DIY Finishes

The end is near; we have a final walk through tomorrow and we move on Saturday. Workers have been touching up paint, pressure washing and cleaning, and fixing other last-minute stuff. We took off work yesterday and today/tomorrow to tackle a couple of DIY projects before we move in.

Matt finished up all the AV stuff - speakers & wiring. Everything works! And looks and sounds good too.  That's been a huge project on his part and it's a relief to test stuff and find it working as planned. DirecTV hooked up the satellite dish yesterday and Time Warner is pretty much finished running the internet stuff. We put some shelves in the media closet yesterday and Matt hooked up the essentials.

While he was doing that yesterday, I managed to hang blinds in all the upstairs bed/bathrooms for light control and privacy. Nice to get those knocked out and not have to deal with when we're already tired and grungy from moving. Definitely wanted to get Mara's room done right away to make it as comfortable and sleep-friendly as possible for Saturday nap.  The main floor and basement ones can be done as we have time and energy.

This morning we installed about 900 square feet of garage flooring. We were cautiously optimistic about the installation process and everything went as good or better than expected. We got the entire main field laid down in about 3 hours. Spent roughly another 3 hours with the finishing pieces.  They all involved cuts using Matt's new table saw.  Finished product came out great.

Media closet

Garage before

Garage before

Garage after

Almost complete!

Completed garage

Completed garage

Circle driveway / fireplace

The circle driveway was completed on Friday.  It's looking great and definitely makes house access much more functional that it was previously.  Rather than gutters, we installed rain chains on the 3 corners of the porch; much more aesthetically pleasing.  Fireplace was running today as Maggie and I addressed a minor to-do list at the house; it's a beautiful, cool fall day in Raleigh.  A week from today and we'll be living in the house :).

View from afar

A look at the newly completed circle

Front of house

A view from the right

Cedars to form some screening in a few years

Landscaping bed in front of the garage

Fireplace

Landscape, pendant lights, barn doors

The landscapers started today - most of our job involves a whole lot of straw matting and grass seed. This is required for erosion control on the broad shoulders of the long driveway and any disturbed areas between the house and woods/pond.  We'll let the leaves fall and then probably mulch with pine straw in the spring (we definitely don't want to mow all that). They're also doing fine grading in the back yard with rye seed and straw to hold us over until spring when we'll get some sod.  They are building the circle driveway turn-around and preparing planting beds as well. We're just planting the front foundation areas and a few bigger plants that need time to get established. The crew also planted dogwood saplings along the driveway (the ones we bought way back in May!).  The whole job should be done tomorrow.

Kitchen pendant lights were hung earlier today, but we haven't yet seen them turned on and can't figure out where they are switched (that breaker was probably turned off for the install and they may not have turned it back on).  And the barn doors are up! We love them, they turned out just as we imagined/hoped.  Big high five to our painter Paul, who somehow made the reddish mahogany front doors and greenish poplar study beams and brown/tan knotty alder barn doors all match.

Lights on, carpet, deck rail and stairs, final hardware and accessories

Passed the electrical inspection earlier in the week and finally have full power to the house so we can turn on lights now. It's nice seeing formerly dark areas, especially the laundry and basement bath, closets, and exercise room, since those don't have windows and it was hard to tell what they were like even in the day time. Still need kitchen pendants to be installed and the barn doors should go up soon.

Carpeting was installed yesterday/today, looks and feels nice. Makes a big difference in softening the sound upstairs - much less echo-y. Also helps a little in the main living area, since the hallway and overlook upstairs is carpeted. Obviously it makes the rooms look a lot more complete.  The stair treads and railing for the deck are done. Didn't get any dedicated pictures of that tonight; it was already getting dark when we were there. Door hardware was installed the past few days too.  Shower enclosures are done and bathroom mirrors are in progress. Towel bars and toilet paper holders and those kinds of things are all in progress.  The gutters and downspouts were added outside today. We have rain chains instead of downspouts around the front porch. They're hauling out the big dumpster and starting landscaping tomorrow, that should be a nice change on the outside, too.

The more finished everything gets the more "stuff-to-fix" stands out, also the house is pretty dusty/dirty right now which is not helping. Walls are getting ongoing patch/sanding/paint touch ups. There are light switches wired wrong (down is on, up is off, etc.) and crooked outlet covers. Minor but annoying fixes. We're already tallying up a mental punch list, but trying to be patient over this last week since we know everyone is still finishing up.

Breakfast nook light is still pulled up out of the way but
you can kind of see how it lights the space now

Family room ceiling and recessed lights

Fridge arrived yesterday - good view of other lights on

Kitchen looking more like a kitchen, pendants are missing

Study beams have been stained

Study bookshelves

Pocket door hardware

Laundry room

Buddy bath vanity lights and mirrors

Secondary closet with light

extra sunshine

Grandma's bathroom light and mirror

Master shower enclosure and lights

Master closet carpeting

Stair lights

Basement closet under the stairs

Mechanical room that we could never see before

Exercise room with boxes of floor mats waiting for
us to install them

Basement shower enclosure

Basement sink (and hey we also have running water)

Super dirty basement floors

Stairs up from the basement

More lighting & plumbing, appliances, wood floors, porch railings & columns, paver patio

Lots going on but little time to write it down. We had a hurricane; it could have been much worse for us (and it was a lot worse for a lot of people outside our immediate area).  The house was not damaged by anything, but a huge tree fell down on the property line right over the new septic field. It missed all the important stuff though, so not a big priority to remove it right now.  And with all the heavy rain we got the pond is no longer an unnatural shade of blue, so, silver linings and all that.

Electricians have been hustling to get all the outlets and switches and lights completed for inspection this week, after which we can actually turn on the lights inside. Most of the appliances were delivered the same week as the hurricane, but were installed in the last week or so. Fridge will be delivered Tuesday.

Wood floors were stained late last week and had the weekend to cure - we haven't gotten pictures yet. We were inside the house today laying down paper to protect the high-traffic areas. The engineered hardwoods in the basement were also installed last week, and they're a good complement to the main floor and stairs. It'll be easier to get pictures after we can turn some lights on.

Outside has had lots of activity. Painters are finishing up the exterior, mostly just trim left now. The front doors have been stained. Front porch tapered columns were put up and iron railings were installed, too. The paver patio under the deck/screened porch was done Thursday/Friday and looks good. Still waiting on the deck steps and railing. We have ongoing work on the driveway and final grading for the lawn areas coming up. Landscaping is giving us heartburn but we'll see how this week goes.

Going to be a very busy week ahead for both the new house and here at the current one. We're scheduled to move on the 29th.  We met with a realtor Wednesday, listed our current house Thursday, had multiple showings Saturday, received and accepted an offer today. Fingers crossed for that to go through smoothly.

Bathroom vanity

Master

Buddy bath

Front doors

Porch rails and columns

Pavers

More pavers

From inside basement

Current front view

One "fun" project we made time for is a street number sign for the driveway. New street is private and all the mailboxes are at one end, rather than in front of each house. Plus with a very long driveway we need to have clear street numbering by code. Matt had a plan in mind to DIY something and we went to the Reuse Warehouse in Durham on Saturday to find supplies. We bought a reclaimed 4x4 post and chunk of 1x12 and put it all together last night/this morning.