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!

February 22nd - Awesome news!

This past week Skylar and I were working on the finish work at Adam's house and our supervisor Nathan let us know about something we've all been dying to know about. He found out from his boss the EXACT date we have to be finished with the MAJOR work in order to not have to do landscaping: March 20th. If we can finish all the "construction" type things then we will have the open house April 3rd and can move in at 5:01 that day (after it's over at 5:00). 

What is the major stuff you ask? Decks, stairs, handrails, rock, painting, plumbing and cabinets. All of the touch up things we will take care of between the finish date and the open house. Here's where we stand on all the major construction things:

Decks - 21/2 out of 5

Stairs - 1/2 out of 1 (we get stairs in our garage)

Handrails - 0 out of 5

Rock - 4 out of 5

Painting - 4 out of 5

Plumbing - 4 out of 5

Cabinets - 4 out of 5

And by the end of this week, the last four categories should be complete. Decks, stairs and plumbing are all jobs Skylar does, so I expect that this week and for the remaining four-ish weeks he will be spending many hours at the house trying to finish all of those things before/by March 20th. 

So. There is still lots to be done but it is VERY doable that we can be done by March 20th. Very. Even though we'll be finished by then, we probably won't move in until the middle of April. I'll still be in classes and it will give us time to collect things we still need before we leave our apartment and finish other things at the house that aren't a part of the program (painting the garage, building extra shelves, etc.).

Here is house number 4 out of 5 with rock!

See those stickers in the top windows? We have to climb into the attic access to get them off. Too busy to do it before now.

The first and second houses now have carpet which means we will be getting ours very soon! Pictures of the inside of the house coming soon...

February 8th - Crown molding and rock progress

We got some good news today. Let me start this story with some backstory: When we started building in June, we didn't have landscaping in our list of tasks when calculating how long it would take us to build the homes. Reason being, our goal was to finish January/February. Right now we're looking at the end of March, beginning of April. However, if we finish that late in the season the city may turn on the water for sprinklers and then by contractual agreement we have to do landscaping for the homes. That means approximately 2 more months before we can move in. Not that I need to say this but obviously we don't want that to happen. These next few weeks are crunch time. We're trying as hard as we can to finish the homes by the middle, and hopefully not the end, of March so that we can move in before we have to do landscaping. Right now, we've been told by the Fire Marshal that April 15th is usually the date to turn on the water for Saratoga Springs. If we finish by mid-March, we should be good. If not...hello June! Sayonara March. 

Adam and JC did a LOT of work on our stone this week. In total they are about halfway done. Like I said, difficult rock to place correctly. But by next Saturday we're hoping we'll be done with our house and moving on to the LAST house! 

You can see the rock outside of the tent now!

And there's even more in the tent

I know what you're thinking, We've already seen your uppers! Well look again, there's crowning molding on the top now!

Better view

Again, what's next? Finishing rock, finishing finish plumbing, our deck outside, carpet, paint touch up...lots of little things to come!

February 1st - Finish plumbing almost finished, rock started

There are a few things I wish they had told us at all of our "construction meetings" when we first started the Self-Help program. One of which would be how long different things would take depending on what materials you chose. For example, there were many different styles of rock available to choose from and we happened to choose a style that takes exceptionally longer than other varieties. Why couldn't they tell us that? We had the power to speed up the process and we didn't even know it.

With that said, I am still loving the style of our rock so far. It's surprising how much the rock can really change the over all look of the house. Do you know what else really changes the look of a house? Finish plumbing! Ie: sinks, toilets, dishwashers, etc. (I think flooring will have even more of that type of an effect but for now, it's plumbing).

Kitchen

Bathroom

Master bathroom (with a mirror!), Hello!

Now, if you were to drive by our home you might be concerned by this makeshift tent and think, Oh no! Someone is squatting at the Rackham's house! But never fear. It is a necessary tool for rock. The mortar that adheres the rock to the house has to bond at a certain temperature (something above 45º) otherwise the mortar will freeze, the rock will fall off, Adam will be upset about having to do the whole thing over again and there will be many tears shed. 

Since it's the middle of the winter, JC built this incredibly efficient tent, where they warm the part of the house they are working are with a propane heater and trap the warm air in the tent. After they have finished working on that part of the house, they have to keep it warm for at least 45 minutes, so the mortar doesn't freeze while drying/bonding/adhering/whatever.

Here's a peek inside! 

Goal: By next week, the rock will be finished so I hope to have a picture of the entire exterior.

January 28th - Countertops and Light Fixtures

Two jobs that we do not do are installing countertops and installing light fixtures. I'm not sure what the process is for installing countertops. I know that once the cabinets are installed, the contractors come and measure each one to make sure that the countertop will fit like a glove. They install the countertop and then caulk around the walls so that it will be secure. That much I know. And wham-o! You have a beautiful countertop.

Can I just add that choosing a countertop pattern was so hard?! Some of the home furnishing decisions we had to make were really difficult because the samples that they show you are a tiny 1"x 1" swatch. How am I supposed to know what that pattern will look like when it's 4' long? Other choices that were definitely difficult: color of interior paint (again, tiny swatch and they all looked the same), rock for the exterior of the home (we'll sample that shortly), and colors for the exterior stucco and trim. 

We do not install any light fixtures simply because the wiring could get tricky. However, I will say that in our apartment, Skylar changed out the light fixture in our bathroom like a pro. Never had a problem with it. This was about 4 years ago but it only evidences that this program is right up his alley. In any case most of the fixtures are in which makes working in the houses at night so much easier!

I don't love the dome in the kitchen. Right next to it is the chandelier type fixture in the dining room. After we move in we may need to adjust that. I don't love the two contrasting styles.

Living room

Oh! Here are the "uppers". All of our cabinets are in! The fridge goes on the left, stove and microwave on the right

Dishwasher goes under the Arctic Circle drink

Master

Bathroom. Skylar is working on the finish plumbing. That's what all that stuff is

What comes next? I'm not sure actually. Touch ups on the paint. Installing all the finish plumbing. Now we're at the point where it's all the little things on the inside that need to be done. And the rock on the outside of the house. Starting Saturday...(pictures to come!)