Finishing touches

Dwayne, our electrician, returned to complete some electrical work when my last lighting fixture finally arrived. I had ordered the fixture over the kitchen sink back in August but the producer kept delaying the delivery. When they failed to deliver it by Christmas and only said it might come in January, I cancelled the order. I then ordered another fixture similar to the lights under the catwalk which arrived shortly after the New Year holiday.  Dwayne replaced some lights in the breezeway crawlspace with some low profile fixtures and  installed 3 flat floor receptacles in the great room and another receptacle near the rear entry so the Christmas tree can go there next year.

He installed the over sink fixture in the master bath. We'll need to bump up the wattage in this fixture but it matches the glass tiles in the shower and the color is a perfect match to the paint.
The low voltage lights over the butcher block island in the kitchen area and the chandelier over the dining room table were adjusted to their final heights.
He also explained the mystery of the master bath exhaust fan: it senses when moisture has built up to a threshold so we can leave it in the on position. It will turn itself off when it has done the job. Or, we can  override the sensor by flipping it on twice.

We were warned that checking, loud cracking noises like gunfire, occurs in new houses like ours. We remember hearing it in the Carriage House but, of course, we couldn't see the results under the drywall. It gives the house character, I tell myself.  It seems that more checking occurs in posts than in beams; some cracks are 1/4" wide. Bigger posts, bigger checks. The floor boards haven't checked since they don't contain the pith, but when they shrink and separate a bit the finish seems to crack loudly. Sometimes it's just one gunshot; sometimes it's more like ripping. Character, character, character....