The House - Better Late Than Never

Well, we are so close to finishing up this house, I can't hardly believe it. I was there until the late, dark hours of the night last night, finishing up some paint touch-ups to be ready for the carpeting that is being installed right now. We have spent hours and hours on this project, and I have to say that I am ready to be done with it. Done, done, done.

The final inspection and appraisal is tomorrow morning, and once we get the report that all is well, we can close and move in. Yay!

I had such great ideas for documenting this process with photos and prose, but once things got rolling, it just got away from me. Also, we have not had access to our "photo storage computer" so I've just been keeping all my photos on my camera. Anyway, I'll figure out something better soon... For now, here are a couple of sneak peeks from the beginning of the game. It was only 3 months ago that we broke ground, but looking at the photos makes me realize how much work has been done. More photos to come.

Chris has been amazing, working two jobs, basically. He'll go to work (teaching high school science) and bring his construction clothes to change into. Then, after school, he just goes directly over to the work site and gets started. We did have a builder to do the general for us, but we've been doing a lot of the actual work ourselves to allow for some custom work and to save money, too.

Here are a couple of the things we (mostly Chris, with help from me and the kids) have done:
Insulation
Roofing
Electrical
Painting
Laminate flooring
Tile flooring
Painting (I now hate painting)
Plumbing finish
Cabinet hardware installation
Clean up

It's been a lot of hard work, but fun, too. We all have our "work clothes" that are paint-splattered and perfectly ready for an afternoon of work. The kids have been super troopers... Completing their homework with those square carpenter pencils while sitting in a framed up room and using the shop lights to see their spelling lists, stuff like that.

Now that we have flushing toilets, heat, and clean floors, its a lot more fun spending long evening hours there. Plus, we have some awesome lights, so I am not afraid of being there in the dark by myself anymore. :)

This is a photo of the kids at "our" lake. Just across the street from the house is Wolf Lake. Great fishing and playing around...

Seems like forever ago that the house looked like this... I was so excited for the fireplace to arrive. See it in the corner?

Chris on the roof... He's in his bluish-purple shirt. Can you see him up there? Working on the shingles. And our friend Lonnie is in the garage, behind the ladder, starting on the electrical boxes.

I'll put up more photos soon. For now I have to get the kids going for school and their Halloween parties (Abby). We are all doing well and are grateful for all the help and support we have received while we were working on this big project. It was a fun journey, and I am really, really, looking forward to it being ready for us to live in.