Open House and Occupanc…

I’ll save the “y” for when we see Doug’s signature on our Inspection Sheet, but we got temporary occupancy today! We had our final inspection and he was able to sign-off on everything except the duct test because we didn’t have the paperwork on-site. As soon as he can see them, we’ll be completely official! Yahoo!

We had our Energy Star tests earlier in the week and passed with flying colors. The state looks for a rating of 200 at a minimum to pass. We were a 90!

It will still be another week until Adair is fully done, but by next weekend we’ll be back in our old location, in a beautiful new home!

But first…

This Saturday Adair is holding an Open House at our abode. If you’ve been following along and want to see it in real life, this is your chance! If you’ve been driving by and peaking down the driveway, this is your chance to snoop! If you’ve been stopping by and poking around when we weren’t home and are frustrated now that there are locks on the doors, this is your chance to come on in and see the progress!

Jackie will be on-hand to talk about Adair and Sara will be there to talk about our experience and lead tours. I’ll be there too, but not until after 2pm or so. Details:

You’re Invited: OPEN HOUSE!

Saturday, October 22

10:00am – 4:00pm

4837 Blakely Avenue, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

Light snacks served.

 

Next week we’ll have any necessary subs back up to tweak things, our fridge will be delivered and we’ll have our walk-through with Chad where we learn more about the products that were installed and learn about what happens now that we’ll be on our own.

Mantle before Robert's handiwork

Robert making our beautiful home beautifuller

The finished mantle. Just needs some paint and some propane so we can light that beauty up! I wish I could say it was going to be painted by the open house, but I can't...

The kitchen again! We love the floors and cabinets and... ALL OF IT!

The kitchen as seen from the dining room

Looking from behind the island into the living room

Master bedroom

Sara's crafting room

The play room, already getting a ton of use for wrestling

Looking down the stairs

Looking from dining room toward the front door

 

See you Saturday!

 

 

The Finish Line is in Sight!

Wow! Wow! Wow!

We’re almost done and can hardly believe it!

Today is the last day of real work on the house! From here out it’s just fine-tuning, inspections and paperwork. Amazing!

Last Thursday was crazy! Awesome. But CRAZY. I took the day off to complete some work (exterior painting is DONE!) and meet Dale Flodin to look at some driveway drainage work that is our responsibility to complete. I was also expecting the electricians to show up to complete their work. At about 8:30 a car pulled in and I assumed it was them. Nope. It was the flooring crew, here early to get a head-start! Awesome! That was the last major thing to see go in and we could hardly wait one more day.

About 30 minutes later another car pulled in. I went out to talk to him about our lights but, no, it was our tile guy coming to get a head-start on the backsplash! Exciting!

Another 30 minutes later yet another van pulled in and it was our three electricians. The problem was that all seven guys wanted to work in the kitchen on the floors, walls and ceiling. I decided to get out of the way and back to work and spied through the window on their intricately improvised construction ballet. Then, just to add to the frenzy (that’s what you get when you mix seven workers and a case of Monster Energy Drink), two of our chickens that I let out to roam the yard didn’t want to be left out. They always want to be where the humans are, regardless of nail guns, saws, etc. A couple of times I peaked in and the chickens were in the kitchen standing on the very board that was being installed. (These were big, hungry men too. The chickens were lucky the oven hadn’t been installed yet.)

See that chicken? Stupid, stupid bird.

On Friday, the flooring guys came back and finished up their work. My dad brought home his projector from work and we ordered some pizzas and had a pizza/cinema night in the living room. Sara and I then took a trip for the weekend with our friends Ivy and Robert and left the kids with my parents. It might have been a mistake with the amount of work to do, but we REALLY needed it!

Today the trim guys were out to finish the downstairs and grout the tile. I’ll be meeting Robert to finish the construction of the mantle and then I have a little more interior touch-up painting to do. Sara will meet me there later and she’s going to start the clean-up. We could have our final inspection as early as THURSDAY! Andthen we’ve got to make everything pretty because this Saturday is our OPEN HOUSE for Adair. More on that soon!

The Only Thing More Exciting Than a Honey Bucket…

is getting the Honey Bucket taken away! Just a couple of months ago we were blogging that we were excited to see the “Blue Box” dropped off because it meant we were really getting started. Its imminent departure could only mean that we’re almost done!

As I type, the plumbers are in the house, busily installing toilets, sinks, the hot water heater and utility sink. It will be so nice to have the bathrooms in working order now that it is getting dark earlier and, well, COLD!

Inside: plumbers busily finishing up their work!

We were delightfully surprised to see that our hot water heater is one of the new, super-cool and high-tech Heat Pump Hot Water Heater. Who knew we were so fancy?! We’re just learning about it but it looks to be a good money-saver and good for the environment.

Our kitchen counter was installed yesterday. It looks great. Can’t wait to see the dark floors and bright white tile backsplash go in. Things are getting a little too beige in that kitchen. But still… THAT KITCHEN!!!

The kitchen is ALMOST done.

Tomorrow is the final electric installation and Friday is flooring. So close!

Getting Close!

What a week! Besides the stacks and stacks of boxes, carpet and lumber stacked throughout the house and garage, we now have cabinets installed with handles, lights in most rooms, trim around the floor, doors and windows, flooring in the bathrooms and laundry room, shelves in the closets, and the mantle is close to finished. It has been so fun to see it come together. This week will be even more exciting as the heat pump goes in, toilets and sinks will be installed, carpet and hardwood floors go in, kitchen counter goes in, and the rest of the trim-out wraps up. By early next week we should be ready for our walk-through with Chad from Adair to see what kind of fixes are necessary and then the subs will come back to touch things up before calling in for… FINAL INSPECTION!

Bathroom lights and counters installed. We plan to change out the light fixture, but for now we're just enjoying being able to see!

The master tub and shower. We love that the master bath counters are extra high!

New tile around the fireplace.

Now THAT'S a kitchen!

Just a little more touch-up painting outside and yard clean-up before we can call the exterior good until we start landscaping next year.

Aerial Photos

Just a quick update with the photos I promised last week. Korum took these from the Genie Lift. Though there are still some pieces of trim that need to be painted, and the door still needs its orange spice paint, you can get the general idea of the exterior colors here. It has been a busy week. Something new happens every day. The cabinets are up and look great. Someone came and measured for the Livingstone counters yesterday, and another subcontractor was up today putting in the vinyl flooring and laminate countertops in the bathrooms and laundry room. Things are moving at an exhilarating pace right now. We are in the home stretch.

Trim-out Begins!

Sara and I were like kids on Christmas morning coming home tonight, racing to be the first one in the door to see what had happened. And the gifts were the best we’ve ever received. We now have lights, working outlets, switches all installed and a huge stack of cabinets ready to go in tomorrow.

We were SO thrilled with the way cabinets look and CAN’T WAIT to come home tomorrow to see them in place. We went with the cheapest option Adair offers that is real wood and not a thermal wrap. We are super-impressed with the quality and appearance.

In addition to the cabinets going in tomorrow, we’ll also see the tile around the fireplace set. Our friend Robert is helping me re-do the mantle. It looked fine the way it was, but we wanted to take it a step further. More to come…

Looking from the front door, through the dining room to the kitchen in the back.

The line-up of cabinets in the living room ready to be installed in the kitchen.

 

Painting Photos

I’m happy to report that with about 30 minutes of painting tomorrow night, I’ll be completely done with the interior painting! We got ahead of schedule on the interior which freed us up to have some fun with a few accent colors. I have a feeling that as we decorate the house after moving in, we’ll decide to do some more adventurous painting, but for now, beige, grey and browns are beautiful!

Special thanks to my brother, Jherek, and our old friend Bruce Ziebart of Ziebart Painting for their help!

Jherek pumping himself up to take on the first coat.

Bruce emptying bucket #6 into the sprayer.

Jherek tackling the ceiling in the kitchen.

Calder has been wanting to have a silver wall in his room. On a recent trip to The Home Depot we found a new product from Glidden/Martha Stewart that allows a silver glitter coat. So, we decided to grant his wish and try the new product. He has also been very anxious to try painting so this seemed like the perfect project for him to give it a go.

Calder painting a grey undercoat on his bedroom wall.

Calder LOVES painting! Luckily I had an extra shirt because earlier that day was his school photo shoot and he was wearing his nicest clothes.

Keep it loaded, Calder. Keep it loaded... good boy!

Calder mastering his roller technique.

Ta-da!