ELECTRICAL IS DONE NEW HOUSE UPDATE

They have installed (almost) all electrical systems.

Wall switches in place.  We got to pick where we wanted them based on how we would walk into a room and reach for them.  That's kind of fun.

All three bedrooms have four recessed lights and a center ceiling fan.  We also made sure ALL closets have lights in them.  The walk-in closet has them standard but none of the others.   One thing we learned at our last house is that even the smallest closets are better when they are well lit.  Nothing worse than trying to find something the in the back corner of the closet.

This is the panel where all the wi-fi and CAT6 lines terminate.  It will also be where they put the termination point for the alarm system and exterior cameras.  It will be easier to have it all in one spot.

We found a few spots where we wanted an outlet that we overlooked and so they marked the slab with the locations.  We asked for two in the foyer and one more exterior outlet for my canning area.

Electrical for the a/c unit runs through the ceiling and down the wall of the closet to the exterior.

It's nice to have photos (we have dozens more) to see where all the wiring will be so that we will know where all the wiring runs.  We'll never have to worry about where to hammer a nail.

In the garage, in addition to regular 110V outlets around, we are also "future proofing" the house by having 220V outlets put in for Level 2 electric car charging.  One on 2nd Man's side...

...and one on my side.  If we ever end up with an electric car or a hybrid or even if we sell someday, it's ready for electric car charging.  We figured it was easier (and cheaper) to do it now.

Oh and here is the pantry....the white box is where the countertop and lower cabinets will be for 2nd Man's mixer and baking center so we made sure to put outlets on each side.  There are also outlets along the wall on each side below where the bottom shelves of the pantry will be so that we can plug in things as needed.  You can never have too many outlets!

Almost all of the wiring in the house runs to here...where it goes outside into the main circuit breaker box.  Mental note:  DO NOT NAIL INTO THIS SPOT! 😬, ha!  Actually, they will put a metal plate over all this, so no worries there.  

They have to put in the outlets we requested and then they will have a third party inspection and it will be done.  Next up...EXTERIOR PAINTING!

IT WAS A HOT DAY ON THE ZEN MACHINE

The grass had grown, it's been over two weeks since I last mowed.  So it was time.  It's funny, when it's longer it does have a nice green color but seeing in person is different.  It needed to be mowed.  Plus it makes moving around with equipment and stuff easier for the workers moving around the house.

It's funny, I mowed less than I used to, but it took almost as long as it used to.  That's because it's a lot of going around and around and turning on the blades, getting to the new driveway/road and turning it off, then driving down onto the sides and turning it back on, then off so I can get back up on, etc.  Lots of repeating areas.  Once the house is done, that will change.  I hope they clean everything up at the end and make sure all the large chunks of concrete, pieces of wood, hardiplank scraps, pipe pieces, etc, that are hiding in tall grass will be taken away.

But I finished and it looks better.  Now, you might be able to see around the shed and barn the tall grass that would normally be taken down by the weedeater/trimmer.  It died.  For good died.  Gave it to someone to check last weekend and they confirmed that it's a goner.  It had a good 10+ year run, but all good things must come to an end, ha.  Time for a new one.  Until then, I can't trim and that is evident in the next picture.

First off, we have apples!  There are about six on our Dorsett Golden apple tree.  They are a bit small but the tree itself is still smallish and add in the fact that I wasn't able to regularly water this Spring.  

But we can now, ha!

Anyway, you can also kind of see in the background of this picture the orchard area is in desperate need of the weedeater but alas, not this time.

Off to shop for a new one.

Tomorrow another house update...electrical is done!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

 How do the weeks fly by so fast?  Here we are, back to Sunday again.  Yesterday was a good day.  More updates this week.  Now it's time for some good food and some Hobart.

We stopped at a market on the way back from the farm last weekend and picked up some chicken leg quarters that are literally split in half through the bone.

They are called Piernitas de Polla Partidas, a special cut made for grilling and quick cooking.  They literally slice a leg quarter in half through the bone.  It's not something you can do at home because it requires a bandsaw, ha.

We picked up some onions and poblanos as well.  These look like larger spring onions but they are actually a special variety called knob onions or also known as Mexican spring onions.  We sautéed it all together.

...and added corn tortillas, Mexican brown rice and black beans with turkey bacon and cilantro.

It was SO good.

Hobart spent the day sleeping, covered up under his favorite blanket (but head has to stick out).  Because...

#notspoiled

OFF TO THE FARM

Sorry for the absence the last few days, it's been a busy week, lots of moving parts and things going on.  But today, as this posts, I'm off to the farm...

2nd Man has to stay in town and work on some things.  I can't wait to see the house and take lots of pictures.  There are some exciting updates coming soon.  We'll have to break them up into parts.  Several milestones have been reached.  It's all so exciting!  

In addition to some Zen Machine time, I will need to edge around the fruit trees because it is out of control,  since I skipped it the last time, and then I have to water (which is easy now, yay!).  Oh and I also have a new battery for the truck.  It's going to be a full day.

The only downside is that we are flirting with triple digit temperatures, ugh.

Summer is here...a couple of weeks early!

WATERING THE PLANTS ONCE AGAIN

Now that the plumbing is done and ready, it was time to use our fresh water from far down below.  We have water now of the first time in eight months.

The weekend when we had the first trip to see it and test it out, I forgot the keys to the shed so we couldn't get the hose out of the shed.  Thankfully it had rained during the week so it wasn't urgent.  This time, I was prepared ahead of time and remembered the keys!

I grabbed one of the bargain hoses that we got last year (click HERE)...

And then grabbed three of the 5 gallon buckets, put it all in the back of the truck and drove to the well.

I attached the hose and wow, we have pressure coming out of there, ha!

I filled up the three buckets, drove them to the plants (which are behind the barn and shed so they are out of the construction workers way) and watered them all.  They are happy!

And we are happy to have easy water once again.

Of course, we're entering the rainy season so there is that factor ha.  But just in case, we have water!

PLUMBING INSTALLED NEW HOUSE UPDATE

More technical stuff that might be boring for some, but hey, it's progress!  They have completed the plumbing.

We've taken extensive pictures of every single wall so that we know for the future when we need to hammer a nail into a wall, where NOT to do it, ha.  Example above, this is the wall in the living room where we know we will put our bar cabinet/credenza.  We will want to hang some pictures above it.  With the help of photos and a stud finder, we will know where not to put them!

Here are some pipe running through the attic.  PVC pipes are drain lines for various systems.

Kitchen sink/dishwasher area.  By the way, all pipes on outside walls are insulated (the black covering) and of course all exterior walls are fully insulated as well, so the pipes should be very safe.

This is the laundry room, the pipes here are for the stack washer/dryer.  The insulated pipe you see on the right side is going to an outside faucet.

This is the shower.  It's six feet wide and nine feet tall.  It will have a bench across the right side and the shower head and handheld piece are there on the left side.  The blue covered pipe you can see sticking down from above is the rain shower head.  There will be a grab bar on the back wall under the window.

They still have to use PVC for drains and septic lines of course.  This is a view of the master bathroom double vanity.  1st Man will be on the left, 2nd Man on the right, ha.

And they even have the tub in for the guest bath!

The line for the fridge in the kitchen (ice maker/water).

Here is the pot filler above the stove.

Insulated pipes, again, exterior walls and then it will be insulated over it all for further protection.

Here's the utility sink area in the garage.  The white PVC is the septic drain and black ones are the hot and cold PEX pipes and they are insulated since they are on an exterior wall.

By the way, all the piping for water lines is PEX...the UPONOR AquaPEX version.

It is a newer version of PEX that has a built in thermal memory so it will move and expand as needed (for example, in a freeze) and return to its original size and shape.  Like this area above, IF those froze, they could expand and even move a bit as needed and then once they thawed, they would return to this same curved position.  Because the are so flexible, they have very few connections so less points of failure.

Fingers will be crossed during every freeze, ha.

This week we get the plumbing inspected by a third party inspector and they are doing the electrical rough in.  Then there will be painting and the shingles!

Then the exterior is more or less finished and the behind the walls stuff will be done.

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

It's been a good weekend.  We went to the farm yesterday to check on progress and it's amazing.  More updates on that coming in future posts.  But Sunday is here and time for some good food. Now we are having good food today but we would be remiss if we didn't share last weekend's wonderful meal.  

Rib dinner!  A lean rack of pork ribs with low sodium rub and bbq sauce.  I made some pickled red onions and broccoli coleslaw. And a glass of red wine of course!

Even Hobart got to have a bit, and he loved it.  At his age we want him to get any extra calories or protein he can.  Because...

#notspoiled

OFF TO THE FARM

 Today, as this posts, it's off the farm for us.  I mowed last weekend (now that I think about it, I didn't post about that!).  Even if things grew more, it's too wet out there as we have had several days of rain.

We're really going to check on things since they are making more progress.  They are working on electrical rough in and today is, as our site manager said, our last and 'easiest' chance to make sure we have outlets everywhere that we want them.

We can't wait to walk around and see more progress, it's going to be so exciting.

 

Hope you all are off to the start of a great weekend!

ORGANIZING AND GETTING READY

We are starting to go through things at the apartment and get organized to make moving and getting settled in a little easier.  We know we want to have as much as possible stored neatly and together.  So, we stopped at Target and picked up these great plastic bins.  They are a perfect size, not too big to be unwieldy but big enough to hold the items we need to put in them.

For three boxes, we decided cookie cutters and cupcake liners.  We sorted through everything we have, scattered in various locations in the kitchen and pantry room, drawers and cabinets and put them together.

Specialty and larger cookie cutters are in here...

And here are the rest, various holidays and other specialty shapes are in this one.

Then, I sorted through all our cupcake holders and put them in this one.  What I've done over the last few years is after a holiday, I would try to find cupcake liners on clearance and they are almost always less than a dollar a package.

We have some for almost every holiday represented. Stripes, flowers, solid colors, stars, snowflakes, hearts, shamrocks, polka dots, pumpkins, skulls, you name it, we have it, ha!

Finally, I made labels for the boxes, put the lids on and we stored them away.  They will be ready to move, no packing necessary and when we get these containers to the new house, we can just put them as they are on a shelf in the new pantry, organized and ready to use!

HVAC SYSTEM INSTALLED NEW HOUSE UPDATE

 We got this picture from our builder the other day:

They were installing our HVAC system.  So we went out there when they were done to check things out.  Here are some pictures.

Lots of vents, including two in the kitchen and two in the living room.

The ductwork is well secured using special straps and reinforced ducts to prevent cutting into them over time.

It's like a giant octopus with tentacles reaching out everywhere, ha.

Here is the air handler box.  This has a blower inside to pull air from the returns and push it to the ducts in each room.  Hmm, we need to make sure we get those instructions lying there, ha.

They also put in the exhaust vents in both bathrooms and the laundry room.

And here is the vent for the vent hood that will go above the stove.

This is the main return in the hallway.  With this builder, each bedroom ALSO has a smaller return, which is nice and helps in several ways.  It reduces the strain on the system, it creates more even air pressure throughout the house and keeps air in the bedrooms recirculated and fresher.  We're ok with all that.

Our system will also include a dehumidifier (great for our humid climate and will keep the house at a comfortable humidity level, about 30-50%) and a whole home media filter that 

They also include float switches in the drain pans that will shut off the system if the drain pans fill up, in order to prevent ceiling damage.

We'll even have a smart thermostat.

It's a very good system and they fully test it at each phase by 3rd party inspectors to ensure the system is designed correctly for the space using duct blaster and blower door testing.

Now, they are working on the plumbing.