Cannot Believe It

Our final inspection is set for Thursday, July 26th.

I seriously cannot believe it!

The painters were delayed from the 4th of July holiday, so our project manager threw everybody at our house that he could (there was someone there every day for a week doing things like finish plumbing, HVAC, etc).. but then the house had to sit for a week because we were waiting for painting.

In the meantime because everything was moving along, we put in our 30-day notice for our current rental. Then, we got scared that the house wouldn't be done by July 31st, and we asked to stay for another 2 weeks. The landlord/property manager said no (although technically they couldn't evict us because we pay rent).. and so then we FREAKED out. Like we would be homeless until our house was done. Luckily, someone from church offered to have us stay at their house for a week while our house gets done. AND, they have air conditioning. We save on rent for a month, and we move out of our stupid house. So, win-win. We will just move our house into a moving truck for a week, and then move into our new house when it's done. Hopefully all things will go well!

Anyways, the trim is beautiful, the baseboards are tall, the paint looks great, and our yard is landscaped (it was not optional for us---thousands of dollars later--can't say it looks great). I am so freaking excited that it's happening! I'll update as soon as we hear something.

Our kitchen desk. I plan to fill this puppy with cookbooks as soon as I can. It's still missing the bottom trim to the cabinets, but I don't know if we'll add it.

 Kids' bathoom sans mirror. I chose the white shades for the light and now I'm regretting my decision. 

Carter's room with paint and light.

Master bath vanity. Picture it with the mirror below.

Broyhill round mirror I found at Home Goods like 17 months ago.

Re-purposed lights we took from our old house. This is the view from the exercise room into the master bedroom. We plan to have barn doors between the two rooms.

View of the front porch. Turns out we need a railing per the county's regulations with anything four steps or more!

Kitchen island. I went with smaller West Elm globes, but now I'm kind of wishing we got the medium size. They also need to be adjusted down closer to the counter top.

View of our finished navy blue front door with white trim, Mindful Gray on walls, and mini-chandelier. I can't wait to get rid of the floor cover.

Dining room with toddler and chandelier. Man, I really wanted the long rectangular light, but it didn't work with the sloped ceiling. I think the light needs to be lower.

Blurry back porch photo. Man, we should've upsized the light!

Mulched hill with homemade rock wall, retaining wall, and gravel around the porch.

Our hydroseeded back yard after its first haircut.

Update: Curious about our progress? Click on this link to see all of our home building updates, or check out my Instagram account for continuous updates.

House Update #1,000,000

Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit with the title.. but that's how it feels.

And, my the title for my last update was a little misleading as well. A race is defined as a competition to see who/what is fastest. That is definitely not the case to finishing our house. We have been racing to get all of our loose ends tied up, but not our builder. They have done these things over the past month: flooring, tile backsplashes, and trim. They just installed our heat pump and mini-splits yesterday. Mind you, the trim was done last Monday, and the painting was supposed to be done that week as well. We are still waiting for:

• Painting.
• Cabinet finish work (like crown molding)
• Electrical--lighting and outlets.
• Plumbing--fixtures, toilets, and shower door.
• HVAC--water heater, vents, kick plates for vents under cabinets.
• Misc--Shelves, mirrors, and "punch list" items.

We were given a "worst case scenario" completion date of July 31st, but we will be lucky to have our house done by then. We just gave our property management company an official move-out date of July 31st, but I feel like we will have to rescind that date. It's just that getting ONE THING completed a week doesn't cut it when you're trying to get the house done. 

Anyways, we've had to make a couple of concessions to get the house done in a timely manner, but now I'm questioning if we should have done that or not because our house is not being worked on in a timely manner. Example: they installed the subway tile in the wrong design in the master bath, and I didn't hate it, so we took a discount instead of having them re-do the design. Also, the door to the garage opens out instead of in, and now the tile floor doesn't meet the threshold to the door. So, do we ask for them to re-do the door and trim, or do we just fix the tile floor that was installed according to false directions? 

             Wrong design                                                                                   Right design 

Flooring gap by the garage door

I am just sooooooooo done with this. I am not sleeping well because of the stress and the heat. I wanted to have the heat pump for air conditioning in my new house prior to the summer heat, but that's not happening. I am a very angry person when it's too hot and I can't sleep. 

Hopefully next time you check this I will be a nicer person.

Cabinets on cabinets on cabinets

Our project: kitchen island tile backsplash

 Basketweave subway tile backsplash in kitchen

 Kids bathroom. Big vanity, tiny sink.

Another one of our projects: kitchen desk. Pro tip: don't install wall cabinets yourself unless you're a pro.

Update: Curious about our progress? Click on this link to see all of our home building updates, or check out my Instagram account for continuous updates.