Not Much of An Update

Well, the only thing that has been done in the last, oh, 10 days is the vinyl floors. The floors were put in the day before Thanksgiving. They were supposed to go in the Monday before Thanksgiving, so our appliances could be delivered on Tuesday. Needless to say, we had to push our appliances back another week. So, we will now be receiving the appliances this Tuesday. Since the floors are in, the appliances can finally be delivered.

Again, I'd forgotten what floor we chose since it was so long ago, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the floors. The floors are covered in cardboard to protect them while the house is being finished up.

I was hoping to win the lottery last night so I could push money at these builders to finish up my house. No such luck :)

Odds and Ends

We are getting down to the wire on the house.

Yesterday, the hubby and I installed our light fixtures in the kitchen/dining nook. Yes, we had the electrician install both. We hated them immediately, so we took them down and installed a couple of new ones. We made the right choice, as I'm completely satisfied with the light fixtures now.

Yes, very happy with these indeed. I love, love, LOVE the dining nook fixture. It's perfect.

What's left to do-

1. The floors
2. The countertops
3. Final plumbing, i.e. toilets and sinks

When will these get done? Your guess is as good as mine. We are having the appliances delivered a week from now, so the floors better be done by then. If they aren't, the hubby is going to have to throw-down. I'm having a hard time not being grumpy right now because we are so close, yet so far. Sigh. 6 months is a long time to not have a home, and to not have your stuff.

This was not our best decision in hindsight (i.e. giving up our disgusting, yet private rental), but hey, you live you learn.

Entries may be sparse until the house is done, as antsy-ness has given me a short attention span and writer's block. Until next time, hope everyone has a great Monday!

And All That Trim

Our project manager managed to tell the truth for once! 

He told us last week that the cabinets, doors, trim, and porch would be installed on Monday, and what do you know? They showed up on Monday. Shocking.

They did a fantastic job, I'm very pleased. All the colors and finish's we picked out, ummm, 7 months ago, look so good together. I'm very relieved about that one. The white trim made all the walls pop.

We were also pleased that the painters showed up yesterday. The painters painted all the trim and doors, as well as patching all the little dinged spots (If you look closely at the pictures, the walls are covered in little pieces of blue painters tape- those were the dings).  Today they are putting a second coat of paint on all the walls. So that will be done after today.

Hard surfaces, i.e. countertops and vinyl flooring, are scheduled to be installed on Monday. Appliances are 100% going to be delivered on Tuesday (since that's something the hubby scheduled) so those floors better be in on Monday. I told the hubby he's cutting that one close. I am sooooooooo excited for my new appliances. The timing better work out is all I gotta say!

Kitchen cabinets. We went a dark-stained maple, and I think they look fabulous.

Trim and windowsill in the living room.

Cabinets in the master bathroom.

My tub!

Trim and windowsill in the guest bathroom.

I love my kitchen!

Looking into the living room/kitchen/dining nook.

Looking from the dining nook into the great room.

Front porch.

The exterior is now complete!

Flying Into Chicago

It was a long weekend for me!

The hubby had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off, so we finally got to spend some time together since we've been back. It was a movies, snacks, and lots of wine kind of weekend. And we had a great time!

But, back to reality. In house news, all the trim, doors, cabinets, and the porch were installed yesterday! After the workers left yesterday (an Amish crew from Cleveland- they were very interesting) I was left pretty much speechless. An incredible amount of work was done, it was unbelievable. Pictures will be up tomorrow. I'm that technologically challenged girl that never syncs her iPhone to her computer because it always deletes her playlists, so I email pics from my iPhone to my computer. This process takes forever, so they should be there by tomorrow :) And if anyone knows why my playlists always get deleted, please tell me! I've spent hours trying to fix whatever it is that does that. I always appreciate technology tips!

So, the hubby and I had one of the scariest experiences I've ever had on our travels back from Portland to Chicago, our layover city. We flew out of PDX in clear weather, which, unbeknownst to us, was soon to change. I snapped this cool pic right after leaving PDX:

It's kind of hard to see, but you can just make out the red and yellow ring in the middle. It's apparently called a glory, and is a visual optical illusion that's pretty rare to see.

But, back to my story. We ran into a major thunderstorm while descending into Chicago. I've never felt turbulence like that before, I was scared out of my mind! At some point, I feel the plane pulling up instead of descending. The captain's voice came over the loudspeaker and announced that the Chicago airport had closed when we were in the middle of our descent, and we were going into a holding pattern. A holding pattern is where the plane just circles above the airport. In a thunderstorm. It was basically pure turbulence for 20 minutes while we circled around in center of a storm. I completely lost my sense of direction, so that when the plane sped up (a ton!) I couldn't tell if we were going up or down. All I knew was that the plane sounded like planes do in movies when they are plummeting from the sky. I was gripping my seat so hard, my whole body was tensed. The guy sitting next to the hubby was saying the Lord's Prayer. The whole plane was silent. It was beyond creepy.

The extreme speed only lasted a few minutes, because soon we were above the storm and the captain was announcing we were diverting to Indianapolis. The hubby and I were uneasy about this, because the flight had already been delayed about 45 minutes due to this storm, and our layover in Chicago was only 2 hours. We really didn't want to miss our flight to Columbus. But... miss our flight to Columbus we did. We sat on the tarmac in Indy for 2 hours before taking to the sky and finally landing in Chicago. Along with thousands of other delayed and diverted passengers. The airport was. a. disaster. We waited in a seemingly endless line to reschedule our flight, but finally managed to get it changed. Unfortunately, there were no flights leaving that night, and we had to stay the night in the airport.

I will mention that by this time it was midnight, the dogs desperately needed a potty break, and the hubby and I hadn't eaten all day. We had planned on eating in Chicago hours earlier. We were so exhausted we couldn't see straight, but we had to leave security, let the dogs potty, and then go back through security to scour the airport for any food venue that might be open. We were lucky to find a venue to purchase sandwiches, fruit, and water. The dogs dined on turkey, bread, and melon, which I personally don't think they minded :) The airport was nice enough to distribute cots, blankets, and pillows to the thousands of people who were stranded in the airport, so we settled down for the night.

The boys behaved surprisingly well that night. They both went to sleep on and/or next to the hubby. I could not sleep, so I read a book and kept watch over the hubby, boys, and bags.

By morning, the storm had passed and we had no doubt we would make it to Columbus with no trouble.

The sunrise over Illinois

Needless to say, I was beyond exhausted when we finally reached Ohio, and even more so after our two and half hour drive back to Kentucky. It took about 2 days for me to recover (rest-wise) from this ordeal.

If I could manage to avoid airplanes for the rest of my life, I would. But, I can't do that. Sigh.

I'll be posting all the pics of the trim tomorrow! Happy Tuesday everyone!

I'm Back! With A Construction Update!

I'm back in Kentucky!

Well, technically, I've been back for 2 weeks now. But I am back on the Internet. After 2 weeks of being at the hubby's mother's house without Internet, we decided we couldn't handle it. I'm not sure how people ever lived without the Internet in the past. I'm joking, of course, but the hubby and I seriously couldn't handle it! The hubby pulled some strings, and ended up getting getting his mother free phone and Internet service for 2 months. This worked out well for our short stay here.

So, what happened on the house while we were out in Oregon? Surprisingly little. Yes, we were wildly disappointed that the only thing completed on our house the month we were gone was sheetrock and mud. The amount of productivity for a month's worth of time was shockingly little. Let's just say that if I was in charge of this project, everyone involved would be fired. But I'm not, so I digress.

Sheetrock in the dining nook/kitchen/great room

Sheetrock in the master bath.

Guest bedroom.

Garage.

Oh, and we also got the garage door put on while we were gone.

As soon as we got back and the hubby gave them a good butt-chewing, they decided to paint. He also called the people who were supposed to put the septic in a month ago, and got them to come out and do their job. The septic went in last Tuesday, and took all of our savings with it. Sheesh.

It was getting late in the day when I took these pictures, so pictures with better lighting will be sure to follow. It's hard to see in the photo, but the wall with the french doors is red and the wall in the living room is a darker taupe.

The kitchen wall, a medium taupe.

The bathroom color, a gold-toned taupe. Can you tell we like neutral colors?

The lightest nude color, which we put in all the bedrooms.

So here is the schedule the builder gave us, which we always, always take with a grain of salt.

Trim, cabinets, and lighting fixtures have all been delivered to the house. Trim (which includes all the interior doors) is scheduled to be installed on Monday. Cabinets are scheduled to be installed on Tuesday. The painters are also supposed to come back and do the final coat of paint on the walls on Tuesday. The electrician is supposed to be out there sometime Monday-Wednesday to put it in the light fixtures. Hard surfaces (countertops and vinyl) are scheduled for Thursday. The plumber should be there sometime after the hard surfaces go in to do the final plumb. Carpet will be the last item completed.

The hubby thinks we will be in the house the week after Thanksgiving.

I remain skeptical.