This week was a good week - we raced to get things set for the final inspection like making sure the deck railing was complete (cable installed and tight) and installing the inside handrail for the stairs as well as a couple minor electrical tweaks. On Wednesday the county inspector came in the afternoon and did his final inspection. The comments he made were "this should be easy" and "schedule the moving trucks." We had him visit the site any time we had questions regarding code requirements and that helped make sure we were ready for the inspection. Bottom line is he issued the certificate of occupancy so we are not scrambling to get our rental house packed up and moved while finishing some of the last details on the house
We were a bit concerned with the inside stair railing because it wasn't as sturdy as we would like - the upper section and lower section are not currently connected due to some problems with the Indital components (the plastic cap and articulating joint don't fit together tightly enough to rely on them for stability) so we're going to order one more articulating joint and explain the situation to the folks at Indital to see if they can help.. The rail does work as a handrail but trying to use it as a "guard rail" isn't a good idea since the lateral stability of the railing is questionable in my mind, especially at the landing. The look is great and goes well with the contemporary style of the house so we're going to work hard to get it stabilized. I guess the telling story would be that when I spoke with the president of Indital USA he said they should have never sold me the components they did for a wood installation; it is designed for professional installation on concrete flooring...
We also got the Liquid Propane tank installed and filled - the plan was to install it under the deck but due to code restrictions we were unable to do that. I poured a small pad using Sakrete quick-setting concrete but unfortunately it will now be a pad for some other use. Steve, the delivery person installed the tank and connected the lines to the house as well as hooking up our Weber grill to the tank. Right now we're probably one of the few folks in the US that has a 120 gallon propane tank only supplying gas to their deck grill! The good news is on Monday we will move the Thermador range into it's final place and connect it to the lines - so we'll be able to move in AND have hot meals as planned by the end of the coming week.
I cut the grass for the second time yesterday - with all the rain that has been coming down and the warm sunny weather, the grass has been thriving. The one problem is it's too hot so the winter rye is starting to show stress and browning up a bit. Today the rain came down again and we collected about 100 gallons - I'd emptied one tank in preparation for construction of a better pad for the two 275-gallon IBC containers. One interesting observation was that the 60 gallon barrel that did not have a drainage port on it had become a mosquito breeding ground - there were tons of larvae squiggling about in the water, some even under the screen (which means the eggs settled through the screen. I dumped some of the water off but today's rains refilled the barrel and I'm sure washed a few of the larvae into the drainage system and then into the woods below the house.
Today we did the final install on the range hood cover and worked on the pantry shelving system - the glass for the range hood won't go in until the painters and cleaners have finished their work. We have the painters coming back on Monday/Tuesday and the cleaners (house and window-specific cleaners) coming on Wednesday. Once all that is done, we'll move the large stuff from our rental house and by this time next weekend hope to be living in our new house.
GARAGE DOOR
There was a question posted on the Blog regarding use of the garage door for a living space and the tightness of the seal. We haven't really worried about how tight the door is since we have a breezeway concept (and the Carolina Wrens have moved in to raise their family) but the seal of the weatherstripping and the joints on the door seems quite tight. We have the tempered glass for our door and it has performed quite well - today the rain beat against the door pretty severely but it stayed dry. I might not use it for a habitable room in the current configuration but we are very happy with it in our application.
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