A House In A Field
The story of a house. In a field. And how it gets there.
Faucets, pot fillers, lights and floor grates…
With one of us on the road this week and the other full-speed at the site, there’s a lot of details to catch-up on.
Theoretically, we’re ten days out from move-in. Those ten days should see the cabinetmakers wrap up, Josh finish the electrical work, some last minute details on the heating system and — just before we move in — the second coat on the floors. But it’s going to be tight…
In no particular order :
The kitchen is just about done. A few odds & ends to finish in terms of electrical work, paining, etc.
That’s right — a pot filler.
Entry light from Barn Light Electric.
John and the crew have started finishing up the hardware. Here’s one of the 2nd floor closets.
Kitchen faucet. We always wanted a “modern farmhouse” and Krista did an awesome job at helping us find fixtures that keep the place from looking dated.
Living room floor grate.
We might have Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom…
“He reached for the brass doorknob but suddenly withdrew his hand as though he’d been burned. ‘What’s the matter?’ said Harry. ‘Can’t go in there,’ said Ron gruffly. ‘That’s a girl’s toilet.’ ‘Oh, Ron, there won’t be anyone in there,’ said Hermione. ‘That’s Moaning Myrtle’s place. Come on, let’s have a look.’“—Harry, Hermione & Ron entering Moaning Myrtle’s Bathroom for the first time. Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets
While the finishing phase of Dash Landing is rocketing along, no one should be surprised if they show up to the house to see the master bathroom boarded off like it never existed.
Consider the past few days :
* We started the week with Pottery Barn deciding that we didn’t really need our bathroom lights, but not bothering to let us know.
The faulty tile.
* Rob the Tiler got the back splashes all but done, only to notice that one of the tiles was missing a stripe and needed to be replaced. That meant prying off the faulty tile and waiting a week for the new one to arrive.
* Our plumbers, Jon and Levi, installed the toilet. A few minutes later, they noticed a puddle on the floor — the toilet was leaking. This was one of THREE of the exact same model Kohler toilets they’ve installed in Dash Landing. Only one had an issue — the master bathroom.
Just a tiny portion of the shattered glass door remains.
* Yesterday, our shower was scheduled to be installed by Tom Olds. About an hour into the process, we hear a giant crash — a 30″ x 84″ x 3/8 thick glass door fractured into no less than a billion pieces. Tom has been installing showers for 20 years and it’s the first one that has ever broken.
* Jon and Levi were installing the bathtub today. A process that should have taken a few minutes ended up taking them the better part of a day and involved a sawzall. Nothing good ever came out of plumbers using sawzalls in a new house.
We’re not exactly sure what’s happening, but there’s a perfectly nice half-bath down the hall and a shower on the second floor. And if there’s a Chamber of Secrets hidden underneath the master bath — it can stay there.
What’s the Chinese word for “kismet?”
The doorbell got hung yesterday.
We’re not exactly sure what strange powers are at work when what’s-his-name can find something so “right” for Dash Landing in a Shanghai flea market, but we’re not going to argue with them.
It makes us giggle every time…
First crown molding and now this.
To the genius who invented “soft close” drawers — we salute you. Frankly we didn’t know that these crazy things even existed, nevermind the prospect of getting them in our kitchen.
And “yes,” we now find ourselves testing them. Over and over. Giggling each and every time…
Darwin has nothing on us : The evolution of a mantle.
One of the areas where we’ve all “struggled” just a bit has been the fireplace mantle. Visually really important to the house. Coincidentally also a source of contention between the two of us. (Let’s just say that one of us REALLY wanted a fireplace. The other didn’t give a sweet fig.)
As a result, finishing the mantel languished just a bit. There was plenty of work to be done around Dash Landing without wrestling this particular bear. And while delaying the inevitable is a time honored building tradition, you could tell that John was fretting about it. A day wouldn’t go by where we didn’t see John standing in front of the fireplace and the number of pencil sketches on the drywall was starting to look like an art installation.
But the rapidly approaching deadline (T-18) pretty much forced our hand this week.
One of two of you will remember this original drawing from the immortal “Laurie Goes Over The Fireplace” post in late June :
If you look carefully, you’ll see a little wall set-back between the fireplace and the kindling box that looked great on paper, but didn’t quite work for assorted reasons.
So when Rob stopped by the house last week, he offered to take another crack at the mantle — both to incorporate the changes to the wall structure change as well as some of the other design elements of the living room and kitchen :
Love it. Keeps the simplicity of the first design and — maybe more importantly — breaks up that wall just a bit. We especially like the the nod to the kitchen with the panel above the firewood box.
Two days later :
And today :
Still have a ways to go, but shaping up nicely.
We’re not even sure where to begin…
Busy couple of days on the building site. Everyone is trying to get as much done as possible before the house gets turned back to the painters on Wednesday or so.
Rather than some gibberishy ramble, we’ll just show a few photos :
Greg Soper is finishing up his installation. A few more cabinet drawers/doors and the island remain.
Tom — along with his partner Dick — has done most of the finish work in the house. We’ve never seen Tom in anything but a woven button down shirt. That’s the kind of operation we’re running — no ties.
Words cannot express the awesomeness of the flooring.
It’s ALIVE!
This is the one of the “brains” of the system. It’ll connect the three zones and humidifier.
A couple of you will vaguely recall all the work that went into Dash Landing’s heating decision. If you’re really bored and want to catch up, try here or here. Have a glass of wine handy. Make sure it’s filled to the tippy-top.
The good news is that we’re now able to throw phrases like “ductless mini-split” and “vertical loop” into our every day dinner discussions, but we’ll also admit that this is an area that still brings a little anxiety. It’s a long way from propane fired radiant to geothermal. And don’t get us started on low-velocity forced air…
Well, you might also remember that this is Flooring Week on the building site. (Not quite the same appeal as Shark Week, but give it time…) Sealer went on yesterday afternoon and our first coat of polyurethane was applied this morning. Looks great, but it also coincided with Maine’s first cold snap of the season and John was more than a little concerned that the floor wouldn’t dry. Might not sound like a big deal, but we’ve got an army of sub-contractors in a holding pattern waiting to get into the house. Every day matters when you’ve sold one house and need to move into the other.
So today John asked our geothermal vendor — Dave Leonard — to turn the system on early.
And it works.
Everything will get tidied up and installed correctly over the next couple of weeks, but the house was toasty warm when we checked it early tonight.
T-19.
The heating system. Those black pipes on the far left connect to the geothermal wells. The bright lights on the right side is a good sign.
We have no idea what this does. But we think it’s important.
From earlier in the month. This is the process of charging the geothermal lines. That box connecting the pipes is the circulator.
The next best thing to separate bathrooms.
For the first time in 28+ years, we won’t be sharing a bathroom sink. Praise the powers.
The nice folks at Dennis J. King were able to squeeze these countertops out of the “remainder” of our kitchen stone.
Backsplash. Yes, one tile flunked out. (the stripes were missing…)
A House In A Field 