Day 308 - The End is Near!!!

August 8th, 2013

June 8th, 2014

Ten Long Months

It has been ten very long months since we broke ground on our new house.  It has definitely been a challenging project.  Fortunately, the finish line is in sight!  June 14th, 2014 is the official move-in date, and Linus can hardly contain the excitement

There are still quite a few things left to do over the next week (and we've had a few more "hiccups" along the way), but I think we're on pace to make it!  The finish plumbing is finished except for the washing machine (more on that later).  The interior electric is almost done.  Brian has some stair lighting to install & is waiting for the final mirror dimensions to install the bathroom fixtures.  He has out at the house today working.  The painters have a 2nd coat to put on the main stairway & some touch-up work to do, and they'll be finished.  Dave came and finished the tile backsplash for the kitchen.  Tom has the staircase finished & is finishing up the railing along the mudroom loft.  Al almost has the front porch finished & will be starting on the back deck shortly.  The siding guys were working on the soffit for the front porch this week and have the rear sun room to finish.  The concrete/stone work is also nearing completion. They poured the slab & walkway in front of the house this week and are working on the front porch pillars.

Concrete Slab & Front Walkway

Kitchen- Tile Back Splash & School House Lights

Dave Gessel came back this week and finished up the tile back splash in the kitchen.  It looks awesome with the school house lights!

Look close, the outlet on the left has built-in USB ports to charge cell phones!

Stairway to Heaven

The railings for the basement & main floors are finished!

Front Porch

Mudroom Loft

Tom has been working on the loft in the mud room.  We initially wanted to do stainless steel cables for the railing, but the cost was astronomical!  We ended up using tempered glass for the railing, and it is looking great!

Lighting & Electrical

Brian has the exterior lighting finished.  The interior work is almost done.  There are a few outlets & the bathroom vanity lights that need to be finished yet.

Day 286 - Appliances Have Arrived!

After buying the appliances online & having them sit in a warehouse for 6 months, we finally had all of our appliances delivered.  Well, almost all of our appliances (the stove never made it on the truck!).  All-in-all let's just say the whole "white glove" delivery service left several things to be desired.  When the truck from J.B. Hunt arrived with our appliances, there was a slight problem:  only one guy in the truck!  Paul from Mississippi was very cordial (he kept saying sir & maam), but I'm not quite sure how he was supposed to unload 2 washers, 2 dryers, a fridge, dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave & stove all by himself.  Not a great start to the "white glove" delivery.  Tom stuck around for an extra few hours until a 2nd delivery guy finally showed up to help unload things.  Once they got to actually unloading the appliances, we found out that "white glove" delivery also comes with a few bonus items thrown if for free.  Extras such as:

Letting the new appliances relax on the sandy beach outside the house while they discuss how to get it through the front door:

 Scratching the front of the dishwasher (we refused this & had them take it back):

 

And dropping the washing machine on the landing & scratching the wood floor:

Not exactly a smooth process.  As my beautiful wife keeps reminding me, buy online for the price or buy local for the customer service.  I guess now we get to try out the "white glove" insurance claim process!

Here are some pics of the actual appliances:

Lights, Stairs & Deck

The mudroom & basement lights are in.  They look great!

Deck & Stairs

Al has been working on the deck this week while Tom has been working on the stairs.

Day 281 - Masonry, Cabinets, Lighting & More

Masonry

Ron, Charlie, Nate & Hank have been hard at work.  They have the stonework across the front of the garage and along the western foundation finished.  Today they started laying stone on the chimney & prepping for the stone across the front of the house.  The stone looks awesome with the gray siding.

Foundation stone

Stonework starting on the chimney

Chimney cap

Cabinets

Gered made another trip up from Sheldon, IA over the weekend to finish installing the cabinets.  There is no doubt about it, G&E Cabinetry do some very nice work.  Now all I need is about a gallon of Endust to clean off the dust from the trim carpenters!

Office built-in cabinet

Enough room for a basketball team!

Lighting

The other day while walking through the house, I noticed a rather gigantic mistake on the lighting plans:  We didn't have a ceiling light on the stairs leading to the basement!!!  Doh!!!  We have stair lights near the ground, but that is one dark stairwell.  This is a major problem.  How do you fix a problem like that without tearing big holes in the drywall?  Well, if you're me, you call Brian from Kummit Electric & say HELP!  If you ever have the pleasure to meet Brian, he's one of the most humble & easy going people you'll ever meet.  When I explained the problem to him, he simple said, "I think we should be able to make something work."  That was it.  Problem solved.  Long story short, we think he should be able to get a ceiling light into the stairwell without major drywall surgery!  Hooray for the Kummit Electric!  After Brian solved the stairway dilemma, we decided which switched needed dimmers & then he and his worker, Justin, began installation of the lights, switches & outlets.  They're looking very nice indeed!

Did I mention that Brian works hard?  We stopped back out at the house tonight around 7:30pm & Brian was still working!  I was beginning to think that 4:15pm was some kind of universal quitting time for tradesmen!  Strong work, Brian.  Strong work.

Betsy's room

Living room sconces

Office

Kid's bath

Odds & Ends

Appliances are scheduled to arrive on Thursday!!!  I'm just a little bit excited about that because I ordered the appliances during an online Black Friday sale waaay back in November.  They're been sitting in a warehouse ever since.  Every time they would call us to deliver them, we'd ask them to delay another month.  Not this time!  Bring on the stainless steel!

The H-bomb chunkin' the deuce with Mom

Peace Out...cause this is how I roll!