Painting - and a Septic!

Well, even though some stuff goes slowly, other bits do take shape fast! The septic system is looking mighty fine. Can't remember exactly when the work on the septic started - maybe two weeks ago - but it has moved fast. The field was dug and inspected; the pipes were laid out and inspected; the trenches have been filled with gravel (and inspected, maybe?); the tank areas were dug and tanks put in, and the pump is getting wired. Except for the fact that the field will have to be about 4+ feet above the natural grade, the field is currently a thing of beauty. The trenches are laid out perfectly - it looks like there's not a bit of gravel out of place. The electrician, a man who's probably not prone to gushing, was effusive in his praise of the perfection of the trench that was dug for him to wire the pump. It'll all be buried shortly, but in the meantime it's been captured in all its pixellated delight.















The system is designed that the wastewater is gravity-fed into the first tank; when that tank fills, it dumps to the second tank, from where it's pumped up to the leach field. Apparently a pumped system can last longer, since it isn't always working, but takes a batch, then rests. We'll have a dry well for what's flushed out of the systems that treat the water coming from the well. It's a local requirement, but probably makes good sense as it keeps the stuff that conditions our water from messing up the bacterial action that needs to happen in the tank and leach field. Okay, TMI.

The tile was put up on around the tub in the guest bath this week. Technically speaking, they did it perfectly, just not the way we wanted. After asking that it be taken down and done the way we wanted it, we've backed off and will leave it as is. It seemed such a waste of materials, since the tiles would probably have been trashed and the wallboard behind them would also have needed to be replaced. We didn't like the idea of just wasting it all, so we'll keep it the way they did it. Lesson learned - we should have walked through each of the tiling efforts with them to make sure they would be installing everything the way we wanted. Well, at least all of the tiles look right - there's one that I haven't been able to see to double check.














The wallboard guy is still at it - including today, a Sunday. We figured we could go there and actually have the place to ourselves. Not quite. In the meantime, the painters have basically caught up with him, and have put the base coat on. Benjamin Moore Super White. Apparently the standard for the Deck Houses was always Navajo White, but that has a beige tone to it, and NextHouse was screaming for a true white. The first coat makes a world of difference from the kind of dingy color of the wallboard, and gives the house the feel we wanted. It's going to be nice when the 2x4 "railing" is replaced with the real deal.

Light switches have been put in. Nice, clean white rocker switches that should basically disappear into the walls once all the painting and trim is done. The lighting itself is probably the next big thing. While most of the lights are recessed and therefore done, there are still 15 or so to pick out. This will be interesting, since we tend to have different taste in light fixtures - mine being a bit over the top. But, we'll work with a person at Wolfers/Standard Electric who has done a lot of Deck Houses - will need to make sure she really gets that while this shares the post-and-beam design of Deck Houses, it isn't one.

Hung out on the decks for a few minutes today - a nice warmish morning after an overnight snow. The decks are going to be great. The cats will like the house as well - lots of sun to sleep in and a whole bunch of floor-to-ceiling windows to look out. The driveway and yard are mud pits right now. Not a good time to muck around to get into the basement/crawl space, since the only access is from a bulkhead on the far side of the house. I still want to get down there and get some photos, but it'll have to wait.

Like watching grass grow

Getting the wallboard done seems to be an interminable process. The guy is doing a great job, but it seems like he's doing almost all of it on his own, which makes for a long time. He's been there basically every day (well, maybe not Sundays), and arrived early enough that one day a neighbor called the police. Nothing quite like picking up the weekly town newspaper and seeing your own property listed in the police blotter - a quick call to the police station confirmed what happened. Anyway, with the wallboard up, the fireplace seems much more at home.

We had a bit of a disappointment last Saturday. We were there when it was raining pretty hard, and the window that originally leaked before the gutters went up was all wet again - a puddle. Several other window units (all non-operable windows) had water on the interior side - not between the panes but literally inside the house. One reason is probably that the apron that goes from the roof over the gutters hadn't been installed yet (it has now), but given the location of other windows, it looks like they will need to be reglazed. It's kind of surprising, given that these are pretty standard Empyrean products. Well, at least it's Empyrean's nickel if that's the issue, and hopefully they'll just pay for Steve to have his own guys do the repairs.















The tile guys showed up this week - started with the master shower. Looking good! (Of course, this will probably take as long as the wallboard.) We went to a glass place today, and they'll go out in a week or two to measure and prepare a quote for the shower door and sidelight piece. I think we've agreed on the glass - if not, we'll still go with what I like, right? While we were there, we also picked out the glass for a few of the kitchen cabinets...boy, it seems an eternity since we ordered those, but it's probably just 4 weeks. The glass place seems pretty good - we'll probably go back there for mirrors.















Last Saturday, we went up to a flooring place. The guy said they get really busy on Saturday mornings and that it's best to get there early. So, we scrambled to get up there early, didn't make it as early as planned, but there were no other customers in the joint. Oh well, we picked out a couple of woods so we can get quotes to see how expensive our tastes really are. You have to love these places that focus on selling to the contractors - they won't even begin to tell us the relative prices, so we don't know if we're even in the ballpark of the allowances until the flooring sub prepares the quote.

While we were up in the Wilmington area, we stopped in Burlington - home of a million malls and stores. There's this newish strip mall that had an LL Bean and we had a few minutes to kill and went in there. Tiny store, but may be worth revisiting when we're back in the house. Of more immediate interest is a store called Arhaus Furniture, which claims to specialize in recycled and repurposed materials for its furniture. A salesperson on the floor was talking a lot about how "green" everything in the store is - the website doesn't tout this so much, so I'm not sure where it really falls on the spectrum. We'll probably go back there and give more consideration to one or two things.

We won't go back to West Elm. We had heard of the place but never been there, and thought we might like the aesthetic of their stuff. Yuck. We could not get out fast enough. Basically, our cats could sneeze and the furniture would tremble. If our little Ping jumped up on it, it would fall apart. (Of course, this is the same sweet cat that crashed a speaker through the glass door of a custom-made cabinet.)

Back to the house. A load of stuff arrived from Empyrean, including mostly the interior doors and trim and the baseboards. It's hanging out in various locations, waiting for the walls to be ready. The painters were also at the house this week - mostly to stain the big folding door. I wasn't there, but Peter was, and here's the photo with the door open, painter at work. It was a gorgeous day, and everyone was in a good mood.















The excavator is a big step, because it means that work on the septic has started. A huge hole has been dug and is getting squared off. I'm surprised by how deep the hole is, given that the leach field is, by definition in our town, a raised field. I couldn't get a good look at it today, given the arrival yesterday of about 8-10" of snow locally.

I can't wait for a day that we can be at the house without anyone there. The last three weekends, there's been at least one guy there. As much as we appreciate people working extra, it's hard to hang out and enjoy the house with other people in it. Someday soon, we'll be able to hang out on the deck and eat lunch in the sun. Maybe even read the paper and take a short nap in the mid-day sun.

Week two of wallboarding

We're really in the part where the visible differences seem slower to come, even though each visit has another partial milestone. The wallboard has been going up for about two weeks (give or take, as I can't really keep track of time), and it gives a whole different look to the house.

Upon first view with the wallboard going up, I had a sense of loss - some of the openness is gone. I briefly thought that maybe we should leave it fully open - no wallboard - to keep that sense that has been so familiar to me. But, I suppose that wouldn't fly with the town, and it might end up being kind of weird to live in. This first photo reminds me a lot of the concept pictures of the house - and I supposed when the paint's up, it'll look even crisper. The play of the light and the shadows cast by the window framing is really nice.

Hearing that putting up wallboard could take three weeks was pretty surprising, until we met up with Steve at the house to discuss some of the finer points. Suddenly it's evident that all the little nooks and crannies between windows, and between windows and ceiling, all need carefully cut board squeezed in. None of this is to say that there aren't large spaces where they can just nail up the board as-delivered, but that's probably the really fast part.


Met the wallboard subcontractor last Saturday. As the homeowner, it's a pretty good feeling to show up at the site on a Saturday and find people there working - and who are motivated to being there and getting the job to the next step. We're really lucky to be working with our builder and with the caliber of his crew and subs. I can't help but think of this when I drive to work past a house that has made no visible progress since I started commuting past it in September.

This weekend we need to pick out the main flooring. We started with these great ideas of cork and bamboo, but have pretty much canceled the cork idea as it doesn't wear well and may have so much sealant and finishes that it loses some of the cachet. Not sure whether or how much bamboo will end up in the picture.

We have so far avoided ordering the flat-panel TV, but went ahead and reinforced a wall where we expect it will go - makes you wonder what people who are buying them for an existing house are doing to keep the device from peeling off the wall. I guess having the blocking behind the wallboard will reduce my arguments against getting a new TV. Oh well, it'll be much easier to see the Celtics losing yet another game.

The shower door remains elusive. The master shower has a pretty wide opening, and a custom door/side panel will be needed. Of course, the recommended place to go no longer does shower doors, so we're off after plan "B" - conveniently, it's the same place that the glass for some of the kitchen cabinets will come from. Inconveniently, it's in a little town that's a pain to get to and has limited weekend hours. Clearly a lot of these businesses sell mostly to the trade, so it becomes less convenient for us.

I cannot wait for the house to be done. I'm very tired of not being in our own house, hauling our trash the hour from where we're staying to our transfer station, picking up the mail at the post office, and giving up most of our spare time to shuttling around and doing things to get ready for this. It's going to be great, but I'm ready for this part to be over.

Oh - very exciting - I made my first foray into the crawl space last weekend. Didn't think to take the camera down there, so may make a repeat visit tomorrow and get some pictures. It's not for the faint of heart or claustrophobic. It's filled with all kinds of heating/AC-related equipment, most of which I don't yet understand. We'll need to figure out how this hydro-air setup works, but it feels like something from the movie Brazil (Terry Gilliam - 1985).