Certificate of Occupancy!

Finally received our certifiate of occupancy Friday morning.

KnArrow Haus's long-awaited Certificate of Occupancy

We also passed our final/finish electrical inspection this week, on the first try.

It was a bit of an ordeal to finally pass inspection. I scheduled both inspections, the electrical and the county's building inspection on Tuesday.  Only the county showed up on Tuesday. L&U showed up Wednesday, but thankfully passed us without anyone there. 

The county inspector asked me to resolve 4 items, and said if I would email pictures of the corrections, he would go ahead an issue the certificate:

1.  The ends of the downstairs railings needed to terminate in to the wall.
   
   
   
2. I was missing one switch plate cover.
   
   
3. I needed to install the inside ventilation covers in the toilet rooms, showers, and utility room.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. And we're required to have 4" high house numbers visible from the street. (These are definitely temporary -- I'll do something more stylistically in keeping in the spring.)
   
   

I drove up and made all the above corrections and took pictures on Wednesday evening.  Then, even after providing the pictures, there was still some back-and-forth with the inspector, requiring another trip up on Thursday evening, during which we delivered another matching, sleeper sofa to the basement.

On Monday evening, we also completed the bunk bathroom light fixture:

Later Monday evening, while wiping down the shower I threw-out my lower back. Got to the chiropractor on Wednesday, and then promptly threw it out *again* Thursday evening. A fitting end to a week of passed inspections.  I'm convalescing my back this weekend as snow pours down in the passes.

Even though we've passed the legally required inspections, we still have a fair amount of work to do. 

• Hook-up the range and dishwasher
• Hook-up bathroom sink drains, which will require turning some cabinet drawers into cabinet doors.
• Install floating shelves in the kitchen and kitchenette
• Backsplashes for the range and bathroom sinks
• Caulk the baseboards on all three floors
• Touch-up paint on all the walls
• Hang the barn doors for the top floor bathrooms
• Bathroom mirrors and shelves
• Install a few more door handles
• Paint front and back doors.
• Fireplace mantel

Working on the Final Punch List

In the final press to get things ready for inspection, I drove up to the KnArrow Haus Thursday evening. Worked until 11 PM. Did office work using a hotspot Friday, then knocked off about 4 PM and worked the rest of the evening. Then worked all day Saturday. Katie and Mackenley arrived Friday evening, and Abbie and Colin arrived Friday night. A full crew.

Got the main floor ventilation pipe routed through the kitchen wall with Colin's help.

This is the vent pipe for the kitchen hood. Still devising
precisely how I want to connect the range vent hood.

The family room sconces arrived. Of course, I mounted them vertically...at which point
Katie informed me they were supposed to mounted horizontally. <grumble>

The stair railings are my final nemisis: They're fighting me the entire way. So much work. 

After I drilled one hundred ninteen 3/8" holes through 3/16" thick angle iron, I attempted to install the stainless steel cabling and discovered the swaging tool I bought 2 years ago doesn't have a die that's the right size... <ugh>  

I'm trying to hunt down the right swaging die/tool so I can finish these up this coming week. (If you want a good core workout, try drilling holes through angle iron while sitting on a stairs. Four hours. Very sore.)

One hundred ninteen 3/8" holes in the landing and stair posts.

Just marking the hole locations on blue tape took 2 hours.

Swage turnbuckles and termination fittings for the 3/16" stainless cable.

The 3/16" stainless cable has been sitting in the basement for 2 years.

The new platform bed in the matster bedroom.

After browsing online through thousands of beds, we finally found the one we wanted AND could afford at Moe's in Bellevue. We found a ton of queen size beds, none of which were available in king size. What's up with that?! We also found a bunch of beds we liked that were outlandishly expensive. Finally, I stumbled on this one. So nice when a quest comes to an end.

I have to say the Purple mattress feels much better now that it's off the concrete floor.

Hoping to call for final inspections this week. Just need to finish up the railings and a few miscellaneous electrical covers.

Appliances Delivered (Mostly)

The appliance company made good on their return trip Saturday, 2 weeks after the original delivery debacle.

Mackenley enjoying his first snowball with
the appliance delivery truck in the background.

Washer with non-leaking drain hose installed.

Turns out the problem with the dryer not working was my fault. With a little coaching
and debugging I discovered that I hadn't stripped back the insulation on one
of the wires far enough. An easy fix.

Range and dishwasher delivered but not hooked-up.

The oven was successfully delivered and set in place without braking the glass top (yeah!) ...BUT the power cord had a broken prong on it. They looked all over in their truck for another, but there were none. They're going to drop one by my house in the lowlands, and I will have to slide the range out, hook up the power cord, the slide the range back in to place. <grumble>

The delivery company doesn't hookup dishwashers so that's another small project waiting for another day.

First Snow of Winter 2020/21

 The first snow of the season fell at KnArrow Haus on Saturday. Mackenley was in snow when he first came in April, but this is the first time he's seen it actually snowing.

Snow on Mt. Lichtenberg during the day.

Pure delight in the simplest things.

A little accumulation on my car in the evening.

A quick stop at the pass on the way home. Again, pure delight.

End of September Compendium

Shower glass delivered and installed on Tuesday.

Downstairs shower enclosure.

The masking tape has to stay on for three days so the glass seals and sets properly.

Our queen sleeper couch made it to the downstairs...

...with a little help from some friends.

A few lessons and activities to end the week (without pictures):

• Do NOT buy open box finish plumbing fixtures (like shower cartridges and handles), no matter how much you think you'll save. There wasn't one working handle assembly that could be cobbled together from two open-boxes. (Expensive lesson.)
• Grinding angle iron stair posts indoors makes a HUGE mess. (Katie was NOT happy with me.)
• When you're drilling holes in angle iron, make sure you're non-drill hand is out of the way. (Ouch. One ruined glove. A little blood...)
• To determine the depth of insulation you need strip off wires, test the depth you need to strip off with bare wire, not insulated wire. (Sorry, appliance installers. The dryer socket's now working correctly.)
• Before you decide a newly installed outlet is dead after the wires tested live before turning off the circuit, flip the switches in the vicinity on. (1 hour wasted.)
• It's always the thing you thought would be "easy" that takes the longest -- like putting screws in to a fan box rough-in that you unscrewed easily minutes ago. Both upstairs ceiling rough-in boxes wasted over an hour of my time, but the ceiling fans are installed and working beautifully (and silently...finally.)
• Lots of outlet plates and switch plates installed.
• A few more light fixtures installed. Just the main room, stairway sconces and bunk bathroom light are left to install. 
• Norm finished up the final framing corrections need on the exterior beam brackets so we should pass the final framing with flying colors.
• Sealing the eves takes way more sealer than you might think. Buy more than you need. Plan to return the extra.
• You don't realize how dirty your windows are until they get cleaned by a professional. Wow, Tom. WOW!
• Friends are angels. Bless you Norm, Bryan and Tom.

The plan is to finish up all the electrical and safety related items this week so that we can call for the final inspections before the week is out.

Squatters Evicted

Well, we discovered and evicted some unwanted guests who moved in to KnArrow Haus even before us.