What About the House?!?!?

Well, I am glad you asked!!

Okay, so you didn't, actually, but I am going to tell you anyway...

We obviously didn't make our goal of being in the new house by Christmas.  And we still aren't in the new house a week after Christmas.  In fact, I have told some friends that I am beginning to think of it as this nice house in the woods that we visit daily.  We nod our heads at things that we like and correct things that we think should be fixed.  We discuss how much it costs and where we could cut costs.  We plan where furniture will go.  We measure things and remeasure things.  We ooh and ahh and love the house, but it isn't our house.  It doesn't feel like we will actually ever live there.

But it is our house and we will actually live there if we can ever finish the durn thing.  And the end is maybe-kinda-sorta in sight.  It should hopefully be just a few more weeks, but here is what we are working on now:

-- Re-painting the kitchen and laundry room cabinets.  Yes, I said re-painting.  I had a discussion with my cabinet builder about the fact that I wanted a white white kitchen, and I even had a white picked out for my cabinet color.  He had painted everything his white without discussing it with me, and he assured me that his white was plenty white enough.  It wasn't -- especially when we got the cabinets installed in the house and compared them to the trim in the kitchen, which is the color that I wanted the cabinets.  So we are re-painting.

-- Vanity tops are being installed in the bathrooms tomorrow.  Once they are finished, they should be able to start on the countertops in the kitchen and butler's pantry because the cabinet paint should be dry!  Marble for those tops is ordered and in the hands of the countertop people.

-- Once the countertops are in in the kitchen, subway tile has to be installed.

-- Stairs to the bonus room and our mantel got a coat of poly yesterday.  All hardwood floors need one more coat of poly.

-- Carpet should have been ordered today and will hopefully be here in the next week.

-- The plumber has to come to install all toilets, sinks, and faucets, but they are all on site.

-- My front door is waiting for its coat of turquoise paint.  The original color I was planning on was looking like more of a gray-green, so I picked out another shade that is definitely turquoise.  I cannot wait to see it up.

-- All doors need doorknobs and doorstops installed.

-- All exterior doors and shutters need a coat of Urbane Bronze.

-- Appliances must be installed.

-- My chandelier needs to be installed.

-- The decking on the porches needs to be stained.

-- Knobs and pulls need to be installed on all cabinets.

-- Cabinets in my office need to be finished and installed (will probably be finished after we move in).

-- Vanity needs to be installed in powder room.

-- Brick on the fireplace needs to be painted.

-- Power should have been turned on today!

-- Phone is in the works.  The phone company came out last week and freaked out that our house is so far from the road, so they sent our order to engineering.  Engineering has since okayed the order, so now we are waiting on installation - again.

Um, off the top of my head, I think that's it...as you can see, it's mostly piddly stuff.  I hope it won't take too long to get it all finished because I am SO ready to get in the house.  I really can't wait to enjoy that place-in-the-woods-that-doesn't-really-seem-like-ours!