It’s looking more like a house

It has actual cabinets, countertops, vanities, and even 2 HVAC systems. The electrician came this week and hung up the foyer chandelier:

And the Windward III ceiling fans for our great room:

The Custom Cabinet Factory had come back and installed the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, so now our kitchen looks like an actual kitchen!

We really like our sink, which is one, large, rectangular black granite composite sink. It comes with a cutting board and bowl, which was a nice bonus. The Silestone countertops are very dusty, but you can get the general idea:

Similar transformations had been taking place in the master bathroom. The vanity top here is granite, Crystal Green, bought in-stock from Lowes.

As we near the time when our electricity will be turned on and will (hopefully) pass inspection, we now have our two HVAC units installed:

They are very, very tiny, compared to the big space left for them to fill. Because it’s an ICF home, our HVAC units only need to be about 1/2 the size of those required for a house of regular, stick-frame or concrete block construction. You may or may not be able to tell from the picture, but this is yet another example of Woody’s attention to detail. He thought the HVAC closet looked ugly, so he outfitted it with molding. There’s so much extra room in here that we’re thinking that, if we ever need more space, we will just put some shelves on the blank wall to the left in the photo.

I went out to the house yesterday and finished up the vinyl flooring in the under-the-stairs closet. I also assembled our newest acquisition: a compost bin. Huzzah! Here is a photo that Andy took of me doing some preliminary composting. I was dumping in a bag of veggie scraps from our kitchen that I’d brought over to compost.

Today, we went to Appliance Direct and purchased two scratch-and-dent appliances: an LG Washer and an LG Dryer. The LG Washer is model number WM2496HWM, which normally retails for approximately $1100. We got it for $454.49, because it was slightly, very slightly scratched on the front. The front scratch isn’t really noticeable, and is probably as much as we’d do to it in the first week! There isn’t a dent on it, and it comes with the full manufacturer’s warranty of 1 year. We bought the store’s 4-year warranty for an additional $100. The best part is that it is extremely energy efficient and uses only 167 kwH/year.

The LG Dryer is a DLE3777W, which retails for $750-850 at big box stores. We got it for $381.41! Same deal as the washer: slightly scratched, no dents = $400 savings. This is a great deal, and we were very happy about it.

Next: A few things have arrived at our house. The maple stairs are there now, as are the wraps for the front and back porch pillars. We are still waiting for the range to be delivered, before we can get the electricity turned on, so that’s holding us up a bit. Right now, we’re in negotiations with the landscaping guy to ensure that we get something as close to what we want as possible. It is really coming together now; I can’t believe how much it looks like a house!