The Final Stretch

Building a house is a lot like a race. Not an all-out sprint; more like a marathon, or from my experience, a half-marathon.  We've made it to that annoying final stretch where all the spectators are yelling, "You've almost made it-the finish line is right around the corner!"  But you haven't made it yet, there are still a couple of curves you have to tackle, and while you're dragging your tired, achy body across the finish line, you've still got to remember to smile for the camera.

But we have almost made it...and we can almost see the finish line.  At least we can see our move-in date...this Saturday.  We will start taking boxes over Friday night and Saturday the movers will come to move the big stuff.  We can't do actual offical paperwork until the outdoor kitchen is completed and it looks like that won't be until the end of next week.  So yes, we can move in, but we won't actually close on the house for about a week and a half.

Today the front side yard was repaired.  It looks like they might have to bring in some more sod, but it is still 1,000 times better than yesterday.  Notice the truck in the driveway?  The truck belongs to actual workers...the iron guys were inside measuring for the stair rail adaptation.

The iron guys also replaced the handle to the wine room door while they were there.  The original one was too heavy, which kept it from latching.  I like this new handle very much.   They will be back tomorrow morning to install the stair rail and to take the entire wine room door off to replace the corncob fleur-de-lis with a fatter fleur-de-lis and to powder coat the door.

By the way, apparently we didn't make this "corncob" business up.  The iron guy told me the one in the door was actually called a "corncob fleur-de-lis."

ONG showed up and installed the gas meter.  This is very exciting...just a few more days until I can try out that bathtub.  I'm sure Shane is excited to try out his shower, as well.   Don't tell him, but I plan to try out that shower, as well. ;-) 

Sadly, the gas man discovered that our beautiful cooktop isn't working.  We knew that it wasn't making the clicking noise that it should, but we thought perhaps it just needed to have everything hooked up in order for it to work.  No worries, the appliance company has already been called to investigate.

The alarm system has been hooked up...

The stucco guys came back and lengthened the trim as well as applied the first coat of stucco.  It looks so much better.

...and now we have passed several inspections.

Here's the proof.

...and just to make you smile-here's a pic of some of our double-knockout-roses blooming.

Tomorrow, the stucco crew will probably apply another coat to the exterior trim and the floors will get another coat of polyurethane.

Friday morning the kitchen granite will be replaced and the old granite will be taken away to be re-fabricated for the outdoor kitchen...and the cleaning crew will arrive.  After work on Friday, we get to start schlepping things into our new house.