Getting ready for inspections

The roofers are working hard to finish up before more cold weather. The fire sprinklers have to be finished before other rough inspections, so that has been a bit of a delay, but they expect to finish this weekend. Meanwhile the electricians are wrapping up the high voltage and starting on low voltage and the vacuum system. The framers framed the front entry today. Unfortunately the front steps seemed to be off everyone’s radar, but now it looks like we need caissons drilled. This would have been way easier to do when the foundation was poured. For some reason the steps weren't on the structural plans. Bummer. Still working with the plumber on the fixture list and prices. The numbers don’t seem to add up—in the future I would like a detailed list of all fixtures and line by line prices in the initial bid so you have a baseline for changes.

Willard Pearson of the Brickkicker (a great home inspection company) came by and did an inspection today. He said overall the quality was great (so much better than a production builder). He listed a number of little items to be corrected (many of which woprobablyally have been caught soon anyway, but nowdefinitelyetly the time to catch them and I would recommend anyone building a house to have an inspector like Willard inspect it before drywall)

Roofing, doors, cabinets, etc.

Lots of details to decide. Everything from which way the doors swing, to interior door choice (we decided on a solid, tru-stile shaker style door), to cabinets, vanities, vanity depths, fine tuning the cabinets to be sure they work with the framing (laundry room wall was too shallow). The cabinet maker was by today to measure all the walls, add a couple of vanities and cabinets to the lists, etc.

We are also narrowing in on the front door. Against counsel from the experts, we really like a simple 42” plank style arched top door versus a more elaborate unit with sidelights. We were going to go with the larger door with sidelights, but then I saw a new house in Boulder that is a similar style to our and it has the arched top plank style door and we really prefer it. It’s a $2.6M house, so we figure we can’t be too far off base.

We also picked out baseboard and door/window trim today at Boulder Door and Millwork. Received a bid from RG Insulation. We are going to go ahead and use spray foam plus batt insulation on the west side of the house which should make the house that much quieter and “solid” feeling in high winds.

Still finalizing the easement with Xcel for the power and waiting on Xcel to hook up power and gas. The excavator was feeling in the sewer line trench today and the electrical trench (conduit is layed). Electricians are finishing up (still need to start on vacuum system). The plumber needs to finish a few items before rough inspections as well. The roofers are continuing, but they may have another day and it is supposed to start snowing. They did put down the flat, waterproof “roof” on the master bedroom deck today as well.

Still waiting on structural info to start the detached garage remodel.