All I want for Christmas...

...is to live in my house sometime in January 2013!  We are supposed to close on either January 8th or 9th but it's not looking good.  Story of our lives when it comes to this house...we're talking over a year since we signed the P&S Christmas Eve 2011.  Things have still been progressing but there is so much little stuff that still needs to be done and I can't imagine it happening this week.  Especially since it's a holiday week.  Soooo...we will continue to wait.  A little less patient than we have been this entire process I might add.

Here are some pictures of the past week.  All of the appliances are in and most of the plumbing is done.  We still have a sink that needs to be installed in the girls bathroom (it came in damaged), the pedestal sink in the half bath and the shower fixture in the master bath.  But...there is always a but...the plumber won't come back until the girls sink is put in...and the counter top guys who need to put the sink in are on vacation.  Our closing next week rides on us getting the plumbing inspection early this week and then being able to get the final inspection late in the week.  Awesome....doubt all of this will happen smoothly this week...

Also, the cabinet guys still need to come back and finish some things in the kitchen.  Some of the toe kicks are missing and the back of the island piece was back ordered.  Plus they need to install my furniture legs!

I was able to go to the house on Thursday of this week and started putting kitchen items in all the cabinets.  Thanks Jen for helping (and bringing wine)!  Although...she probably thinks I'm a hoarder after seeing all the crap I have...  I am truly clueless as to how I fit it all in the old house.

 

The carpet is in.  I am pleasantly surprised at how nice and soft the carpet is since its the builder grade.  The true test is how it's going to hold up over the years...

Here is the spare room...

Sophie's room....

Liv's room (yes...I set up some toys in order to buy me time when I go there each week with the girls!). 

 

The master bedroom...

 

 

The master closet and study...

 

And the master bath...

If we are to close next week...here are the items that still need to be done...

- the girls sink and plumbing needs to be installed and finished
- the master shower plumbing needs to be finished
- the half bath sink and fixtures need to be installed
- the refrigerator ice-maker needs to be plumbed (note: we are told that the above plumbing should only take a day)
- we need the plumbing inspection
- the hvac guy needs to come back and put all the vent covers on
- there is a leak in one window and in the attic were the hvac guy vented out the unit that needs to be addressed
- the plasterer needs to sand all the patch work he did
- the painters need to come back and basically give the entire house another coat because of the awful job they did
- the front walkway and under the deck needs to have the cement poured
- a cleaner needs to come in
- and we need a final inspection. 

Seems like a lot to do in only a few days.  And seeing how we NEVER see workers there simultaneously...I am guessing it's not going to happen.  Great.

Merry Christmas everyone!



House update...

Since the move last week a lot has gone on at the house.  We now have natural gas instead of propane (thank goodness!), we have hardwood floors on the first floor, we have tile in both upstairs bathrooms, we have lights and ceiling fans and closet lights, we have paint on all the walls (Side Note: it all needs to be either repainted or touched up...such an awful job...more on that later), we have kitchen counter tops and appliances and we even have some new furniture.  Here are some progress pictures:

Since this picture was taken, the upstairs windows now have shutters and the front steps were installed.

 

Ahhhh....here is my kitchen!!!  I am beyond in love with it.  I went to the house ALONE all day on Saturday to wait for some deliveries.  I couldn't get my cleaning gloves on fast enough.

 

So the kitchen went from this...

To this!  While I was there, my FIL came and I helped him hang all of the kitchen lights.  I even had enough time to put down paper on all the floors so it can stay semi-clean and hopefully not get too scratched up.

Ohh...and this guy came to keep me company:)

Here is the mast bath semi-tiled.

Here is the kitchen set that was delivered from Boston Interiors.  I'm sure the workers will now appreciate a place to sit their grimmy little butts on.  I only half joked the other day about going to the house at lunch time every day to ensure no one is sitting at the table...

 

 

 

Here is the dining room with it's table set and new light!

 

One of my little helpers.  Little did she know that she was just pushing sheet rock dust everywhere instead of picking it up:)

And the appliances!  We didn't really put anything in its place since the plumber has to take them out to hook things up.  But they are in at least!

My other little helper:)

 

So the to-do's left...  We need a front walkway, the tiles guys need to finish, carpet needs to be installed, the plumber needs to come in and hook everything up, the plaster needs to do some touch-ups, and the crappy painters need to come back and basically repaint our entire house.  Not too much...RIGHT!?!?!?!



The big move...

It actually happened.  We moved most of our belongings out of my in-laws house yesterday.  It was no small task.  It was raining.  We lost power and had to use flashlights to identify boxes in the basement.  We had to retape most boxes in order for them to survive being piled 5 or 6 high in the new garage.  And I didn't order enough pizza.  But at least it happened!

My MIL took Sophia for the day out on errands and to visit Nonna.  My SIL and BIL offered to have Olivia for her first sleep over with her cousins (Side note...my BIL took Olivia and her cousin Anna out for lunch...then to the spa to get their nails done...and then out for ice-cream.  AND then they had hot chocolate and cookies while watching the Polar Express that night.  Talk about making her first sleep over experience the best.  Kinda sets the standard a little high.  Wait until she sleeps over there again and expects the same VIP treatment!!!).

Here is Olivia in the moving truck before she left for the day.  What is it with kids and liking these kinds of trucks???

 

Thanks to Dave's amazing group of friends, we had plenty of muscle.  We emptied out two basement areas, a garage and half of an attic.  Let's just say a 26 foot truck was not enough.  We used two additional cars for miscellaneous items and my dad's utility trailer.  Plus I realized later on that we had even more stuff when we moved out of our old house.  There was a dining room table set, a livingroom set, a washing machine, a lawn mower/snow blower/shed tools.  Eeek!

Dave impressed me with his driving and backing up skills with this monster.  I did get a little scared and might have yelled for him to break when he started rolling back towards my in-laws house though...

 

Here is what the garage looked like when we were finished.  My dad and I were stacking machines.  It was like a big game of Jenga.  We had to have the kitchen and laundry appliances in there still since the floors are still being finished.  Plus we have the girls bathroom vanity in there until they need it. 

 

  
And we needed to leave a 2 foot boarder around all the edges.  I pray that no one hits those boxes and they all come crashing down...

 

ORBing it...

I had asked the builder once or twice about not having brass door knobs in the house.  I assume he has other things on his mind that are more important...like actually finishing our house some day...because I noticed a big old box of these guys last week when I was at the house...

I'm just not a fan.  No offense to anyone that has them.  It's just not my style.  So I've seen them spray painted in about 100 blogs so I decided to give it a try.  I didn't sand.  I just wiped down and stuck them into some cardboard that we had.  1 1/2 cans of Rustolium Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB) with primer later I had this scene..

I sprayed every part of the handle including the door catches and screw heads.  I assume the door catches will get scratched up and might need to be replaced...but I figured nothing was lost on this project and it was worth spraying them now and replacing them later as necessary.  Since all of the doors are already hung in the house...I am going to need to replace all of the brass hinges.  I read in one of the blogs that I follow that the hinges don't hold up well after being sprayed so I can just pick up bronze ones at the hardware store at some point. 

All was going well until it started raining.  I was able to drag the cardboard into the garage but suffered some casualties.  Most of the handles have little water marks on them now and a few rolled off the cardboard and have scratches.  See what happens when I don't do things in your barn Dad???  Hopefully the second coat of paint will fix this...  I plan on doing a second coat to cover the the mistakes and the under parts of the knobs. 

So even though the hinges will be a different color for now...I think these will look great on all the doors.  Ohh...and if anyone is wondering...we have 27 doors in the house.  Any volunteers for helping me replace all of the hinges????

The hang up...

We are officially moving next weekend!!!!!!!!!! 

Let me clarify.  We are officially moving...into the garage...next weekend. 

Not what I expected...but at least we are getting somewhere.  The issue is that we have a rate lock and it's pretty much impossible to meet our rate lock deadline.  We will be shy a week or two.  We could still move once the house is finished but we'd have a pretty large penalty to pay.  So we've decided to wait until the rate lock expires and then move after that which will most likely be the beginning of January.  So instead of moving in a couple of weeks...it will be more like a month.  What's a month at this point...right?????

It's starting to get exciting...

Of course it isn't without a hang up.  More on that later...  Lets just focus on to the exciting stuff.  The carpenters are finished and the painters have started this past week.  We decided to have them paint all the rooms instead of us doing it later.  It's going to take them an entire week...Dave and I keep joking about how long that would have taken us if we did it ourselves.  Thank god we didn't.  Here are some progress pictures from this past week.  To read more on the actual colors I picked, click here http://mytypealife.blogspot.com/2012/07/paint.html (but there have been a few changes).

I kept the foyer/kitchen/family room all the same color (BM Sherwood Tan) because I think it will flow nicely.  Also...I couldn't even imagine picking out another color...

Here is the dining room and it is by far my favorite (BM Hale Navy).  I think everyone needs a little navy in their lives.  Especially on the ceiling...

This is the girls playroom (BM Safari).  Ikea...you will be seeing me soon since I'll be needing some storage solutions.

This is the spare bedroom (BM Flora).  The color was supposed to be the master bedroom color.  I'm happy I changed it or the master but I seriously love this color.

This next color is going to be changed (BM Kona).  It's way too dark for the room since the room never gets actual sun light.  So I've gone with a lighter brown (BM Davenport Tan).  Liv still loves it...she says it's chocolate covered walls.

This is the girls bathroom and Sophia's room is also the same color (BM November Skies).

And here is the master bedroom (BM Kendall Charcoal).  I know it looks super dark but it's awesome.  Seriously awesome.  I can't wait to see what it all looks like when it's decorated.  I think I convinced Dave today about the mirrored nightstands.  Booyah!  More on them here http://mytypealife.blogspot.com/2012/07/bedroom-color-changes.html

This is the master bathroom (BM Stormy Monday).  I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see how the tile is going to look.  I hope it's going to be as pretty as I'm picture it in my head...

This is the future office (located through out closet).  I didn't realize that they were going to be carrying the bedroom color into the closet and this room but I'm happy they did.  Although...this grey would not have been my first choice in our closet.  Time will tell if I'm going to be repainting it to something lighter.

It seems as though everything is moving along at a good rate.  But...we still have a hang up.  I think that deserves it's own post so stay tooned...