Final details

This week has been completing everything needed for occupancy inspections. All items have to be in and functional, especially lighting, outlets, HVAC, and hot & cold water. We passed the building inspection, and now have to wait 1 week for the local township occupancy inspection; then on to closing. The final detail of the dining room is crown molding around the ceiling.

The main stairway and railings have been completed, as well as the one into the basement. Here you see the open stairway railings and posts up to the second floor, and the railings along the front of the loft. All of these are stained oak.

The screened porch final got its screens, stairs and railings, as well as a railing along the top of the exterior basement stairway. Porch lighting, both in and out, is also in and working.

Landscape views

The grass is complete, as the lawn crew came back at 6 AM today to finish up. Here’s view from the southwest that shows the garage bed and chanticleer pears. The tan carpetlike material is called curlex and will handle downspot runoff so the water doesn’t erode the seed. Curlex is located around the house and especially in the swale at the rear.

Here’s a view from the east with its bed of plantings. This will offer a great morning view from the 4 large casement windows in the loft.

The south view shows today’s seeding. The grass area along the bottom of this shot is part of the required right-of-way that goes out to the road.

Grass seeding

With the landscaping complete, it’s time to start growing grass. The seeding crew started by doing the final grading to smooth out the topsoil and remove rocks. Hand raking was done along the edges of the mulch beds and walkways.

We used the hydroseeding approach. A huge tank mixes together grass seeds, fertilizer, tackifier, mulch, and water. The mix is sprayed on the areas to be seeded. The tackifer is glue-like and helps the mix stick together and to the ground. No hay spraying is needed.

The final result is a greenish surface that almost looks like grass. Grass should start showing in 5 days. Lots of watering to do, and the need for a riding mower within the next month.

Landscaping Day 3 and Driveway

We are 99% done with our landscaping, having only 1 shrub, a few fence rails, and flagstones for the patio area to finish tomorrow. Here is a view of our east bed that highlights 5 gorgeous Cryptomeria Yoshino shrubs along its back, the royal birch, and 1 of the 2 October Glory maple just off the front of the screened porch.

Here’s a view along the south end of the property. In the center is a bed with 5 green giant arborvitae, dwarf forsythia and “tea” viburnums. The bed on the right corner is matched by the one on the left rear corner, and includes burning bush and “sparkleberry” holly. The bed in the foreground covers our well pipe and includes boxwoods, roses, and grasses. You also see 2 sugar maples on the right.

The driveway crew arrived this afternoon and laid the driveway. Now complete, you see it and the beds along the front and side of the house. The beds include hostas, hydrangea, boxwoods, holly, cypress, and several grasses.

Landscaping Day 1

We are coming down to the last 2-3 weeks before occupancy. Today, our landscaping contractor began. We decided to do a complete landscape job, having a wonderful design planned for us. The east side of the property has a large bed along the mid-border that will include various shrubs and a “Royal Frost” white birch.

The west side of the house will also include a variety of different shrubs and 3 Chanticleer flowering pear trees. A number of beds will also include split rail fencing. The rear of the property will start to take shape tomorrow.

While all the plantings were going on, we had a specialty man in to install all our closet shelving and hanging rods, as well as bathroom towel bars, shower doors and other bathroom accessories.