Friday, April 24, 2009

We're moving in!!!

Well, Brad waited around the house today for the inspector and walked through the house with him.  Due to some staffing issues at their office, they were actually able to sign and hand over our certificate of occupancy.  We can officially live in our house now!  So, we will be moving tomorrow.
And of course, I have a work conflict.
But thats another post for another blog ;)

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Final touches on the kitchen

We have been getting the final little bits done lately.  And it's been hectic!  (On another note, Brad's mom broke her hip and is in the hospital, so we've also been working with that).

Last Friday was a busy day.  We got the marble vanity tops installed in the master bathroom, the appliances installed in the kitchen, the carpet was worked on, the front door was installed, the deck was started and the cedar shake siding was installed!  WOW!  Busy! 

Here are a few photos of the kitchen to hold you over! 
This is a faucet I picked up on Ebay (love it!!) for $150.  It retails for $250.  It was new in box.  The faucet pulls out.  You might be able to look close at the granite- between the faucet and the soap dispenser, there's another hole.  :( We told the granite guy to put three holes (faucet, soap and air gap) BUT, apparently the code does not require an air gap if you have a garbage disposal. So, we have an extra hole.  Which I am not pleased about.  It's fixable- another soap dispenser, covering it with the metal flange thing that came with the faucet kit (if the plumber can find it...I gave it to him!) or putting a fake air gap on, or just putting an oil rubbed bronze plug.  It's not the end of the world, but I'm not super happy about it either, and it's totally our fault.
Here are the cabinets with our double oven!  The oven is a 30 inch, and the cabinet is 31 inches.  Needless to say, it's a tight fit.  Technically, a 31 inch cabinet is for a 27 inch oven.  We should have gotten a 34 inch cabinet.  It looks fine, but it was so close!
You can also see the hardware, which I installed all by myself!  Got them from Target.  The handles were $9.99 for 6 and the bin pulls (on the drawers) were $4.99, but totally worth the extra cost. Thanks again to Amy for picking some up for me out of town!
Here is the shiny, new refrigerator.  We built this cabinet using two pieces of MDF and wrapping the outside with bead board.  We bought the top 24 inch cabinet and it doesn't actually reach the back of the wall.  It was the cheapest option to have the built-in look without the built-in cost! 
More to come soon.  We are having an issue with rain/dirt/sod and a tiny run-in with the EPA! Oops!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Seeing their new home

We brought the puppies with us to visit their new home for the first time.  I was in the great room with them, Brad was working on scrubbing the grout off the tile floor in the hallway.  He kept walking in front of the house. 
This is Presley, he is a Shih Tzu-Poodle mix.  
And he's slightly bow legged when he stands up!

The pups went crazy watching him.  They are definitely going to love these giant windows.
They are just tall enough to get their tiny paws up on the window sill and peek their tiny noses over.   
Phoebe is a Miniature Daschund, and had beautiful coloring.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

So close, I can taste it

We spent this past weekend doing the most painful thing we have had to do. 
Laying 1,000 square feet of bamboo floors.
We started on Sunday, laying down four rows.  You have to establish a base to work off of.  It should be just a few rows.  We needed to get down four to go around a bump out pillar and make sure that the flooring was straight all the way across.

This had to dry for at lease 24 hours.  We let it sit until the next weekend.  On Friday, we swept and mopped the concrete again and started. 

That was about 8 hours of work.  We had a few spots where the floor was unlevel, so we placed the heavy buckets of glue there to hold it down.  We finished almost everything by Saturday around 10:30 p.m.  After a good 12 hours of back-breaking work! All that we had to do on Sunday was inside the refrigerator cabinet and in the pantry.

We used three rolls of blue tape!  The tape helps hold the boards together while we were working on another area.  Those little guys would slide around and leave tiny gaps, so the tape was helpful.  But a bit of a pain to get up.  OK, the tape wasn't a pain, but my knees were definitely hurting by day 3, so any movement that wasn't laying on a couch was pain!

Here is the kitchen floor, with my beautiful, antiqued cabinets. 

And from the other side.
The dining room.
And this is what it looks like right now. We put down paper for people to walk on.  There won't be very many people in the house besides us (plumber, carpet guy, trim guy to install the front door), but it's nice for us to have too.  I took my shoes off so many times on Sunday!  Walking to and from the garage cutting the baseboards.

It's almost done.  I can just imagine what kinds of meals I can make in my kitchen.  What my couch will look like in the living room!  
This is what is left:
-The grinder pump needs to be finished and turned on. (they were working on this yesterday at 6 when I stopped by the house.  Unless MAJOR catastrophe hits, it will be done today)
-The driveway needs to be poured.  They framed it Friday and promised to come back Monday.  They did not.  I heard they were pouring someone else's foundation, but would be out today.  We'll see.
-Granite in the master bathroom counter tops.  It's been two weeks, and they haven't gotten to ours.  Apparently all the great things we told everyone about them got them too busy and they haven't had time... (Today?  Tomorrow?)
-Plumber needs to install all the fixtures.  This cant be done until grinder pump and counters are in.
-Level the lot. [again] My uncle did it, but the rain washed it all away.  So he will be out next tuesday/wednesday.  (depending on the weather.  These April showers are killing me.)
-Sod.  Of course this is waiting on the grinder pump, driveway, and of course, leveling. We are planning to have it delivered Thursday of next week.
-Install the front door.  He will be there on Wednesday to take care of that.  Can't wait.
Then we can move in.