Finally - Finished Photos

I told you pictures were coming and here they are! Our internet is finally up and running. Still lots of boxes to unpack and lots of pictures to hang, but we are here!!!!!

So much has happened, and yes I know there are no pictures. The house is finally finished and we are in! We have boxes everywhere and not much on the walls, but we are home at last. We are all extremely sad to have lost David's mom to cancer. She passed away on April 30th. The time since then has been a whirlwind. She has always been such an important part of our lives. She rarely missed a ballgame, school event, or anything else that her grandkids were involved in. We are all sad that she never got to visit the new house. I so wanted the kids to have memories of her there. We planted a beautiful hydrangea from her funeral right in front of the house and we will think of her everytime we pull in the driveway. It's been a really tough time for everyone in our family. We've had 2 birthdays (David and Lyndsey) and Mother's Day without her and they were just not the same. The house just didn't seem important anymore, but especially for David and Pa it seemed to be a good distraction from everything else. We were so blessed to have 2 crews of men sent to help with the move. I think they were sent from heaven and we feel so thankful for all of their help.

Our first catastrophe.......we had a flood on Saturday and it was not caused from the massive rains that we have experienced. The master toilet malfunctioned causing the master bath to flood, ruining the carpet in David's closet and the guest room. My closet and the master bedroom had some damage, but I think only the pad has to be replaced there. Hopefully that will be taken care of any day now. Also, someone forgot to turn on the septic tank (I had no idea it had to be turned on). So once the tank filled up, it could not get to the field lines.....so it backed up in the bathtub and the shower. That has also been taken care of. The freshly laid sod has been dug up in the backyard to take care of the problem! We are praying that the hardwood is ok. I am not to thrilled at the thought of having my floors cut up.

We are supposed to have internet at home by midweek. Pictures are coming, I promise. Happy anniversary Gara & Steve! 25 years is something to be proud of. Hope to see you soon!

Pictures are coming! I was shocked to see sod yesterday after school. They were about 1/2 way finished and are back today to finish up before the storm comes. Today the shutters are going up as well as some trim around the base of the cedar columns. The paint is just about done. Can't wait to see if carpet has arrived! That will really make it feel "done". David laughed at me the other day. We stopped by to see the newly installed dishwasher. I guess the plumber left one of his rags he was using to wipe away water in the sink. My eyes lit up when I saw it (the rag). David said, "You're going to wipe that island down, aren't you?" I couldn't help myself. The OCD kicked in and I was cleaning away. It was so nice to see the island dustless. I think (for a while at least) I will even be excited to clean the new house. I'm sure the new will wear off and then I'll be calling for Phyllis to come back!!!!! We love you Phyllis! :)

......and now some not so great news

The walk through is still scheduled for Sunday afternoon. But, we just found out yesterday that the floors cannot receive their second coat of poly until next Thursday (which is the day that I had already scheduled all of our furniture and appliances to be delivered). This delay probably sets us back about a week, so it may be the first week in May before we actually move. The builders have fired the landscape guy. David met them there yesterday and was introduced to the new landscape guy. Sod is scheduled to be put in tomorrow. The final coats of paint are going up now. Carpet is still coming on Friday. In the grand scheme of things, I know a few days won't matter..........but we are so ready to spread out a little!

GREAT NEWS!

Got a call from Apex today as we were headed to the ballgame. We are tentatively scheduled for our walk-through on Sunday! According to Michelle (Apex), we will walk through with the builders and make a list of anything that needs to be changed or fixed. The list will be given to Mr. Bobby. We give them a couple of days to take care of the changes and the house is ours! Can you believe it? We have dreamed about this day for a long time and it is really almost here.

We drove by after school and the dirt work has begun. There is no longer a ditch in the front yard. We were told that it would look like a park when they were done, I don't think they are quite done yet (unless they meant a dirt bike park). The irrigation man was hard at work installing the pipes for the sprinkler system. It will be followed by the sod and then he will come back and install the sprinkler heads and equipment. Also, carpet is coming on Friday.

At a snail's pace

The camera battery is fully charged and here are the photos of the finished stone. The island is still the favorite!

Take a look at the massive flower bed that has been created by the circle drive! It is 10'x40', much bigger than I had planned. We went back and forth trying to decide if we wanted it all to be flower bed or if we wanted to split it in half and do brick edging for the flower bed and sod the rest. In the end we decided that it would be easier to mulch it all than it would to pull burmuda out of it, so we're keeping the sod as far away from it as we can!

Other changes in the house.....double ovens and stair rails.

David decided to fill in the ditch with pipe so we could level out the front yard. The pipe went in followed by concrete at each end and then topped with dirt.

The cedar posts were delivered. You can see them installed in the second picture. They will be stained to match the shutters (soon to come) and the front door. Man, Tanner is so strong!

We've also been meeting with several landscaping guys to talk about installing an irrigation system. (You can see the flags stuck in the flower bed.) We decided on who's going to do it and hopefully it will begin to come to life this week. Timing is everything now. It needs to go in after the dirt work is done but before the sod. Dirt work was supposed to be done this weekend.......it was not, so hopefully it will happen this week.

Here are the first glimpses of the floor stain (Chestnut). We are off limits until Tuesday, so the edge of the kitchen is as far as we can go since that is the only place with tile. Every other entrance is wood. It was sanded twice, then stained, followed with the first coat of polyurethane. We think the painters come next and then the second coat of poly will be applied. We still need carpet and minor things like outlet covers and switch plates. So for now I guess we will hurry up and wait some more! Everyone has survived our tight living arrangements quite well, but I think we are all getting a little restless. We have battled ladybugs, ants, and wasps. As of last night, I think we have a family of possibly raccoons or maybe squirrels trying to make a home under the bathroom floor. All I can say is.......IT IS TIME! Come on APEX, get this job finished so we can go home! We have ballgames for the next couple of nights, so it might be a few days before the next post.

The stone has arrived!

Mirrors have been hung in the bathrooms. Lyndsey's mirror is huge. When she saw it she said, "You could see a whole hippopotomus in this thing!" I think she's right. It is rather large. One day she's going to really appreciate that vanity. Shower doors are here, along with garage doors and a/c units. Hopefully we are only about 2 weeks out.

My favorite part of the whole house is the island! I can't believe how it turned out. The stone went up today on the back of the island, the rest of the front porch and the fireplace in the keeping room. (My cameral battery died, so my photos are limited. I'm charging it up tonight and will post more photos tomorrow!) It really makes a difference in the kitchen. The pantry door has been hung. It's a little different, but we really like it. I'm planning to have the wood trim around the glass painted the keeping room orange color just to bring a little color to that side of the house.

The brickers have also been back. We were not expecting the brick work at the bottom of the driveways. They also bricked pedestals on the front porch that will support the cedar columns, and a great wall on the back porch for the grill to slide right in. We really miss our gas grill. I can't wait to move in and get back to grilling!

Mr. David (the low voltage guy) came today to work on the security system and a few other things. Light switch plates and outlet covers are being installed. We now have gas, electricity and water. We had a leak a couple of days ago. Apparently when they turned the water on, the pot filler pipe had a crack in it. Of course it busted and sheetrock had to cut and tiles were broken. It is painful to see things being destroyed. Today our beautiful living room ceiling had to be cut in 2 places so the surround sound wires could be located. Apparently the sheetrock crew just sheetrocked over them. Carpet, floor staining and more paint will come soon, along with the stair railings. Since we are out of school for spring break maybe we can just pull up a chair and watch! (I'm sure the kids will love that!) :)