Gould Home

Another Wednesday, another onsite meeting with the builder and architect. Quick summary – we are still on the schedule I posted previously.

But first, I noticed a person wandering around the house not dressed like a construction worker and carrying a clipboard. It turned out that he was from the Concord tax assessment office. He was evaluating the house to figure out what our assessment will eventually be, although he said that the final assessment does not take effect until the beginning of 2028 for reasons that I did not completely follow (but does mean that I will pay less until then).

On the construction front, they have finally installed the front door and are working on the posts. Here is a progress picture. They still need to add siding and finishing, but as of now, we will stop using the front door to enter the house to protect it.

Inside the house, the builder says that every interior door has now been installed, although trim is still being worked on. This picture is from the alcove outside the master bedroom. Straight ahead is the game room, to the left (closed door) is the living room and to the right is the master bathroom.

Cabinetry installation is continuing. Here is the area over the range (which will be installed later, but they needed to measure).

Here is the pantry east wall which is only partially done.

Here is the area with the dishwashing sink. Daphne originally wanted those two shelves to be cherry, not painted. However, the design that made it to the cabinet maker had them painted to match the cabinets. After reviewing our options, we decided to leave them as it. By the way, we will have two dishwashers, which is why there looks like there are two gaps around where the sink will be.

Here are the cabinets in the upstairs bathroom.

And here is the upstairs kitchenette area. The lower cabinets have not been installed yet. Interestingly, the interior of some cabinets are natural wood and the interior of other are painted. We are not sure why they ended up like that. I do not think we specified details of the interiors.

A few weeks ago, we install the lightning protection system, and I finally took a picture. This is the corner of the garage. You can see the copper grounding wire running down the siding and into the ground. If you look closely, you can see one of the lightning rods on the peak of the roof. There are a lot of them spread out over the roof.

We also reviewed the wood that will be used for the slat decoration in the living room, dining room and front hall ceilings. In this picture, you can see two slats with approximately the correct spacing, although behind them will be black and in the living room, some of the gaps will be filled with lights.

Some other tidbits. I asked for a clean-out in the driver vent back in January. Well, that clean-out has now arrived at the house although it has not been installed yet. Dryer lint is building up while we wait for it to be installed (or it would be if the dryer were installed).

The construction trailer will be removed soon so they can ground the electrical system in the area that will eventually be the driveway. The office and equipment storage that was in the construction trailer is being moved into the garage.

The construct crew is starting to assembly the kitchen island. The island will be supported on small blocks on the floor rather then sitting on the vinyl flooring. However, the island will not be attached to the floor and could be moved (using a couple of very strong men or a forklift). As long as the island can theoretically be moved, then it is considered furniture rather than built-in cabinetry. If it were built-in, we would be required to add electrical outlets to the island and we do not want to do that.

A snapping turtle has buried eggs in our back yard. We have marked off that area and the landscaping crew will try to work around the nest. Eggs are expected to hatch around labor day. We have asked permission from the Concord Natural Resource Commission to open up a gap in the silt barrier to allow the turtles to get to the river, but have not gotten a response yet.

Right now our biggest challenge is living room furniture. We know what we want, but are having trouble finding it. The hardest thing to find is a manual reclining leather loveseat that is comfortable. That combination of five requirements eludes us so far and we have avoided ordering the couches until we know what the loveseat looks like. This means we may be without living room furniture for a few weeks once we move in.

Here is an update from last Wednesday meeting, with the upcoming schedule.

• Week of June 1
  • The lightning protection system has been installed.
  • The railing on the deck (but not the stairs) has been installed.
  • Master bathroom shower wall slabs have been delivered to the tile installers.
  • Cabinet installation is ongoing.
• Week of June 8
  • Cabinet installation is ongoing.
  • Electrical outlet and switch finishing.
  • Second floor shower wall panels to be delivered.
• Week of June 15
  • Cabinet installation is ongoing.
  • Exterior landscaping starts.
  • Alarm and safety system installation finished.
  • Construction trailer and cherry picker removed (finally).
• Week of June 22
  • Countertop templating.
  • Game room cabinet and shelving installation.
  • Master bath cabinet unit installed.

Here are some new pictures from recent cabinet installation. The first picture is the pantry. The west wall has blue cabinets. The east wall will have white cabinets.

Here is the dishwashing area of the kitchen.

Here are some cabinets in the master closet.

And here are the cabinets in the laundry room. The metal bars will hold up a counter where the area under the counter is open for wheeled laundry baskets.

Door are getting installed throughout the house. Upstairs, the doors are white with a white frame. Here is the door to the front bedroom (where my son will be staying).

Downstairs, the door are rift cut oak with cherry frames. Here is the master bedroom door, where you can see they are working on the frame.

And here are the pocket doors (closed) to the master closet.

In front of the house, they have start work on the posts that hold up the entryway. You can see the back posts being worked on, but the front posts are just supports at the bottom at this point.

Under the porch, the builder has attached a rack to the concrete wall where we can hang life jackets to dry.

Saturday, we did some invasive removal and planting. Then we went paddle boarding. The river is warm enough at this point so it is not dangerous to fall in (which I tested once).

Here is an action shot of Daphne (sorry for the poor focus).

Here is the current view of the waterfront, from ground level.

Finally, as a bonus, here is a video from this past week’s work on installing cabinets. The camera angle was not always ideal, but I appreciate that the crew did try to move the camera to capture the action.

There is no change in the occupancy permit date at this time. We will reevaluate at the end of June.

Current estimated occupancy permit date: July 31, 2026 (no change).

We went to the house this morning, in the cold and rain, to assemble our new kayak rack. This is located under the porch, next to the shed we installed last weekend. Right now we only have two paddle boards (plus the row boat that is stored elsewhere), but we will probably get more boats later.

Here is the assembled rack with our two paddleboards, that double as sit-on kayaks.

While we were there, I took pictures of the recent progress.

Here is the railing on the deck. They have finished the railing on the main level, but are still working on the railing on the stairs. There will also, eventually, be railings on the porch (the screens are not good enough to keep kids from falling off the porch).

In the front of the house, the front stoop was installed. This is a single piece of blue mist granite from a quarry in Vermont. The ground level will be raised to cover the bottom inch of the stoop, and there will be a walkway, using blue mist pavers, that goes past the breezeway towards the driveway. The final front door is still not installed, to avoid damaging it during construction.

Inside, they have been installing the interior doors. Here is the guest bathroom door (the frame has not been added yet).

And here is the pocket door to the closet at the top of the stairs (second floor). Doors on the first floor are rift cut oak with a cherry frame. The doors on the second floor just painted wood.

The tiles in both bathrooms (master and second floor) have now been installed. Here is the master bathroom floor.

And here is the second floor bathroom. The wall has a window and a mirror (not installed yet).

The painters were working on the second floor when we came by, which is why there are lights and tarps.

The electricians have also been working. Here is the latest view of the utility room electrical panel.

Finally, the most exciting change is the installation of the kitchen and dining room cabinets. I previously posted a view of the oven / fridge (west) wall. Here is a view of the north wall. The main sink will be in the lower area on the left. The dining room table is on the right side.

And finally, here is a one minute video of three days of work installing those cabinets.

Sent by the builder at the end of the day, Friday.

The architect is on site today meeting with the tile installer to plan the placement. Here is the adjusted placement of tiles in the master bathroom. The goal is to ensure that there is no small tile sliver near the door.

Here is a picture of the tiles being installed.

Upstairs, the tiles placement was adjusted or confirmed as well. Here is the placement diagram.

As a bonus picture, here is the game room ceiling after plastering (this is a newer picture than the one I first posted).

Here is the latest schedule. There are things missing but this includes the highlights.

• Week of May 25:
  • Continue working on the deck railing
  • Plaster the game room walls and ceiling
  • Start installing the kitchen, pantry and bathroom cabinets
  • Second floor painting starts this weekend
  • Bathroom tile installation has started
  • Install the front stoop
  • Install the HVAC screen panels
• Week of June 1:
  • Finish the deck railing
  • Lightning protection system installation
• Week of June 8:
  • Finish up site (landscaping) work in the back yard
• Week of June 15:
  • Install the septic system

There is no change in the occupancy permit date, but we will know better at the end of June where things stand.

Current estimated occupancy permit date: July 31, 2026 (no change).

We had our weekly Wednesday meeting at the building site and we had to park a ways away because there were so many vehicles. This was because we had so many crews working at the same time.

In the game room, they were plastering. This is the only remaining room that needs plastering and painting and the work was delayed so they could construct and then finish the ceiling beams. In this picture they are working on plastering the ceiling in between the beams (which have been protected with plastic while they work).

Meanwhile, in the master bathroom, the tiling crew has started working. The first step was to install the shower and here you can see the preparation for installing the shower base (which comes next). Tiling should proceed uninterrupted until they have finished both the master bathroom and the upstairs bathroom. (The guest half-bath is not tiled.)

In the kitchen a different crew was starting the installation of the kitchen cabinets. Fortunately, we got delivery of the kitchen range yesterday since it is needed to properly space the cabinets. The construction camera is facing the kitchen and I will see if we get any good footage when I visit the house this weekend.

Outside, we have a crew working on installing the railing on the deck. I was told that the deck should be finished and safe to use in mid-June should we want to hold an outdoor party.

Things are still on schedule. There was a small delay in getting the shields that will be installed between the deck and the air compressors (mix up in shipping), and the front stoop does not show up until tomorrow, but nothing that impacts the end date. I will have a better schedule update tonight or tomorrow.

Daphne here. Yeah not getting the panels doesn’t impact the end date, but it impacts the planting of the backyard a lot. I have plants that are desperate to get in the ground. Originally I was told I could do it in March. Then April. Then May. Now it is June. I hope some of the plants in my fridge are still alive. We will see. I might have to reorder some next year. Yesterday some plants I needed came into stock finally and I ordered, as thought I was supposed to be able to plant by the 8th. Maybe not.

At least the plants I’m growing from seed are still small maybe even too small. Sadly some have not sprouted, but most have. You never know with cold stratification. I put many of them in the fridge in January as they need 2-3 months in there. It turned out to be more like 4-5. I also seeded some out in the garden in late fall. And like the refrigerated ones, some sprouted and some didn’t. It will be a difficult process trying to plant what is growing in the heat of the summer. I wonder how much will have to be redone again next year.

This Saturday was a workday at the house. Daphne planted 102 woodland phlox and watered the the previously installed seeds, roots and plants. Meanwhile, Joel and Ben assembled the new shed that is now installed under the porch and used to hold both boating supplies and smaller gardening supplies.

Here are some pictures of the shed assembly process. The third one is the finished product.

While we were assembling the shed, I noticed that our house has already been invaded by critters. A bird has built a nest in the northeast corner under the porch. That cable, by the way, leads to one of the security cameras.

Earlier in the week, the exterior crew was working on finishing the deck. They are not done yet, but have been making good progress. The first picture is the step from the front yard up to the deck. The second picture is from the side where you can see that the stairs are done but they are still working on the railing.

Inside the house they continue to do finishing work. The first picture is the front bedroom, which now has a window frame (not yet painted), a closet door and a drop down ladder leading to the tiny attic.

And here is the southwest corner of the second floor family room where you can see the cabinets for the kitchenette lines up waiting for installation.

Monday we plan on returning to the house to go boating.

We did not meet this week. The architect is on vacation and the ceiling of the game room is being sprayed again, so going in the house is off limit for a few days. However, the builder did send me a schedule update.

• Week of May 18:
  • Install screen panels around HVAC units (maybe)
  • Finish installing and spraying the game room beams
  • Start bathroom tile installation
• Week of May 25:
  • Finish the deck, including the railing
  • Plaster the game room walls and ceiling
  • Start installing the kitchen, pantry and bathroom cabinets
• Week of June 1:
  • Lightning protection system installation
  • Install the front stoop (this was delayed a few weeks)
• Week of June 8:
  • Finish up site (landscaping) work

Things remain on the this schedule for now, but past behavior is no guarantee of future performance. Also, in the estimated occupancy date, I added the word “permit” since it will take us a week (or two) to actually move into the house once we get that permit.

Current estimated occupancy permit date: July 31, 2026 (no change).

We went to the house on Saturday, only to find that the painters were busy. One person was painting the garage trim and touching up the base of the downspouts. Another crew was painting the outside basement wall under the living room to match the siding color. A third crew was working in the game room putting a sealing coat on the beams.

Here is the game room ceiling right now.

Upstairs, they have starting installing the doors and window trim. Here is the guest room closet.

And here is the closet door and window frame in the front bedroom.

The cabinets have all been moved so they they are approximately where they will be positioned. Here is the kitchen.

And here is the pantry. The large box on the left is actually the top section of the cabinets on the right.

In this picture taken from the wetlands, you can see the painters working on the concrete wall under the living room.

There has also been progress on the deck as you can see in this picture.

Meanwhile, we were pulling invasive plants from the back yard, and watering the plants they we have added.

After working for a few hours, it was time to relax by the water and eat lunch.

Tomorrow we go boating on the river.