Flooring goes in, kind of

Well, did you know that flooring is very scientific? It is when you have had about 2 days of dry weather all year! The wood floor guy came with his handy dandy moisture monitor and it said that the subfloor was at 18% moisture and it needs to be at 12% in order to install the floor. Okay fine, he said, Can we turn on the air conditioner? I looked out the window where one should be and said, Well that would be easier if I had a unit. So I called my project manager about getting the air conditioner and she said, Do you know where the supplier is? And unfortuneately I do. It is on 1st St. Downtown Cedar Rapids. Mind you they evacuated to 12th St. So 1st St. has pretty much been under 8 feet of water since last Thursday. I have absolutely NO idea when I will get an air conditioner and then how long it will be until the subfloor dries out enough to lay my wood floor. All this has to be done before cabinets can be delivered. So if we were 15 days behind before, we are probably about a month behind now. I do want everything to be done correctly so I am willing to be patient but I'm just so excited to see it put together. The vinyl and tile guys were able to get in and do their work so there was some excitement. I have no idea what will be going on this week. I don't know if we are on hold or if the trim carpenter can start. We'll see tomorrow. Well I need sleep, so I'll try to keep you updated later this week. Em

Apologies

Hi all, So sorry that I haven't been keeping up. I've been working, packing, keeping track of the kids (Harrison graduated preschool). Now we start T-ball tomorrow yada yada. So what's up with the casa you say? All the drywall is hung, taped, mudded and sprayed with texture. Today the painters came in and sprayed a primer on the ceilings. The gutter guys came too and hung white gutters on the house with tan colored down spouts. The drywall guys slapped (literally) some tape and mud on the seams in the garage too. In the last couple of weeks they finally finished siding the front entry way to the house, but much to my dismay they put a keystone in my arch! ARGH!!! It says right on the work order NO KEYSTONE! Anyway, I can't seem to get a straight answer as to when they will be coming to fix that little oversight. Everytime somebody has to come back to fix something it throws their schedule off so I never know when it will be. (Frankly I feel that if someone was watching closely so this didn't happen in the first place we wouldn't have this problem so I don't really care what it does to their "schedule".) Just thought I would share that! By the way they still need to fix the cement in the garage where they cut the door opening wrong. Also the drywallers put the wire for the puck light in the art niche on the back of the niche instead of in the middle of the ceiling of it so I don't know what we are going to do to fix that. Other than that things are okay. They are about 15 days behind I think but they still think that they will be starting flooring on Thursday! Finally the fun stuff. All the pretty things that I have picked out will be starting to go in!. I can't wait! I am nervous though because if anything isn't right now it will show! Well I will try to get some progress photos loaded soon. Emily

OK, we have just spent the last four days on electrical. I put TONS of outlets in even in the closets. I put Phone, Ethernet and cable in every bedroom and in two spots in the living room depending on what side of the fireplace we want a TV in the future. There is a phone jack in the master potty and central vac dust pans in every bathroom and mudroom so we can just sweep dirt and hair into them and not have to bend down and balance a dust pan. I am having the electrician come back Monday and wire the west windows (all 10) of the living room for electric shades. We also put a PVC pipe behind the fireplace so that if we’ve missed anything we can shoot the wires from one side of the fireplace to another behind there. We even added an extra sub panel since the big one was completely full. Dad had his favorite security team come out and wire for smoke/heat sensors and laser beams. That way if the house catches on fire while we’re out of town the central office will call the fire department. They insulate Tuesday with the foam and Sheetrock starts Wednesday! I picked out a storm door today (we have to have those in Iowa you know). The flooring schedule starts June 2nd. So we are almost to the pretty stuff. We need to go over and vacuum what we don’t want in the insulation. The electrician picked up but we can do a better job. Hope all is well, Em

Progress report

This was a very fun week for me. The framers finished up early in the week and the plumbers, HVAC, and siders moved in. I absolutely loved working with the plumbers. They were so accomodating. They were willing to add lines where ever I wanted and they were very conscious of making sure that I agreed to where to put the faucet on my tub, they even sat there and made sure the handles would work right and the spout would clear the tub once the tile was in. I felt like I was working with my brothers. The HVAC guy is very nice too, but very quiet. He kind of looks like Brian's friend Jim Hopkins. He has been sure to get my permission whenever he had needed to add chases below the ceiling level of the basement and I have learned to love soffits. As long as they are in my basement and not upstairs! The siders are not as clean cut as the guys working inside but they are friendly. I have taken Twix bars, Snickers, Dilly bars and donuts over periodically to keep the morale up. Monday the electrician starts. We have a walk through at 8:00 AM to discuss all the details of where to put outlets and wires and recessed lighting. Then at 9:30 we have a walk through with the home solutions man for cable, phone, security, sound and central vac. Any suggestions are appreciated. We are making wish lists but if you have something that you love or wish you had please share! I'll only put a phone in the bathroom if you promise not to care if I answer it when I am going potty! (Uncle Bob). So it should be a very full week of decisions and requests. Hope you are all well! Love, Em

SOLD!

Yeah! We sold our house this morning!!!!!! I am soooooo excited. The people that bought it are a very young married couple that live in Iowa City right now. The guy is an industrial engineer and works in Muscatine (We assume for Hon) So I hope he plans on getting a job in Cedar Rapids or that would be a killer commute! Anyway I am just so happy that they are young and don't have to sell a house of their own first. They were pre-approved for a loan and included that info with their offer. It really couldn't be a better setup for us. They basically offered us asking price but we agreed to cover their closing costs and a one year home warranty. I guess the young people don't have good nest eggs these days but can make monthly payments so they need the help coming up with the chunk of money for the closing. It is worth it to me to not have to worry about it anymore and not to have to have the house in perfect condition every day by 9:00AM. We will have to have an inspector come in the next couple of weeks, so we are praying that goes well! The other aspect is that we agreed to a July 11th close. We assume that if they are in an apartment in IA City that the lease is up July 30th so we would have to move out then anyway. We aren't sure if we want to go to an apartment or try to get along with mom and dad for a month or so. More on that later. Thanks to all that were praying and hoping for a fast sell. I think it worked!!! I will be sleeping very well tonight and enjoying my mother's day open house free!!!!! Love ya, Em

I can see clearly now, through the windows!

Today was great. They were able to set all the windows. I love them! The foreman also installed one of the tracks for one of the pocket doors. The shingles were delivered so besides the siding and shingles all the work can be done indoors and shouldn't be dependent on the weather. I returned to the lighting showroom today and decided on a nook light for sure as well as pendants for the island area. I also met with the flooring contractor and determined the size and pattern of all the tiled areas. I signed off on the flooring.

New pics!

Check out the new pictures of plumbing fixtures!