We are getting much closer to having a completed house. Our builder indicated to us ten days ago that we should be done in late November or early December. A mix up regarding the wood flooring has caused a minor delay and today he said by the 10th or 15th of December.
Sibylle and I have locked in a mortgage rate with our lender, a very nice 4.25%, which is good for 60 days, or until the end of the first week of January. The lender would also like to start the appraisal process as that will take about two weeks to be completed, and the bank will need five days to complete the paperwork for the actual closing. With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up in just a little over two weeks, we need to start the appraisal no later than late next week otherwise we’ll delay the closing.
A closing on December 15th puts the house in our hands five weeks and one day from now. Throughout this process we have had a catch phrase between ourselves of, “Is it done yet?” Now that we have a semi-firm date for when it’ll be done, “is it done yet?” starts to take on a whole new meaning.
We want to use the local piano store to move the pianos, and he has indicated to us that after mid-December he won’t be available, so we are hoping that everything goes according to plan and that we can be in the house by the middle of the month. And we are planning on using a professional mover to get us from here to there. While it is only across town, it’s still a lot of work and 4 tons of stuff to move. Having an insured mover do it for us seems like a wonderful Christmas present to ourselves.
The house itself is coming along very nicely. The limestone masonry is being applied today, and the interior walls have been prepped and primed for painting. Just today we revisited the interior trim and wall colors to make sure they work with the color of the stiles and rails of the windows. Both Sibylle and I like the idea of white walls throughout the house, and a very pale pink color for our bedroom. The trim will be “Casa Blanca” which is slightly off white and nices bridges the hue difference between white walls and tan (taupe) stiles and rails on the windows. Casa Blanca will also be the color for the doors, and fireplace mantel.
The flooring around the stairwell is being relaid today. The original installation was improper and so the builder made the sub-contractor redo the work. Unfortunately the sub-contract had given us the left over wood flooring material without asking the builder first. With the builder on vacation for a week there was a delay while the flooring guys couldn’t redo their work as we had the material. We returned the wood yesterday and it’s been used today. Once that is finished the painters can do their thing and we’ll be on to carpeting, and other interior finish details such as lights, faucets, and ceiling fans.
Five weeks. More or less. It’s almost done yet.
