Getting settled...

So the day of the Big Move has come and gone.... and we're working to get things unpacked and put away into their new places every day.

Sunday afternoon several friends came by to help us with the move.

Thanks for all your help Jamie, Aaron, Matt, Dean, Chad, and Robin's parents! We were pulling into the driveway of our new home at 5:10pm with the first load of stuff, just as the builder was finishing up taking his Parade displays down. We still have the house plans and the construction schedule hanging on the wall in the garage. We'll probably leave it up there for a little while yet anyway.

Robin's parents and Dean stayed until after 10pm Sunday night. Robin's dad had brought his trailer, and between the trailer and the uhaul truck we loaded three loads into each and dumped it all (mostly. Some thing got taken down to the basement right away) in the garage of the new house.

There was about a half of a uhaul load of boxes and some furniture in the storage unit we'd rented. I moved those over on Monday.

Every day since then has been Robin working inside the house getting things organized and put away, and me working in the garage carrying boxes, furniture, and other items into the appropriate rooms of the house and/or the basement.

(the entire garage was mostly full when everything was finally moved to the new house from the old one and the storage unit!)

Finally last night (Wednesday night) I was able to have enough in the garage cleaned out that Robin could park her car in there. Tonight I was able to get it so that we could park both cars and my motorcycle in there too!

Most things that don't belong there have been removed from the garage now, with the exception of a few larger pieces of furniture that Robin will need to help me move to the basement.

Inside the house, Robin has a ton of the kitchen cabinets filled with items. She's also spent alot of time putting things away in the laundry room, the living room, and our master bedroom.

Yesterday the girls' new beds and dresser (for Rachel) were delivered from WG&R. Today their new mattresses arrived. So tonight they get to sleep in their new beds for the first time. Lyndsey doesn't have a dresser in her room yet. She and Robin are going to refinish one of the older ones (we have 4 that are currently unused! lol) and that will be Lyndsey's dresser to use.

Robin and I spent Sunday and Monday nights sleeping on the couch as our bedroom was too cluttered to be able to put our bed together.

The girls have been working in their rooms to get items and clothing sorted and put away. They're not home this weekend, then next week is the final week before school starts up.

Due to our moving, Lyndsey will be attending Hortonville Middle school this year instead of Greenville Middle school, while Rachel will still be in Greenville Elementary school.

This morning had us watching a family of wild turkeys walking around our house;  this morning they were first spotting in the ditch out front, and then later this morning they were closer to the front of our house. 2 older ones and 3 younger ones.

Yesterday I had a visit from a hummingbird in the garage when he flew in to briefly check out what all the commotion was about.

We still have alot of boxes to unpack, and tomorrow Robin and the girls have to go back-to-school clothes shopping.

Also, there's a ton of furniture and boxes in the basement, some of which is destined for a garage sale either this fall or next spring when our Town holds its annual town-wide garage sales.

We're hoping to have most, if not all, of our unpacking done by the end of this weekend. Both of us have to go back to work next week.

Tuesday was also the date of closing on the sale of our previous home. Tuesday afternoon at 2pm that house became the property of someone else, and they appear to have begun to move in today.

Paul

DONE!!! :) (part two)

We're done!! It's Parade day!

(this is part two of my "we're done!" post.. this one has the photos that Robin took last night... the night before the beginning of the Parade of Homes... we're so excited that we're finally at this point! Now we can mostly focus on packing and getting ready to move next Sunday!)

On to the photos!

If you've never seen or been to a Parade of Homes, this is how it works and what you'd see... (FYI, if you're thinking of attending the Parade, tickets can be purchased at any home in the Parade and all the details of the Parade can be found here:  Parade of Homes site  ...we're house number 15 on the list)

Firstly, the streets are lined with the cars of the attendees, who've all bought a ticket to visit as many of the dozens of homes in each Parade (40 or more often times I think).

When you walk up to the house, in the summer Parade they'll have the garage door open and you'll walk into the garage and get your ticket punched. (next weekend Lyndsey will be punching tickets along with the builder's daughter for a few hours one day)

The chairs are set up so that everyone can sit there and take their shoes off and put little booties over their socks. Shoes (and photography) are not allowed inside the homes in the Parade.

On the right side of the above photo you'll see one of a couple tables containing brochures and photos of all the suppliers in the specific home you're visiting.

Above the table on the wall, Dennis has printed up large-format versions of the floor plans and the construction schedule for our home for people to view.

Once you have your booties on and your ticket punched, you're free to wander the interior of the home at your leisure. You can ask questions of the builder (or their representative) who is always inside the house somewhere, and you can check out most any part of the house you're looking at.

Our house is completely ready for the Parade as of yesterday morning.. it's been cleaned up (several times), decorated, staged, and there's even more photos and brochures inside the house from suppliers. Dennis will also be showing a slide show of his work (this is, after all, a HUGE source of advertising for him, which is why the Parade exists) on our tv and he'll have music playing thru the speaker system in the rooms it's in.

...and here's what you'll see when you walk thru our home during the Parade hours....

the lockers by the back garage door

the half bathroom

Dennis' dad began the tradition of handing one of these out to the owners of the homes he built.. Dennis continues that tradition today.

the front entry as seen from the dining room

the master bedroom

the master bedroom ceiling tray

the master bedroom front window

the reading nook in the master bedroom

the master bathroom

the office

the overlook up in the loft over the living room

the loft

Lyndsey's room

This is Deb the decorator's gift to Lyndsey in her room

Lyndsey's vanity

the girl's bathroom

..and shower

Rachel's vanity

the door to the bonus room (which will be closed and locked for the Parade)

Rachel's room

This is Deb the decorator's gift to Rachel in her room

the loft overlook again

the stairs to the basement

It's been a looooong 4 months but the house is finally finished!

Now we can focus on moving and closing on the sale of our current home. I'll keep updating this all the way thru the move which will begin next Sunday and will be done that following Monday. Robin and I are off of work all that week so we can get the move done and the closing on our current home is Tuesday, so we'll be able to get settled in a bit after that.

Paul

Contractor Walkthrough day

Wow! Was that hectic! (and kinda fun!)

Monday was our on-site contractor walk-through. Most of the contractors associated with our house to this stage were there.

Plumbing, electrical, hvac, well-driller, Dennis, etc.  Each of them came to the meeting armed with their bid, alot of questions for Robin and myself, and suggestions/ideas for some of their stuff.

We started off with the plumbing installer. He needed to know things like how high the shower heads needed to be mounted, where the washing machine would be sitting exactly, where we wanted the outdoor hose faucets, etc. As we were walking around the outside of the house making those decisions, the well-driller caught me and wanted to know where the well head should be placed. He had a spot all picked out, but the plumbing installer brought up some good points and we moved it a bit and we were then told the well should be drilled on Thursday of this week.

plumbing drain and vent piping in half-bath

kitchen sink drain and vent piping

master bathroom sinks drain and vent piping

After the plumbing, we talked with the hvac (heating/ventilation/air-conditioning) installer. We talked about two different types of furnaces (we're getting one that's 95% efficient), various options for control panels/thermostats, etc., etc. We also had to decide where we wanted the air conditioner to be placed outside (we picked a nice spot that's completely hidden from most every side of the house.

Once hvac was done with us we hit up the electrical installer. With him we had to figure out exactly where we wanted things like "can" lights...

can light rough in in the kitchen

.. and some things he didn't know about like the master bathroom lights won't be your typical above-mirror fixture, we're having pendants instead. Likewise, we had in the bid 3 pendant lights over the snack counter in the kitchen, but after looking at how it lays out in the actual kitchen we were able to reduce that number to only 2.

We have a few of those little lights in the side walls of the staircases (rather than having a light fixture mounted on a wall, etc). Here's the rough-in of one of those.

..and an exhaust fan in a bathroom....

After we were done with all the sub-contractor walk-throughs we had some things to discuss with the builder as well. In conversations with him some things were mentioned that sparked ideas from us or Dennis and also little details that can only be flushed out during construction.

We got to look around at a bit more leisurely pace after that. The framing of the fireplace enclosure continues...

Monday was a very busy day for Robin and myself... but Tuesday brought a very big task for the two of us of another sort....We had a meeting at the bank to finally close on our construction loan.

After a 30 minute meeting and the handing over of a sum of money to the title company for closing costs, etc., we were on our way.

We stopped out at the new house after that and took some more photos.

Today the girls' bathtub got installed. They've been waiting to see that since it showed up on site last week.

Downstairs, the living room half-walls and fireplace "black box" were installed today.

In the master bedroom, framing was started on our tray ceiling in there, as well as a surprise to Robin that Dennis and I had worked out... a smaller tray ceiling above her reading nook.(yeah, Robin loved it) They're kind of difficult to make out in amongst all the other framing...

The plumbing installer had been doing alot more of his rough-in stuff too... you'll notice the red or blue "PEX" piping;  the red is hot water runs, the blue is cold water runs.

hot and cold water piping in the hallway wall framing

half-bath hot and cold water piping for the sink

master bathroom shower head piping

The framers were busy again today (as they are every day). 

half wall at the stairs from garage to basement

doorway framing at bottom of stairway from foyer

doorway framing at bottom of garage stairway

The electrician was also very busy today, installing more rough-ins for outlets, switches, and light fixtures throughout the house.

The following two photos are of can lights on the exterior soffits of the house (front of the house).

above the master bedroom window

above the reading nook window

The word from Joe (Dennis' on-site construction manager) is that they'll have the rough in stage done this week and they'll begin insulating the walls early next week, followed immediately by hanging the drywall around the interior of the house. That'll certainly change the look of the interior substantially.

This week I'll be helping our neighbor pull wiring through the house for the security system we're going to install (he owns a security installation company that's done very well for itself), and then this weekend I believe I'll have to do a bit of insulation work in one of the walls in the house as well.

Also, I'm getting bids in on the seeding of the lawn, and the pouring of the concrete driveway slab too.

Robin and I also need to get out and finalize our light fixture selections some time in the next week or so.

In today's news of our current home, the buyers had their inspector come through the house. We should be getting his report back in a few days. The previous buyers' inspector gave us mostly high marks on things and only a few "not quite as high" marks on a couple things just attributed to the age of things in the home.

Paul