Unbearably hot week to be building a house

This week and weekend was unbearably hot-which could only mean one thing-time to work outdoors again :( This weekend Keith spent most of his time digging the rain garden, and prepping for the gutter installation which should happen on Wednesday. While he worked outside Saturday morning, Ronnie and Craig worked on installing more of the wood floors. Like the Hardie board siding, you can expect to see updates on the wood floors for several weeks to come. In other exciting news, we got the doors this week. Two of the bathroom doors were hung on Friday, and we hope to get the other bathroom one hung soon for the final inspection. The plumber also installed the toliets last week. So now we are just like those fancy people I read about all the time!

This week I thought I would include some pictures of the kids swimming. Julia has blossomed into quite the swimmer this summer, which has been a fun evolution to watch. She is consistently improving upon her swimming skills, and she enjoys "beating" grandpa in weekly races across the pool. Andrew is also loving the pool this summer, as well as his new summer haircut. Keith cut it last week for him and Andrew is quite proud of the new look. He keeps telling everyone that he looks like "Uncle Peter" and "Uncle John" and Daddy, of course :)

Tuesday Special Edition Blog-Kitchen Cabinets

Pictures speak louder than words, so my words will be few in this blog.

Simply put, I love my new kitchen cabinets!

Lights, floors, action!

This past week/weekend was a flurry of activity. First, our electrician hung the majority of our light fixtures. We still have the ones in the dining room, great room and kitchen center to go up, but you can see how it is really starting to look like a house! Many of the light fixtures are schoolhouse lights. These lights were very popular in the 1920's and remain a "fixture" for many period style homes. I love the simplicity of the milk glass globe that makes everything just feel comfortable to me.

Flooring was also on the list of priorities this weekend. Namely, the Marmoleum flooring for our kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room and the garage hallway and main foyer. It turned out wonderfully, and I look forward to walking on it for many years to come! Ronnie and Craig also installed most of the hardwood in the master bedroom. Two rooms down, and only...a lot to go :)

Keith got the bathroom vanities in and the sink tops. Next week the plumber should be in to hook up all toliets and install the faucets. He will also be finishing the lower level plumbing work and installing the hose bib, and then we can have the well tested.

Lastly, but not leastly (not a word, but fun to say :), in less than 24 hours, our kitchen cabinets are being installed. I will let you know next week if I sleep at all tonight with the excitement and anticipation!

Window trim, wood floor and a sneak peek at the kitchen...

Well, now that I am off for the summer, I have officially been put to work by my husband :) Between cleaning and painting trim, I think I have my work cut out for me until August! Although I don't love being covered with drywall dust, I am happy that I can contribute to the construction project.

This weekend, Keith, Ronnie and Craig trimmed out most of the windows in the house. I think that they did a great job with the trim and the sills. In addition to the windows, Keith built the stairs leading from the garage into the house, and installed the weather strip on the door. Today, they started on the wood floors. The did the whole office, which consisted of six boxes of flooring. Only 70 boxes left to go until all the hardwood is installed in the house. Ouch! That makes my back, neck and knees sore just thinking about it.

I stopped by earlier this week to check-in with our Amish cabinetmaker. We are on target to have the cabinets installed next week (possibly sooner, on Friday, if the Marmoleum gets laid on Thursday as planned). Here are a couple preview pics of our cabinets. The first picture is the upper door fronts. This small door is for above the microwave. A couple of the doors will have glass in the upper two pieces. The second picture is the sink cabinet. Obviously without the doors, but with our Kohler Dickinson sink. The third picture is the back panel that will go on the raised counter, as well as a couple more of my cabs-and someone else's, too. No white cabinets for me this time).

10 months down...

While many of you have asked about our "official move-in date", as the general contractors for our house we can sufficicently say, "not tomorrow, but we hope and expect before August 24 when Julia starts school". In reality, things are progressing nicely, and but we still have the following before we can apply for our occupancy permit:

Indoor:
Flooring in the bathrooms and kitchen (this is being installed later this week, or early next week).

Kitchen cabinets (being installed by our cabinet maker later next week (7/15) or on 7/18).

Countertops and sink (will be installed a couple weeks after the cabinets are in, by the end of July)

Bathroom vanities (being delivered on 7/18-installed later that week).

Bathroom fixtures (Plumber will install after flooring is in)

Doors on the bathrooms (most likely after the wood floor is installed. This may start in two weeks).

Well test: this can happen after we have all the faucets and we can run the water for a while. Probably looking at the third-forth week of July.

Light fixtures: Electrician should be putting these up this week/next

Window trim: Keith started it this weekend, and will be working on it next weekend as well.

Outdoor:

Rain garden

stairs/rail for screened in porch

Sounds like a lot, and it is quite a bit. It will certainly be a very busy July, but hopefully we will be starting August with a much smaller "to-do" list. Regardless, it is still quite amazing to see how far we have come in 10 months building it ourselves, and still working full-time.

Now for the update of what progress happened this weekend. Keith was able to get the geothermal turned on so we have A/C in the house now. A real treat, since June and July have been hot and humid so far, with many more similar days to come. Ronnie, Keith and Craig also finished painting the interior, and cleaned the drywall dust off the floor. Since we are running the A/C, Keith and Ronnie hung the final door leading from the garage into the house this weekend. They also got all the final subfloor in for the Marmoleum install AND we have a handrail going down the stairs to the basement. This was the one item that I let Keith pick out with no extra feedback approval from me :)

We had a great holiday weekend, too. It was spent swimming in Lorraine and Bob's pool, relaxing (well, me and the kiddos relaxed), and seeing the fireworks in town.