March 22nd - Cleaning Windows

These posts are getting boring! Why? Because there is so little left to do (YES YES YES!). 

On Saturday, we installed deadbolt strike plates at the houses. We have one house left to finish tomorrow. We would have done it on Saturday but we also painted exterior doors so they were off their hinges and we couldn't. They weren't dry in time before we left so we will be doing that tomorrow. What else are we doing tomorrow? I'm so glad you asked. Let me tell you:

Strike plates at Adam's
Caulking any places that cracked in the finish work
Painting baseboards that were installed after flooring was put in
Painting wall touch-ups
Painting trim on the outside of the house
Staining the steps in the garage
Vacuum the carpets, clean the cabinets out, mirrors, sinks and tubs, mop the kitchen floor, empty the cold storage, basement and garage

And then...WE'RE 100% DONE! On Thursday we have our final walk through inspection. This past week we had our final inspection with the city which we passed. That one, everything has to be up to code so there are little things that can be ignored as long as everything else meets code. For the walk through on Thursday, everything has to be done. All the painting, caulking, installation of hardware, cleaning, all of it. It's more cosmetic because it's Self-Help (our supervisor's supervisor) that does the inspection. They are looking to make sure that everything looks good for the sponsors and city officials that come to the open house on the 3rd. So everything has to be done. Done done. Not just mostly done. 

As part of that, Skylar climbed up into the attic, cleaned and put up screen material behind the windows. You don't want to be able to see that it's just an empty space up there and not a real room. Just looks kinda silly. 

Here is the before (but I have no after...) You can see the boards in the back that make the build up

Skylar anticipating wading through insulation. Fortunately, the way it was set up he didn't have to

Our attic access is too high up for our own ladder. This is a ladder from Self-Help. Something we'll have to invest in

Like I said. No after shot. Just the cleaning. But trust me, with the screen material, it was much better

We also started some touch up things, mostly puttying holes and caulking cracks. We're hoping tomorrow we'll finish all of our touch ups and have the last 2 days to clean. If we're really lucky, we'll just finish it up tomorrow!

March 15th - House numbers, Handrails and Decks, Oh My!

And hardware and grills. I know you're dying to ask so I will answer it now: We made it. We made the deadline to not have to do landscaping. Our official move in date is April 3rd (after the Open House) and now we're just finishing up the little things. We'll be able to finish landscaping after we have moved in. As of today, this is our count of the big construction type things:

Decks: 5 out of 5

Stairs: 1 out of 1

Handrails: 5 out of 5 (3 need to be installed but all are stained)
Rock: 5 out of 5 (including grout!)
Painting: 5 out of 5
Plumbing: 5 out of 5
Cabinets: 5 out of 5

Today Skylar finished our deck, Brandon stained the handrail, I installed the hardware on the closets, Skylar and I put up our house numbers, and the subs put in all the grills (or vents). 

Skylar asked me the other day if I felt like the project was worth it and I honestly think so. It's amazing to see how much we've learned, how much you can do (with the right tools) and how much money (hopefully) that we have saved. It seems a lot easier now to have to finish our basement and even do landscaping. He of course had no doubts as to whether or not it was worth it. I asked him the same question today and he replied, "Oh definitely!"  

Stained handrail "hanging" out in the basement (har, har)

This is for the stairs into the basement

Doorknobs for the closet (they are only on one side)

Beautiful deck by Skylar

We were in the process of putting up our house numbers. We're not crazy about the style so that is one thing we'll change after we get in the house

The year little Zachy was born! (Skylar's younger brother)

I told Skylar to get that dang ladder out of my picture. See below

The covers for the vents so we don't have huge holes in the floor anymore

Or in the wall

What is left? Paint touch up, just finishing things here and there. We still need to paint the exterior doors on the outside of the house. Past that, updates will be far and few between. Exciting stuff!

March 1st - Stairs complete, carpet in!

It really does feel like at this point, we will be able to finish all the big stuff by March 20th. Although a good friend of ours, Adam, was concerned today that he wouldn't finish the grout for the rock in time, we have confidence that he can do it. And if he can't, we'll finish up our stuff, make Nathan train us on grout and help him finish! It's not that we don't want to do landscaping, we just want to be able to be moved in AND working on landscaping. Not still commuting from Provo and being pressed to finish it within a certain amount of time. Here's is the current count:

Decks: 3.5 out of 5

Stairs: 1 out of 1

Handrails: 0 out of 5

Rock: 5 out of 5 (we still have to grout...that's 0 out of 3)

Painting: 5 out of 5

Plumbing: 4 out of 5

Cabinets: 4.5 out of 5

The plumbing and cabinets should be finished up by...Wednesday...or so.

Our carpets are in this week! It's amazing to see how much now it's really looking like a house. We were able to hang all the doors today since the carpets were all in. Not much left at this point...

Let's take a quick detour to the garage and check out the beautiful stairs Skylar built. The other homes have cement stairs up to the garage door. Our garage was too high up which compromises the quality of the cement so we end up having to build stairs. Which, I prefer. Worked out. 

Let's keep the work rolling!