Cape Cod Time

It seems that some things happen slowly on what we call "Cape Cod time".

Back in late April I started contacting fence companies to get prices on the railings, screen panels at the deck, and the split rail fence required by the Town's Conservation Commission.  A couple of the fence companies actually came out and provided quotes, but most never bothered.  The prices from two who quoted were very high and extremely high - with the high price being almost $25,000.  It turned out that the convenience of one stop shopping would be rather pricey.

I decided there has to be a less expensive way to go.  I figured I would handle the deck railings and screening and then have a fence company install the split rail fence.  A local fence company arranged and then missed several appointments and weren't very good at returning subsequent phone calls.  I contacted another fence company and they said they would get me a price but also never returned phone calls.  It seems that the recession hasn't hit fence companies on Cape Cod.

For the railings and deck screening I looked into the Certainteed fencing and railing systems and redesigned things based on their products.  They have CAD details online which helped - except that they're not to scale.  After modifying their CAD details and adjusting my plans to their product, I was ready to order.

In this area these Certainteed products are sold through Harvey Building Products.  Harvey doesn't sell to the general public, so I had to apply and receive permission to buy products from them.

Harvey tried to place the order for me and then discovered that Certainteed fencing is only sold to fence installers.  They recommended Kroy fencing instead.  The links on Kroy's website are broken, so I had to make decisions based on their small thumbnail images.  The panels should have arrived in three weeks, but they took almost five - and they only sent two out of the three panels.

They are good quality and fortunately are what I was looking for.  The last panel has been expedited and should be delivered tomorrow.

I've hired someone to install the split rail fence and place gravel to stabilize the ground at the hay bails/silt fence line.

The split rail components, gravel and deck screening panels should all be finally completed this week.

C of O

Today we received the Certificate of Occupancy.  It wasn't easy, though.  The final three panels to complete the deck and railing were to have come in last week but did not, so we installed one section of temporary railing to pass inspection.  Here's a building code related question.  What's wrong with the railings in this picture?

Here's a hint.  It involves the one section of temporary railing which has 2x4's top and bottom.  The portion of the deck facing the street, per the building code, actually doesn't need railings because it's less than 30" above grade.  However, the first thing the building inspector said was that the temporary railing needs to be pressure treated even though it may only be up for a week.  It seems rather wasteful and unnecessary to me, but we had to remove the railing you see, build another with pressure treated 2x4's top and bottom, and then in a week or so we'll toss that one too.

The final inspection was on the morning of June 9 and I was to fly to Miami that afternoon for the AIA Convention.  However, I had installed a furnace with 95% efficiency rather than the 96% efficient furnace I had anticipated in my REScheck energy calculations.  Even though the house more than met the energy code, I had to redo the calculations right away.  Fortunately I had my laptop computer with me.  If I didn't have my computer with the program and previous calculations with me, I would have really been stuck.  I recalculated things and drove down the street and found some wi-fi.

We are within a mile of the coast and, although the windows are impact rated and each pane of glass is properly stamped, I needed to provide certification.  Also, although the Board of Health had completed their inspections and approved things, they hadn't signed off on the building permit card.  Someone, though, had to phyically take the building permit card to the Board of Health office, but only between the 3:30 and 4:30 PM and I had a plane to catch.

I found someone who could take the permit to the BOH at the appointed time and then bring it back to the house.  The inspector went back to the house the next day, reinspected and signed the permit card.  I thought the inspector would take the permit back with him, but they don't do that.  Someone had to drive it back down to the building department.  It's surely not an efficient or user-friendly system.  This morning the Certificate of Occupancy was finally ready.

Here's the steel telescoping ladder from Calvert Stairs.  It's pretty neat how it works.

And this is the view from the roof.
 The wire you see is for the inverter for the photovoltaic solar panels, which will go on the roof just beyond the half-wall.  Those should have been in and producing electricity by now, but that's yet another story.

What a Difference a Week Makes

Last week the landscape was completed.

Our son Brian and his company, The Natural Landscape blitzed it in four days.  We were so tired of looking at sand and were amazed by the quick transformation.

Our Landscape Architect, Andrew Garulay from Down Cape Engineerng, created a design using mostly drought-tolerant native species.  This ties into the LEED recommendations and makes ecological sense.  The driveway is sea shells, which are light reflective and give a nice crunch sound when you pull in.

The walkway is Boston City Hall Pavers.  No, we didn't steal them from City Hall - they sell that style brick, which has a nice soft red color.  We still have the temporary door on front, but that's a long story.  The porch railings will go in next week and the house will look complete from the outside.  It's nearly complete inside, except that the kitchen cabinets are just barely started.

Even the business end of the house looks pretty good.  You can see the dryer vent, the gas meter, the furnace vent, electric meter and condenser, but they're not obtrusive.

The Kitchen?

The kitchen cabinet installation was supposed to start last week but, as this photo from yesterday shows, they're not in yet.

This is a real dilemma, as we won't have cabinets next week either.  I never dreamed that the kitchen would be the holdup.  We gave our deposit in January, four months ago, and they should have been made and installed by now.

Anyhow, most of the lights are up and the Hubbardton Forge fixtures area beautiful.  They have kind of an understated elegance.  I really like the vertical pendant in the Living Room.  It's one of the new designs they just introduced this spring.

The granite and marble are at the fabricator's shop, ready to go.  The Marble is from Vermont and is really interesting.

We'll use that on both of the vanities.

One of the many dilemmas with LEED is that, if you follow the principles, it can greatly limit your choices of materials.  When looking for kitchen counters, we considered many options.  We looked at some of the materials with recycled content such as Eco by Cosentino and IceStone.  They have some nice colors, but the nicer colors actually cost more than most granites.  From what I hear, the glass content can make them difficult to fabricate, which adds to the final cost.  Locally obtained materials also contribute to the final LEED rating.  Materials sourced and fabricated within 500 miles count.  This includes all of New England and gives us a range including most of Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania, continuing several hundred miles into Canada.  I probably would have given up the 1/2 point and chosen something like this Labrador Antique granite, but it's from Norway - well over 500 miles away.  It has really great blue crystals that glow when the light hits them.  My eco-conscious wife prevailed, though, and we decided to go with the Atlantic Blue granite from south-eastern Canada.

Vanities, Tile and the Copper Roof

The vanities are done but we're still waiting for the kitchen cabinets.

The vanity for the master bath is walnut, which matches the newel posts.  The medicine cabinets are wrapped up and the small mirror which will go between them is laying on top.

The other vanity and the kitchen cabinets will have a painted finish.

TILE-
I drove up to New Hampshire to pick up our tile at Trikeenan's factory.

It's in a nice spot in an old mill building overlooking a dam and covered bridge on the Ashuelot River.  I've heard that the purpose of the roof was to strenghten the bridge, like a box beam, and to protect the bridge elements from the weather.

COPPER ROOF-
We were ready to have the copper roof installed over the porch but, even though the roof is relatively small, the prices were quite high.  I guess copper prices are going up again.  We decided to use shingles instead.  We'll still have a copper gutter and downspout, though.

Stairs

The wood flooring is in and last week the finished stairs were installed.

Contemporary Structures fabricated and installed the components, including the custom walnut box newel posts and all of the treads, risers and skirt boards.  The balusters came from King Architectural Metals and were powder coated prior to installation.

My first view of the stairs was from the First Floor, the view shown in the image above, and you can see how the balusters seem to have kind of a random pattern.

My drawings of the stairs were always from the side view, which shows the single and double knot ballusters in an even progression.

From most directions they all look aligned.  I've never used balusters like this before and they really add some nice interest.  The insets in the newel posts are walnut burl.

They actually cut the tops of some of the stringers off so they can fit their prefabricated stairs in.  The skirt boards are routed out in the shop and the treads and risers are all fastened together on site to form a strong, monolithic unit.  There are a few more pieces of flooring to go in at the edges, and the floor finishing starts today.

Getting Plastered

Last week Bonfiglio Plastering completed the blueboard and veneer plaster.  We decided to go with veneer plaster rather than drywall because it provides a very smooth, even and more impact resistant surface.

The enormous stack of wood is the white oak flooring from Great Brook Lumber in Southwick, MA.  It's locally procured wood bought directly from the source.  LEED encourages the use of materials sourced and manufactured withing 500 miles of the site, and this came from much closer than that.  We had also considered FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified flooring, but the flooring we were able to find was from Pennsylvania and was much more expensive.  FSC certified materials sometimes cost much more, but hopefully the difference will lessen as they become more common.

We're still deciding on the faucets for the Kitchen, so I printed some of the options out full-size and taped them to the wall to help with the decision.  Some of the pull-down faucets are quite large and we want to make sure our choice doesn't overpower the Kitchen.

In the Living Room photo below you can see the wood for the interior trim.  This came from Ponders Hollow Custom Moulding and Flooring in Wesfield, MA.  Because they make it to order, I was able to get exactly the sizes and profiles I desired for about the cost of stock mouldings.

There's a small piece of plywood sticking down below the beam at the stairs which I must have seen a thousand times but didn't really notice until the plastering was complete.  This will have to be trimmed off.

Here's Gromit in the Laundry Room.  It's a small space which will have a lot in it.  The folding ironing board will be in the recess to the left with the Hide-A-Hose central vacuum outlet below, the stacking washer/dryer straight ahead and storage shelves to the right.

And here are some photos of the second floor.

And here's the outside...

with all of the columns and trim in place and the turtle back where he belongs.