Tired of running to Des Moines

We've been on the road the past two days driving up to Des Moines and back to shop for the house. (Of course, it's always about the dog!)

Monday morning, we stopped at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store to see what we could use on the house. They have tons of porcelain tile in stock. We are seriously thinking about loading up on floor tile from them in the coming weeks.

Next stop was Graybar to buy the components for our network and video wiring infrastructure. I plan to route video over twisted pair within the house. We'll also install RG6 coax. The plan is to get the wire installed in the wall with outlets for every possible TV and network location. (Tonight I ordered all the twisted pair from monoprice.com.)

We met Tyler for lunch at Zombie Burger.....which is only one block from Graybar. That's three times we've eaten there in the past 5 weeks. We like it.

Monday afternoon, we went looking for light fixtures. The first place we were advised to try was bad news. The sales staff completely ignored us while we made two complete loops around the store. As we walked out without ever even being acknowledged by anyone we figured that we didn't look like their type of customer. They're noses were a little too far in the air that they just couldn't see us, I guess.

The next place, Lights & More in Urbandale was a completely different experience.  We were given the full attention of a friendly sales person for most of the afternoon. And, since we are new construction, they offer a 40% discount on anything we order! After more than 4 hours of searching through books for the perfect light fixtures for the whole house....inside and out....we were hot and exhausted. Trapper was glad to see us when we got home. He can really hold it for a long time.

We returned to Des Moines today to find shower fixtures but only came home with 50% of what we needed.  Went to Lowes in Altoona, Plumb Supply and then Lowes at Jordan Creek... and then back to Sundown. Got the same happy greeting from Trapper upon our return. I'll probably be looking online to get the master bath shower fixtures bought and shipped in short order.

I got a call today advising that all our EZ Porch vinyl windows and screens for the screened porch will arrive this Friday. The geothermal wells will be drilled on Monday, July 30. Of course, that's the same day that our Eagle windows and sliders will finally be delivered! Monday could turn out to be quite a mess!

All the PVC decking material was delivered today. Tomorrow I should have some pics of the deck in progress. It's a little weird that the first thing to be finished on a new house would be the deck but that's exactly what might happen. Stay tuned!