One Week To Go

If all goes according to plan the house should be complete next Friday, December 10th. A lot has happened this week, and there is quite a bit still going on next week, but we are in sight of the completion of this project.

Since Thanksgiving the kitchen counter tops have been installed, along with the kitchen backsplash tile. The tile surrounding the fireplace firebox has been installed. Interior painting was completed just yesterday, and the exterior trim painting and the painting of the exposed foundation should be done either today or Monday. All the electrical fixtures have been installed, including the switches and outlets. The exterior lights are up, and most of the circuits are wired into the junction box in the garage.

All the plumbing fixtures are in place except for the master bath garden tub. The location of the opening in the decking for the tub wasn’t properly located and needed to be recut, requiring the tile on the deck be redone.

The air conditioner compressor was set into place yesterday and is partially connected to the house, the electrical connection still needs to be made. Our thermostat has been installed as well.

Most of the interoir doors have been rehung, but the knobs still need to be installed. The outside of the front door, and the trim around the side light for that door, have been painted with a dark blue accent color we picked earlier this week.

We’ve met with the landscape contractor twice, and will likely meet with him and the builder at least once more to sort out the grading and seeding of the yard, as well as deciding what landscaping options we want to add. There has been some confusion regarding what was to be included in the landscaping allowance and what was provided with the house. The landscape contractor and builder are working together today to resolve this for us.

Next week will see the installation of the carpeting in the studio as well as in the two upstairs bedrooms, our closet, and the staircase. The kitchen appliances (refrigerator, stove/oven, microwave, and dishwasher) will be installed next week. The rain gutters will go up sometime next week as well.

We are required to provide a mailbox, which we bought earlier this week, and which the builder gracious said he would install for us.

On Friday next week we are having two inspections, a full home inspection including a Radon gas test, and a wood destroying pest inspection. The termite inspection is required by the lender, we are doing the home inspection for our peace of mind.

With all the work completed, and the appraisal completed, we are hoping to close on or around December 15th. Once we have that date confirmed we will be able to finish scheduling the piano move and the move of our household. We will be using the local piano store to move the two pianos, and we are using Allied to move our household. Allied will do a majority of the packing for us, and then move us across town. Sibylle is anticipating having the last week of this semester’s lessons in the new studio.

Our journey to our new house is almost complete. There will be landscaping in the spring, and decisions about where to put things, and what window coverings to buy, et cetera for some time yet, but we are eagerly anticipating being in our house, with just ourselves and our cats and no one else.