Gutters and Down Spouts

ABC Seamless installing gutters.

Flooding in backyard after snow melt and rain. Gutter down spouts, French drains, and landscaping should remedy this.

Laying Carpet, 12/23/2010

Crack in bedroom #4 was sealed prior to laying carpet

Carpet tackless strips are nailed to edges of concrete slab

Tackless strips on stairs

Carpet pad is laid

Tackless strips and carpet pad in closet

Carpet pad in master bedroom

Transition strips are nailed down

Carpet being laid in downstairs rec.  room

The Navien Tankless Hot Water Heater

We're having a tankless hot water heater installed in our new house. These systems heat the water only when needed, rather than keeping a supply of water heated all the time. We used this sort of system when we lived in Vienna, Austria, and it worked fine for us.

The diagram below shows how the system works.

1 - Exhaust

2 - Heat exchanger

3 - Burner

4 - Fan

5 - Control panel

6 - Flow sensor

7 - Hot water to faucet

8 - Gas supply

9 - Cold water coming in

10 - Cold water to faucet

Plumbing for tankless hot water heater in in storage room downstairs

The Navien tankless system is much smaller than a hot water heater

The large diameter pipes above the unit are intake and exhaust pipes

The intake and exhaust pipes for the Navien exit the house under the deck. A chase has been built to hide these pipes.

The exhaust pipe travels along the back wall of the garage up to the roof 

Bottom of the Navien unit showing water inlets and outlets, as well as circulation inlet, and gas inlet.

Navien energy guide

Navien cover has been removed to permit testing

Closeup of insides of Navien unit

Mother Board -- Error codes show on display (showing 8888)

Items Noted in Owner Walk Through

Items that need attention as house nears completion include those shown in photos and the following:

• Saloon doors are very squeaky
• Rod needs to be hung in mud room closet
• Second drawer on left bank of three in utility room sticks
• Screw holes in cabinets not covered, a couple of crown molding joints aren't flush, hood vent in cabinet over cooktop not finished, odds and ends in interior of cabinets need fixing
• 3rd pendant light over peninsula not yet installed
• Appears to be dirt in solar tunnel domes
• Need to have under cabinet light over desk
• FP surround needs to be grouted
• Several spots where paint needs touching up (some shown in photos below)
• Windowsill chipped, NW corner of great room
• Mid switch on 3-switch to left of FP does nothing
• Outlet at stair landing chipped
• Rod needs to be hung in entry closet
• All doors need weather stripping applied
• Bannister leading downstairs has rough, unpolished feel
• Light switch at bottom of stairs doesn't turn can light over kitchenette on
• Need to change back to original plan for transition between kitchenette vinyl and carpet
• Bedroom #3 needs drywall work and paint, and some paint touch up in WIC
• Crack through BR #4 and hall needs to be sealed
• Hang closet rod in BR #4
• BR #5 paint smudged to left above door
• Duct in storage room needs to be wrapped
• Some touch up needed in storage room
• Downstairs bathroom paint smudged by toilet
• Need plank to run electrical wires along for outside HVAC unit
• Some backsplash and grout work still to be done
• Wrong light fixture outside garage door (s/b flush mount)
• Shower/tub doors and mirrors need to be installed in bathrooms

Washer drain needs to be finished

Utility room faucet hose needs adjusting

Area above and left of mud room door needs cleaning and touch up

Paint in upper corner over sink needs touch up

Line of marks on ceiling along soffits over cabinets in kitchen

Chipped corner of peninsula cabinet

Vinyl doesn't lay properly in SE corner of kitchen

Conduit in peninsula cabinet needs to be clamped back

Several areas show wide gaps between wall and laminate flooring

Gap between wall and laminate flooring

Wall lower left of patio doors smudged

In addition to the above, flatwork needs to be completed when weather permits, plus landscaper needs to lay paving stones outside lower level patio doors. ABC Seamless should be installing gutters Wednesday this week. 

Cabinet Changes

The Richland-Northwood office has emailed Talon Homes, Inc. a list of items that they consider changes to their original quote. The items and my reaction are shown in this blog post.

Northwood-Richland stated that they "reduced" the kitchen cabinet uppers by 3". They did in fact build the uppers to 33" instead of the 36" called for in the approved drawings. This was an unauthorized change and caused considerable rework for Talon. Northwood raised the cabinets and used a larger crown molding.

This 06/01/2010 email from the owner to Northwood-Richland confirms plans for the kitchen cabinets at 36", as well as other facets of Northwood's work, including the desk, and the built-ins around the fireplace.

Northwood-Richland claims that they added a roll-out tray in cabinet #15. There is a roll-out tray in this cabinet, but there's no way to determine from the original drawings provided whether the tray was included initially, or not.

Northwood-Richland did build cabinets in the mud room that were not part of the original plan.

Northwood-Richland states that they "added a bank of 3 drawers" to the utility room  lower cabinets.  They replaced a swing-out cabinet door with three drawers.

Northwood-Richland states that they installed a hanging rod between cabinets. They did,  in the space left by the removal of the 60" of cabinets over the washer and dryer

Northward-Richland states that they "enlarged" the corner upper and made the wall uppers deeper.  The cabinets as shown here appear to be the same as those shown in the drawing below, except that the cabinets over the washer and dryer have been removed, as stated above.

Northwood-Richland stated that they "added two drawers to the vanity" in the master bath. They in fact changed the configuration on the left and right ends of the vanity from one standard drawer and two oversized drawers (3 drawers) to four standard drawers.

Northwood-Richland states that they added medicine cabinets to the master (shown here) and "main" (actually downstairs) bath (shown below). They did.

Downstairs bath showing medicine cabinet.

Northwood-Richland states that they made "multiple design changes" to the downstairs kitchenette/wetbar design. This photo shows the original drawing posted by Northwood on the framed kitchenette wall. The change requested was to combine the two narrow cabinets on either side of the microwave shelf into one larger cabinet (see below). This is the only design change requested.

This is the drawing of the redesigned kitchenette cabinets.

The new drawing showing the redesigned kitchenette cabinets was not posted on the kitchenette, resulting in the soffits built to accommodate the cabinets being incorrect.

The finished cabinets did not align correctly with the soffits, which caused Talon Homes, Inc. considerable rework.

This photo shows the reworked soffits over the kitchenette cabinets.

Northwood-Richland states that they made "design changes" to the built-ins around the fireplace, and built a floating mantle for the FP.  This is the original drawing for the built-ins.

The design change called for reducing the height of the built-ins  from 84" to 48" around the FP, as shown in this Northwood drawing.

Northwood-Richland offered to build the FP mantle in lieu of Talon building it.

Northwood-Richland built the mantle, drilled numerous holes attempting  to locate studs , then hung the mantle  in the wrong place. When they moved it, they damaged the wall, causing Talon additional work to plaster and paint the wall over the mantle (see below).

Northwood-Richland states that they provided particle board tops and "self edge." They don't specify where, but one assumes it was for the bathroom vanities. Someone had to top the vanities. As for the self edge, it was to have been Formica, but Northwood took it upon themselves to do it. JJ Gonzales was there when we discovered they'd done this, and we decided to leave it rather than have them remove it and have JJ do the Formica edge.

Northwood-Richland's email states that they provided a wood desk. They did. It was called for in the original drawings. The only change was that they were asked to provide a wood top (see below), which we opted for instead of quartz.