Nov. 8 - Kitchen!!! And Master Bath!

Hal finished up the kitchen and master bathroom vanity work today.
We are very pleased with the result.

And how about Hal's talent to produce this bathroom double vanity and center dresser?

The carpet for the stairwell and lower level was installed today. The main level gets done tomorrow.

As of last evening, we have working faucets functional toilets. Since the showers are virtually finished (except to clean up some grout work) they could finally turn on the water to the whole house.

We are still waiting for all our major appliances which will be delivered on Tuesday, November 13. The moving truck from the Quad Cities arrives on Thursday, November 15.

Some parting shots taken today....

Nov. 6 - Deck Railing! Shower Pics!

They got a good start on the deck railing system today.....

Here's the master bath shower....

And, they grouted the shower in the lower level.....but it's not cleaned off yet.

Nov. 5 - Working hard to get the house ready to move in

Our appliances are still en-route. Not sure when they will be delivered. Hopefully this week some time. We wanted them last week.

Brenda was busy all day touching up the white trim paint and removing the protective film from the Eagle windows and doors. The screens are on and with the film removed the view through these windows/screens is quite clear. There's a lake out there!

Today was a door day for me. I applied a third coat of polyurethane to all the interior doors first thing this morning and then changed all the hinges to satin nickel. Chuck was on the same door trail installing all the levers. Tom worked on the bathroom pocket doors to install the latch assemblies. For the most part all our interior doors are functional. We still have to install lever handles for the French doors to Brenda's "Do Room".

Tom and Chuck also the front entry door and the other exterior doors with their latches and locks. It's starting to feel like a home now that the front door is done. No pics just yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Larry and his helper Dave continued to work on the master bath shower tile. They also need to grout much of the lower bathroom shower are so Tom can set the toilet. They're making progress but it's moving along slowly.

Tonight Tom and Nick are working on plumbing under the island for the kitchen sink.

Another long day. Tomorrow I know that I have to put more poly finish on the stairwell and the lower level bedroom closet doors.

The kitchen cabinets will be completed on Wednesday/Thursday. The rain gutters are scheduled to be installed Wednesday. The carpet will be installed on Thursday and Friday.

Nov. 4 - Catch-up pics

Here are pics of my painted garage floor. I haven't even walked on it yet! They say 12 hours before foot traffic, 48 hours before driving on it and 72 hours before parking on it.

Stairwell.  I'll be applying the first coat of polyurethane varnish on all the stained areas today.

Here's the wet bar area of the kitchen.

 Half bath with toilet and porcelain sink installed....

 Brenda's pantry with shelving installed.....

Laundry sink in the "Do Room". The cabinets that Brenda ordered arrived by FedEx Freight on Thursday afternoon. When we unpacked everything we soon learned that they shipped two 30" base units and neglected to send the larger upper cabinet. The packing list was correct but the actual product mix sent was wrong. The washer and dryer will be stacked to the right of this base unit.

We spent the afternoon in the Des Moines area yesterday. We returned a lot of unused tile and got a refund. We picked out new backsplash to be applied in the kitchen. We also bought as much of the kitchen cabinet hardware as we could at Menards in Altoona. When you are building, Menards rarely has as many units of whatever you need in stock. We are short about 9 knobs and will have to hit the Menards in Ottumwa to get the rest.

We towed our enclosed trailer so we could also pick up a couple of tables that we bought from a business in Huxley, IA. Grab some take-out barbeque in Ankeny to share with Tyler, Emily and Connor for supper and then we were back at the lake by 10 pm. It was another long day on the run. Trapper was glad to see us as usual.

Here's the kitchen with the island pendants finally installed this afternoon. (They had been backordered since July.)

And, they installed the hanging light and the sconces in the stairwell.

Nov. 2 - I've got a painted garage floor!!

I have no pics yet. We just finished painting of my garage floor. It's 7:45....Tom stayed late to help me complete the job. He did all the rolling of the paint. I brushed all the edges and corners, mixed the epoxy goop and applied the sprinkles. It took us 3 hours. Tom wanted to help me get it completed tonight versus finishing in the morning. Earlier in the day we cleaned all the clutter out the garage for the first time in months. Emptied it. Before lunch I power washed the floor and after lunch cleaned/broomed it with the special degreaser/concrete wash provided in the kit. From start to finish it was about a 7 hour job.

For me this was a top priority job to get done before we move in. Glad it's done. Many thanks to Tom!

Brenda spent the whole day face painting the trim.

Larry is working to tile our shower in the master bath. He's got several days of work left for sure.

I'll provide some pics sometime soon.

Nov. 1 - Countertops

Kitchen countertops were installed today.

Another long day for all of us.

Halloween - We've been busy. We're gettin' there!

Brenda has been painting spindles for the stairway railing.

Tom built the railing for the stairwell on Tuesday and today I stained all the oak railing and steps.

Yesterday I painted the last two garage door panels and today, we FINALLY have functional garage doors that are painted to match!!! Chuck and Randy spent the whole day getting the garage doors and openers installed. They started to clean out the garage, too. My goal is to get the cement floor painted before the weekend.

Garage door installation. It should never be this tough for anyone. IF ONLY we had been dealing directly with a professional garage door installation company (instead of this absurd garage door fiasco created through the local lumber company) this should have easily been completed 90 days ago.

Larry and his helpers have been creating an awesome bathroom and shower in the lower level.

And tomorrow morning......the kitchen and bathroom countertops arrive and get installed!!!

On the down side, there is still no word if our appliances have shipped and will arrive.