September 18, 2009: Range vent, carpet, and quarter-round

We made it out to the house late Friday night and the grass seeding was done (I think), a vent for the range hood had been installed, insulation was put in the attic, and carpet was put in over the padding.

Spray-in insulation in the attic.

The outside portion of the hood vent.

The hood vent running through the garage.

And the hood in the kitchen.

Carpet on the floor in the main level bedroom.

Carpet in the top floor bedroom on the east side. If you look closely, you can see that there's plastic sheeting on the floor, presumably to mostly keep the carpet clean during construction, but possibly also for the paint touch ups to come.

Vents on the walls on the second level.

Bathroom hardware to be installed next week.

Fritz looks at the seeded backyard. In the back, you can see a leaf-filled gutter. (The gutter guard was missed out on when fixing the gutter after the tree fell. The gutter guard will be added back and the gutter cleaned, I think next week).

Seeding on the south lawn (over top of the drain field).

Seeding on the north east corner of the lot.

Quarter-round in the upstairs hallway

Quarter-round in the great room.

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August 17, 2009: Staining and drainfield

Over the weekend, we visited the lot and ran into Dan where we found out the drainfield wasn't actually quite done as the number of required drainage lines had doubled, so that now the builders and the survey engineer think the drain field is ridiculously overdesigned (large enough to accommadate a 8 bedroom house - it's 4 bedrooms).

However, by Monday evening, the additional lines had been dug (cheaper than fighting the state for a few months while simultaneously delaying our certificate of occupancy) and some staining had begun on the railings.

View of the house at sunset.

Rebar that will be used to reinforce several concrete pourings in the near future.

The stained railing. Note neither the steps nor the floor have been stained yet. That won't occur until virtually everything is done.

Another view of the stain on the stair railings

Over hte weekend, Preethi and I picked out some tile and made a little pattern for the doorway. It'll be laid tomorrow and presumably grouted on Wednesday.

The larger (twice as big now) and graded (again) drainfield.

A better view of an inspection pipe on the septic tank.

The distribution box with ALOT more pipes. Originally, 4 holes had been left unfilled so that if there was ever a problem with the field, the same box could be hooked up to the reserve field. Now, every hole but one is taken.

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August 12, 2009: Paint and drainfield

On Wednesday, we went to the house with Kate with a subsequent walk around the neighborhood. A second coat had gone on and the drainfield had been graded.

Preethi and Kate inspect the fireplace. You can see where the paint on the wall and the paint on the trim has been touched up and is looking much better.

View of the pantry in the kitchen. At this point, the paint is starting to look neat.

The graded drainfield. With the fallen tree.


The mostly repaired gutter. The gutter guys forgot the cover (lots of trees = lots of leaves = lots of clogs)


I think this an inspection pipe, through which you (or someone you hire) stick a long pole to determine the depth of solid material in the septic tank. When it's "deep enough," the tank needs to be pumped.

The distribution box is mostly covered.

The tile in the bathroom all together.

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August 10, 2009: Painting and Drainfield

Actually visited the house a couple times on the 10th (took some pictures to the carpenter), once midday and once in the evening. Work was going on for the drainfieldpainting, and some light trim work.

A drainfield ditch with a chamber at the end from the middle of the day.

By later in the day all of the ditches and chambers had been hooked up to the distribution box.

The basement still had some balloons from a party (Preethi's birthday) the week before.

The trim around the top of the fireplace will be a multi-layer crown molding. Here you can see the dental pieces whose corners had been a particular concern for me (turned out well).

Another view of the fireplace.

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July 28, 2009: Drainfield begins

On Tuesday, we dropped by during lunch to meet with a paving cotnractor and to look at progress where work on teh drainfield was ongoing. Earlier we had dropped by on Saturday to mark out where the sidewalk would go. Of perhaps greatest interest to us, W.D. told us he thought the house would be done by the end of August or the first week in September.

A view of the dirt dug up for the septic tank. I found it hard to get a good picture of the drainfield and this is included mostly because I liked the view of the tree.

Looking up one of the trenches into the hole for the septic tank.

A trench for chambers.

Chalk lines to guide subsequent trenches.

A different view of the house (from the south) with one of the trenches dug.

If you look closely you can see the flags we laid out for the sidewalk. Mostly, it's intended to be in two sections - one section parallel to the garage, and another parallel to the front porch - with a S joint in between.

A different view of the sidewalk flags. The colors have no significance.

The frame for the master bathroom tub. It's bulging out a little because the framers screwed up and made the a couple inches too small, but actually in terms of width instead of depth. The

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July 24, 2009: Tile and Railings

After some travel earlier in the week, we got out to the house on Friday and snapped some pics. Work is going a little slower, but it is still progressing with the master bath tiled in and most of the balusters for the stairs installed.

The stairwell. I originally thought that I wouldn't like the balusters, but I think they look pretty good. The bottom covers won't be dropped until after the wood is stained.

View of the stairwell from the top. As you can see, there's still a bit of work to be done on it, but it's taking shape.

The shower was tiled off. A view of the shower. The band around the shower is from the same 2x2 tiles that we used on the floor. We think it ties the whole thing together and will be reusing those tiles on the floor and around the whirlpool. You can also see an inset piece to hold soap and shampoo. I didn't know that these existed before this project.

View of the shower corner seat. Useful when a certain someone needs to shave their legs.

View of the shower from across the master bathroom. One of the things we realized on Friday is that the shower is just big enough that we can walk the dogs into the shower when we need to give them a bath in the winter.

The tiles in kitchen are covered, presumably in preparation for painting.

I'm not entirely certain, but I believe these are for putting together chambers for the drain field.

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April 6 - More Clearing

A bit of quick clearing around where the drain field occured and the debris field was moved tro the West side (and further away) for easier access to the house.

The expanded clearing for the drainfield (South of the house).

The relocated debris field (West of the house).

With so much of the lot cleared, it's interesting to consider what it looked like before we started. This is an aerial shot of the lot from Microsoft Live Search Maps with the property boundaries shown in red and the approximate house boundaries in blue. The ridge is on the South side, the field about half way back on the West. If you squint real hard, you can kinda make out the stream about halfway back on the lot and running along side the field.

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