Post Thanksgiving Summary

I apologize to the few followers who have been wondering what happened to the updates. We're obviously still not in the house, but I do have a few things to show in the almost month since the last post. Please try to disregard any subtle or blatantly obvious cynicism. I can't express how relieved I am at the thought of never building another house.

The steps are finished except for the railing, the cypress columns are all up, though not yet stained, and the driveway is poured, though it is different colors. Oh, and the garage doors are mostly up, but they ordered the wrong ones. So the ones on now will come down once the correct ones arrive. Hopefully they came in today.

This is the upper deck they've been trying to get waterproofed for a couple months now. The decking you see stacked on the railing was 'finished' and installed...  until it rained again last night.

Upstairs hallway with our hardwood in place. They still lack the landings and stairs to the basement before they will be ready for sanding and finishing.

This is the vanity in one of the upstairs baths. Both are the same as far as materials and colors. They put the tops on yesterday.

They've been working on installing the kitchen cabinets for a couple weeks now. I think the only real holdup on finishing them is a corner cabinet change Amanda made. Not sure when the granite will be installed.

Half bath.  I've not seen it in person except in the dark as we have no permanent lighting in this room yet. This view is thanks to the camera flash.

Master bath. It won't be quite so yellow when they are finished.

The laundry/mudroom. Note here the first and only item we have actually moved from our current home in here. We had to do that so the Sears repairman could fix it. They put up the crown in this room today. It has a lower ceiling height, so the crown is different from most of downstairs. All this cabinetry will be the same color as the trim.

This is the other side of the laundry room. I couldn't get a wider shot because of the size of the room. We're happy with the cubbies though. The room should look great and be very functional.

The painters put poly on the guest closet this week. It looks nice, though the guys who built it forgot to put the clothes rod on the back wall.

We love this shower. They grouted it yesterday, so the doors can be mounted now. That and the fixtures are all it lacks.

View of the living room with walnut floor, built-ins and window seat. The built-ins will be white/trim color and the walls will all be the same color instead of the two tone we have going on now.

Just A Creepin'

Kind of like molasses in late December...  sums up our overall progress, though there is plenty to show and tell. The biggest goal this past week was to get the heat on so the hardwood could acclimate before installation. To save $500, I borrowed a friend's excavator, dug a rather large hole in the ground at 10 at night and lined up both the delivery of the in-ground LP tank and the propane separately, which proved to be rather challenging on short notice. It happened though, and we had the gas turned on by lunch Friday. Unfortunately the HVAC ball was dropped, and there is still no heat downstairs. They managed to get the upstairs furnace running, but that isn't helping the humidity problem downstairs where 90 percent of the hardwood will be.

They did install most of the stair treads and risers early in the week, and they look great even unfinished.

Friday's biggest masonry project was the front steps. Though we are way behind, this truthfully made my week. We are finally done having to walk up a plank to get in, carrying materials, kids, etc.

Looks like we are running a factory.

They set the furnace in place Friday afternoon, managing to lift the firebox door off it's hinges in the process, which in turn fell and broke several toes of the man on that end of it. That poor guy is also the best trim guy we had on the job and the one who did the interior stairs. Not sure when he will be able to return.

Upstairs heat. Since the temperature dropped Saturday night, there is a dramatic difference upstairs and downstairs now.