Behind the Build: Move-In Day
Move-in day! Last day on the job to do all the final system checks, clean every corner and ready every room before handing the keys over to the homeowners of this beautiful design and build custom home in Glenview, Illinois.
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Tom Kenny, Partner: So the last few things that we do on the last day – we have cleaning people coming through and they’re cleaning out all the cabinet drawers, touching up all the floors, getting all the surfaces. I’m walking around getting the fireplaces going making sure all the appliances have been run: dishwashers, washing machines. I’m checking the hot water temperature. We’ve got a water meter reader from public works getting that going, a little hardscaping.
Amy Mangold, Lead Architect: It’s finally Move-in Day. I’m here with my partners and the owners to make sure that every last detail has been taken care of and we’re super-excited, after all this work that – we’re finally finished.
Custom Home Clients: We’re hitting the home stretch here and about to start moving in. As we walk through the home, there are so many different light fixtures and looks and feels. We incorporated things like the wine display wall. We’ve got a monstrous walk-in closet in our bedroom, which we always wanted to have. I’ve got a nice office to work out of. The kitchen is, I guess you call it a chef’s kitchen because it’s got every bell and whistle you can ask for. There’s a bar and we’ll have a game table down there. There’s a wine cellar which has turned out amazing. Kind of hard to say which room I like the best, because every room is a great room.
Going from a two-story traditional home with an upstairs primary bedroom to one-story, with everything on one level is going be good for the knees in the long run, but the home is going have, I think, a very nice flow to it. We like the idea of having the coordination and collaboration of a team of people versus having an outside architect and a builder. As the process unfolded we really saw the benefit of that. I mean you can see the workmanship and the quality of what they build is amazing. So we feel very fortunate that we made the right choice in builders. We’ve said many times they’ve exceeded our expectations for sure.
Amy Mangold, Lead Architect: This is a bittersweet day after many, many months and establishing a really, you know, close relationship with our clients who now are really more like friends. So, the end of the job is, as I said, it’s bittersweet. It’s hard. It’s rewarding, but it might be one of my least favorite days on the job.
Tom Kenny, Partner: I’m going to hand them the keys and the garage door openers and it’s their house.