lots of "little" stuff...

Wow, between the last two days of progress on the house, we have had a lot of "little" miscellaneous things installed. We went up to the house a little later last night and I just didn't have the energy, honestly, to sit down and post to the blog. Tonight, however, I have a little more energy so I'm going to cram what I would've posted last night into tonight's post, too. Hope you don't mind. :)

Bear with me as I try to remember everything they've done to the house in the last two days (and this will probably be pretty random, too).

Let's see...they have put down the vinyl/linoleum in the 2 bathrooms, they have installed all the light fixtures and/or ceiling fans including the one on the front porch (the workers are so nice; they offered to put up the fan we bought for the porch if Jeff would bring it to them the day they were working on that [yesterday] - so he did!). We have a ceiling fan/light fixture in the living room and the master bedroom and light fixtures in the kitchen, bathrooms and the other 2 bedrooms (the bedrooms are prewired for ceiling fans, though). They have wired for and installed all the outlets and light switches. They have the dishwasher, microwave oven and water heater installed. The microwave went in today and it's super-nice! It's a hood microwave so it's right at eye level and seems really roomy inside. They also poured our driveway and sidewalk today! Jeff says, "Now it's starting to look like a house.", like it didn't before! :D

housewarming!

Our sweet, sweet friends threw us a housewarming shower Saturday evening and we had the best time! It was hosted by Joey & Amy at their home and the weather was beautiful! We were able to sit outside and just chat and watch the kids (young & old) play. We had yummy appetizers to snack on and then we opened presents! We received so many nice things, things that we'd registered for (by request of the hostess) at Target & Bed, Bath & Beyond. We are so blessed to have so many kind & caring friends. Then Joey fired up the grill and we ate some more! The whole evening was such a blessing to me & Jeff, and we especially want to thank Joey & Amy for hosting and those who were able to come celebrate with us. We missed those who weren't able to be with us...we love you all.

counter tops...

Hey, look at this...2 days in a row I'm posting!

They installed our counter tops today at the house. It's really hard to see in the photo what color they are, but it's kind of a mix of a really light clay color and beige-ish tan. Is that sorta clear? As mud? Well, hey! It's kind of like a "mud" color! :) I crack myself up sometimes...

Anyway, we also had 2 big boxes sitting in the house when we got there tonight: our microwave oven and our dishwasher - WOOHOO! The microwave will go above the stove (that's a smooth-top stove) and the dishwasher will be at the end of the counter, beside the sink, next to the patio door.

paint...

The interior of our house is now painted! When we got out to the house tonight, all the walls were painted with the "bone" color we picked out (one of 3 choices, mind you - we would've gone with a little more color if it was up to us!). The doors and all the trim were painted white, as well. Boy, it really looks sharp with the little bit of contrast there. Everything is just so cleaned up. I wish you could see the video I took, but it was too large when I tried to upload it. Bummer. But hopefully, you can see the paint color and how nice it looks from the photo, and NEXT TIME, I'll try to remember to keep the video a little shorter!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's had an interest in our "house-building journey" and who's been checking the blog periodically. I've had lots of comments and compliments on it and I appreciate the feedback. I've really had a fun time with this blog and I hope it's kept you pretty informed on what's been going on. I'm sure it will continue on, even after we've moved in, with things like how we're decorating it to make it our own, landscaping/gardening (ha!) and the like. Stay tuned, and thanks again to you all!

30 days from closing...and counting...really fast! :)

cabinets, doors & trim...oh, my!

Jeff went by the house on his way home from work today (as he does everyday) and he called me to say, "You better get down here with your camera...". When I got there, we had all our interior doors up, all the trim was up and our kitchen and bathroom cabinets were in! The trim, though, it's not primed or painted, really cleans things up. They still don't have the baseboard trim down; that will be next, I guess, before they prime everything. The cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms are just as I remembered them (you know, you sometimes forget the exact color of what you picked out, all those months ago!). The sink/cabinet in the master bathroom is a nice height; a little higher than the ones we have currently and higher, too, than the one in the guest bath of the new house. But it's nice all the same.

We're still packing things up each night...we've actually made a good amount of progress. We took an empty bookcase over to the storage facility on Saturday so having that out of the back bedroom REALLY makes it look like we're moving out! I've gotten a lot of things packed up that were in the spare closet of the room that I use for all my craft stuff - we were using that closet for storage, really, anyway, so most of it is stuff that can just be packed up because we don't use it right now (things like Christmas decorations, etc.). So that closet is being emptied pretty quickly.

32 days from today!

a place for our cars...or stuff...

We got out to the house tonight (after WAY too long) and they had our garage door on! They also had the doorknob & deadbolt on our front door - a pretty brushed nickel look. We had to manually lift the garage door so we could slide underneath and get in to look around. When we got in, they had all our doors stacked to the side...the doors for the doorways and closets. That was exciting to see. Still no primer on the walls but I think they're waiting for the trim to come in.

We are 36 days from closing, people. 36 more days of the crappy sliding glass door on our house...36 more days to pack all our stuff! And speaking of which, I'm proud of how motivated I've been to pack. I've packed all our (my) books on the bookcase in the back room, all my scrapbooks (except the ones I'm working on - what am I saying??? Like I have TIME to work on a scrapbook at a time like this!!), some office stuff like 3-ring binders, etc. and tonight, I packed up all our photo frames and candleholders. Boy, that'll make your house look bare in a heartbeat! It really looks like we're moving now...we took about 10-12 boxes over to our little storage facility that we're renting to store our stuff until we move (in 36 days). We're trying to do that each time we go see the house progress since it's so close. We'll have less to move on actual moving day...which is in 36 days. :D

ceilings are done...

We went out to the house this morning and they had the ceilings done. It's a pretty design - not the popcorn-ball effect but a star or asterisk-looking design. I hope you're able to see it in the photo there. I like it! That was pretty much all that had been done since Tuesday when we went out to see it.
We're still trying to pack things here and there...still getting boxes from work, from friends...man, we have a lot of STUFF! :)

We're " packin' "...

We went out to the house tonight but there wasn't anything photo-worthy. Nothing had changed visually; they had just gotten the 2nd coat of mud on the drywall. The next step will be the ceilings. That will be the first thing on the inside that will look "finished" since we started this "journey".

So this post will be to let you know that we have FINALLY started packing! We've been saying we need to start and we've had our (sweet) friends saving boxes for us...well, it took us getting to 7 weeks to start!

I packed 3 boxes last night while Jeff went through some of his stuff and decided what he was going to list on Ebay to sell and what he didn't want. We're trying really hard to throw out stuff we haven't used in a year or more...we'll see how that goes... :)

So I packed a lot of the breakable stuff in the kitchen last night - a box of vases and wine glasses wrapped in my hand towels & washcloths. Then I packed a box of coffee mugs and travel mugs (save 2 each for us to use until we move) wrapped in a fitted sheet (getting pretty creative with my padding!). I also packed up a box of glass salad bowls and pitchers with goblets. Those were wrapped in some bath towels and kitchen towels.

Planning to pack some more tonight...and each night until we get it all done. That's the best I can do for now!

7 more weeks (officially)...

We have an official closing date! Friday, August 17, which is just under 7 weeks away. Jeff stopped at the house on Friday and that's when they told him. We both had a chance to get out to the house just today to take some photos and a video of the house with all the drywall mudded up - the first coat, anyway. They'll put the 2nd coat on this week and then move on to other stuff. It's really starting to look almost "done" to me...there are several other houses under construction around us and when a house gets to this stage (the mud on the walls that you can see as you drive by), then I say to myself, "Wow, that house is 'almost done'!" when, in fact, there is still a lot to be done before it's actually done. But they only have 7 weeks to do it! :) They actually only have 6 weeks because we'll do the "walk-through" the Friday before, August 10.

7 more weeks, folks. 7 more weeks of:

• the dirt road...
• nasty well water...
• washing my dishes by hand...
• the U-turn...