Inspections

Yesterday, during our now regular lunchtime visit to the house, the builder told us that inspections were the next major item on the plan. All the electrical wiring has been completed, and all the plumbing is done as well. He, the builder, was cleaning the interior of the house, removing all debris, sawdust, wood scraps, et cetera, so that it would be ready for insulation and then drywall once the inspections were complete.

Sibylle spent the morning yesterday researching carpet options for the stairs and lower level. We’ll also have carpeting in the front and corner bedrooms upstairs. She visited with the owner of the local piano store to see what he recommended for the studio space. His showroom is a converted roller skating rink, so the surface under the carpet is similar to the concrete floor our lower level has. He suggested that we look into commercial grade carpeting. Not “industrial” but commercial. He carpeting is about 8 years old and shows no signs of wear and tear, and his store sees heavy foot traffic, and they constant move pianos around in the showroom.

Sibylle then went to the Manhattan branch of the carpeting store our builder likes to use and looked at three samples of commercial quality carpeting and was able to check those out for  the builder to see. We’ll have that applied directly to the cement on the lower level and placed on some kind of padding for the stairs and bedrooms on the upper level.

The other big decision this week is selecting paint colors. On Saturday I visited the Sherwin Williams store here in town (again, the brand the builder likes to work with) and selected a couple of samples of a very pale blue for the exterior siding. We think this will look smashing with the limestone masonry we want. On the inside the walls will be nearly white, with white trim and doors. Our bedroom will be a very pale pink, again with white trim and doors.

We have decided to keep the dark tile we choose for the hall bath and half bath even though it might be dark in a room without any windows. The picture the interior designer showed us had a lot of variation in the tile color so even if it is a bit dark we can accent it with towels and a throw rug. This same tile will be used for the fireplace surround and in front of the patio door downstairs.

This week the telephone, cable television, and data wiring should be underway. I don’t think these items are code inspected. I was able to talk briefly with the builder about where we want data outlets. He is going to mark the spots they would normally locate those outlets, and today at lunch I’ll go through the house and remark any that I think should be somewhere else.

The builder also indicated that the two windows we had to order should arrive this week. So the house will be weather tight soon. While we were there yesterday the roofer was getting started on the shingles; by late afternoon he had the lower half of the roof nearly covered. I expect that by this evening the shingling will be complete. This means all the vent cutouts in the roof are now covered with flashing, so no more rain inside the house.

All-on-all the house is coming along very nicely.