We were a little more serious about moving in this weekend.  We emptied 3 boxes of kitchen stuff and I remembered another reason that this will be my last move.  We bought food (in this case it was flour, sugar, mustard, spices/herbs) in Nebraska, paid the moving company to move it, stored it for 3 years and then composted it in PA.  Just another aggravation to avoid.  The dish washer isn't working yet so I washed a lot by hand but left a lot more for another day. Paul brought his guns and some rugs down from the carriage house attic.  Guns and beer go in the basement closet.

We took the cherry bedframe and 2 bedside cabinets to the main house but because Gambol had a bit of a pee problem (he got too excited watching a squirrel through the very clean great room glass) we decided to let them adjust to the whole moving idea slowly.  Maybe the glass will get dirty too.  For now, we'll sleep on the mattress/boxsprings on the floor.

Harry Burd stopped by for the almost final building code inspection on Friday and was completely impressed with the work the crew had done. His only complaint was that the exterior doors need to have easy access (meaning stairs), so after the final grading is done, the crew will install some stairs for the two doors at the bumpout. The final grading will bring the grade up for the main entry, the rear entry, and the breezeway rear entry doors. For those doors we may need to add a stone tread so that the step up to the concrete stoop is not so high. At least Harry gave us the OK to start moving furniture into the new house. He will return to give a final inspection and issue the certificate of occupancy when we have the exterior door access issue corrected. This is important because we need that certificate to transition from the construction loan to the mortgage.

Friday saw more cosmetic touchup and adjustments. Friday evening the cleaning crew arrived to give the house a final once-over. They arrived too late to see well so we had to vacuum the closets, drawers and several corners.
Over the weekend we cleaned up several pieces of furniture that had been stored in our garage for the past 3 years. The furniture was, surprisingly, in good shape and after some vacuuming and washing down to get rid of cobwebs and dust, we moved the pieces into the dining room, great room, and loft. Jonathan's fox holes are now filled with blocks of several varieties and trains.

The drop in oven is now wired up and ready to go, only need the wiring for the cooktop and down draft vent to complete the electricity in the kitchen.
The chandelier over the dining table is up but we'll have to decide on the length of the chain now that the table is in place. This fixture needs a switch which will be located just to the right of the kitchen cabinets. The electrical short in the lighting under the catwalk has been repaired and the replacement wiring has been hidden with some wooden wire chases, so without knowing where the new wiring has been placed, you just can't see it.
The powder room sink has been installed but Jeff, our plumber, found a hairline crack in the faucet, so a replacement faucet is on order. The mirror was moved up and centered on the sink. The light fixture can be installed now that we know how high the mirror hangs on the wall. The claw foot tub is installed; Jeff will make final adjustments to the legs to get the tub to sit so the water flows toward the drain.  This weekend was ArtsFest so I took a picture of the installed daffodil sink to the vendor for his portfolio.

In the basement the electrical circuits for the air exchanger and its programmable controller were installed. The controller can modify the percentage of the time the exchanger is operating and the final setting for the exchanger will be determined, based on the results of the energy audit.

We got our almost final building code inspection on Friday. Harry Burd stopped by and was completely impressed with the work the crew had done.
His only complaint was that the exterior doors need to have easy access (meaning stairs), so after we get the final grading done, the crew will install some stairs for the two doors at the bumpout and the final grading will bring the grade up for the main entry, the rear entry, and the breezeway rear entry doors. For those doors we may need to add a stone tread so that the step up to the concrete stoop is not so high. At least Harry gave us the OK to start moving furniture into the new house. Harry will return to give a final inspection and issue the certificate of occupancy when we have the exterior door access issue corrected. This is important because we need that certificate to transition from the construction loan to the mortgage For most of the day on Friday there was more cosmetic touchup and adjustments and on Friday evening the cleaning crew arrived to give the house a final once-over. Over the weekend we cleaned up several pieces of furniture that had been stored in our garage for the past 3 years. The furniture was, surprisingly, in good shape and after some vacuuming and washing down to get rid of the cobweb and dust, we moved the pieces into the dining room, great room, and loft. The layout of the furniture is sort of haphazard right now.
The drop in oven is now wired up and ready to go, only need the wiring for the cooktop and down draft vent to complete the electricity in the kitchen.
The chandelier over the dining table is up but we'll have to decide on the length of the chain now that the table is in place. This fixture needs a switch which will be located just to the right of the kitchen cabinets. The electrical short in the lighting under the catwalk has been repaired and the replacement wiring has been hidden with some wooden wire chases, so without knowing where the new wiring has been placed, you just can't see it.
The powder room sink has been installed and Jeff, our plumber, found a hairline crack in the faucet, so a replacement faucet is on order. The mirror was moved up and centered on the sink and it all looks great. The light fixture can be installed now that we know how high the mirror hangs on the wall. The claw foot tub is installed and Jeff will make final adjustments to the legs to get the tub to sit properly.
In the basement the electrical circuits for the air exchanger and its programmable controller were installed. The controller can modify the percentage of the time the exchanger is operating and the final setting for the exchanger will be determined, based on the results of the energy audit.

Down the home stretch

New floor registers were installed by Chris who routed out the openings on several of the floor vents to permit the registers to fit correctly.  They sit up about 1/4" so that dust-bunnies and marbles have a harder time rolling into the grates. Chris and Doug also spent time sanding and cleaning dings and imperfections marked by blue tape.

 Young David King stopped by to install the repaired butler pantry doors and swap out the half depth drawers for the kitchen island.  He had to leave before he could finish up the trim and toe-kick boards for the kitchen and bathroom cabinets.  He took with him one of the twin mirrors in the Master Bath so the senior David King can fashion hickory frames for both mirrors.  The Home Depot mirrors had a reddish cherry finish on them that just didn't quite match the hickory cabinets or the oak floor trim.  Senior David is working on a hall tree for the breezeway, so he will be returning for that installation in about 2 weeks.
Doug applied caulk to the edge of the hearth stones where the quarter round floor trim meets.  Scott would have been caulking, but he is recovering from surgery.

Dwayne installed some temporary light fixtures in the kitchen to fill in for the 5 spot light fixtures and a 3 light bar over the kitchen sink--all are on order but not expected until late July.  Dwayne hooked up the Idaho Wood light that hangs over the rear entry and conducted some trouble shooting of a short in the wiring under the catwalk. He also reinstalled the breezeway lights using the oak mounting panels, that Chris cut and Doug finished, to hide the gaps in the drywall around the circular light fixture mounting plate. We at first thought of a round copper plate, but couldn't find any that matched very well.  Most of the other lights in the house have a wooden mounting plate so this solution works better than the copper.

The Dow thermax insulation (4' x 8' x 2") that will be installed on the basement walls were delivered today.  These panels have a aluminum looking overlay on both sides to retard fire, so they can be installed without any drywall covering yet still pass a code inspection. They have an R-value of 13 so even the basement should stay toasty in the winter.
Mike Fedor and Tim Maurer visited the site to talk over the final grading so that Mike can get everything in line with Tim's landscape design.  That work will probably start next week.

Tressler and Fedor excavated the trenches for the gutter downspouts that will take the water away from the house and foundation.  The gutter on right front side of the house was connected to the existing buried gutter pipe that daylights the water on the far side of the driveway.  The gutter from the back of the house and the left front side will be connected and daylight in the trench on this side of the driveway but down near the electrical junction box.  There was a longer-than-expected run of PVC pipe needed to connect all the runs from the gutter downspouts in the trenches, so tomorrow the additional PVC pipe will be connected and the trenches will be back filled and final grading will be completed around the foundation.

 Scott and Julian installed the single piece soap cubby in the wall and then applied fabric to the sides and top of the shower and a Styrofoam base sloped to the center drain in the shower.  These products are part of a waterproofing approach Schluter Systems Once the fabric and floor drain pan set up over night, they will start installing the tile on the floor and the ceiling, plus the corner seat (also a molded product and it will be topped by the same granite as the bathroom vanity.  We will also have a shelf of the granite high in the shower wall.
Jeff worked on getting the water supply lines and the plumbing manifold connected and labeled so it will be easy to shut off a water line to a specific faucet or toilet. 
Jeff installed an exterior water faucet on the rear wall and will be putting another faucet on the right front side of the house, so we should be able to reach almost anything with a hose in the future.  The excavators again dug down to exposed our water well line so that Jeff can move our existing pressure tank from the garage to the basement and Dwayne can reroute the electrical service to the well pump from the garage to the new house.  Putting the service in the new house will also make it easier to add that circuit to the emergency generator board and protect the well pump from electrical outages (we have had 4 outages in the past week, probably due to some problem at our local substation--outages running from a few seconds to 3 hours.)  These changeovers will take place tomorrow so we will be without water for part of the day on Friday.

 Doug, John, and Chris continue doing wood work trim inside.  Most of the ground floor windows have been trimmed out and they have already started on the upstairs window trim.  Doug applied the door trim to the rear entry and the sidelight windows.  John added trim to the bedroom dormer ceiling.

Chris has the window casings for most of the upstairs windows staged and ready for installation once the extension jams have been put in place.  The frames for the knee wall storage cabinets are installed and ready for the doors and hinges.
We are awaiting the floor sander and finisher to begin his magic as the crew would like to begin work on the baseboards and framing in the doors after the floors have been finished.  But, if the floor guys don't get on the ball, the crew will move forward and he will have to work around them.

Reading Across the Plains **** RL Stevenson. Author rides a train as an emigrant across US. (written in 1879–80, published in 1892). Second leg of his journey, by train from New York to California (then picks up with The Silverado Squatters). I probably should have started with the Amateur Emigrant, the story of his journey to NY by boat.

Buddy's adventure

Buddy had an adventure.  While Paul was talking to the crew, the front door "blew" open just wide enough for 1 attentive dog who likes to cool off on the downstairs tiles to squeak through..  Buddy stepped out on his own.  Gambol stayed upstairs for his afternoon nap on the cool bathroom tiles. Buddy apparently remembered that he saw lots of chickens just beyond Paul's truck and trotted over to investigate.  Luckily all the chickens were elsewhere, perhaps in the forest or garden bugging or resting under a distant tree.  Paul caught up with the errant dog and all's well that ends well.

Peppers (Sweet)
Paradisium Sarga Sweet
Tepero Rosse Sweet

Peppers (Hot)
Goat Horn Hot
Bulgarian Carrot Hot
Tabasco

Round Mauve Eggplant

Tomatoes
Harvita Plum
Russian Purple
Flamme
Angelos Red
Caramalita Hybrid

Railings just need some minor finish work by Bill tomorrow.  The cap rails are installed and oiled.  The hand railing is in to the basement.  The section of railing from the main floor to the landing will need an additional support; Bill will do that tomorrow. 
Lots of cleanup, including removing all the excess drywall that we had in the garage.  I called Habitat’s Restore and found out  they only will take 4 x 4 sheets, so Doug loaded them up to dispose of them. 
Chris and John worked on trim and then helped clean up for the 4 day weekend.

Start the move-in countdown for the end of June: 7-8 doors still need to be installed, windows trimmed, electrical and plumbing fixtures, granite, appliances, finish cabinets, sand and finish floors, telephone/Internet/security, wood stove, and HVAC.  Just the fact that we can list most of what still needs to be done means we are getting close.

Doug, Chris, and Cody finished off the left dormer, so now the entire front of the house has siding.  Cody also applied the concrete treatment to the front and rear of the house this week, so all that is left is the left wall.
Chris applied flashing to the bottom of the left wall so that it is ready for the first course of siding on Monday
Jason is virtually finished with the loft side walls and he has started in on the master bedroom..

Toby and Cameron were at work in the shed and the warm weather helped dry the finish quickly so they got some of the interior doors finished today.

Scott, Jesse, and Julian have all the tile work in the entryways completed. They also installed the fiber board underlayment for the hearth.  Jesse applied grout to the upstairs bathroom. 
Tim Mauer stopped by to estimate the volume of dirt that will be needed once the initial grading is finished (that will be after the water line and gutter downspout lines are excavated, installed, and covered back up.
At the end of the day I got a call from John Zook at Glicks Custom Kitchens asking how we liked the cabinets.  I told him we were very pleased with all of the cabinets and island.  Also we were pleased with the installers, Dave and young Dave.  I explained we were a few weeks away from getting the granite tops installed, so John said to call when we are ready and they will be out to finish off the cabinets (toe kicks, and any adjustments needed.
Vigilant Security will be out to run lines from the garage to the house on May 10, Kohlhepps will be out to measure the countertops on May 11.

Cabinets

 Kitchen

Our Amish cabinet father and son team (David and David) from Glick's, (152 Mt. View Dr, Howard, PA 16841, 625-3587) showed up at 7:10 to deliver the hickory. They had to bring in master bath vanity through the bedroom window, but everything else fit nicely through the door. Their English driver pulled the long trailer up to the rear door where they could drop the back gate on to the porch and walk in easily. The master hall piece has to be shaved down an inch or so on the sides. The hickory looks great with the pine ceiling, maple floor and hemlock timbers. We'll soon have the whole forest. 

Guest bath

Final loft railing installed

Jonas and Bill delivered the last balusters for the loft area.  Next comes the staircase railing and then the maple tops to the balusters. 

Cody painted soffits and siding boards while Doug, John, Scott, and Jesse installed the siding and trip on the dormer.  Doug painted the trim work around the electrical sockets and vent openings.  Jesse worked the caulk gun on the trim work.  Scott was the saw-man and John was principle nailer.
James has two helpers today on the mudding; they are ready for sanding tomorrow.  That means painting can start on Wed and Thurs, in time for the cabinets' delivery on Friday.
The garage door guy fixed my RTV brake mistake today, too.  Now we have a 2-toned garage door that needs painting.

100% for the hens today: 8 eggs

 Buddy will protect the west flank and Gambol will take the south from whatever is hiding under that chair.

Reading Against All Odds (Heroes of Quantico Series, Book 1) Irene Hannon,  free Kindle book, Terrorists target ambassador's daughter. ***  

Glad I finally finished Swiss Family Robinson:  he has the natural history all goofed up and there way too much God and Jesus.  I don't remember either from previous reading, nor do I remember all the savages saved from hell fire and damnation by the pastor or the growth into a village at the end.  I'm sure the Disney version didn't include that part.

Jonas installed 3 more posts for the railing on the catwalk and prepared the placement of three on the loft.  There are two more that will go on the opposite side of the catwalk.  Once the posts are done, work can begin on the balusters and hand rails. These will be build in sections to fit between the posts. Jonas says he can feel the green wood pop as the warm air inside the building cools when the windows are opened. I certainly heard snaping, crackling and popping as we were talking.
Dwayne continued electrical rough-in with wiring of the sconces between the dining room/kitchen and the great room.  Adrian is placing HVAC ducts in the rafters in the basement and connecting to floor vents and the heat pump.
We called Bill Bauer about the claw foot tub restoration: 2-3 weeks. We checked in with John Zook at Glick's Custom Kitchens: all finished except for the knobs. Envinity expects installation of cabinets to take place about the second week of April.
Reading Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society **** letters between author and her friends in England/Isle of Guernsey just after WWII

Stairs to the basement

 

stairs down to the basement

Bill and Jonas finished the basic stairs down today. HVAC Adrian put in more ducts.  We decided to leave open the upstairs hall ceiling between the bedroom and bath.  The pretty tongue and groove up high will be the ceiling. We now have the Quoizel sconces and dining room chandelier.
We visited Amish John to nail down the final details for the cabinets.  His factory isn't as hard to find as we had feared,  Since we were in the area we also visited with Kathy (570 726 3196 x124) at NRCS to start the CSP and EQIP paperwork.  A pollinator garden, a timber stand improvement for mast tree release and perhaps some trail improvement were on our list.

Snow Dogs

 

Gambol 

  

Buddy

Gambol and Buddy can't get enough of snow play.  You'd think they were born in Alaska!  Buddy's longer hair collects ice balls faster than Gambol's but a few pounds of ice balls doesn't slow either dog down.  They dive into the snow after voles, shovel forward, blow like whales and dive back down for more. All. day. long.

The vole population looks like it is in jeopardy with these 2 voracious hunters competing with resident red-tails.

As promised Dodderer's brought the tractor back as good as new.  Joe and John fixed the RTV on the spot yesterday so we are good to go on the new snow storm that is bearing down on us.  We learned that we can't rock the RTV like a car when it is stuck.  That damages the hydraulic gear system.  

Glick's (John Zook) was out to measure the cabinets' space in the kitchen and bathrooms today.  Bill and Electrician Dwayne helped sort out the details like lights and braces that might have been in the way of the original plans. 

Paul and Jerry worked on change orders: hard maple and a walnut accent strip between the great room and kitchen/dining area, the finished basement bathroom and the 17 kW generator.  This last snow storm reinforced our decision to install a back-up generator; we didn't have any outages, but many people in Pennsylvania did.  

Doug and Cody installed the windows in the basement and finished framing the stairwell and bathroom in the basement.  They also stapled a tarp over the breezeway door to keep out snow.   Jonas and Chris have finished framing in the guest suite.  Movin' along nicely.

 

Guest suite

Week in review

We saw a lot of progress this week. The cold roof is on the whole front half of he house and the extended soffits are on the rear roof. One course of the plywood sheathing is on the rear as well. The roofers were here on Thursday doing some prep work installing the rubber fabric and the vapor barrier on all the sheathing on the front of the house. Kohl delivered the shingles; they are staged on the fork lift for potential work tomorrow (Saturday).

John and Jonas installed all the second floor windows, including bedroom and loft windows, the four dormer window, and one of the transom windows on the bump out today. Dwayne put in the electrical conduit between the garage and the basement of the house and the backup generator conduit from the side of the garage to the basement too. Tressler and Fedor did all the excavation work for the electrical conduit and they did the hookup to the septic lines too. They did a nice job covering up all the utility trenches, especially the generator conduit that ran across the driveway entrance to the garage—you cannot tell there was a trench across it on Wednesday. The tongue and groove flooring for the loft area was picked up and delivered  and is stacked inside the house in the great room.

On Monday we had Kevin from Whitehill Lighting out; he reviewed the interior lighting plan and didn’t see any major issues. He did mention that we would need some kind of lighting for the basement stairs (probably surface mounted wall sconces) and he pointed out that just inside the master suite there were two boxes in the cross beam and suggested that one of those was probably for a smoke detector. We have talked about some fixtures for the dining room, great room, and the lights for the rear entry, the stairs, and the loft area. We are closing in on those decisions. Dwayne suggested we go with a low voltage monorail system over the kitchen island and that will work as far as Kevin is concerned. Today we went with Bill to visit the Glick cabinetry shop and got them started on working up something for us in hickory. As we get closer to having all the interior walls roughed in over the next week or so, Glick will come out to make some measurements, particularly for the pantry, butler, and linen closet. All the cabinets will be in hickory, similar in style to our current kitchen, with a recessed flat panel style cabinet doors and simple round wood pulls.
Leslie met with Mike at Mike’s Appliances today and got more information on the stove/oven options for the kitchen island. To make the cabinets fit we need to know the dimensions of the appliances. The stove/oven in the island presents a major issue. To keep the space open we don't want to use an overhead vent, so we hope a downdraft style vent will work. There are still some decisions on that, but we are getting close to locking all that down.
Paul put down 4 new bales of hay on Tuesday, but with the excavation work and the fork lift moving over the thawing ground, we had a lot more mud showing, so he put down another 5 bales today. It isn’t covering all the mud, but it is holding it down quite a bit. Leslie found a farmer on Craigslist who is outside of Unionville and offers bales for $2 each. Paul can get 5 loaded up in his pickup with a roundtrip time of about 30 minutes.
We are headed out to Johnstown area tomorrow morning to Salvage Heaven. They say they have 2 small claw foot tubs in good condition so we’ll take the pickup and perhaps bring one back.
All-in-all it was a very productive week, even though short staffed. The crew was working in some pretty nasty conditions the last few days, especially with temperatures in the mid-teens and a heavy frost on Thursday morning, so we are sure they are looking forward to working indoors soon. We do appreciate all they are doing for us.

Kitchen Cabinets

Bill took us out to Glick's, 152 Mt View Dr, Howard. (814) 625-3587 It's a good thing we followed Bill or we'd still be hunting for the cabinet making shop. It seems waaaay out there. We left our ideas and basic measurements, Sam will write up a proposal and come out to do the real measurements; 6 weeks later we should have beautiful, locally-made, hickory cabinets.
On the way home we stopped at the NRCS in Mill Hall to sign up for forestry cost share programs funded by the Farm Bill.
A run for the dogs and lunch then Paul picked up more sopping up hay.

Cabinets

We visited the kitchen of a client of Bill and Glick's carpentry to see the quality of work we can expect if we hire them.  The kitchen was an update in a 1950's home, cherry, plain and simple but very elegant.  They have all the bells and whistles for using space efficiently as well as the quiet glide and self closing mechanisms.  We noticed this client used knob pulls like ours.  We are very impressed. Next up is a visit to the workshop.  Bill has the measurements.
Considering Idaho Wood Lighting for upstairs. It's a lot like the Cherry Tree pendants we have in the Carriage House kitchen but a bit more rustic.

Christmas 2004

As the Baron and Baroness drove up the hill on December 18 the lights were on and the garage door opened. Dave the Builder was there to welcome us to our new home and run us through the mechanicals and light switches. It was everything we'd hoped and more. He even had a basket of fruit from Wegmans to welcome us and a couple of door mats. We were getting ready to figure out bedding when R&D drove up with a Christmas tree and several boxes they had kept for us. What great friends, neighbors, and gatekeepers. We now know why maple floors are called "hardwood". Even with a couple of layers of padding between us and the wood, it is still hard. The mattress and box springs would be delivered on Tuesday, and the frame from the Amish Country Peddler would be delivered on Wednesday. Another minor inconvenience was that our water test came back from Todd Giddings ((814) 238-5927) with bacteria. We had water to flush and shower, but not to drink. Ladies Terra and Ariel and Graf von Tech drove up from the south for a few days. They brought all sorts of housewarming/Christmas gifts. We filled the living room with 2 air mattresses, played Scrabble and put together puzzles for an old fashioned celebration of family.


Kitchen and dining area with hickory cabinets
Looking down from living room into entrance foyer

Bathroom with tiles by Clinefelter's
Cosmetic propane fireplace

Bed by Amish Country Peddler; Compass quilted pillow by Brigitte Bertram
Organizing the Christmas stockings

Dinner is an all day operation with 2 cooks and several supervisors
...and an unfamiliar kitchen.

A supervisor puts his $.02 in.

The Graf stays out of trouble by studying.
Outside looking in.

2 cooks are better than one.
Delegate

View from the drive way
Location of the breezeway and Phase II

Kitchen and bathroom windows from back hill (north face)
We hardly need a doorbell since we can hear a car making the first turn on the road rocks.

From the "summer kitchen" (firepit)
It truly is a little house in the woods. The Baron planted a dozen daffodils with a crow bar and frozen hands and plenty of bone meal to give them a good start. Our trees are tubed and resting for the winter.

Living room
kitchen/dining area

from the stair landing

Dragonfly Tiffany style
...centerd perfectly in front window

stair landing pendant from Cherrytree Designs
Kitchen pendants, cherry and paper

Uplit fans
Watching for wildlife out the kitchen window

Fall 2004

Although we were not around, Steve Balkey and Al Zimmerman kept us informed with these great pictures.

With the heavy construction finished, at least for Phase I (Carriage House), it was time to get the road into usable condition with some culverts to direct water. We've seen how the water wants to cross the road; now Ameron will give it a socially acceptable path. D was leery at first that Culvert 3 was going to pump water directly into her basement, but Balkey assured her he would build a deep enough ditch that wouldn't happen.


Progress, Oct 8
Progress, Oct 8

Culvert 1, Oct 10

Culvert 1 into the forest
Culvert 1 from the house

Looking over Culvert 3
Culvert 3 south

Deep into Culvert 3
Reshaping the road

The septic area from the garage
We'll plant dafodills and feed the birds here.

Septic area up hill, looking back to the house
The mound

Al Zimmerman stopped by on Nov. 23 to check up on the progress and sent these pictures: the first we'd seen of the inside. He was very impressed with the workmanship and said he'd be back.


Hardiplank going up
to the bedroom

Maple flooring with natural water-based finish
Kitchen

Trex deck
on a typical foggy day

From the bedroom to the closet and kitchen
the living room with no railing

Hickory kitchen cabinets waiting in the garage
front yard

Verizon has the phone ready for the security people, Vigilent Security Systems ((814) 237-5450). The next step is to hand over the keys at Christmas.