It's been a frustrating month on the home building front, but progress has been made, albeit it rather slowly. I'm so tired of it I don't really even want to write about it, but that is what has consumed our lives lately.
On a much brighter note (they were done well in time), the cabinets are awesome so here are a couple of pictures. They'll look even better when we have working lights too. You have to see them in person to appreciate the impressive craftsmanship and the very unique wood grain of quarter sawn oak.
To date, which is December because I'm behind again (sigh), we have all the countertops in, the basement is painted, and the main level is in the hands of the painter. It remains to be seen whether we'll make it in by Christmas but we have some hope for that. If the painter finishes this week as he said he will, then we can get plumbing and lighting fixtures installed as well as carpet and a final coat on the hardwood floor. None of those individually take a lot of time, it's just a challenge to get everyone there immediately due to a very busy building industry.
I think one of the other hard parts about building is that we have zero control over timing of subs, both when they arrive and how long they take. And sometimes I question whether the general contractor has any control over that either. On the other hand, we did get every opportunity to do some things that are less conventional, work with some special subs like Clyde, and meet some new ones that did very good work.
The exterior is getting close, the siding guy (yes one guy even though we were promised a crew) just has a little soffit left to do and then the raingutter people need to do their part. The metalwork, like stairs and handrails are all said to be arriving shortly. But the painted portions of the outside won't be done until March or so due to cold temps in the day and night now. So those stripes won't be there then...it'll be the same green as the stucco in the next pic with white trim around doors and windows. The siding is cement board and will withstand a winter just fine.
This is the back of the house here. We were able to plant 12 trees in total and that was nice to get them done. I'm crossing my fingers they all wake up in Spring.
The boys - they're good, excited to be in a new home with a basement they say. We bribed Bennett into participating in a turkey shootout at the rec center which consisted of a basketball shooting contest against kids his age. He managed to win his group - the prize - a turkey. Just what every 6 year old wants.
