Kitchen Cabinet Hardware

 Last Saturday I chose the cabinet knobs and pulls for my kitchen. They're by Jeffrey Alexander in oil rubbed bronze. I thought I had also chosen the faucets, Delta Mateo in Venetian bronze but Hal didn't like the square lines of it so I went with the more rounded Leland which I was able to find still in stock at Home Depot. The 2 faucets seem to be coming from separate warehouses so I hope they match. One is actually out for delivery, the other at the end of the week so I'll know fairly soon. 

The photo shows the color on the bottom set, the upper handle just shows the other sizes I can get. We're going with the oval knob not the square one.

on top of the cabinets

The next photo shows a nice walnut butcher block sample which goes well with everything. Would be an interesting choice for my island, but probably won't be doing it; depends on cost, and apparently wood prices for such things are going up September 1. Plus it's possible Hal may be able to make me one so I'll just go with the laminate for now. Sure is pretty though.

natural walnut

The Insulation is DONE!!!!

 Two days ago I finished the exterior insulation, today I finished the interior soundproofing. The laundry/dining room wall was the last wall to be soundproofed. 

Laundry/dining room wall

Then I had to clean up all of this scrap. Feels weird to throw out largish chunks of insulation, but we also still have unused bags of the stuff, most of which we can't return because the bags were part of a larger pallet.

scraps

I need to take a photo of how it looks now; much, much better. I am so glad this part of the build is over, I did the whole thing myself.

We Have a Septic Field!

The septic was completed and approved today. No we just need plumbing to utilize it to its fullest. It was nice not having do something ourselves.

Sand

Sand being dumped on the field, got about 15 loads? I stopped counting at 13.

We needed 2 tanks because we have 4 bedrooms

Start of drain lines

Last of the drain lines

After the perforated lines were covered in gravel, hay was added on top and then the dirt pushed back into place. Ron, the septic guy, then did a very nice job sloping and shaping the yard.

The finished septic on the left and the graded front yard

Insulation Never Ends....

 At least it certainly seems so. I've been plugging away at it daily, long sleeves, long pants, mask, hat, in the heat and humidity. It's miserable work and probably will last a couple more weeks though some of the insulation isn't slated to arrive till the last week of August. I'm going to have to push the drywall into September. But here are some new photos.

First photo is the kitchen, at the very top is the wall between it and the garage attic. This was the last thing I did today. Seven hours of this was enough.

starting to insulate between the house and garage attic

Hal started applying vapor barrier today. Prior to this he was adding black iron pipe under the floor for the gas range and the living room enamel stove.

Master bedroom east wall

Vapor barrier in the media room

In total, I've finished every 8"thick wall in the house  proper and the 2 rooms in the garage using 2 layers of 4" thick mineral wool. We're waiting on the 6" wool for the gable end walls which are, obviously 6" thick. There are still four 8" walls in the garage. Whether they get rock wool or pink fiberglass depends on whether we can get more.