House 2.0 – moved in!

Well, somehow its been nearly five months since I’ve posted an update about the new house. (The house we’ve now been living in for nearly that long.) We’ve been so busy (mostly with work) I might not have noticed, except that the lack of posting about my life on the internet has been pointed out to me by several people:) Ahem. So, by request, here are some highlights of house related activity since we received the CO at the end of March:

• We’re all moved in, and loving it. The actual move happened mostly in the middle of April, although even five months later I wouldn’t say we’re all settled in. There are still many projects on the to-do list to really set up the new house properly. We’ve managed to complete a few, some of which are described below. Also, I can’t say that I recommend the moving process.
• Water treatment – it turns out that the well at the new house has much worse water quality than the old one. It was a bit of a project to have the water tested, research and determine what water treatment systems(s) to use, source said system, and then install it. Mainly, we had hard water, and enough of an iron problem that all our white sinks, toilets, and showers were turning orange. The water softener we installed seems to have solved both the hard water scaling and iron staining problems, although we may need yet more treatment for other issues.
• Hardscaping/driveway – lots of rain this spring and early summer caused many delays in the scheduled outdoor work around the house. Our retaining walls are now finished, and we finally have a concrete driveway, which was only poured at the end of May/beginning of June. We are both extremely relieved to be out of the mud.  For six weeks we lived a relentless battle with the mud and dirt, especially with the dog. I will be forever grateful for that giant slab of concrete out in front of our house.
• landscaping and lawn – we now have gravel beds around the foundation, plantings in front, and the lawn has finally been seeded and covered in straw.  We are (finally!) no longer surrounded by bare dirt/mud (hallelujah!).
• crawlspace dehumidification – Our crawlspace is a sealed space, but we knew we were likely going to need a dehumidifier down there. Getting that installed during this humid summer means we will avoid any moisture related problems. Space conditioning in general is going really well in the new house, we are able to control both temperature and humidity throughout the house at very low energy cost.
• kitchen backsplash – the bullnose edge pieces were on back order, and only came back in stock in July. After picking up the material and selecting the grout, I was able to have that installed in early September. I’m happy to check this one off the to-do list:)
• loft ladder handrails – this is a small project that Kevin squeezed in for me. When first making notes about what we wanted in our “dream” house, I had a category called “whimsy” with things that would be fun to include if it they could be reasonably worked into the design. One of those items was a space accessed by a ships ladder. With the completion of some handrails fabricated from iron plumbing pipe, I now have my rustic ships ladder to the loft. For such a small detail, it seems to be a highlight of the house. Almost everyone who visits, especially male people young and old alike, are drawn immediately to climbing that ladder and peering out of the small windows from on high in the loft. That part is just as we imagined:)