BACKSPLASH and FRONT DOOR

The backsplash is now tiled and we are really pleased with the workmanship as well as the appearance. Sometimes you never know whether you are going to like it till it is done and then it is too late to change.

The front door is FINALLY stained after having been installed about a year ago. I guess the one thing we learned is that the door is well protected from the weather as evidenced by the fact that there were no blemishes from water or other damage. With a little sanding (which would have been necessary had we done it a year ago) it was ready to be stained.

In addition to the stained door, the pic below shows the light fixture we chose for the porch.

I built some shelving in the basement so that we could get some of our "stuff" (junk?) out of the storage units. Yes, we have one in Tipp City and one Huber Heigts. When we put our house on the market way back when, we got one in Tipp to de-clutter. Then, when we sold our house, we got one in Huber to hold all the stuff that would not fit in our office/house. We soon hope to consolidate into one unit and save on the monthly storage charge.

We got the softener installed after dealing with hard water for a month. I knew that a softener was going to be a necessity but I just had not gotten around to buying. I'm glad I put it off as I suddenly realized that I could just move the softener from the office to the house and save ourselves several hundred dollars. Since we only use water to wash hands and flush toilets at the house, having softened water is really not necessary. Adios for now!

IS ANYONE STILL THERE

I suspect my readership has dwindled to almost nothing since we moved in....and I've effectively stopped posting. Nevertheless, thought I would post a couple of pics.

 With the leaves changing, the view in the back of the house is improving. Between the fall colors and a better view of the river due to less foliage it's pretty special. Unfortunately, temperatures haven't been condusive to spening any time on the screened porch.

 Yesterday I finally got the water softener connected. Rather than purchasing a new one, I decided to just move the one from the office since the only water we will use there is for washing hands and flushing toilets. The hard water will work just fine for those limited needs.

 The tile guy has been back to work on the backsplash in the kitchen. He should finish up this week and that leaves the staining of the front door as the only significant project. Your probably thinking "they still don't have that done?". Trust me, I will be glad when it is completed, hopefully this week. My staing guy has been pre-occupied with one of the custom builders in Troy who is "pulling rank" on me.

WE'RE IN!

Monday was a rather momentous day as we finally moved in...408 days after groundbreaking. Took a bit longer than I thought but we didn't have a "hard" schedule. After living on West Main Street in Tipp City for the past 3 years with our bedroom a mere 50 feet from the passing cars and emrgency vehicles, the quiet at our new house is almost "deafening". I'v spent the past couple of days getting washer and dryer hooked up along with other odds and ends. Meanwhile, Barb is setting up her kitchen, a job I'm glad I don't have. We learned that storage units are really not a very good place to keep upholstered furniture and items made of metal that will rust. A couple of the pieces of furniture have a musty smell but we haven't discovered any mold. My treadmill has some rust on the base but it doesn't much matter. We even found some stink bugs that had recently taken up residency for the winter...at least they thought so.

FINAL INSPECTION

Yesterday we had the county out for final inspection. There was one relatively minor item we need to correct but the inspector gave us a temporary approval which means we can move in but are obligated to make the necessary corrections in a timely manner. Sooooo, we have the movers scheduled for Monday. In the meantime, I am finishing up some trim items and trying to get our staining contractor to get the front door finished. Wow, will I be glad when that is done. Sorry, no pictures this time. Maybe I'll get some shots of the Brown Mamorated Stink Bug that seems to have invaded the lot. They're everywhere. Last year it was Cicada Killers which is a type of hornet. Speaking of fauna, Barb saw 7 wild turkeys at the bottom of the driveway this afternoon. I left shortly after her and by the time I got there, they had been replaced by a doe and her fawn. The deer over the past week or so have been almost as numerous as the stink bugs.

CICADA KILLER AT WORK

STINK BUG

MORE STAIRS

I finished installing the balusters on the stirs and it sure made a big difference in the appearance. As is not uncommon, I ran into somewhat of a snag. Without going into all the ugly details, I had to cut the balusters to length with part of it coming off the top and part of it off the bottom. Many tasks are simplified with jigs and/or fixtures and this one was no exception. I built a simple jig to hold the balusters so that I could make the cuts. I used a thin cutoff wheel in my 4" grinder and it proved to be the ideal tool for making these cuts.

Remember that tangle of wires that I showed pics of when we were framing? Earlier this week, I cut a hole in the closet wall and exposed all of the wiring. My main objective was to get access to the wires for the smoke detectors since these need to be operational for the inspection. After we are moved in, I will deal with the security portion of the system. Shown below is a shot of the control panel and the collection of wires. Although it had been 25 years since I last installed a fire/security system, everything started coming back to me and the installation and startup when smoothly.

Yesterday we had final inspection for the plumbing and we finally have running water, operating toilets, hot water and other amenities. Even though we have sump pit, I was hoping that we would not be required to equip it with a pump. That might sould strange but the main reason I wanted a sump pit was in case I ever need to install radon mitigation. The fact is it will probably never see a drop of water from the footer drain. Well, the plumbing inspector said that I have to drain the water heater pan to the sump and thus I need to also have a pump installed. This despite the fact that the only way the pump would ever need to operate would be if the water heater leaks or if the pressure relief valve was to actuate.
Since I will have a pump in the sump pit I will now run the softener drain to the sump as well rather than to the sewer pit.The good news is that the inspector will allow us to move in even though this work is not complete.

Speaking of moving in, we have the final inspection for the other items (i.e. electrical, HVAC, etc) scheduled for this coming Tuesday and have the movers scheduled for the 7th. We're keeping our fingers crossed that there are no surprises Tuesday and that we can proceed as scheduled.

Today I set the door between the utility room and hallway. Since there was so much traffic through this doorway, I decided to leave it till this point in time. Tomorrow I will be working on some baseboard that had been left undone because adjacent items such as the stairs and aforementioned door had not been installed. The electrician will be finishing up the last items on his list over the next day or two so that we will be ready on Tuesday.

GETTING CLOSER

I know, I know....it's been forever since I have posted. My recent time has been spent finishing the stairway. This is undoubtedly the most challenging of the jobs I have chosen tackle. In order to get the newels mounted solidly, I installed heavy oak boards in the holllow portion of the newel and extending out of the bottom. The oak was then mounted to the rough framing below the floor. Consequently, the newels are rock solid and all of the fastening takes place below floor level and out of sight. For the upper newel, I even removed a portion of the HVAC sheet metal so that I could gain acess to a beam to which I lag screwed the oak extension. Cutting the handrail and getting the angles and length correct is somewaht nerve wracking. I tend to measure often before making a cut. Since all the parts were stained ahead of time, matters are complicated if you have to scrap a piece because of a mis-cut. I am happy to report that everything came together nicely and most of the joints are pretty decent. In order to provide a durable stairs, we used maple for the treads while all else is poplar. All the other woodwork in the house is poplar so sticking with poplar on the stairs made sense. Cutting the treads was also a bit tedious. Since the stairs is closed on both sides, the treads need to be cut precisely to butt up tight against the skirt board. Due to slight variations, none of the ends are exactly 90 degrees so I made a simple gage to measure each tread and then transcribed those measurements to the tread itself before cutting. This approach worked well and saved me the cost of buying an expensive "store bought:" gage that I would only use once. Oh, I also spent $60 on a brand new blade for my radial arm saw and that proved to be a smart move as well. I now have to install the iron balusters on the stairs and will be finished. Ran into a little hiccup on that phase which I will not get into at this point.... I am expecting the security panel and smoke detectors that I ordered on-line to arrive soon. Once I have those installed and the plumber and electrician spend 2 or 3 days finishing up, we should be ready for final inspection. I am shooting for getting approval for occupancy by September 30th.

MEASURE UMPTEEN TIMES...CUT ONCE

The old saying is "measure twice, cut once". I am now involved in the stairway and it's more like measure 3 or 4 times and cut once. I've got the two box newels pretty much complete. For both of them, I used a sturdy piece of 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" solid oak which extends from the framing below the subfloor and runs up into the newel about 18". This allowed me to get a very sturdy installation without any external screw or mounting brackets at the bae. In other words, it's a very clean look and solid. It's a little nerve wracking cutting into these pieces since they are around $100 each plus they are prestained. So, one bad cut and it sets me back on the schedule and also in the pocketbook. That's why I measure more than twice before cutting. Some of you may recall our stirway in the house on Neal-Pearson. I set the bar pretty high when I installed that one as it came out really nice even though I never had any prior experience putting in a stairs. That one was actually more difficult because the open side required compound miter cuts where the skirt board and risers intersected. Plus, that was oak which is a little harder to work with. For this one, I am using poplar except for the tread, which are maple to provide added durability.

Above pics are from the stairs I built 25+ years ago.

Below is the modest progress made through today on the new house.