Check us out Month-by-Month! Graph our rate of progress! You predict where we'll be in a month! You might even be right! Imagine that!
Don't ask. Don't even think about asking. If you think about it, I'll know it. I'm like Santa Claus, but worse. I won't talk. You don't really want to know. No. You don't. Trust me. Take my word for it. Somewhere in hell, the Romans are laughing over the idea of inside plumbing.
Have we reached the end? Is is possible? Are we really that close? Hopefully. The plumbers are half done. The HVAC guys are half done. We're almost ready for carpet. There's still lots to do, but at this point, we're really close to a move in point. Thankfully. It'll be a lot easier to pay trim if it's only 5 feet down the wall from us. We've been working on painting and trim lately. The house is really starting to appear like a house on the inside.
We've got working electricity. In fact, we passed our final electrical inspection on our first try. Didn't even have to study for it either. HVAC people have made an appearance at the house, but haven't completed what needs to be done. Plumbers are still MIA. Gas company is supposed to be out soon to do what they need to do (run the lines to the house and set up the appliances). Once all that's done, we can call the county for the final living inspection. Once we pass the final living inspection (and I'm not planning on passing it the first time. I know they're going to find something wrong), the county will then grant a Certificate of Occupancy. That means we can move into it. However, before we move into the house, we need to get carpet laid upstairs. Which means we need to finish off the Master Bedroom, Guest Bedroom and Hallway first (they all need to be painted and some of them need more drywall work).
Soon. Very soon.
Still no electricians. Maybe soon, however. We've heard through the grapevine that they've been busy. No. Really. Still no plumbing, but we've called the plumbers and asked them to place us on their schedule. They agreed (we think), but didn't give an estimate as to when they thought they could get to us. Still no HVAC work, but we need the electricians to right the wrongs in our circuit panel box before the HVAC work can be finished.
We've practically finished the downstairs, though. We've placed 95% of the flooring (We still need to finish one small section of wall before we can place flooring near it). We still need electrical stuff and plumbing stuff downstairs. We've bought the trim for downstairs, but it needs to be painted and installed. But, we've got it, so that must count for something. The kitchen still needs a stove (and refrigerator, but we're using it at our rental house, so that's not going over any time soon). The garage is all painted and ready for electricty and a water heater.
The upstairs is in a more unequal state. The room above the garage is finished and ready for electricity/carpet. The master bathroom is ready for water/electricty, but still needs to have some things done to it (tile in the shower, some sort of covering for the tub surround, put the toliet together, hang the mirror over the vanity). The office is ready for carpet (we already hooked the electricity up in it). The guest bath is ready for electricity/water. The Laundry closet is ready for electricity/water/appliances. We still need to paint: the stairwell, the hallway, the guest room, the master bedroom and the closets. They're all in various stages of "being ready," ranging from "almost" to "not-quite." Soon. Very soon. It's our new mantra.
"And the beat goes on . . ." Yes, it's that time of the project when I've devolved to the point of quoting cheesy music lyrics in order to make my point. It won't be long now, I can hear them. "They're coming to take me away, ha ha!"
I'm so tired of working on the house. Can't we just move into it already? Not quite. But, we're getting there. Two bathrooms completely done. The third is painted, but needs flooring and outfitting. The kitchen is 90% complete. We need to hang one more wall cabinet and place one more small section of counter top and then the cabinets will be done. The sinks are installed. The microwave is installed. We're missing a stove and a refrigerator. Those can't go in until the flooring is laid down. We've got to start the flooring in the opposite corner of the house from where the kitchen is. But, we need to repaint the ceiling in that corner before we start to lay flooring.
Still no fully working electricity. We've completed finished off our office (switches, lights, fan, outlets, etc). We've got a few other outlets working upstairs (in the laundry closet), as well as a few outlets working downstairs. We're waiting for the electricians, because some magic has to happen in our circuit panel, and we're only amateurs.
Still no plumbing. We're almost ready, however. Well, we are ready, in reality. But, I wanted to have working electricity (everywhere) for the plumbers, so they don't have to worry about bringing a generator again.
Still no HVAC either. They can't come back until everything's copasetic with our circuit panel.
So, as you can read, all roads lead back to the electricians. When are they coming, you ask? Good question. If we can ever get a hold of them, I'll let you know.
Hard to believe that we've been working on the house for one year. I honestly thought that we would be done by now. In fact, I thought that the status we're currently at regarding the house would have been reached by December 2001. On the other hand, it's not like I'm unfamiliar with the experience of being wrong.
The drywall is completely hung. The drywall is currently being finished. We're finishing it ourselves for a myriad of reasons. None of those reasons are based on the idea that we're experts when it comes to finishing drywall. Far from it. We've actually painted a few rooms, some of them got painted before we should have, in fact. I guess I'll take the blame for that as well. Some of the rooms (bathrooms mainly) are completely done, minus water/septic hookup and electrical components (working outlets, switches, lights, fans, etc). We're trying to get all of the water components done first. That way we can have the plumbers back out to hook the house up to the water and the septic system. At the same time, we're trying to paint around outlets/switches/lights/fans, etc., so we can have the electricians back out to install said outlets/switches/lights/fans, etc. We're moving and grooving and finally making progress.
No, I can't tell you when we'll be moving in. My wife made me promise not to "guess" anymore as to when we'll be moving in, because I've been so horribly wrong in the past. I agree. Sometimes, she's not so fun.
Dear God. We moved down here a year ago on June 1st. We first started working on the house somewhere around August 1, 2001. It's getting close to the year anniversary, and we're still not in the house.
That said, we're still making progress. We finally passed the structural inspection. We're waiting on the insulation inspection. We've got the drywall all lined up. The bank extended our construction period until July 31, 2002. The electricity is turned on. Once the drywall goes up, we're in the home strech. It's like the last 6.<mumble> miles of a marathon. You can see the end. You know it's coming. You're pretty sure that you can make, but it's not going to be any fun. One foot in front of the other.
Still no electricity. Turns out the inspector never sent our inspection card to the electric company. How nice. sigh. Now we go back into their schedule. Maybe soon. Hopefully. Plumbing was finally finished during the LAST week of April. No dry wall. But, we do have a septic system. We also have a liquid propane storage tank. Not sure when the dry wall will appear. It turns out that we failed our structural inspection. Gotta fix all those boo-boos before we insulate-inspect-dry wall. I don't think the fun will every stop. I can't hardly wait to hear the bank moan about how we're not going to be done by May 31. Is it our fault the plumbers took three weeks longer than they told us they would? Hell, for the last two weeks of that, they never showed up, as they were waiting for the inspector.
Still no electricty. Well, at least we passed. It's in the electric company's hands now. Trying to get a septic system put in. Didn't realize that our health permit expired back in December. Oops. More time waiting. Garage floor is poured. Plumbing still on-going, but should be done by the end of the first week of April. Needed to find out what the gas company is doing. Maybe dry wall by the third week of April?
Still no electricity. We failed the electrical inspection in February. It took three weeks to fix all the problems that were noted by the inspector. By the middle of the month, however, we managed to pass the electrical inspection! On the other hand, by the beginning of March, the HVAC rough-in was done and by the middle of the month,the plumbing rough-in has been started. Drywall here we come . . . And <gasp> possibly even electricity from the electric company!
Twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go, I wanna be sedated. One year. Wow, I had always figured we'd be done by now. That's depressing. We're making progress
My saviour sucks. He can't pass the test. It's almost the middle of February and we have no electricity. Personally, I think my main worker must be slacking off. <heh> I shouldn't kid. Katey's done an incredible job of working on the house. She's out there 3-4 days a week in cold, windy weather. Sometimes it makes me glad that I'm the one with the full time job because I don't know if I could work on the house the way that she works on the house. Maybe by the end of the month we'll have electricity, plumbing and the beginnings of HVAC. Maybe, we'll even have some drywall up. Lord, I hope so.
With January, we start the month with shingles and windows. By the end, who knows? Maybe even electricty (once again, another affirmation in the corner towards my saviour).
December came I had to realize that my Saviour was born. I knew that the world was going end when we had finally finished that $%&*# porch roof.
November found us with wonderful weather and a functioning, but unprotected roof. As for the porch roof, well . . . it took a while.
Well, we were kind of busy then as well. No, you really can't imagine what it's like for us at times. That's why we're the life of the parties.
Well, we were kind of busy, so you can appreciate our lack of progress.
My, but we were making so much progress. Everything seems easy in the summer, once you learn to appreciate the natural cooling properties of sweat. After a while, you begin to enjoy sweating.
God, that took a while. You can't imagine what a shock and relief it was to finally start.
This is where it all began.