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!

Day 276 - Hello Cambria!

The counter tops arrived yesterday, and they look great!  The installers were from Sioux Falls, SD.  They came with a crew of 4 guys and had everything installed by 4:30pm.  Nice work gentlemen.  Nice work.

Kid's bathroom

Master bath

Kitchen island

Kitchen Pantry

Smile!

Kitchen

Office built-in

Laundry room

Siding Update

Siding installation has been a slow process (a very common theme on this construction project!), but it is coming along nicely.  They are currently ~80%  finished.  They have do side the 3 season porch & finish up some trim.  The gray siding looks great with the stone.

Masonry

The stone is finished around the garage except for the sill stone.  It looks really good.  They are starting on the chimney next.  They last thing to finish will be the pillars on the front of the porch.

Painting

Fresh Coat Paint has ~80% of the painting done.  They are currently working on the basement.  They will finish that tomorrow.  After that, they will only have the walls of the main stairwell to paint.  They are going to wait to paint that area however until Tom has the staircase installed.  After everything else is done, they will come back and touch things up before we move in.

Eric & Mike going over the details

Mike taking a lunch break

Mud room

Family room

Master bedroom

Exercise room ready for paint

Mudroom bathroom

Carpentry & Stuff

Tom & Al are working on the stairs this week.  Pretty much everything else in the house is done.  After the stairs are finished, they will head outside & start working on the front porch & back deck.