Week 17 *FINAL* Recap

The house is officially done - yea! This past week the painters and the electrician finished up, and I cleaned and cleaned. The inspector came and went and everything passed. As of today, we are living there. We sleeping are on the floor, but we are there.  Our plan is to finish cleaning out our storage shed tomorrow, and the movers come on Tuesday to help us unload the trailer.  I'll admit, I am dreading the trailer! 

Thanks to all who have followed the house progress, and asked about how it was going and if we were (finally) done yet.  I really appreciate it!  Now, you'll have to listen to me ramble on about decorating & yard work!

Like the little white fridge?  It's our garage fridge that Travis moved in until our good one comes out of storage.  I think the idea was to put food in it, but it only has beer, wine, milk & Diet Pepsi. Gotta keep the beverages in a convenient location :-).  I am really not happy with how the stain turned out.  The painters were supposed to do a clear coat, then put the black on top of it. The idea was to match the cabinets. Well, they did the black first then the clear coat. They worked on the door in the kitchen, but it's still not quite right. I'll admit that I just kind of let it go because I did not want them in the house for two more days to fix it. If I decide I just can't stand it, I'll re-do them myself . . . someday!

Parker has this thing about taking pictures of our toilets. When we moved out of our old house I downloaded the pictures one day and found about 15 shots of our toilets from the day we moved out. I found this one from the new house on the camera today when I downloaded. Perhaps I should put my camera out of sight before it takes a swim.

Posting may be a bit slow for the next couple of weeks. I have not yet set up the Internet at our house - gasp! You'd think the addict that I am that is the first call I would have made!

Sleepover

Saturday night we had a sleepover at the new house. The boys had the idea earlier in the week and they were thrilled when we said yes. We took them to The Pie for dinner, then packed up our sleeping bags and headed to the house. I took my laptop and we curled up by the fire and watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid on the big screen. It was great fun being there, but I'll admit I heard noises all night long and didn't sleep a wink!

Sunday it rained on and off, but we were able to get one load of stuff from the storage shed. We did move a bunch of crap from my parent's barn that could get wet. Technically we are only supposed to move stuff into our garage but I've been putting some stuff in the house as well. Anything that I can tuck away in a cupboard and not be noticed and be in the way I take in. Our goal is to finish the storage shed this weekend, and my parent's barn. Then we'll just have the big trailer. Man, we have too much crap!

Week 16 Recap

We are so close! Our builder got ticked at the company doing the outside, so last Sunday they sent a crew of 12 guys over and got the outside finished. I love how the stone turned out, but I think that extra tall third car garage that Travis had to have looks goofy. I think a normal 8' high garage would have looked much better. Oh well. He jokes that when he gets a bigger truck it will fit. Ha, the jokes is on him because his next car is going to be a Honda Civic that gets 55 mpg.

Anyway, the inside is almost done. This week the carpet came, the missing light fixtures arrived, the rails went up, and blower for the fireplace was installed. The thing that has sucked is we had to have the inside totally repainted. The ceiling was fine, but all the walls, doors & trim needed to be redone. That took three days, and they still need to come and stain the rails and a couple of doors on Monday.

Monday will also be our final inspection. After that is completed, it will hopefully be just a few days waiting for the bank then we can close - yipee! 

Our builder said we could go ahead and move stuff into the garage, so if it is not snowing on Sunday we plan to spend the day cleaning out our storage shed.  The storage shed is going to be the easy part. It is pretty small. It is the 45' semi trailer that is going to take some work.

This rail will be stained the same color as the cabinets.

The master bedroom. You can just see a tiny paint sample taped to the wall. We are thinking we will paint that wall a dark brown. I am a bit worried it will be too dark. Of course, you can't tell on a bright sunshiney day.

Master bathroom.

This is the loft area that is between the boys' rooms. I love how their rooms are not next to each other. I won't have to listen to them both yell how the other one is being too loud, or knocking on the wall, or keeping the other one up at night, etc.

This is in the loft between the boys' rooms. My big plan is to make this area into a homework/computer area. I'd like to get them a new desk, put some shelves up, and have an area for books. We'll have to see how that all comes together.

Finally, a picture of the outside. The house was under a big tent for so long that we'd forgotten what it looks like. The yard area is a mess. Because of the weather we can't do a final grade on the dirt so it will be a huge mess for longer than I care to think about.

Homework

Preston brought home his math book today with a worksheet. When I saw the title on his homework I just said, "wait for Dad to get home." Ugh!

I am not smarter than a third grader!

I Triple Dog Dare Ya!

Just when I think I don't have anything to blog about, Parker comes though with some material. The boys went skiing today, and on the lift Parker leans down and sticks his tongue to the metal safety bar in 15 degree weather. In the words of Flick himself, "stuck, stuucck, stttuuuccccckkkkkk."

You've gotta love A Christmas Story!

I should mention this was no accident. He has been wanting to try doing this since watching the movie 100x over Christmas break.

Week 15 Recap

Another boring week on the home front. Between the holidays, and the weather, not much has changed. We finally got the appliances all straightened out and Travis got them installed. After the microwave being broken, and the dishwasher being white, we thought we were set on the stove. Yesterday we went to install it, and it didn't fit in the space. The countertop guys left too much of an overhang on the granite so they had to come back today and cut it down. The appliances should not have been that much work!  There is not a lot left to do on the inside.  The painter started working today, and he said he should be done by Tuesday.  The carpet is scheduled to be installed on Wednesday, and that will finish up the inside besides just a few minor things here and there.

The outside still needs some work. It has been SO cold here that they've not worked. The highest we've been for the past week is about 25 degrees. Burrr!  The stone is up, but it still needs to be bricked & the stucco is not even started.  They also need to pour concrete for our front walkway & put the rain gutters up. That still sounds like a lot of work to me! I don't have pictures this week, since everything looks the same as last week.

Parker played "stunt man" for hours at the house yesterday. He had the dishwasher box inside of the stove box, and he was happy and content for hours. Please excuse my complete stupidity on video cameras. I can't figure out how to flip the video landscape, so you'll just have to tip your head totally sideways to watch it. I am much more of a still picture kind of camera operator!

Welcome 2011!

Happy New Year everyone! Lucky me, I'm spending it curled up in a rocking chair watching movies with strep throat. Party! This is the first time I've had strep in a good eight years. Prior to that, I'd have it multiple times every winter. I had forgotten how much it sucks.