings.  I think Steve and I will be at Home Depot or Lowes this weekend buying these "unseen" light fixtures.

Looking toward Kitchen from Eating Area

As you can see above, most of the lighting in the Kitchen will be downlights.  There is a pendant fixture that will hang over the peninsula.  I assume they will install that one last, because it could be damaged with all the work still to occur in the Kitchen.  You can also see the range hood being installed.

View of Eating Area & Fireplace, from Kitchen

(Yikes, my picture is crooked - sorry.)  You can see the pendant light for our eating area above.  Unfortunately the electrician did not quite get the placement of the light right.  It is supposed to align with the center of the fireplace!  I pointed it out to the Builder and he was quick to agree and say it will be corrected.  You can also see that the fireplace stonework is complete.  I think the fireplace is almost operational - maybe even today they will "fire it up".

Side note:  Steve and I work in the construction world, so we know only too well that there has been a long term change in the level of ability by the everyday workers, particularly the subcontractors.  They don't seem to care very much about the end result of their work.  And they definitely can never seem to see the "big picture", or even ask themselves questions about what they are doing and how does it need to coordinate with other work.  As ceiling junction boxes were being installed (2 months ago) I noticed several locations that were wrong.  I have dimensioned locations on the drawings for many of the downlights and they still got several of them wrong!  I walked the house a couple of times with the Builder to review and direct relocations.  Somehow neither of us noticed the junction box location for the Eating Area was off.  In hindsight we attribute the oversight to the fact that the fireplace was not framed out until very recently, and the drawings show alignment with the centerline of the fireplace.  Oh well.  Just another "fix".

I apologize for my pictures.  I don't have many this time, but will make up for it this weekend.  Appliances are being delivered tomorrow.  And wood flooring installation starts today!

Let's Get Fired Up

3rd Week of November

There is one detail in the house that is appropriately the last element to be constructed.  The fireplace.

The fireplace

The fireplace is double-sided.  While it separates the Family Room from the Eating and Kitchen spaces, it can be enjoyed from both sides.  It is obviously still a work-in-progress, as are most of these "finishing" details.  While the fireplace has been set in place there is still much to do to complete its installation.  The slate tile is only completed on one side.  But I think you get the idea  .  .  .  .

Kitchen or Kitsch?

3rd Week of November

I know I haven't done justice to the progress inside the house these past couple of weeks.  We have come to that point in the project where there is a lot going on, but everything seems to remain "in progress".  There are tools and materials everywhere, making it hard to distinguish the completed work.

Like everything else in the design, we spent a lot of time on the Kitchen.  Between window placement, spatial openness, materials, not to mention every cabinet size, configuration and function.  It's amazing how many details go into a Kitchen.

View of Kitchen from Eating Area

There is a quiet but consistent color scheme throughout the house.  And most of the colors come together in the Kitchen.  The cabinets are natural-stained cherry.  The wood floor, which will be in the Eating Area, is white oak (very similar to the natural cherry).  The floor and wall tiles are the same material; just different tile sizes.  The tile colors range from slate grays and blues to gold hues.

View of Kitchen, looking toward sink

The kitchen cabinets arrived last week, and within 24 hours they were being installed.  We have known what our appliances were going to be for some time.  But the Builder was not ready for them, so we waited to actually buy them until last week, including the range hood. The appliances are stainless steel finishes, and they will be delivered on Saturday.  We also just selected the countertop material, which will be "silver gray" granite in a honed finish; the fabricator came out this afternoon to measure all the surfaces, and it will arrive in about a week.

View of Kitchen, looking toward Refrigerator

It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the Kitchen feels very large to us.  The cabinets seem to go on forever. I deliberately did not want many wall cabinets, so that the space would feel more open.

Desk Area

As if the Kitchen didn't have enough cabinets there are several in a desk arrangement, in the Eating Area. And in the corridor behind the desk wall there is a small "bar" of cabinets!  So I think we're covered.

Playing in the Dirt

2nd & 3rd Week of November

Steve and I sincerely believe we are not "pack rats".  Before we moved to 10208 Carol Street - in 1999 - we had averaged living in one place about 2 years.  Moving is a great way to remove clutter.  But then we lived in our old house on Carol Street for 14 years!  I regularly went through closets and either donated or threw away things.  But three children grew up in that house, so it was a bit inevitable that "stuff" would accumulate.  Some of the things most difficult to let go were favorite toys; things like Legos, Kynex, cardboard "bricks".  And Tonka Trucks!

Nick & Alex's toy backhoe

Some of the things we moved into the new house last weekend were these toys.  We used to tease Alex because he liked to randomly dig holes in the yard.  For the last two weeks our entire front yard has been a series of holes and trenches.  I couldn't resist having a little fun with the back hoe :o)

Septic field ditches, waiting for final inspection

Of course we had to wait a few days for the Fairfax County Health Department inspector to visit our property and "approve" the septic field construction and all pipe connections.  That was done this past Tuesday.  By Thursday the trenches and holes were filled in.  We have a front yard again!

Backfilled Septic Field, i.e. our front yard

All day Friday our builder "played" on his backhoe, doing a lot of the final grading around the house.  And Saturday the masons were back to do the last bit of masonry work - the stone and slate around front steps!

Masons working on Saturday

Somehow we have ended up with some leftover dirt (on the left in the picture above).  I have asked the Builder to spread it over the side yard, to the left of the house.

Taking a Break

10 November 2013 - Veterans Day

Some of you know that Lauren, Katherine, Carol and I ran a race in September.  Lauren, Katherine, and Katherine's friend Liz, ran a half marathon!  Carol and I ran a 5-mile course.  Training for that race took a few months.  We all enjoyed the accomplishment, even though finding the time to adequately train was a real challenge for all of us.  Feeling like we were in reasonably good shape, Lauren started looking for another race we could run.

She found a 10K (6.2 miles) Veterans Day run that was the same general course as the September race. This time we got Steve and Alex to agree to run as well!  Somehow training for this race proved to be challenging for all of us, for lots of different reasons.  But we all showed up, we all ran, and we all finished!  It is probably the farthest Alex and I have ever run, and Steve hadn't run that distance in many years.  Even more amazing, Steve only arrived home Saturday night after spending 16 hours en route home from Germany.  Needless to say, there was a bit of jet lag going on.

Katherine!

Lauren's time averaged 8.18 minute miles!!!!! Steve ran with me until the last quarter-mile, so his time wasn't much better than mine.  But I was very happy to average 10.10 minute miles.  And I was delighted that Alex finished, given that he did not train at all.

Once again we lucked out with the weather.  The early morning was chilly, in the 40's, but the sun felt good, and by the end of the race it was well into the 50's.

Reflecting Pool on the Mall

Break's over!  Back to the house.

Footnote:  The five of us are talking about doing another run in December - "Jingle All the Way 8K", in downtown DC!

Another Working Weekend

1st Weekend of November

Kitchen - cabinets being installed

The Kitchen cabinets arrived on Friday.  The Builder has been working weekends for about a month now. They are making a good effort to be done as soon as possible.  Today (Saturday), while we were moving in boxes in the Basement, they were installing the cabinets. There are deliberately few wall cabinets that you see from the Eating Area (which is where this picture is taken from).  The exhaust hood for the gas cooktop will be to the left of the window, and a couple of shelves will be to the right of the window.

Kitchen Cabinets

The cabinets are natural-stained cherry.  The sink will be directly under the window facing the backyard (left window in the picture above).  The porcelain tile floor is covered with heavy kraft paper to protect it.

Kitchen cabinets being installed

There really are a lot of cabinets!  Many of them aren't seen from the Eating area.  The big box by the ladder above is a tall pantry unit.  There is also a Pantry Closet.  Lots more storage space than I have ever had.

I don't know if the guys will be working tomorrow, but just one more day and all the cabinets should be installed, at least in the Kitchen.