Coming Along

The house is coming along nicely.  We've had a busy few weeks...

First, our contractor told us that he would give us two weeks notice to do our flooring (we installed the tile in the bathrooms and mudroom, as well as the wood in the entry and kitchen). Instead, he gave us a little over one week.  I took a day off work, which does not come easily, and we were all ready to go.  The afternoon before we were to begin the contractor called us and told us that he would have to move the days from Thursday through Saturday to Saturday through Tuesday!  Uh, sorry dude, that just isn't going to work for us.  I had already cleared all my clients on Thursday so it would have been pointless to work and there was no way I could take Tuesday off.  Strange thing is, he acted very annoyed, like we were being unreasonable.  Anyway, we finally got it worked out but didn't get started until the painters left on Thursday at 6:00 p.m.  We had a whirlwind weekend with several very late nights, and there may have been some Sabbath breaking in there too.  To top it off, Tania got the flu and was incapacitated for a couple of those days!  Thank goodness we had lots of help. 

Me, mixing some cement.

All of our equipment

Ty, cutting a piece of tile.

Matt and the bottom-half of Shayne working on the wood in the entry.

Making progress with the tile.

Our neighbor's brother was an answer to prayer and helped us with the wood in the kitchen.

The finished entry (though dirty) with our sweet banister in the background.

We greatly appreciate all of the help we got.  Thanks again to Tania's mom and step-dad, my parents, Matt and Lisel, Tyler (and Shannon who let him come even though it's one of the few days they have together), and Shayne.  Mike and Trish would have been there too but Mike had to work.  We also couldn't have done it without our neighbors who let us use tools, saws, hose and water, provided expertise, and even brought over food!  We are moving into a great neighborhood!

While we were doing the floors we noticed something seriously wrong with the family room.  They framed one of the windows in the wrong place, causing the room to be quite asymmetrical.  It had already been painted and everything.  This dilemma required cutting a new whole in the correct location and covering up the old.

The window in the correct place now.

The inside took off quickly once the floors were done.  We got cabinets, counter tops, plumbing fixtures, and electrical.  After a weekend in Salt Lake we came back and checked on the house.  We found that they had laid the carpet padding and cut out all the carpet itself, though they hadn't tacked it down yet.  Immediately we recognized something wasn't right.  The carpet was way too dark.  I called the carpet place but they insisted that the name and number on our sample was the name and number that was in our house.  We still knew something was off.  Tania took the sample to the store and convinced the associate to check it out.  Sure enough, the name and number on the back of our sample was the wrong name and number for that piece of sample.  So the carpet they were installing was correct according to name and number but not the carpet we wanted and had chosen.  That was quickly corrected and we soon had carpet too.

The exterior has been slow.  They have been siding now forever and they told us they were going to pour steps and sidewalks on Monday but still haven't gotten to that.  Nevertheless, if all goes according to plan they should be done next Monday and we should definitely be in the house by the end of the month!