First I will update you on the occupancy permit process. We have successfully passed all the necessary inspections. Two documents need to be given to the building inspector on Monday morning, and he will turn around the occupancy permit by end of day Monday. Tuesday, we move in.
Let me show you progress pictures. First they fit the electric oven into the cabinet by widening the opening.
Outside, they put gravel on the walkway, which is only temporary until the landscaping is done. The gravel will keep the movers from tracking dirt into the house.
On the second floor, we positioned and then had them install, the pull up bar. It is positioned for Daphne and me. Tall people may find it mounted too low.
The media consultant finished their installation. Here is the living room TV and sound bar.
Here is the second floor wiring closet where we have an Ethernet switch.
And here is the main rack with an Ethernet switch and the doorbell and camera equipment.
The plumber has installed the water softener.
I do not know how to use any of these things, but I will be trained in the coming week.
I forgot to get a picture of the new garage epoxy floor, which will be drying until Monday. Inside the house, on Saturday, they will put the final coat of finish on the hardwood floor and stairs. On Monday, the construction crew removes all their equipment. The dented appliances get replaced on Tuesday, the same day that the movers arrive.
Today is Wednesday, which means another house meeting. The next meeting will be a few days after we move in, to list the things that may be problems. I will summarize where we stand, and what’s left to do.
Lets start with the saga of the range. We had bought a Kucht propane range, but it was not on the Massachusetts approved list, which meant that we failed the plumbing inspection. The builder and the construction team said they had never seen a plumbing inspection fail — ours was the first. Once I got ahold of a manager at Kucht, I learned what happened. It seemed that Kucht let their Massachusetts approval expire. They were working on reinstating it, but that was not going to happen any time soon. I suspect that when we picked out the range last year, it was on the list, and it fell off the list in the intervening time.
Anyway, after dealing with Kucht and then Lowes, I finally got approval to return the range, which will be picked up this Friday. Meanwhile, the new range arrived at the warehouse this morning and we sent down a crew member to pick it up and bring it back.
It had a different layout in the back so they had to move some pipes around, but they got it working before the end of the day.
Daphne is not in love with the red buttons, and will try to see if there are black versions. But it is good enough to pass plumbing inspection, now scheduled for Thursday at 1pm.
Not everything we ordered fit. Because the range also has a propane oven, we wanted a separate electric oven to use. Unfortunately, the cabinet middlemen mis-measured the opening for the electric oven, so the opening is not large enough. There is a plan to fix this in time for the move, however.
For the other appliances, two arrived with dents — the chest freezer and the washing machine. Both will be replaced next Tuesday (which is also moving day, so chaos). Meanwhile the dented washer (and non-dented dryer) are sitting in the laundry room so you can see them. They are on a raised pedestal so no bending down to load and unload them.
In the kitchen, they installed the refrigerator, including piping in water for the ice maker.
And both dish washers were installed and running when we got there (for testing purposes).
While we were there, we worked out placement of grab bars, towel racks, toilet paper holders, etc. We also pick a location for the pull-up bar on the second floor. Here are the grab bars by the master bathroom toilet, whose location is dictated by the ADA.
And since I did not have a picture of it before, here is the bathtub in the master bathroom. (Its grab bar is not installed yet).
I also took a picture of the extendable ladder that goes up into the crawl space under the roof for access to the ventilation system. I have been told that this is a high quality ladder that can handle an overweight repair person.
Yesterday, our media consultants did a lot of work including installing the ceiling speakers (2 in the kitchen, 2 in the living room, and 2 in the game room). Here are the game room speakers. The other speakers are round.
We had picked out hinge stops to prevent doors from slamming into walls, but the builder discovered that those hinge stops did not work with our door frames, so we spent a bunch of time picking out alternatives for every door that had a planned hinge stop. In most cases, where possible, we will have a wall mounted post near the floor that will prevent the door from opening too far. When that did not work, we will just mount a clear bumper to keep the door knob from damaging anything when the door opens.
Here is a partial list of upcoming items for the next few days.
Finish plumbing install including water softener and also reworking the pipes leading to the exterior faucets so they connect to pre-softened water.
Install garage epoxy floor Aug 6-7
Finish internet and media installation Aug 7
Finish the final coat on the second floor flooring and stairs Aug 8
Cleaners Aug 10
Install the replacement chest freezer and washing machine Aug 11
Fix cabinet face around electric oven
Add basement stair nose (a piece of trim between the stairs and the flooring)
Here is the list of remaining inspections.
Plumping final Aug 6
Fire inspection Aug 6
Building inspection Aug 7
Occupancy certificate Aug 10
And here is a partial list of what will not be done by the time we move in.
Install the screens on the porch
Install the Murphy bed in the gameroom
Final paving of the driveway
Landscaping of the front yard including installing the walkway and grass
Current estimated occupancy permit date: August 10, 2026.
So disaster struck. We failed the plumbing inspection on Monday afternoon. It turns out that the range is not approved for use in Massachusetts. Anyway, here is what the range looks like now.
Massachusetts has an long list of approved plumbing and gas fixtures and appliances. We knew about this because we had to avoid using some plumbing fixtures that were not on the list. But when you by a range from a Massachusetts Lowes, you expect to be able to install that range in Massachusetts. Well, it turns out that nothing from the Kucht brand is on the approved list. So we had to remove the range.
After scrambling a lot, we finally found a Daphne acceptable range that we can pick up from the warehouse on Thursday morning, install before noon, and get inspected at 1pm on Thursday. That may cause the occupancy permit to slip until next Monday (which would be fine) or next Tuesday (which may be a problem).
Meanwhile, I now have to fight with Lowes, who sold me an unusable range. They said it could not be returned unless I get the manufacturer involved, which I am working on.
This is crunch week, where we try to get everything finished and inspected so that we have an occupancy permit by end of week (Monday at the latest).
The good news is that they finished installing the luxury vinyl tile flooring on the main level. We had to get the crew to work both weekend days, but it was all finished by around 4pm on Sunday. Here is a video of the process. The start of this video is the installation of the splash guard in the kitchen, which was over a week ago. Then you see the flooring get installed in the living room, kitchen and master closet.
And here is the living room after the flooring has been installed. We have turned on all the lights so you can get the full effect. It looks like Daphne’s calculations for lighting strength was good enough to illuminate the room.
This morning they installed the kitchen range, which is propane. This is our only non-electric appliance. In this picture I opened the cabinet above the range so you can see the exhaust fan as well.
As we were leaving, they were setting up for the HERS testing. This involves installing a giant blower over the front door and measuring air leakage. We did not stay for the test, but I have this picture of the front door getting set up.
Plumbing inspection is today at 1pm. We did not install the water softener yet, and will hold off until we can get most of the outside spigots switched to use pre-softened water. But that can happen after inspection and even after we move in.
Also at the house today were the construction team installing the baseboards, and the electrician finishing up the electrical system for an inspection in a few days and the painter doing touch up. I will probably visit the house every day this week, so there will be a lot of posts.
We went over to the house mid-morning. They looks to be about 70% done with the flooring, although they have some tighter spaces left to go, which will take longer.
Here is the finished game room floor.
We bribed the team yesterday with some real Turkish Delights that my daughter picked up in Istanbul. Then, the builder picked up pizza for the crew to keep them working later. It seems to have worked and it looks like the flooring will be done in time.
Once the flooring is in place, they will add the baseboards which are currently painted and ready to be installed.
We are now in the home stretch. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the wrong flooring was initially delivered, so we had to rush a new shipment of the correct flooring. The correct flooring arrived yesterday and today they started installation.
Here are two pictures of partial flooring. The first is the game room and the second is the living room. They are being done together since there is a door between the two rooms so the flooring extends across both rooms.
I also have a short video showing the process of installing this type of floor.
So what’s with this post’s title, you may ask. Well, next Monday we want to do the plumbing inspection. Everything is in place for that inspection (I have a few pictures below) except for the toilet in the guest half-bath. That toilet can not be installed until the flooring is installed in the guest half-bath. So while the flooring does not have to be finished by Monday morning, it must reach as far as the guest half-bath so the toilet can be installed for inspection.
Speaking of plumbing, here are some pictures. First is the master bathroom shower, and you can see the toilet on the right side.
Here is the second floor bathroom shower.
And here is the laundry room.
Outside, they have done the first layer of paving of the driveway. There will be a second layer added later.
Daphne spent a few hours this morning installing plants in the back yard. Here are two sections of the yard.
Also in the house this weekend were the painters and the window washers.
Speaking of plumbing, we have hit a snag. The Concord water is very hard so we are going to install a water softener (which is not needed for the inspection). But now we realize that softened water is very bad for the plants. So we will need to redo some of the pipes so that the exterior faucets will not go through the water softener. This work will have to be done after inspection.
At the start of this week, they were supposed to put in the flooring on the main floor. However, when the builder opened up the packages, which had been sitting in storage for 3 months, he discovered that they were the wrong color. Big whoops. So he contacted the manufacturer and put in a rush order for the correct flooring, which should show up on Friday. Then the team will work all through the weekend to keep the schedule from slipping.
This coming weekend will also feature the plumber finishing up the installation of the fixtures and water softener, as the builder tries to get (almost) everything done for out move-in date of August 11.
The building inspector came by today and we passed inspection. We still need to get a HERS rating (home energy rating system) and a fire inspection, but we do not expect there to be any problem with those.
The electrician installed most of the lights for our inspection. Here are some pictures. First up is the kitchen and dining room. The dining room light is too low, but its height is adjustable and we decide to move it up by one-third.
Here is the game room ceiling. The lamps in the chandelier can face up or down (they face up in this picture). We decided to flip them so they face down, which will give us better lighting for playing games.
And here is the east side of the living room where you can see some of its light fixtures. The recessed light in the corner will be over my computer desk.
And here is the family room (second floor) showing some of its lights.
The splash guards in the kitchen and all the bathrooms have been installed. Here is the kitchen wall.
And the upstairs bathroom is almost finished, only missing the toilet and plumbing fixtures.
The shower in the master bathroom now has a Venetian plaster ceiling and the correct fixtures holding the door in place. This bathroom is awaiting the toilet, bath tub and plumbing fixtures.
The silt barrier has been removed from the sides of the house. This is the view out the game room window, looking south. We will be putting hair cap moss in the swale along the side of the house and adding some bushes at the edge of the current mulch covering. By the way, the wood pile is on our land, but belongs to our next door neighbors. I actually like the wood pile but wish it was taller (a lot of the wood was burned last winter).
Well, that’s all the update pictures I have for you today. This weekend and next week will be the big push towards completion. And with luck, we will move in on August 11th.
Two pictures of the house today. The first is from the river since we went kayaking. The second is from the neighbor’s back yard (as we removed the boats from the river).
Here is a link to the gallery that has the originals of these pictures and a few others.
The builder sent me an email with some updates. All of these were expected except the shower ceiling, which was uncertain whether it could get done in time.
Today the Venetian plastering shower ceiling [was done].
Hardwood floors installation complete today with sealer coat applied.
Saturday 2 coats of finish. A final coat at completion of all second [floor] tasks.
Monday backsplashes installed.
Monday Primary shower door installed with right hardware along with shelves.
Tuesday start installation of vinyl floor. Should take 3 days to complete.
Driveway binder coat hopefully next week.
Stamski [surveyors / civil engineers] final as-built [inspection] to be done.
