Last full day of work on the house

It is so hard to leave the house at night. It looks done and to be so close to the fulfillment of a dream making waiting even another couple days almost painful. We are so thrilled with how well everything turned out. We can't wait to get in there!

I already posted about our rain barrel going in yesterday morning. This is what else went on yesterday.

Mudroom:

The shelves went up in the locker.

Basement:
Jim Duffie dug into to the ICF blocks to put in outlets in the basement. Even though we aren't finishing our basement now, we decided to go ahead and put in outlets and overhead lights so we can still use the space.

Powder Room:

The mirror, towel hook and TP holder went up in the powder room. It looks almost finished!

The white curtain is really growing on me. I still need to hem it up at some point, but at least the powder room is private now!

No more peeking!

 

In Law Suite:

The faucet is in! We chose a Delta Touch 2.0 sensor faucet for the in-law bathroom as part of our ADA design. You can use the single lever like a regular faucet, or you can simply touch any part of the spout, or you can wave your hand in front of the blue sensor. Because my mom has arthritis, we wanted to make the faucet as easy for her to use as possible.

The mirror was hung up. I bought this mirror for $25 at TJ Maxx about seven years ago to stage my old townhome. It was in our bedroom at our old house, and it works well in here. Funny thing is that the frame always looked silver before, but with the gray walls, it looks more goldish now. Hmmm.

You can also see that the towel hook and TP holder are up. The TP holder is from the Moen home care collection and is also a grab bar.

 

View of the in-law suite from the shower. We put all the fixtures on one side to leave room for a wheelchair to maneuver, if needed.

 

We didn't opt for the wheel-in shower at this point, but we did install a shower with a bench, which would have been very handy after my last surgery. All of the showers will have handheld showers, as well, for easy of cleaning and and seated shower capability. The towel bar here, is also a grab bar.

The painters arrived for touch ups. They had to repaint most of the in-law suite closet after most of the back wall was removed to install the duct work for the hood.

Master Bathroom:

The painters repainted the vanity wall after the lights were moved.

Close up of the vanity light:

We also got our first peek at the tub surround in place:

Front Door Lock:

The number pad front door lock was installed this afternoon.

 Close up of the number pad.

Fireplace.
For all the grief our fireplace has given us over the last seven months, I have to say, we are SO THRILLED with how it turned out. The guy from the Fireplace Shop was here today and fired up the fireplace. It is SO cool! We chose an electric fireplace for energy efficiency and cleaner indoor air quality. What's great about this one is that you can turn the heat on or off, and play with the colors of the flame. It's really, REALLY awesome.

 

Kitchen:
With all the pieces fitting into place, the kitchen is looking a lot less cluttered so I was able to take a LOT of pictures of the kitchen today to show phenomenal job Joe Yoder did and all the storage space he created for us.

Big picture view. 

The working part of the kitchen.

LOTS of storage space. I'll put my spices in the top drawer, and pots and pans in the bottom big drawers. On the right, I'll have my wood and bamboo spoons in the top drawer. The middle drawer is a bread drawer. Not sure what I'll do with the bottom drawer yet. It may be D's snacks.

Rounding the corner. I'll have seasonal things in the  super susan, tea and beverages above the microwave drawer, and baking trays and dishes in the drawers and slots around the ovens. There's an insta-hot dispenser in the prep sink.

Baking center. My new kitchen aid will live on the counter to the right.  All my baking goodies will go in the drawers. The lowered baking counter will be great for kneading dough without standing on my tippy toes. It's open for D to easily help me. The marble was a happy splurge.

TONS of storage here.

I love the way the dining fixture reflects on the marble.

I'm really happy with the replacement marble. I'm so pleased that Canton Cut Stone made it right.

View of the islands from the super susan. The touch-activated recycling center is at the end of the inner island. There are open shelves for towels and cleaning supplies in the middle, and touch activated prep sink and insta-hot on the end. The clean-up/entertainment island has a bank of three drawers, big single bowl sink and raised dishwasher.

The other side of the prep island will house our dishes. The two top drawers have slots for flatware. All the drawers in the kitchen are full extension and soft-close.

Plenty of room for the dishwasher to open.

The dishwasher has three racks.

 And a few big picture shots:

Today's the big open house. The morning agenda includes a few more inspections, the painters finishing the touch-ups, the cleaning crew making everything sparkle, and MAS coming to check on a few things with our appliances. 

We've had a great response to our house from the vendors and visitors who have toured it so far. We think we've accomplished our goal of  building a modern home that's ultra energy-efficient, green, and universally designed, and still warm and cozy (Dutch "gezellig"). It's a huge financial investment, but knowing that I have a safe home that will make living with a brain injury easier, and offers the peace of mind of knowing that if/when my health declines, I can live at home til the end is well worth the investment. 

Lights, Inspections, Cleaning, and Odds and Ends

Great news! We won a rain barrel from our city! Turns out we were the very first ones to register for the rain barrel workshop in March, so we were one of five winners. Best of all, the city is going to install it for us. The weather didn't cooperate today, so we'll have that put in tomorrow morning. Sweet! We love our town!

We were already on our way when we realized that we didn't need to be down for the rain barrel installation, so we got an early start today. Niels worked from the command center, D watched a movie and I answered questions and worked on our punch list. 

We were greeted by the cleaning crew who got to work on the floors and bathroom. There's still some work to do in the kitchen, so they'll finish in there on Thursday. 

The first thing we did was admire the undermount LED lights and and outlets from Task Lighting that Jim put in yesterday. 

No flash.

Flash.

The LED puck lights have been installed in the frosted glass cabinets.

And the last light, the puck light for the niche. Since this was originally meant to be a decorative niche, it was wired for a light. We decided to keep it after we turned the niche into a bench, and  Jim was able to find a gray puck light. He finished the lights just in time for the electrical inspection. Fingers crossed that we passed!

Good news: my cooktop is in! Bad news: the spice drawer underneath it is about an inch too long so the door doesn't close all the way. At least it'll be an easy fix. 

I am so happy with how the kitchen is turning out, especially now that the cooktop is in and the frig handles are installed.

Our frig is Satina, which looks like stainless steel, but is smudge-proof and magnetic.

After the carpets were vacuumed, the protective wrap was put down to prepare for the open house. You can also see that the wrap was removed from the espresso wood piece and the top (and bottom) of the stairs.

I spent a little time with Dean from Charis Homes deciding where to hang out towel bars, towel hooks, robe hooks and toilet paper holders. They are all from the Moen Eva collection.

The other exciting news is that our washers and dryers were installed today. Since our apartment washer and dryer seem to hate us, I am especially to wash our clothes without them shrinking, shredding or otherwise disintegrating after each wash. 

The upstairs dryer going in. 

And downstairs. I was surprised that they aren't the same height. Bummer. 

And the big happy of the day comes from Charis Homes' Glenna, who gave me the idea of using a tension rod and curtain to cover the window in the powder room. We had bought some film, but a another Charis homeowner told us that the film can't be put on unless the temperature is 40 or higher or it won't stick well. We stopped at Target and I was able to pick up a tension rod for $3 and found matching curtains on clearance for $4 each. They are a little long, but I'm quite happy with the fix.

Tomorrow's agenda should include the fireplace getting fired up, the rain barrel getting installed, more hooks and holders hooked up, more cleaning and painters touching up.