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CarportComesDown

When the carport came down, the vision was complete. The view from the kitchen window appeared, and you could finally see the front of the house. Wow, just wow.

We are still working hard at finishing all those “little” projects, and there are plenty more large projects to tackle after that. Everyday something gets done- a little project, or hanging/painting/planting something. So it’s coming along. It’s so dreamy and fun to decorate and cook and entertain in this home– I feel pretty blissful. And in case I haven’t mentioned yet, yes– it was worth it!
Next week we will get our closet organizers for the linen, coat closet and pantry. We are also getting some blinds on the front windows. Since the recent sale of the fifth wheel (finally!!), the parking area is wide open for the first time. .
The concrete will be removed next week so that we can start planting the front lawn and grading out the rest of the property. This weekend, we look forward to family coming to visit. I wish all the dads out there a very Happy Father’s Day!

Finally, right?! I’m slacking on this blogging thing. Everyone’s asking “are you in yet?” and “we want photos”. I’ll admit, there are too many other amazing fun distractions to decorate and organize that keep the postings postponed. Plus, I always forget to take photos.

So, I’ll make it short, sweet and mostly visual. We’ve had a whirlwind week of unpacking, organizing, building fences, inspections and sign offs, finishing the pool, and adding five laying hens to our little homestead. My husband has been working crazy hard on all of the outside projects. Little by little, everything is coming together. It’s hard to take photos when a room isn’t finished–because of course I want you to see only the final product(!), so for now, I’ll just show the move-in day photos, and a sneak peak at some of the finished areas. There’s so much to do, but it’s so. much. fun! If only this other work/kids/meetings thing didn’t get in the way 😉
To say that we are happy is an understatement. It still feels like a dream to all of us. Sometimes I walk into a room and just smile, because it’s like a photo in my head has become real. We are beyond blessed. Oh, and the trailer? Still not totally unpacked. Would love to just light a match and throw it over the fence, but if we plan to sell it, that’s probably not a good decision. A couple few armloads a day- for the kids.

There are a multitude of projects left to do and so details still to share. My creativity is starting to flow again. This weekend will be yet another huge milestone– we will be taking down the carport, I hope, at least that’s the plan, again. As amazing as it all is now, I can’t wait to see the transformation once that structure isn’t obstructing the house or the view. We plan to re-use some of the structure for an animal shelter down in the pasture. My parents arrive next Sunday, and we already have a list for my dad to help us with! 

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!

The bulbs that I planted in pots are patiently waiting to be planted in a forever home. The bulbs that I planted in the ground have yet to come up- maybe next year?!

Sooooo, this is one of those weeks that was painfully slow. TGIF, but I wish we had a little more to show for it. The crew is still finishing up the interior paint. Finally, the tile is complete, so the bathrooms and laundry room are in tact. We had a major hold up this week- one of those moments on the home improvement shows where they would make a big dramatic scene- da da daaaa… the trim molding for our wood floors, which was a special order, and which took OVER the full 21 possible business days for delivery were a completely WRONG flooring material. Not even close. What will happen???? cut to commercial…
I immediately called the flooring store and they had me return it. After a hefty discount and another long (but hopefully not AS long since it is now a different vendor) wait, we will be back in business. All things have a solution, but even in real life, this is a pretty super big deal! When I arrived at the store, it was a stressful point in the week, and although they did everything they could to make it right, I still wanted to break down to the lady- “but you don’t understand, we’re living in a trailer. we’ve been living in a trailer for EIGHT months… yes! though this winter!! yes, it sucks!! but we’re so close and now we are delayed, all because of some flooring trim. ugh!!” no one wants to listen to that, so I kept it together and just waited to shed some tears in the car ;(
SO, back to the progress. The pool had a bit of work done on the grading, and they will be back tomorrow to finish framing. Supposedly we pour concrete on Monday (but I don’t really expect things to go as planned anymore).
My countertops arrived today. I made a quick switch on my material decision when I went to order the slabs. All along, I was planning to use a granite or quartz that resembled the look of marble. I didn’t want to worry about the porous-ness and stain-ability of the marble when I tip over that glass of red wine (yes, you have all seen me do that). Since I’m budget-minded, I’m getting my countertops from a large discount warehouse and I wasn’t happy with any of the granite or quartz products that they had in stock (of course there were plenty of options a couple months ago!). But what I really loved, oh yes, was the marble! The carrarra was a dream, but then I spotted a jadeite (from China). It was a gray striated pattern that I loved. All along, I thought I wanted white, but in the end, I fell for the touch of color- gray and caramel tones. Hopefully these will outlast the “gray” fashion trend and back into the warm tone trend, plus, it lends a touch of contrast from the cabinets. Plus, I just liked them- sometimes, it’s on a whim.
The gutters were started today, and really, that’s about it for the week. This weekend, I get to paint cabinets, island and furniture.
Remember the part in the movie “Money Pit” when Tom Hanks would ask the contractor how much longer and he would always reply “a couple more weeks” or maybe it was a “few”? Either way, that’s what I’m reminded of whenever people ask me- for the last 2-3 weeks, my answer has been; “we’re really close, just two or three more weeks!”. I might be saying that for a while.

Deadlines? what are deadlines, really, but moving targets- approximations- goals, right?! Our official deadline for completion was last Thursday, but a bit more paperwork and money, of course, buys us a 2 month extension. I HOPE we will not need all that time, but it’s there. I’m not sure how much more of trailer living any of the family can take. The closer we are on the house, the harder it is in the confined space. And we are close- painfully so!

Here’s the progress from last week:

• Cabinets delivered and hung
• Tile guys were there all week completing the shower and floor tile for bathrooms and laundry. They are almost done- grouting today.
• Interior trim and some walls have been painted
• New garage door is on
• The ceiling and kitchen beam were repaired and patched
• We painted the living/kitchen tongue-and-groove ceiling (Thank you- Jill, April, Annette and Steve!)
• Stained the wood interior french doors for the office and laundry room
• Re-stained the front porch columns to gray (we thought they were a little too yellow agains the white)
• Ordered carpet and scheduled for next week (bedrooms)
• Some furniture was delivered- yay!!

What’s left to do? Wood floors, finish interior paint, lighting and electrical finish work, plumbing fixtures, countertops (ordering today). Just a couple minor things, right?! Stay tuned!

Wow, things have been busy. crazy busy. So this will be a short update to get you caught up on all the exciting happenings here.
First- my dream of a white farmhouse has come to fruition. In just a few days, the exterior of the house was transformed with white paint and dark gray trim. Reaching a decision on which “white” to use took some doing, but in the end, I am very happy with the color.
Also, on the exterior, the pool was gunnited on Friday, so it’s starting to take shape. They are installing the tile today, but the crew showed up with the wrong color tile- thankful my husband was on site to catch it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the interior, things are also rockin’! The tile crew started last week on the shower tile. Hopefully, they will be finishing up this week with both bathrooms and laundry room tile. The doors, trim and texture are all finished, so they are prepping for a busy week of interior painting, wood flooring and cabinets, which will be delivered tomorrow. New garage door comes on Thursday.

THE BEAMS ARE FINISHED! well, at least the bulk of them. I still have a little bit of finish work in the corners, which will have to be hand sanded, but they are almost there.

I’m not sure how we got so lucky on the weather these last few weeks- it held out long enough for them to paint and work on the pool. Now with the upcoming storm, they’ll be able to concentrate on the inside. As for the deadline, it’s technically only FOUR days away. Of course, we will not make it. But I think we are close. I’m trying to be positive and hoping for two more weeks, but it maybe be 3, or even 4, depending. After this week, they will have the finish electrical and plumbing fixtures, the water/hvac/and electrical systems to hook up, and the countertops to install.

We are beyond excited, and beyond ready to get out of the fifth wheel. I’ll try to keep posting more frequently as we race to the finish line!

I haven’t posted a good sky shot in a while- I’m so grateful to see some some sunsets for a change! The last week of weather renewed our spirit, and spring seems finally within reach.

got your attention, didn’t I?! yes, we’ve moved, but it’s not into the house. The fifth wheel has relocated to the driveway area (along with the two utility trailers, gigantic storage box, our 3 cars and all of the crew’s vehicles- oh and the porta potty). The benefits- much less mud now that we’re on blacktop and everything is a closer walk- cars, house and refrigerator. It’s literally one step closer to moving in to the real thing.
It was a fun week– the pace is picking up. The house is completely sided, except for the chimney (remember that budget thing? I had to forgo rock on the chimney- I hope it’s a someday thing). The interior drywall texture was started on Saturday, so we have a couple more days for that “imperfect smooth” hand finish.
And a large “ground-breaking” on the exterior landscape; the pool was dug on Saturday! That crew was in and out in less than 5 hours- amazing! Even my son admitted they put his tractor driving skills to shame. And then, of course, it rained and hailed so hard over the last night and day that part of the pool wall already caved in. yikes!

Over this next couple of weeks, things like cabinets will go in. The window trim and baseboards. They will prime and paint the interior once the texture is dry. The tile will be started in the bathrooms and they’ll be prepping the floors for the wood and carpet.

Update on beams- almost done sanding! Just have the bottom parts left, which are the hardest- of course I saved that till last. ;(