Four Days...

I must say that I was surprised to have so much action at the house today.  There are only four days until judging, but it is the weekend, and last weekend the work crews were rather sparce.

We've still got guys moving dirt around.  I asked if they were  with the landscaper, the sod guys, or the sprinkler crew-but the answer was "none of the above."  It turns out they have been removing the top layer of clay and replacing it with topsoil.  Appparently, grass won't grow in Oklahoma clay.

They have a front loader, a regular wheelbarrow, and this motorized wheelbarrow-dump truck thing.  I found it very funny that the youngest guy in the crew was using the motorized wheelbarrow that automatically dumped for him.  Today's youth are so lazy...

 The largest pile of dirt near the front of this picture is the clay they were removing.

They brought the good soil around back and dumped it one wheelbarrow at a time.  (Or one motorized wheelbarrow at a time if you were the young guy.)

By 5 o'clock, when we drove by the house (only because we had to go to Target since I forgot to buy cat food & Bo thought he was starving), the dirt guys were still there, but at least the backyard was almost smooth.

Also, the balusters for the balcony were finally delivered.

They look incredibly heavy. Can you guess how they were taken up to the balcony? 

One baluster at a time.

Here, you can see that the guy has installed the stone base for the balusters.

It was hot today.  At least the upstairs air conditioner has been fixed so while he carried those upstairs; one baluster at a time it was a cool trek up the stairs.

By 5 o'clock, here's what had been installed...

This morning, the plumbers were at the house and they installed the gas cooktop.  I had almost forgotten that we've got six burners, and two of the burners can be switched to use as a griddle whenever we want.

The faucets in the master bath were installed today.

...and they hooked the water up to the master tub then filled it with water to test the seals.

HEY! I just realized that means I could sneak over for a soak in the tub tonight, doesn't it?

Upstairs, Shane was planning where the microwave and blender will be stationed.  He was not, however, thrilled that I ordered a pina colada.

I guess it's a little early for that?

Some of the iron work was installed today.

The windows to the wine room...

Part of the stair rail...

...and the wine room door...

The jury is still out on the iron work.  The windows are mostly what we thought we were getting, but the stair rail is much simpler than we expected and the door is much more frilly than we expected.  It is, however, very cool that the iron door locks. 

Well, I think it's really cool now, but I won't think it's cool if the keys happen to get misplaced and I want to uncork a bottle...

This morning we stopped by a local store picked out some wine so the room won't be empty when we move in.

The actual stair rail part still hasn't been installed.

I wonder if we'll have anyone working tomorrow.  If  we can only install four balusters per day,  I hope he's there every day...