spouting off (and other nuisances...)

It's been awhile since I've written about the house. I found myself running a state agency for six weeks during a rather interesting transitional period, and it was all consuming time wise. But now I'm back from the land of 12-hour days!

There's still a few straggling items out there to get done on the house (the gutters, which have to wait until the rainwater tank goes in [which goes in tomorrow!]; solar)...

spouting off

If you recall, when I went to try out the guest shower I realized that there was no way to turn the shower on (no pull thingy to transfer water from the tub spout to the shower head). To make matters worse, it turns out the wrong valve had been ordered and installed, the replacement of which would have required tearing out the tile. In short, a mess.

Ye olde spout.

We told the builder we were open to getting a different spout rather than forcing the installation of a new valve. This is actually a blessing in disguise (been getting a lot of those lately...) because we weren't completely happy with the installed spout: yes, it was gorgeous, but it was bulky and haphazardly installed (not the fault of the installer but a design deal). The bulkiness, lateral extent, and visual impact makes it look like something that could be used for support, and the haphazard installation design  meant that if someone made the mistake of using it for support, bad things would result.

The replacement spout is perfect! It matches the gestalt of the showerhead and valve controller and fits the theme of the house. Yay!

The new spout.

gated in

We finally got the driveway gate surfaced. The original plan was to clad the gate with Hardie to match the Hardie fence. Would have been sweet! However, the Hardie, while hardy, has little (what's the word?) rigidity. It's floppier than bunny ears. The builder suggested Polygal, double-walled plastic sheets that come in a variety of shades. We said "Sure!" It closes the space in but still has a bit of transparency to it. Carrying the Hardie around the corner and onto the gate would have looked cool, but also would have darkened up the space under the carport a bit. All in all that 'gal looks mighty fine!

art lights

Got the last of the art lights lit!

The art lights, in general, are simply awesome. Highly recommend them. Besides (ahem) lighting up the art (always a nice touch), they can also be used as a mellower, more indirect light in a room (by not turning on the other lights). Kinda wishing we had put more in (and may switch out some cans with the arty eyeballs to do so).

coming...

We've got a few aftermarket carpentry items coming in (shelves, desk, plug-hider, LED hider/horizontaller), the rainwater tank, the gutters (the last punch list item), and the solar coming. Stay tuned!