Day 124: Moving Forward

Day 124:
4-way inspection was held on Tuesday of this week and with a few minor corrections on Wednesday the project moved forward and the insulation began. This evening the insulation finished up all but the attic which will be blown in at a later date.


The big question now is when will the electrian be back to relocate the entry way light and relocate one outlet.

And finally should I insulate the ceiling in the basement for sound barrier?

Oh, well no big rush. Drywall will probably start arriving tomorrow!

Day 121: Moving Forward

Day 121 brought a renewed hope that maybe our dream home will be completed some day.













Carpenters re-furred the fireplace area, added the small windows under the stairwell and hung the exterior doors

The glazier's'(huh, I caught a few of you on this term haven't I?) installed the windows. All but one that is still being stored in the contractors garage. Hate for them to do all of the work in one day and one mob.

Concrete sub buffed and glazed the the front porch.

One or two items to correct and then let the 4-way inspection begin.

Giddy up move'em out!

Ohio Bound

The past two weeks, John, Rachel and Gabe have been busy preparing to move to Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

In the past two weeks, we have held a family going away party, taken family portraits, packed and loaded their belongings and spent as much time together as a family as possible.

A wide array of emotions are flowing as we celebrate in this change for them and yet mourn the time they are away from the family. Jenny summed up best when she said goodbye on Saturday, "I'm losing my best friend."

We will miss them something awful; but know that they are on a journey that they will not want to miss. An adventure full of challenges, trials, obstacles, growth, and opportunities. Most important will be the memories they will cherish as they look back on the journey they have begun.

Day 119: Not Much to Brag About

It is now day 119 and counting and this past week the progress on the house has almost come to a stop. Who said anything about expediting the completion date?

Well okay, it hasn't come to a complete halt. It's just everything that they did do seems to be wrong. It has been a very stressful and a long week needless to say.

JOB PROGRESS REPORT:

1. Installed fire place and installed the vent system outside of the furring and through the floor joist in the WRONG SPOT. Okay code super cedes this mistake and now we will re-furr the basement so it looks like we planned the whole thing.

2. We determined that we didn't like the bath tub in the master bath and therefore, the plumber re-installed the corner bath and we changed out the standard fixture for the master shower to a fixture that will accommodate a hose wand. Plumber also finally installed the downstairs bath tub.

3. Electrician did come by and re-install the light switch in the front entry way but did not change out the light fixtures in the entry way nor switch out the outlet in the family room above the wet bar.

4. Central Vac installer installed the vac system through out the house and only made two mistakes (that I know about). First, the vac connection outlet underneath the shaker bench in the garage entry will not work and second, the canister is not located in the middle of the wall in the garage but should be on the shelf next to the central vac switch.

5. After selecting our colors for the trim, stucco, rock; our contractor had another suggestion and made us go back and re-evaluate the color scheme again. Hmm, I knew there was a reason why we liked those colors in the first place. We want the same color scheme that we selected originally.

6. After nearly wringing the necks of our contractor we finally were able to obtain some cabinet samples so we could coordinate color schemes in the interior. Also coordinate the doors and windows.

7. Doors and windows arrived on site on Friday.

8. Hurrah! We now have a roof over our heads.













9. After experiencing a week from HELL, met with the contractor (he's now in a hurray to complete the 4-way inspection) and walked through the house and went over again in detail what stills needs to be accomplished before 4-way. By mid next week, he will have everything completed and hopefully have the 4-way completed and start on the dry wall.

AND WE ARE ONLY HALF WAY THERE!!

Day 107: Porch and Electrical

Day 107: The house now has a colored textured front porch; which looks really good. In addition over the last several days, the electrician has installed all of the rough wiring; the audio/media subcontractor has installed the wiring for the audio system and surround sound in the basement; and the HVAC subcontractor has corrected his mistake of running the vent flume through the master bedroom.


We met with the contractor today and forecasting ahead he indicated that the windows are two weeks out still and then four-way inspection can occur. Six weeks after the four-way we should be anticipating delivery of cabinets and week for finishing up and then 30 days for substantial completion and final walk through.

Based on this rough schedule we will be moving into our new dream home somewhere around September 14th. Hmmm, we need to expedite and try and complete by September 1st or we may be sleeping in the streets.

Face the challenge and overcome

This past weekend I spent with my Varsity Scouts in a great super activity. Thursday, we met and after getting everyone rounded up and all their gear we went up the canyon and established our base camp.
Remember, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we have experienced an unusual weather pattern of rain, snow, and wind. Thursday it was beginning to clear up but it was cold and it didn't take us long to break out the hot chocolate once the sun began to go down.

Friday morning we loaded up the bikes and traveled to an area called Cascade Springs.
There the group descended 4 miles down Little Deer Creek Canyon only to find that the only way out of the canyon was to climb out the canyon on the trail that probably raised some 1000 feet plus to the ridge line and then once at the summit it was nearly straight down to the Deer Creek Dam below.


This part of the trail we only experienced two casualties. One boy sheared his rear derailer off his bike probably when he jumped over the rock would be my guess and another young man had a flat tire 150 yards from the summit and no one had a repair kit with them; therefore he pushed his bike over the summit and down the trail.

This was only half of the ride, from Deer Creek Dam they followed the trail around the reservoir to Soldier Hollow; which was suppose to be "flat terrain". Needless to say by time they arrived for lunch at Soldier Hollow they had had enough biking for the day.

The rest of the day we swam in the volcanic crater at the Homestead Resort and then played 9 holes of golf at Soldier Hollow before returning to our base camp. A good dutch oven dinner with desert and a little campfire story relating was about all any of us handle before we all went to bed.

Saturday morning we broke camp and took our bikes to a trail head again. This time it was "all downhill" and even paved. 16 miles later we arrived at the lake where we had a boat waiting to take us out to try our skills at inner tube wars, waking boarding and even one solemn skier.

Of course the hot dogger is my son who showed us all how to ski and wake board.


It was a lot of fun and hard work! We faced our challenges and we overcame them.

Day 106 : Home for Sale

This week not a lot was accomplished due to inclement weather. Tuesday and Wednesday we experienced heavy rain and "snow" storms. However, despite the weather the electricans managed to install the rough wiring through out the house and now with a little bit of coordination with the plumber sub, audio sub and the mechanical sub we should be just about ready for that 4-way inspection.

According to realtor the 4-way inspection is approixmately 50% complete.

Oh, did I say realtor, that's right part of living the dream is to sale our home too. We actually listed our home on or near April 1st. We thought that it would be a good April's Fool Stunt other than we are serious about the whole thing.

We have had a dozen prospective buyers come by and take a tour but no offers. I was starting to worry that I might be in trouble. No offers coupled with the fact that just in a 1 square mile all of a sudden their were 6-8 more homes that were for sale. I was concerned that a buyer might wonder what's wrong with the area or was the market turning downward.

It was time for desprate measures. On May 29th, we removed the home from the listings lowered the price (You see I was trying time everthing so that I only had to move once and so the first time I listed the home I purposely listed it at a reasonable but higher price) and relisted on June 5th.

I must say this was a Awesome Strategic Move!

June 6th we had an offer on the home and by Friday the 8th, we had a contract to sell. The buyer had fallen in love with the home on the first listing and had toured the home then. When we removed the home from the listings, they were devasted and thought that they had lost the opportunity. The rest is history, they didn't wait at all to make an offer once we re-listed the home.

I am pleasently satsified with the deal. I believe that we have sold the home at a fair price and we have to close on or before August 31st; which should time out just about right with Cheryl and I moving into our New Dream Home. It's also a big relief financially, needless to say.

Day 99: More Challenges

Day 99:
As soon as the rough framing was completed the plumbers and mechanical subcontractors have moved into action. This past week, we have been faced with making decisions on one/two sinks in master bedroom, what type of water treatment system do we want, what type of audio system and where, and finally what about surround sound for the big screen TV.

While Cheryl and I wrestled with these decisions, the plumbers delivered an bath tub for the small bath on the main level; which we have now changed to a shower instead. They also tried to install the bath tub downstairs and found it to be too big.
Meanwhile, Cheryl was fretting whether we could have a different tub for the master bath and lost the opportunity when they told her sure as long as the holes were drilled yet. Ugh! It would be nice to know we have choices before delivering what they think we want.



All in all the plumbers have been great to work with; however, can't say the same for the mechanical subcontractor. Let's see, hmm, oh, we do have a choice on types of furnaces too late now the standard furnace is installed. Let's see if we can just run the vent pipe and ducts anywhere that is easy and so what if it cuts the room up by lowering the ceiling.


Oh, look we can install vent piping right here in front of the big screen TV and lower the ceiling so they only can see half of the movie. Best of all:
we took the flue that goes from the furnace through the kitchen against the back wall and moved it into the master bedroom and moved it out from the wall by a good foot or better. It will be beautiful in the master bedroom all boxed out.


Needless to say we will be discussing moving a flue and possibly some vents in the family room. I keep thinking that we have got past all of the challenges and then a new one surfaces. Cheryl and I determined this week that we need to have at least one of us each morning around 9:00 am go to the house and see who is working and confirm they understand how the house is suppose to be built.