Archives for April 2017

Words cannot describe, although I will try, how surreal the last two days have been. Last night, we got to move in all of the furniture that we had in the storage box and garage. The storage box was taken away today, which is one less large object in our driveway. The other missing objects from our driveway, now include the three trucks from our crew. As of today, we have officially received the certificate of completion on our home. We’ve already moved in a couple of loads from our storage units, and tonight is the first night we are sleeping in the house. The kids are tucked into their own rooms, my husband is at his place in front of the direct tv, and I am ecstatic to get my computer up and running (thanks to using a mac, it’s as easy as plugging in) and give this quick celebration update. Friends have already stopped by with Taco Tree which goes great with champagne, so I feel that this blissful moment cannot possibly get any better. I’m too excited to sleep, and too exhausted not too.

I’ll try to send photos in the morning. This weekend- living my fantasy!!!

Imagine the look on my son’s face when he spotted this beast one morning as we headed out to school. One of the guys on our crew owns it and drives it every now and then. It’s kind of a famous truck- he purchased it from the stars of the show “Diesel Brothers”. Which is now a show that my son and husband can’t get enough of. Which is a bummer because it cuts into my HGTV time. The truck is pretty freaking sick tho. 😉

It’s looking beautiful, and there are a ton of updates, but….. it. can. not. be. done. soon. enough.

• We have light! Light fixtures are like jewelry for the house- bring on the sparkle! It’s so nice to be able to go in the house at night and walk around, and turn on the outside lights, and plug in to an outlet!
• We have water! It’s not on full time yet, but they’ve tested it and it works. I had to track down a couple of last minute plumbing parts for the bathroom sinks.
• Carpet was installed in the bedrooms- this was a big deal! Those rooms are essentially finished. My kids are ready to move in with their sleeping bags.
• The bathrooms are almost finished- the tile, lighting, and plumbing are done. We just need some details- like shower doors and mirrors, to finish it off.
• Kitchen cabinets and counters are almost finished (a few knobs and one more piece of backsplash needed)
• The wood floor has been started (gorgeous), but they still have a long way to go AND my trim pieces are still on delivery.
• We hired another contractor to work on the deck, so that crew poured footings today.
• We purchased all of the front fencing material- black iron.
• The pool and all the concrete has been poured, we now have sidewalks and a hot tub pad (coming this week!).

Here’s another one of those moments- we cannot finish the last coat of pool finish until we are signed off by the county, which can’t happen until we finish the front fence, which can’t happen until we move the fifth wheel and cargo container, which can’t happen until we move in. Soooo, there’s that.

What’s left? wood floors, deck, systems (hvac, solar, water heater), appliances, finish detail work (floor boards, touch up paint, island install, etc.). These are the details that seem to drag on forever. Will we ever really make this? So many times, it just seams like this is a mirage, an unobtainable apparition. I was hoping for a sign off before the Easter weekend, but as of today, it does not seem possible. Hope for the best!

It’s ironic that we ended up on a street where this happens…

Probably no one else would really notice, or care.
But, as many of you may know, my husband has a background as a utility arborist. In our early days together, when he first started in the arborist business, he would point out all of the trees that were pruned for the power lines, and comment about the pruning job that was done. So we are both conditioned to look at these “situations” and ours could not be more prominent. All along my cute little country road, there are trees that have been butchered for years so they would be clear of the utility lines. Big, beautiful trees, are hacked right down the middle! Poor trees. I really do feel for them. They have to look at the other trees around them and think about all of the potential they could have reached, if not for just the very spot their seed was dropped.

sidenote: this is a life metaphor, and if you ask any of my Soroptimist friends, they know I can go on with metaphors about life and trees forever! My “logo” for the two years I served as president was a tree- and all of my speeches tied into the theme.

 

Anyway, if we could just go ahead and move all those lines underground now, that would be fantastic- it would also fix the big black lines running straight across my view 🙂

Take a look at the chop job on our oak tree over the well house- an embarrassing haircut for so many years– I think it’s a wonder it’s still standing!