Moving Day Tomorrow

The cats are fully aware life is in uproar, as are we. Norris again spent most of the day at the house, but had to leave when the floor finishers showed up.

DirecTV was scheduled to hook up our television today - this was set up back when we thought we were moving earlier this week. This photo shows the installer putting in the dish, while the landscaping trees show up next to him above the retaining wall, and in the foreground.
This next picture was not adequately lit so it's a little blurry but it shows two of our painters working on finishing out the elevator. We had asked that the birch plywood get sealed, not stained, but they didn't get the message. The stain matches everything else in the house, and we decided it looks great stained also. The elevator car was delivered "unfinished" to be completed on site with our baseboard molding. Now it looks like the smallest room in the house. And the only one that moves.


Work will still be taking place tomorrow morning while we are being packed onto the trucks: drywall repairs, clothes dryer hookup, grout and shower door installation, screens in all the windows....but the punchout list is getting shorter!

Norris spent the day watching progress on a variety of fronts. We still experience "one step forward, two back" situations. Today for example, the shower installers showed up early with the new glass, but cracked a tile. The tile installer is to come back tomorrow to fix that. We are still scheduled to move in on Friday - we hope the shower installers can finish up in the morning while our 5-man moving crew is loading us up at the rented house onto two small trucks.

These pictures were taken yesterday - this first one shows Ronnie and SuperDave using heavy equipment to get the dumpster relocated to allow SuperDave and the mini-trackhoe access to the ditch area that needed to be cleaned up. The mini-trackhoe used all its might but was going no where with the heavy dumpster till Ronnie gave it a shove from behind.


Clean up of the lot continued today, with a lot of work being done by hand. Also yesterday, the mailbox and numbers were installed. Our first pieces of mail were delivered later in the afternoon.
The builder's sign, visible in the left background of the mailbox picture was removed this afternoon. We now have appliances, decorative rods and mirrors mostly all installed, telephone service inside the house, a cleaned up garage, a sealed deck, attic flooring, and a host of items on our list have been taken care of. Several things will need to be fixed after we move in - the dishwasher front that matches the cabinets for example was mis-ordered and it will take a few weeks to get the right one. But we'll be happy to be in our house at long last!

Move-In delayed, but we're getting there

After concluding the house would not be ready for move-in tomorrow, we rescheduled our movers for Friday. The good news is that the power company showed up this morning to repair and dig-in the rest of the power line. Here Ronnie, our builder's project manager, watches as the power company crew splices in a length of new cable to make the run longer so it could be buried deeper. The even better news was that after they finished the cable, they installed our electric meter and switched us over to permanent power. The plumbers are supposed to come later today to power up the well and check our plumbing system for leaks.

The glass shower people showed up to install the glass walls for the shower in the master bath. Unfortunately, it didn't get cut to the right size and they had to order a new glass panel. Not sure when that will come.

The stone masons were able to get the front sidewalk finished this morning.

Lastly, the landscapers started doing what they could today, which consisted mostly of installing the wood steps going up the path that connects to the old logging road that goes almost to the top of the ridge line. We are putting in a total of 36 steps to get us past the steepest part of the slope and to help control erosion

Weekend Update

Not much going on at the house today, except one of the floor people was there to put the flooring in our elevator and also to lay the wormy Chestnut flooring in the foyer. We wanted some Chestnut wood in our house as a reminder of the huge Chestnut trees that once grew on our ridge line (and still do, although only as baby trees). We bought some reclaimed barn siding made of Chestnut and had it cut into flooring, which the installer cut to size and glued down as a 6' x 10' inset in our front foyer tile. Here most of it is covered up by objects he used to keep the wood weighted down while the glue dries, but you can see the warm color and rich patterns of the grain, along with the worm holes.

The piece of wood under the bucket happens to be the slab of wormy Chestnut we are going to use for our mantle piece.

mid-day update

The house has received the Certificate of Occupancy - so we feel more relaxed. We were already on our way to the house to check on progress when Ronnie called with the news. These pictures were just taken.

SuperDave used the big track hoe to bring the sand up the hill for the stone masons, shown here laying out the flagstone on the new front sidewalk. They had run out of stone, so Ronnie had gone to get more so they could finish that last bit in the foreground - and bring them a pizza because they still have to haul their water up the hill (We're trying to keep vehicles off the concrete until it has a few more days to cure.)

Below is a picture of our Rock Star SuperDave, working on the slope-erosion issue at the edge of the parking area of the drive. You can see he's balancing on the blade to scoop and move dirt and rocks from where it was piled next to the well (seen wrapped in insulation between the driveway and the trackhoe), uphill where he will create a berm. He had to take down two poplar trees, seen stacked on the left. One of them was already a goner. The thing on the driveway is the fiberglass imitation rock that our builder used to cover the well-head. Its "faux" paint job looks completely foolish with all the real rocks on the property - we hope between SuperDave and the landscapers, it can be a bit better camouflaged.

While we were still at the Big Level house packing, a couple of turkey families stopped by for a snack. I counted 20 while Norris was taking pictures. The photograph does not convey how close you are to them, or how large they are. For the first couple of years, it seemed like every time we went to our new development, called "Hawk's Landing" all we saw were turkeys, so we will probably see them in the new house too.

a day closer -

Cheryl at the keyboard again - Norris spent the entire day yesterday at the house and among other adventures with finishing touches and punchout items, had the discouraging experience of seeing the inspector come and fail the house on the requirements for the Certificate of Occupancy, without which we cannot move our household goods in on Tuesday next week. The issues are minor and some are already taken care of - our project manager Ronnie thinks we can get it reinspected and pass today. I spent the day packing. So both of us were too worn out by evening to post photos.

The great room windows, without protective film and cleaned on the outside - summer view includes a lot of trees.


Next to the fireplace, overlooking the deck


SuperDave is back on the job today - yesterday evening, he took a few minutes to make himself a new way up to the house over the road cut, to avoid the newly poured concrete driveway. He's going to work on the area behind the retaining wall and driveway to improve drainage and reduce erosion, prior to the landscapers' work which has been delayed, probably to the following week due to the lack of water.


When we get the Certificate of Occupancy, the power company will return to put the house on Permanent Power. When that happens, the plumbers will come back to fix a leak between the well and the pressure tank inside the house. ... And then we'll be able to move in and live there! We did get a break yesterday afternoon: the rental agency called to let us know our current landlord has changed plans and is not coming to move his own things in on the 1st of August -- if we need it, we can camp here in the house while the power and water get resolved.

More about the house tomorrow -

For tonight, Cheryl is your narrator. This morning, while we were getting ready for another big Home Finishing Day, I saw a young bear cross the driveway of our rented house on Big Level Drive. The little bear was in a hurry, ignored the trash at the end of the drive, and disappeared in an instant. This was exciting for me, as we have lived in this house for over a year and this was the first time we'd seen a bear quite so close to the house as our driveway.

After dinner this evening I decided I would go and see what was up at the house - Norris had been there earlier and reported all the film was off the windows, so you can really see the views from the house for the first time. So I took off as the light was fading, and ran across my friend from earlier in the day - happily, I had the camera and just started snapping as many pictures as I could until the bear was gone. I got 11 shots - here are the best.

Big Level Bear crossed the road in front of me - then stopped to peer between the trees out across Town Mountain Road.
After a few moments, BLBear turned and ran back across the other way


and up the slope where we'd seen possibly this same bear and a sibling as cubs late last summer.

BLBear slowed down and turned around among the trees at the top of the slope, and I got my last few pictures. Although these are pretty far away with low light, this one, where I think I may be being scrutinized, is worth sharing.

Finally....A driveway !

At long last, we have a driveway. More on that later, but some updates on the other activities at the house in the past few days. The electricians and plumbers continue to work on final trim-out. The alarm people were there to finalize the installation of the smoke detectors and alarm sensors. The deck is nearly done. Still lots of odds and ends to fix by the end of the week so that floors can be sealed over the weekend and final cleanup can occur next Monday. If all that works out, move-in date will be July 29. Below is a picture of the deck in its almost-final form, with the steps and landing now in place. The screening for the porch will come after we move in.

Here is a picture of what's been the bane of our existence for two weeks, the cable that was improperly buried by the power company. When the grading was done for the driveway, the cable was found to be above the level of the driveway. We have been trying to get the power company to come out and re-bury it for 2 weeks. Yesterday, our builder ran out of patience and Norris and Ronnie, our builder's project manager hand-dug the cable in deeper.

In this photo, the conduit has been pushed down below the level of the concrete form.

With the cable out of the way, the concrete guys started with the sidewalk, then moved onto the parking pad in front of the garage. The sidewalk is scheduled to be covered with flagstones (piled up to the right of the photo) on Thursday. The concrete had to be pumped up the slope.

This is how far we got with one truck load of concrete.

And the long trowels come out.

Here you can see the offending conduit has been covered once and for all.
On the downslope now.

About 4 hours into the pour now.

Almost done now.

Cheryl's Studio

Still no driveway progress today, so move in day continues to slip. The floor people and closet installers are now done in Cheryl's office and quilting studio, so here are some pictures now that most of the mess has been cleaned up. This is a view from the studio area looking back toward the office and bathroom, with the closet under the stairs on the left.


Here Cheryl talks with one of our project managers in the main part of the studio.

This view is taken from the bathroom looking into the office, which also doubles as a spare bedroom when you pull down the Murphy bed.

The electricians were still working today on the curved track in the kitchen. Here they have hung the pendants and track heads, but the track doesn't want to stay level because of the unbalanced load, so we'll have to add a 4th support rod to help hold it up.

Still No Driveway

We still haven't gotten the power company out to re-dig the power line, so the driveway pour is still on hold. In the meantime, some of the subs have been making more progress. The plumbers came today and did what they can, but they're waiting for some back ordered parts. The deck crew was back to replace some warped wood and start building the landing and steps. Click photos for a larger view.


The electricians continued their trim out. Here they are starting to hang the curved track lighting system that goes over the kitchen island. It's tricky because the ceiling is sloped and the track is curved in an S-shape, so each of the three support rods has to be cut to a different length, all the while keep the track level and the support rods plumb.

It took most of the day just to get this one track hung. They'll follow up tomorrow by hanging the pendant lights and track heads from the track. At the upper right of the photo below, you can also see part of one of the beam-mounted tracks that was installed yesterday.

Driveway is stalled out, but other progress is made

We still haven't gotten the power company to come dig their line in deeper, so the plans to pour the driveway have been put on hold. In the meantime, other subs have been able to get back to the house and we are checking more things off the list. The first two coats of sealer have now dried and you can actually see what the floors look like now that they aren't covered with dust and construction debris.

The cable rail installers were at the house this morning and got part of the job done, but will have to wait on some progress from the deck crew working on the screened in porch before they can go any further. This picture also shows how green and lush our talls trees are here in the mountains, even though we are still in a pretty bad drought.

The closet installers were back and started putting the cabinet system for Cheryl's office together. On the right, one the installers is standing in the space where the pull-down Murphy bed will be stored, allowing Cheryl's office to double as a spare guest bedroom.

Here's what it looked like when they were done (although its still missing a few handles). The blue tape on the floor is left over from the floor installation.

They also finished the closet for the master bedroom. You can only see about half of the closet from this angle. We're also missing some handles here too.

A couple steps forward, one step back

First the good news. Everyone hit the ground running after the holiday. Lots of activity at the house and parking was at a premium. Here the crew that did the deck is installing trim under the front porch.


The graders were there to dig some trenches to connect the rain gutters to the drainage system.

We had a crew of two electricians still working on getting everything wired up.

The elevator crew was back, with one guy working in the elevator car and one working on top of it.

Here's a view of the inside of the car (it still needs an oak floor and some trim)

The floor sanding crew got to work on the second floor, getting things ready to seal tomorrow.

The driveway forming crew got started. They expect to be ready for concrete on Wed.

But then the bad news. While using a front end loader to scoop away dirt for the driveway, the operator hit the buried electrical line that connects the transformer on the street to our main power panel. Fortunately, it wasn't live, but the conduit was broken and the insulation scraped off the wires. It will have to be repaired and buried deeper by the power company. Not sure how long that will take. The driveway forming can't be completed till this is fixed. You can barely see the exposed silver colored wire in the center of the picture.

Here's a view after the power company came and checked it. They exposed more of the conduit and cut the wires. Not sure when they will return to dig.

And the track hoe that was digging the drainage lines accidently hit the top of the septic tank and broke the cover and the piece that connects the lid to the tank. In the process of uncovering the rest of the tank, he also broke the second lid on the tank. Replacements are coming in the morning and hopefully this repair will be taken care of quickly.