Post date: Dec 18, 2015 5:27:36 PM
I’ve been living in my new house for a week now. Here is a report of my first impressions:
Bathroom
I like the shower with no curb or tub to step over. I also like that I have no need for a shower curtain. The niche for soap and shampoo is conveniently located out of the shower spray and not under the shower head. The water temperature is just right when I turn it full on to ‘hot’, but it takes longer than I had hoped to get the first hot water. (I specified, and they installed, 3/8” tubing rather than the standard 1/2” tubing to reduce the time.) The 1/4” pipe between the shower valve and the shower head does not restrict the flow at all. [My intent was to gain faster response from changes in the valve setting, but I seem not to need that.] Having a towel bar and towel in the shower stall means I don’t have to get the bathroom floor wet reaching for the towel. Nice.
The radiant heater is very nice. It keeps me warm at the sink after a shower. I have it on a timer so I can turn it on at the start of a shower and don’t need to think about turning it off.
The floor is a bit cooler than luxurious, but not bad. I would normally have a bath mat outside the shower, but the cat spat up on it this morning, so it is drying elsewhere.
Windows
The windows look great: stained Douglas Fir frames. However, there is much more condensation around the edges than I expected. But the temperature was 6° F last night and the relative humidity has been about 45% ever since we got the furnace working. The edge seal on the double pane insulated glass is the more advanced foam, rather than aluminum.
I have not had much chance to open windows, but the few times I have they work fine.
Laundry
We had to move the washer and dryer just a bit. The space between the bifold doors is not quite wide enough to allow me to open the doors of both the dryer and the soap dispenser. Both appliances come with standard molded plugs which stick out from the wall socket. I inserted an extension cord with a flat plug so I can push the washer about 1 1/2” further back toward the wall, giving me more room to open the soap drawer. I would have installed a recessed electric socket had I thought of it.
We would have to be more clever to allow space for the dryer vent hose and the washer fill hoses between the back of the appliances and the wall. I can replace the washer fill hoses with hoses that have an elbow at the washer end, allowing me to push the washer another inch toward the wall.
Heat and Ventilation
The heat works fine. The furnace is too large, so even when the outside temperature is 6° F the furnace only runs for a short time. A smaller furnace would run longer and exhibit less fluctuation in indoor temperature, but the thermostat works well to keep the place comfortable.
The noise from the ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilator) is still noticeable. (I can still install a muffler between the ERV fans and the ducts.) I installed a time clock to turn it off between 9 pm and 5 am. We are not generating smelly air during this period and that will save electricity.
I have the furnace fan to run continuously on ‘low’ in order to stabilize the room temperature with the under-slab thermal mass. The first night this air was blowing on the bed, but I adjusted the vanes on the bedroom ceiling diffuser and this problem is gone. I still have to manually set the fan to ‘auto’ at night, meaning it only runs when the furnace is heating the house — very seldom at night. Still, the temperature in the bedroom drops to 60° F overnight when the outside temperature is low. I had expected only about a 4° drop. I would like to find a thermostat that allows me to schedule the fan setting as well as the temperature settings. I don’t want to manually change the fan setting twice a day.
Kitchen
I have not really used the kitchen enough for a fair and complete evaluation, but here is what I have noticed so far.
The pull-out pantry is heavy when fully laden. It is hard to open without tipping some of the small bottles, like peppermint oil. It is loaded from two sides: one of these faces the living room so I use it for things I don’t use often.
The wire Rev-A-Shelf lazy Susans in the lower corner cabinets are good. I forgot to work with the electrician to install lights in these, and those lights were not on the plan or in the specification. The corners are very dark, and a light that lit that space when the door was open would be a big help. With the wire shelving, the light would also illuminate the lower shelf. (They come with solid wood shelves, too, obscuring both light and vision.)
The stove is still not installed. It was 1/3” wider than specified in the vendor’s listing, so does not fit into the precise 24” opening in the cabinets. The vendor has shipped a replacement (of different manufacture) and will pay for shipping the wide one back to the maker. But this will take another week or so.
Study
The study is still to crammed with packed boxes to evaluate. I did use the desktop to build a fan control for the garage, but that is about all.
Dining
The gate leg drop leaf table worked well for dinner with four people. At the time I did not have any dining chairs, so the seating was strange, and included a desk chair and two arm chairs. In the interim I have borrowed two dining chairs for trial. They are comfortable but of a style that is unusual for me.
Cat
The cat seems to have adapted to the new house well. She still does not venture out of doors longer than to look around and dash back inside. She found the litter box immediately (and thankfully). I have changed where I feed her, as she was uncomfortable eating in a corner without means of escape. Still not ideal, as the bowl is subject to being kicked, even though that has not happened yet.
Garage
I normally back into parking spaces. However, in this garage that would put the driver’s door opposite the entry to the house. Also, with the shelving I have installed in the garage, there would not be enough room to open the driver’s door. So I head into the garage. I hung a string from the ceiling that, when it touches the windshield, lets me know that the rear of the car will clear the garage door when it closes.
Even without the circulating fan to store heat in the floor slab, the garage has stayed well above freezing during this very cold weather (usually 40-50° F). We have a large south-facing window to collect solar heat and provide ample light. Windows in the garage door provide more light from the north.
With snow and ice brought into the garage daily, there is a lot of moisture. Thus the windows (especially in the garage door) are constantly fogged. The floor does not slope enough for this water to drain. I am also accumulating a lot of sand that is brought in with the snow from the streets.
The shelving long ago proved very helpful for storage. I have three sections, 4’ wide, 18” deep, and 6’ high. We stored building material on the shelves during construction (the paint remains), and I have camping gear and tools there now. I hope to clear the shelves even more to leave room for artifacts that I rotate through display in the house.