The week in review

Well, it's finally over. It turned into a much more critical week than expected. A lot of planning and behind the scenes work had to happen to get this all pulled off but it looks like things are finally on track, as much as possible.

First off is cleaning up the opens from earlier in the week. The erosion control items were dealt with through our own efforts. Paul exchanged the broken sledgehammer for a different one at HF Thursday morning after breakfast, and we went back to the house. This hammer was heavier and had a shorter handle than the first one, and Paul had great difficulty working. It was like trying to pound the stakes with a rock. We managed to get the west fence up, and that was enough of that for us for the day.

Next day before work Paul went to buy a different hammer at Lowe's. This one had a longer handle, and Paul was able to install the east fence with it. Also in the morning he ordered two yards of stone for the driveway. He had absolutely no idea how to order stone, which made the poor woman taking the order quite crazy, but eventually we settled on #2 clear to arrive after 3:00.

That wasn't all that was on this morning's to-do list. The siding guys said we didn't have the gable vent for the garage. Paul told Bob about that Thursday night, and this morning while shopping for the hammer he looked for a gable vent. Finding no half-round vents, he went to Menards and got one there instead. President Homes had never gotten around to ordering the vent, so they will have to credit the cost.

Then came a very short day at work during which the fireplace installers were confirmed for Monday and the carpenter for Saturday to complete the inspector's punch list; the inspector himself was confirmed for late Monday. The insulation contractor was pushed to Wednesday, which was fine, and the drywall to July 30. Paul returned to the house at 3:00, picking up 20 electric boxes along the way at Menards for the low voltage (computer network, telephone and CATV) wiring we'll install tomorrow.

The stone truck wasn't there yet, so Paul installed all the boxes. Around 3:30 or so the stone truck rolled up and dumped its load in the driveway. Paul paid the driver $109 and started shoveling rocks. Lots of fun. Spreading the stone to cover the driveway took an hour and a half with frequent long rest breaks. :-) The gravel pit was nearby, but we had it delivered because it appears that two yards of stone weighs about two and a half tons - at $27.50 per load and two or three loads, it didn't make much sense to go get it.

So that was that for the building inspection open issues.

If only that was all that's been going on. It's not. Other things that happened:

We have been growing increasing concerned about the lack of action on our cabinetry. President Homes' cabinet designer has really dropped the ball and it is a source of serious irritation. With no more activity on Thursday, Paul finally got mad on Thursday night and sent a nastygram to Katie, the cabinet designer, and copied to Bob that either the cabinets would be ordered by Monday or they could cancel the whole thing and we'd get them elsewhere.

That got action. Katie mailed us this morning to say she'd call at 7:30 tonight. She did. We discussed the trivial changes and she e-mailed us a new plan to sign off and fax Monday morning to Bob, who would order the cabinets. Apparently they could be ready in three weeks. That brings us to August 13 or so, which is a few days after the drywall would be done. So that might just work out. We'll have to order countertops immediately after the cabinets are installed and hope they get in early if we are to meet our mid September timeframe to get in the house.

And finally, while all this has been going on, we've been having siding installed. They're almost done now. The house is all but finished, and the front of the garage still needs to be done. They'll come back Monday morning and should be done by noon.

Also upcoming, low voltage wiring and carpentry tomorrow. Fireplace installation and inspection Monday. If it passes, the building portion of this project is officially over. :-) We move onto finishing processes.

Here are some siding pictures, and that's it. We are exhausted. Off to bed.