"Not Much Left to Do"

Shane stopped by the house on his way to work at about 8:00 today and no one was working...at around 9:15 he got a call from the A/V guy who had just stopped by the house to check on things.  The A/V guy said four subcontractors were waiting to work on the house but they were locked out.  Apparently, the doorknob on the only door they can use to get in had frozen up and the weren't able to get in touch with the builders. Shane left work and ran out to the house to let them in.

I'm not sure about everything that was accomplished today, but I'll give you the run down of what I'm aware of.  The funny part is that when we were at the house after work today, Dale kept telling us that "there isn't much left to do"...it sure looks like a lot for 8 days to us!

At some point today they installed thermostats.  The downstairs thermostat was registering 82 degrees this afternoon & the upstairs one was registering 93 degrees.

I'm sure the crews would really appreciate it if we has some electricity so the air conditioners could be turned on.

Which brings me to another point.  Shane called PSO today and asked why we still didn't have power.  They informed him that they had stopped by on May 25th, but that there was too much construction debris in the yard for them to dig the line...and that now it would be anywhere from one to six days until they would come back out. We disagree, there was debris in the yard, but it shouldn't have been where they needed to dig.  Dana swears she has a connection and we'll have it sooner than that.  We'll see.  But guess what? It's not for me to worry about, it doesn't impact my move in date!

Here's the empty box where the electric meter will be installed...

...and they installed the air conditioner compressors outside...

This is exciting-some of the appliances were installed...

The oven & microwave type thingy:

The refrigerator:

Love, love, love it!

The stove and diswasher had to be taken home with the builders, apparently everything wasn't ready for it to be installed.

Here's the stove in the back of his truck:

Some of the shelves in the kitchen were installed...

The ceiling to the mudroom was drywalled...

The acrylic was installed in the gameroom bar, this should get put back together Thursday along with all the remaining knobs, pulls and bathroom accessories.

Also, the faux finishers were at the house and painted the groin ceiling in the master bedroom.

Tomorrow, the balusters and outdoor trim should be installed, as well as the rest of the tile work and the toilets, sinks, etc. should be installed.

Memorial Day-Take 2

We just came back from a visit to the house (have I mentioned how wonderful it is that our rent house is so close to the construction house?).

The land man has completed leveling the front and back yards.  This should mean there won't be a swampy spot right off the back porch for Minnie to hate.  You know, I really couldn't blame her for hating the swamp that materialized every time it rained at the other house.  Her little legs aren't that long. 

Ahhh...a level yard-what a wonderful idea!

Here's a fence-to-fence panaramic of the back yard.

Inside the house, we were right about the pulls being installed on the drawers in the master closet.  Funny thing is, it appears that's all those guys did.  They made a trip over to put four pulls on four drawers.

Also, the fireplace has been completed...

The mortar and a couple of sections are darker than the rest because they haven't cured completely.  Most of the fireplace was cast a while back, then a couple of pieces had to be re-cast last week.  He told us in about a week it should all be the same color.

I was right...it's pretty tall.  Shane is standing beside it for comparison.

I can't wait to see our stocking holders and stocking on that mantle. 

Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day which means there are 9 days to complete everything in time for the Parade of Homes.  This is probably the 100th time I've said this, but I am so thankful the goal is to have everything done in time for the Parade rather than in time for our move-in date.  If they only had 9 days until our move in date, I wouldn't be able to sleep at all!  We were told that even though it is a holiday weekend, crews would still be working, but apparently all of those people decided to go ahead and enjoy the holiday weekend.  Shane & I were there all day yesterday; he was working on more wiring and I was working on the wine room cork project and we were the only ones there. Contractors are going to be stacked on top of each other for the next week and a half.

However today, some people are working!

The land man was there leveling the front yard...

and the back yard...

It's beginning to look almost livable.  Well, at least on the outside.

On the inside, some guys were working in the master closet-we think they were putting knobs on the built-in drawers. 

Also, the framers had done some work and accomplished a couple of things:

They put the wood trim on the game room window.  Eventually, on top of this wood will be some iron baulasters & the wood will be painted to match the garage doors. (If the painters ever make it over to our house.)

Inside, the framers closed in the hole in the mudroom ceiling.

Which was also the hole in the game room floor.

We've been walking around the hole in this floor for about five months now.  The builders wanted to install a frosted glass floor in the entrance to the game room-we liked the idea, but never would have thought of it on our own.  However, the glass company was never able to get us a sample and we have run out of time to wait on them, so the hole has been boarded up and will just be carpeted like the rest of the room.  It was a very cool idea but this is fine, too...one less thing to keep clean!

The fireplace installer was also back today and he is almost finished.

It's taller than I thought it would be-probably five feet tall.  One more thing to love!  He should finish up today and odds are we'll go back later and I'll have a picture to post for you.

Crisis Averted

Let me just start by saying that our builders are wonderful. I might have down-played the granite issue a bit in the blog yesterday...

Turns out, it was one of those things that tends to wake me up at 4 in the morning. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to realize that the counter would be the same size when the sun came up, so after a bit, I fell back asleep. The granite slab for the island had been cut smaller than we expected, which made the island look too skinny for our kitchen.   It wasn't that noticable in the pictures, but once the wood floors were stained, it really would have bothered both of us.  A lot.

Also, the wine room granite had been seamed in the most noticable spot possible and the grain of the granite had not been matched up. 

So, after fifteen calls asking my running buddy, Emily, to measure the length and depth of her island, the spacing of her island in relation to her living room, etc. we decided the granite needed some tweaking.  Shane called the builders and Dana and the granite guy met us at the house this afternoon.  After much discussion about what our possible options were, the granite guy decided that if we would buy one more slab of granite he would refabricate the current island slab to be the countertop in the outdoor kitchen and fabricate the new slab to be 12 inches wider without charging us any more labor.  Since we still needed to purchase a countertop for the outdoor kitchen, this was a great solution, and much better than our other option of adding a piece of glass to the counter, which would have just looked like a Band-Aid covering a boo-boo.

As for the seam in the wine room, he's going to cut out a rectangle, including the seam and cut a piece of cream colored onyx to fit in as an accent piece.  Dana was thrilled with this idea, since onyx is translucent and can be illuminated from the underside.

We love the kitchen (& now outdoor kitchen) granite.  It reminds me of the swirls in Van Gogh's "Starry Starry Night."

The back wall of the kitchen cabinets have a great smooth edge, which we like a lot, but the island has this nice textured edge.

Also having to do with granite and countertops...we selected some remnant pieces of granite for the mother-in-law bath, and the upstairs bath and the bar.  We decided to not spend our money putting granite upstairs and had Dana order some cultured marble countertops instead.

But...somehow in the chain of communication, the granite guy wasn't told to cancel them and they were installed today.

Mother-in-Law bath...

Upstairs bath...
I LOVE this upstairs granite-it has little fossils in it.

The laundry room now has granite counters and a cut out for the sink.

The master bathroom vanity lights have arrived.  Shane did an excellent job finding them on Amazon.

The granite has been installed on my counter in the master bathroom.

...and on Shane's vanity...

I love the color combination of our walls with the cabinets and this granite.

The fireplace is looking great. I'm really excited that we went with the cast stone. I've always loved this kind of fireplace.

It will be taller than this, there are two more layers that still need to be added to the top.  The guy was taping and grouting it tonight.

I've also always loved these egg shaped doorknobs, they are just a little different.

My mom was wondering what area of the house you walk through when you come in from the garage. Here it is, Mom-the mudroom.

Speaking of mud...the land man came today and worked in the yard.

He had two more truckloads of dirt delivered...

....and smoothed it out in the front yard...

We found out today that although the Parade of Homes starts on June 11th, the judging is done on June 8th.  So there really is exactly 12 days to finish everything.  Dana said today that they will bring in dehumidifiers next week so they are able to work on the wood floors when they need to.

We also met another neighbor tonight, she had wonderful things to say about the neighborhood and our builders.

Last night I woke up worried about the granite, tonight I probably won't be able to sleep either.  I'm so excited that it's almost completed that I feel like a kid waiting on Santa Claus.  I'm never going to want to move again & I can't wait to have everyone over!

The 12 Days Before the Parade

We were counting down today and Shane made the comment that this was like the 12 Days of Christmas, only it's the 12 Days Before the Parade...

By this morning, the wood floor had been cut out for the fireplace...

...and by tonight they were installing the fireplace...

A bunch of it is still sitting outside the front door, I suspect they'll finish tomorrow.

Yesterday, I showed you the cover for the doorbell chime, so here's the doorbell.

Don't you want to ring it?

The bathroom knobs and pulls (please forgive the dust)...

The master shower is coming along slowly, er, uh...I mean nicely.

Here's just a pic of our pretty bathroom, thrown in for good measure. 

Have I mentioned that I love this color?

Here's the light in the laundry room.  The lovely shade of this paint will make me enjoy doing laundry, right?

...and the master closet, well...part of the closet.

They've patched the hole in the wall. I wonder how many times the painters will have to come back?

Upstairs in the bathroom, the correction to the tile work has been started.  The diagonal tile will be surrounded with brown glass tile. (I think)

In the game room, they've removed the front of the bar so the cream acrylic can be installed.

Here is where the glass ceiling/floor was going to be.  Sadly, they have to board it up and make it a solid floor-we found out just the other day that the company can't get us the special glass in time.  Oh well, who wanted to keep a glass floor streak-free anyway?

The granite was installed today. Which was a little anticlimatic since there are a couple of errors. This granite was supposed to have a nicer edge, and there is a seam issue.

...and here's the island with the granite top.

...and a side view of the island.

 Four days until appliances.