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.