So Close...

We're coming down to those last few steps to completion.  You know...the waiting and that "Oh Crap!" moment when something comes up that was overlooked while planning a thousand other things.  Nothing that can't be overcome, but you still get sinking feeling that your dreams might never be the same.

Originally Tracy told us that we'd be in the house by the middle of September.  Not picking on him, but that was VERY optimistic.  A tropical storm and a hurricane later, Neta said she'd be happy to be in by Halloween.  Hello and goodbye to that!  Maybe by my birthday in November.  Nope!  Thanksgiving?  Maybe...  Well...that's come and gone too, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's bright...very bright!

First a few things that were done recently.  How about a new (refinished) bathtub?  Don't know if you remember the old one, but this will refresh your memory.

Definitely Before

She sure cleans up nice!

For the guest bathroom, Neta refinished an old chest from the original house, leaving the mirror in its original state and hanging it on the wall.

Neta breathed new life into an old piece.

We had a farmhouse (of course) sink installed in the kitchen.

This is as much of a reveal of the kitchen as you're going to get for now.

Now then...all those plumbing fixtures won't do us much good without water.   Even though the well had been installed about 10 years ago, Tracy wanted to run new plumbing and electrical.  We were fine with that.

So far, so good.

The plumbers were about to start trenching and asked where the tie-in was for the water main into the house.  I wasn't sure, so I asked Tracy.  He and I walked around for a bit before stopping next to the little concrete porch we added off the kitchen.  He turned and gave me a funny look and just shook his head.

A while back, after the main slab was poured, framing was completed and the house was "dried in", we'd asked Tracy to add on a concrete pad outside of the kitchen as an add on to our carport/porch area.  Guess where the water main was?  Oops!

It's about 4 feet in, directly under the spigot at the top of the picture.

Luckily it was deep enough under the pad that the concrete wasn't blocking the pipe.  The poor plumber had to tunnel about 4 feet in to find it and tie in.  But at least we now we have running water!!!  He did fill the hole back in, by the way.

Only one major step left...the propane tank being delivered and hooked up.  The rest are just minor electrical fixtures, some moulding around the kitchen island and the trim carpenter installing some items, including the porch swing.

This is the latest item he installed for us.

Our range hood and backsplash (same bricks as we used on the fireplace).

The painters came back and did touch ups everywhere and put the final coating on the stairs.

They're almost too pretty to step on.

This weekend we moved in the remaining appliances including the refrigerator.  The fridge was nearly an all day project as we had to remove all of the doors to get it into the house, then reassemble it.

With the propane coming either Monday or Wednesday, Tracy told us yesterday that he would get the final inspection for the Certificate of Occupancy as soon as the gas is hooked up.  When asked if we could schedule movers for this coming Friday (Dec 2), he gave us the go ahead to do it.  WOO HOO!!!

Hey everybody...we're moving!  I hope my next blog entry isn't titled "Not So Fast!"