Week 65 & 66: Kitchen!!!

Our Kitchen cabinets were finally delivered and installed this past week. It looks beautiful, even without the counter top. Going with Europe Kitchen Center was the best decision. The quality is great, the drawers and doors are soft close. Very nice layout and should be sufficient for our living needs. We are not doing any upper cabinets to keep things nice and simple.
The closet doors from EZJamb were also delivered this week. It looks really nice for the price. Very heavy duty SOSS hinges, those doors are never coming out for sure.

Week 64: Dry Wall & Solar Panels...FINALLY!

This week was filled with activity. Our drywall was completed for all the rooms and ceilings. The space looks completely different with it. We used 5/8" dry wall for all the rooms. It has better sound barrier and also more rigid in general. For Master bedroom, since our bathroom is open, we went with a moister resistant drywall the entire room. We have good vents, but this is a precaution.
We spent this entire weekend painting the messed up container into "Farmhouse Red" from Behr, it's a great paint brand. Covers well, but since we had that horrible white color paint, it took 2 coats to cover it nicely.
Solar guys finally came back to put up the panels. It looks great, gives the house a more "home of the future" feel. It has a low profile, so it's barely noticeable at all. We're very happy with the results.
The finish line is near...at least for the main house.

Week 61, 62, 63: Interior Insulation & a few deliveries

The last few weeks were filled with finishing off loose ends, media wiring, electricals, plumbing rough in. Finally interior insulation was done last week in the ceilings and walls. We used R30 for the ceiling since we have that rigid foam under the EPDM roof. R19 in the walls. Since the house is a double wall, there is more than enough insulation to keep out the elements. Our radiant flooring is on at 65 degrees, it's very warm. I remember we were skeptical at first about using radiant flooring as the only heat source, but now we realize how powerful the heating is. The best part is that you don't feel any force air circulating around causing dry air.
Our 5.8 Kw system is still not yet finished. When they showed up, they realized the ballast system needs adjustment. Another delay.
Adam put up the curtain tracks this past week, it looks great!
Next week is the drywall...we can almost feel the completion coming. Starting to purchase more furnishings and housewares. Can't wait!!
We had a few deliveries this past week. Master bathroom tiles from Porcelanosa, they are great. The custom 12 foot container that our forwarder had his friend help cut down from a standard 20 foot container. The quality was poor, note to self, don't hire chinese people to do construction related work.

Week 60: Front Entrance & Interior Doors

This week the exterior of the front entrance is finished. It looks great, with the massive glass door. All the interior frames were installed and the door was installed. A really nice feature is the magnetic latch, it feels just like a regular latch, but no strike plate is visible. The doors are super clean. They are well worth the price tag.
We went to Bowdoin part which Ken had mentioned that he saw our house across the river. It's a bit surreal to look at our house from afar. The long horizontal line made it easy to spot immediately. Also found the local road on our side of the river with a closer view of the house from down the cliff, Mount Rose Road, which is a deadend road that services the houses down the cliff.
We spent the day in Rhinebeck, checking out Sawkille Co. Decided to submit a request for quote on a custom credenza. Rather support some local artists than big city companies. Let's see how it goes. Walnut with bleached sycamore, with 6 drawers.

Week 58 & 59: Local Artists and Furnishings

The last weeks were filled with furniture shopping. We found the artist that does the wood stumps for BDDW. Visited Kieran Kinsella's studio today in Rosendale, NY (just 30 minutes north of us). It's a perfect artists studio with several works in progress. We've commissions Kieran to make 6 pieces for us in the next year or maybe 2 years time. Kieran's pieces were picked up to sell at BDDW, so naturally he's quite busy trying to fill all the orders.

Matt and Adam finished the TV framing this week, the way the mount is set, I think we can hang a 100" TV and it wouldn't be any problem.
Our Solar system is delayed till end October due to the frame not being ready, but as long as we turn on the solar this year, we can still quality to get the tax credits from the gov't.

Week 57: Interior Framing + Last of the wiring work

This was a rainy week, torrential rain poured down on our site. More interior framing was done. We went up on Saturday to finalize the remainder of the audio and video wiring.
The good news is that we should have some resolution on the slope and non-disturbance issue. The drill sample the engineers took seem pretty stable, so the town should be happy about the results to settle the issue.
Once that is done, we can proceed to get a deck plan approved.
Otherwise things have been slow, we are moving on to purchasing interior items and fixtures. Custom designed a chandelier for the dining area. Going to fill it with Edison bulbs. Can't wait.

Week 56: Correct Interior Doors & Tree Auction

Interior Doors! Take two - finally has arrived from Modern Doors (again) this Wednesday and the measurements are good. The old set of doors with the incorrect measurements got returned with the same trucking company that dropped off. These doors are so nice and truly fits the modern aesthetic we were looking for. It's too bad that they do not supply closet doors at a better price. We went with 8 foot high doors for all interior doors, the height of it makes the ceilings appear even higher. It's not some many people focus on and they normally end up getting the standard measurements, but it can really make a difference to the overall look of the interior. Finally, we can proceed with the rest of the interior framing. Matt and Adam had wanted to wait until they arrived to ensure the most accurate fit possible. We love our GCs, they are so meticulous, they've really affected the outcome of this home and our love for it.
We have an area in the front of the house where a lot of water gathers, Matt and Adam spent this week building 2 beautiful rock ponds where the water would run through. It looks..dare I say...AMAZING (inside joke on the word Amazing..because I dread using it because of my work).
We went to the MANZA family farm (Montgomery, NY) this Saturday to bid on some trees. Never again will buy full price trees and plants, they were practically giving it away. Bought several Maples, Cherries, and Plum trees to start us off. Plum tress for $25.00 each and they were about 10 ft high. $65.00 for Japanese Maples!!! We would need a whole lot more. Just haven't worked out the plan yet.