On Saturday, the 21st of November, our kitchen appliances were delivered from Best Buy. After extensive research, we choose Whirlpool for their low failure rate; eco-friendly construction; and the fact that they’re made in the USA! They look awesome next to the cabinets! I’ll get in-place pictures added soon!

Electric Range – WFE371LVS

This range has some great features like a hidden bake element. That means no smoke alarm testing for food running over! Plus, it has a steam cleaning feature for the oven.

Refrigerator – ED5FVGXWS

We ended up choosing this refrigerator for several reasons: the gallon door bins, electronic ice/water controls, inline water filtration, and the large wire freezer shelves.

Microwave #1 – WMH1162XVS

This particular microwave is mounted over the range. Oh, and I did say microwave #1 – we have two. Why? It’s great for candy making, chocolate tempering, etc.

Microwave #2 – MT4155SPS

This is a higher power microwave than the over-the-range model. This will definitely come in handy!

Dishwasher – DU1055XTVS

Dare I say this will be my favorite appliance? Some of the features we like include – silverware basket can be placed anywhere, sanitary rinse, and integrated food grinder.

John’s at the house today with the carpet installers! We had a brief conversation a moment ago. They arrived at 9:30AM this morning and we’re starting to lay down the carpet. They had get the pad and tack strips down first.

We chose a line of carpet called Bliss by Beaulieu. It’s designed for a healthy home – that means little or no off-gassing; made from environmentally-friendly materials; and contains silver and zinc to inhibit microbial growth. We purchased it from Lowes as it was made for them by Beaulieu. The color is called “Tranquility.” I’ll upload pictures soon!

Again, it has been a while since the last post – in addition to work on the house, Jyll and I were married in October.

As for the house, a lot has taken place… the electrical finish was complete (it is nice not to need extension cords to do everything), plumbing is complete (the port-a-pot went bye-bye and one porcelain pot was installed in the house), the underside of the back porch was completed, enough trim was added to get ready for the carpet installation, railing were installed and many other odds and ends.

On Friday we had the county final inspection – there are 3 minor items that need to be remedied before we can move in!

1. Add a light fixture to illuminate the basement stairs and move the switch to the very bottom of the stairs
2. Add porch railing on the deck off of the laundry room- because the ground settled, it is 31″ from the deck to grade and code requires a railing if it is greater then 30″. The railing at the master bedroom needed to be extended 2 feet so that no one would come around and take the 10 foot step down.
3. Shorten the length of the overflow on one of the hot water heater.

The fixes are:

1. Add a fixture and move the switch
2. Add railing and steps across both the deck and the covered porch – DONE!
3. Cut the tube – DONE!

I will add the light fixture this week and get everything wrapped up so that we can start moving in! We had not decided on what railing to add and had planned on waiting until spring to make some decisions, but it was easier to get it done.

More recent projects have included painting the top edge of the stair well (this was a feat after erecting a temporary wall on the stairs to support a walk plank), tiled the master bath and the full bath on the first floor, carpeted the two bonus rooms using 2 X 2 carpet tiles, putting polyurethane on all the doors and frames and a bunch of odds and ends.

It has been nice to complete some projects that have a large visual impact. More pictures to follow.

Up next: carpet in the bedrooms gets installed on Friday, the laminate floor is in the house and ready to be installed, tile the 2nd floor bath, grout all of the tiled areas, install door and window casings, install the closet bars/shelves (wire), the last garage door openers.