We have a mailbox!

First, the exciting news....we should have final inspection the end of next week! Yay! So if all goes as planned, we'll be moving in next weekend! :)

Last weekend, we registered with the post office and put up a mailbox. So now we can get mail! Woohoo! I sent out change of address cards yesterday. So everyone that needs one should be getting one shortly. If I forgot you, please let me know. Here's a photo of our new mailbox...


We have all of our plumbing (sinks, toilets, etc) and I just realized I didn't take photos of any of it! So I will try to remember to do that this weekend. We also got our new washer and dryer (we went with front loading Bosch ones) and all of the appliances are in and working. The final grade is being done today. The air conditioning should be done this weekend and then carpeting is going in Monday. And....that's it! FINALLY!

More painting and appliances

I thought the painting days were almost over...ha! We now have touch up painting (for the gazillion holes and scratches from people working on the house) and all of our doors need a second coat. So this past weekend I caulked the holes in the trim on the first floor and then repainted it all. I also got the fireplace mantel done....it looks much better!

And all of our appliances are now in (minus washer and dryer). Of course, some still have protective wrapping on them but they work. Yay! We need to order a stainless steel backsplash for behind the stove.

If you noticed, our pendant lights above the island aren't in yet. That's because the electrician mismeasured and they're not centered. Big oops! So....they can cut the ceiling, move them, drywall and spackle again (and we'd have to repaint) OR we can move the island over. Joe measured and the electrician is off by 2.5 inches. So we'd have to move the island 2.5 inches closer to the stove. It leaves us with a 16 inch walk way, instead of 18.5 inches. So we're going to have them do that. We really don't want to repaint the ceiling. It would mean covering everything and a huge mess. So the electrician gets off easy...this time.

Fireplace and Front Porch

Trying my best to stay on top of the updates....as I said before, things are moving along quickly! The trim guys finished 90% of all the trim yesterday. It looks good! Our appliances were also delivered. They're waiting in the dining room to be installed.

So we now have a fireplace mantel (that needs to be painted!) and a front porch (also needs to be painted). Photos below.

I think the fireplace is too big. Joe likes it. It's 5'3" from the floor to the top...that's as tall as me! The photo below shows the size better.

At this point, there's no way to make it smaller. I'll just have to live with it, I suppose. The front porch really makes the house look finished.

Final plumbing and electric are up next!

Tile and Pergo

Well, we had an "oops" over the weekend. It's the first one in a long time. Titan's fault, of course. The tile guys showed up Saturday and got to work right away. I had a fundraiser for therapy dogs all day. Joe got to the house around 2pm, after he fixed the AC at someone's house. The poor tile guy was putting the very last tile on the tub surround (goes from top of the tub to the ceiling)....and Joe saw that it was the wrong size tile! They put those itty bitty 6x6 tiles in and we had specified 12x12 tiles. So they had to carefully rip out all of the tile they had just put up. Titan had never given the change order to the tile guys. And it gets even better....the tile guys are on a company trip for the next 10 days! So needlesstosay, we won't have tile in our main bath for two weeks. It shouldn't put that much of a kink in things. Just annoying....more annoying to the tile guys, I'm sure! So on to the pictures....

Tile around the fireplace....still missing the mantle (ignore the disgruntled Sheltie pup in the x-pen):

Tile in the foyer and hallway:

Tile in the bathrooms (hard to get a good photo since they're not big, open rooms):

And finally, the Pergo floor in the dining room:

Cooper "tested" all of the new flooring. We caught him napping on the tile, the Pergo and the kitchen floor. Goofy puppy! He seems to like the tile best. Here he is napping on the kitchen floor:

Appliances are being delivered today. Then we just need the plumbing, electric and trim to be finished. Followed by the carpeting. And that's it!

Kitchen Flooring and Stair Railing

Things are moving along very quickly now. I'm going to try to keep up with the updates. We *should* be moving in around the end of May. Yesterday, they installed our kitchen floor. We had originally wanted tile in the kitchen, but the upgrade charge was ridiculous (somewhere around $10k, I think). So instead we went with the best linoleum you can get. Supposedly nothing sticks to it and it has a lifetime warranty. We plan on putting tile and granite in the kitchen in a few years. Until then, this will do! The island was moved temporarily until the flooring is finished.


Kitchen floor (photo is a little dark, it was sunset when I took it):

You can click on the photo to make it larger.

They also installed our stair railing. We were originally going to paint it all white. But now, we're kind of glad we stained it. Well, Joe stained it. We did miss the little screw covers, so those will be stained this weekend. The stairs will be carpeted. We picked a dark brown color.

Monday, the tile guy starts. The foyer, hallway and bathrooms all get tile. Then the electrician and plumbers will be back to finish their stuff. Oh, and our appliances are being delivered Tuesday. I'll try to update after the weekend!