Vacation Update

We spent most of the week in New Hampshire and did a few things at our house! We installed the floor in the basement half bath/utility room where we will have a toilet, laundry/utility sink, washer and dryer. We brought in some pine tongue and groove wall board from outside so it can dry out for a few days. We also assembled our laundry/utility sink so it’s all set to go for the plumber. The toilet has been delivered and is also ready to go. We also ordered all of our bathroom supplies for the two full bathrooms; one on the first floor and one on the second floor. Most of the supplies will be delivered on the 20th, 5 days from now.

We now have full heat in the house! The HVAC guy was there Thursday and Friday to complete the installation! The only thing pending are the WiFi modules, which are on back order. So he will return to install them once available. We don’t have WiFi at the house yet so we won’t need them for now anyway. We have remote controls for each heating unit in each room so this is enough for now.

Most of the insulation is also completed upstairs! Enough to leave the heat running to keep the house warm. That means the plumber can start working on the bathrooms to get everything ready to go! He was holding off until the house was heated as he was concerned about the pipes freezing. They should have all of the insulation completed early on this week. It’s now top priority since we have the heat running full time. About a foot of snow is expected between this evening to around 1 am Monday. We have had lots of snow there this winter!

Anyway, latest updates!

Basement bath/utility room where there will be a toilet, laundry/utility sink, washer and dryer. We installed the finished floor the other day! It is Lifeproof vinyl flooring. It’s a commercial-grade flooring. It just snaps together and locks into place. No subfloor is needed, so we were able to install it right on top of the plywood floor. The bottom of each piece has a layer of a rubber-like surface. It was very easy to install once we got the hang of it!

We have Fujitsu heating/cooling units in each of the three bedrooms and in our kitchen/living room area. In order to accomplish date installation of our Fujitsu units, our contractor made it a priority to hang the pine tongue and groove wallboards on the necessary walls.

This one is in the larger of the two bedrooms on the first floor.

This one is in the smaller of the two bedrooms on the first floor.

You can see the Fujitsu unit up high in the main living room/ kitchen area. The insulation is close to completion!

Another view of the Fujitsu unit in our main living room/kitchen area.

Two closets better the two bedrooms on the first floor. I think I would like to leave it open even though one closet belongs to one bedroom and the other belongs to the other bedroom.

View through the slider door in the living room/kitchen area! There is still plastic on the glass to protect it during construction so the view is a bit hazy right now.

View of the farmers porch and deck transition from the living room window. Again, a bit hazy due to plastic on the window.

View from the stairs of the larger of the two bedrooms on the first floor. Eventually this wall will be closed in with Pune tongue and groove wallboards.

Master bedroom closet on the second floor. This is a view from the side from the stairs. The wall of the closet will eventually be closed in with pine tongue and groove wallboards.

Our master bedroom!

Fujitsu unit in the master bedroom.

This unit, as well as the other 3 units in the house, is running! Yay!

Master bedroom closet.

View of the driveway and street from one of the two master bedroom windows! A bit hazy due to plastic on the window for protection during construction.

Prepping the rest of the roof structure prior to adding insulation.

Another view of the master bedroom Fujitsu unit!

Second floor bathroom.

View from the master bedroom. This will all be open with only railings.

Basement stairs. The plastic was in place to keep the heat in the basement. We have propane heating unit down there. The basement was insulated first so they were able to run the propane heater down there. Since the house itself was not yet insulated yet, they put up plastic to limit the amount of heat loss upstairs. I suspect they will remove the plastic within the next few days.

Living room area with door to the farmers porch.

We assembled the sterling laundry/utility sink for the basement bath/utility room this week. The plumber can now get it hooked up!

Front of the house facing the street. Our generator remains boxed and covered with a tarp. Not sure when it will be installed. Might be a while due to all of the snow and ice conditions currently!

External and main component of the Fujitsu system. All of the individual units are connected to this! The system will provide heat in the winter and cooling in the summer. These units are becoming more and more efficient all of the time! These are the latest in heating and cooling and are rated for New Hampshire weather fluctuations and extremes! We initially wanted the Mitsubishi system but our HVAC guy said it wasn’t really the greatest for New England weather conditions. He said the Fujitsu system is also slightly more efficient. We will see higher electrical bills in the winter but during the summer months the cooling setting actually uses less electricity! In the fall and spring we will see our lowest electrical bills. He said this system also provides superb dehumidification! So if it’s, say, 70 degrees outside but the humidity is 100%, the system will just dehumidify the house without cooling since lowering the temperature is not needed in this scenario. Since there are units in each of the three bedrooms plus the living room/ kitchen area, we have zoned heating and cooling. For example, during the winter we could keep one bedroom set to 50 degrees, the other set to 60 degrees, the master bedroom at 70 degrees and the living room/kitchen area at 68 degrees if we really wanted to! The basement has a separate propane heating unit. We won’t really need to use it much but it’s nice to have a back up for heating the house. In the event of a power outage and we are on the generator for power, we can turn down the Fujitsu units to minimize load on the generator and turn on the propane heater in the basement, which produces enough heat to keep most of the house warm! It may or may not reach the second floor master bedroom. If it doesn’t, we could run just the Fujitsu unit up there as needed in order to supplement.

Looking up at the deck from below.

Where the deck meets up with the farmers porch.

The deck! I love this area under the deck too! This is where our basement walkout door is! We have a double door there. We will be able to bring our motorcycles and 4-wheelers inside the basement! It’s like having a little garage here! We could store our motorcycles and 4-wheelers out here, too!