Our New House!

As much as this house is perfect for us, we have already begun improvements even before we have moved in.  Yesterday, right after closing, I went to the house to break in our keys.  The locks of all the houses in the community are set to accept a master key used by the builder only until the new owner first uses their new keys.  So, I had to go to the house and turn all of the locks one time with our keys so that the builder’s master key will no longer work on our locks.

While insulating the garage is, technically, the first home improvement project we completed, I did two more on our first day of ownership.

I put in our new kitchen faucet.  Ann and I found this great faucet at a great price.  It matches the color of the brushed nickel light fixtures throughout the house better than the original faucet.  It also provides better clearance and Ann prefers the two-handle controls versus the single handle.

I also installed our thermostat for the HVAC system.  KB Home provided a basic digital thermostat but years ago, when we first moved into our latest apartment, I bought a nice, programmable, touch-screen thermostat that also tracks filter replacement based on the number of running hours, daily temperature presets and four program periods in each day.  Ann has been all about energy conservation with our new house, so this was our second step for that (the first being the garage insulation).

All windows and sliding doors are double-paned, UV filtering, high-efficiency vinyl construction windows.  The HVAC system is an upgraded 90% efficient system and everything throughout the house is Energy Star compliant.  To take all this further, today we visited the hardware store to pick up several items to start our house off right. 

Because of 6″ of snow overnight,  I picked up a snow shovel.  This is the first time that I’ve ever had to shovel snow since I’ve always lived in apartments, condos and townhomes so I picked up a snow shovel that has a bent handle so I don’t have to stoop to scoop. 

We also replaced all of the 65W bulbs in the recessed lighting throughout the house (17 bulbs) with energy efficient, 13W compact fluorescent bulbs.  There are another 7 bulbs in the basement and basement stairs to replace, since I’ll be using that space a lot.  I’m not sure about the outside lights (2 in back, 2 on the garage and 1 at the front door) but we may replace those with compact fluorescent lights as well.

I also got a timer for the front exterior lights.  The two on the front of the garage and one at the front door are all on one switch at the front door.  So, I replaced that switch with a digital timed switch so the lights are on at night and off during the day.  It has built-in logic to adjust to changing sunset/sunrise times based on the area you live in and has a random element to give a lived-in appearance.  Because we have 9′ ceilings and recessed lights in the upper stairway that is impossible to reach, even with a ladder, I picked up one of those bulb changes on the end of an extension rod.  It has lots of attachments, including large bulb, small bulb, suction cup, broken bulb changers and even a duster attachment.  With this, Megan was able to change all the bulbs in the house.

The whole family had a sit-on-the-floor dinner at the new house, Barbara and Henry included.  I picked up the kids early this week because they have no school tomorrow.  The kids had plenty of time to play with Henry at the new house.  The cable guy is showing up some time between 8am and noon tomorrow to hook up TV, cable and Internet, so I’ll be there first thing.  The kids will start their packing right away and we’ll try to get a small moving truck for Sunday.

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