Wade

The plumbers came today and hooked up the water softener. We went with a Fleck 5600 SXT 48,000 grain softener. Fleck is not a well-known brand, but they are a fraction of the cost of a Culligan or Kinetico system.

We knew that the water in this area was hard, so before we settled on this softener we got a water test from Servi-Tech Laboratories out of Hastings. The hardness test came back at 16 grains per gallon. We used this calculator to determine that a 40,000-48,000 grain softener would be optimal for our conditions.

The new house has nearly 3000 ft. of CAT6 and 1000 ft. of RG6 quad-shield coaxial cable. This may be just a skosh of overkill, but what would you expect from a couple techies? Most rooms have a minimum of 3 CAT6 and 1 RG6 drops in a single gang box. We’ll be using a keystone system to fit them all neatly into one faceplate. All of the runs terminate beneath the stairs, where we will have a two-post rack and patch panels.

Our electrician had to curiously ask, “What are you going to do with all of that?” CAT6 is the swiss-army knife of low voltage cabling. It can be used for ethernet data, telephone, video (HDMI over CAT6), IP cameras, and can also be used for some audio and intercom systems. We also wired for surround sound in the basement and ran a couple audio and HDMI cables there as well. Needless to say, you only get one chance to run cabling through the walls, so we loaded up!

The bricklayers have got a good start! We selected the Windsor from Cherokee Brick Company. This is a wet tumbled brick, so it has rough edges and dented corners, which really gives it a lot of character. Even though it would be considered a red brick, it has a lot of brown tones in it as well.