The Moving Begins

We have spent the last two days driving back and forth between the rental house and our new house with boxes of "stuff." Movers are coming on Saturday to move the furniture. We are trying to do everything else via car trips. It's been hot.....95 degrees......but we have persevered.

I did closets today. I love my new shoe rack.

Also love the pantry....the perfect place for big bowls and roasting pans as well as grocery supplies.

I stacked the dishes in the back of my car and drove very slowly....nothing broke and I didn't have to wrap anything!

We tried out our new in-house vacuum system. I love it. The hose is long and reaches across the laundry room, kitchen and great room!

I got this rug for the master bedroom.....grays and browns with a bit of blue.

We rolled out the 23 foot Persian carpet. (Randy grew up with it.) We haven't seen it for almost two years! It's an old friend and it felt good to see it in the great room.

Our gutters were installed today. Just in time for the monsoons which should start soon....usually after July 4th.

This is a gutter chain.....there are two on either side of the front door.

Our garage just had epoxy applied to it. It looks great and will be easier to keep clean. The only problem is that we can't put anything in it for 3 days. (Stuff is piling up!)

We probably won't get a garden in this year so Randy bought some tomato plants and put them in a topsy turvy container. Matt helped him hang them on the deck today. We actually will be hanging bird feeders from these poles in the future.

Tuesday Afternoon Final Inspection

We have been finishing up projects and getting ready for the final inspection.

The greenhouse wall is finished. It should absorb lots of winter sun. The box on the counter contains special halide grow lights.....soon to be installed.

Matt put the hooks up in the bathrooms. Bob put the cabinet knobs on today.

Kitchen knobs are all done. My 95 cent knobs look great.

These beauties are in the entry "powder room." I caught Cooper trying to grab one with his mouth.

I had to buy a smaller mirror for the powder room. My original one was 36 inches and the counter is only 37 inches so it overpowered the bathroom. I think the 36 inch mirror will work in the master bedroom.

This is a photo of the light fixture over the staircase. It was a present from Randy's mom, Suzie. I just love it...wood and iron. But it is going to be a pain to change the light bulbs!

This is the fixture that hangs over the oak table in the great room.

We went over the floors today to get the "big stuff" up. Serious cleaning starts tomorrow. Claudia and her daughter are coming to help us.

The shop vac.....my new best friend.

Our inspection is tomorrow afternoon. We know we still need to do a few things......railings on the deck for instance. (Parts haven't come in yet.)

We hope to move everything but the furniture and book boxes on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday via car loads. The moving van is coming on Saturday and will use a small truck to shuttle things from the rental to the new house. We should be able to sleep in our new house on Saturday!

Maybe a Tuesday Inspection

We're not ready for an inspection tomorrow. The electricity is not finished yet. We are shooting for Tuesday. Eric has been working as fast as he can but he has been working all by himself.

The appliances are in.......they need some additional work but the appliance install guys did not show up today so....maybe tomorrow. I love our Thermador range.

(Sorry for the poor iPhone photos.)

LG fridge is looking good too.

And the Thermador microwave, oven, and warming drawer.

Bamboo floor is finished.

Most of the light fixtures are in.

Toilets are installed and the marble shower is ready for sealer.

Tomorrow Matt is going to finish putting in the baseboards in the great room. He also is going to put hooks in the bathrooms for towels and holders for toilet paper.

We are still waiting for Bob, our cabinet guy, to come and finish the cabinets....they need knobs and trim.

Friday Inspection?

The bamboo floor is looking good! The great room is almost finished.....on to the master bedroom.

Eric started installing ceiling fans yesterday. This one is an Emerson and is supposed to be very efficient. We got two....one for the master and a big one for the great room.

Home Depot fans work just fine for the guest bedrooms.

Matt installed the curved shower curtain rod.

The master shower is complete.

There was a little glitch with the solar water heater.....leaky pipe in the wall. The guys figured out a way to remedy it.

Today.....more door hardware, light fixtures, flooring, and hopefully water in the faucets!

Friday Update

We are moving along and every day we make more progress. It's exciting to see it all coming together. Exterior painting is done!

Cooper was banned from the house site today. The decks got stained and we can't walk on them for at least 24 hours.

We took the protective film off of the windows. What a difference!

We have lights!!! Love these on the staircase.

And in the kitchen. The crown molding is on the cabinets now. Bob still has more work to do on the cabinets so we are hoping we see him on Monday.

Terry did more work on the solar hot water heater today. It's up on the roof tomorrow morning for Terry, Matt and Randy as the panel needs to be hooked up. Best to do it in the morning when it is cooler. You can just see a smidge of the vacuum system on the left side of this utility closet. I am anxious to try it out.....hope it's quiet.

It's looking more like "Home Sweet Home"......we just can't wait to move in!

Tomorrow Darren will be working on the bamboo floor and Pat, the plumber, will continue to put in fixtures and toilets. Cort should also be around to finish the rock wall in the greenhouse.

Progress, and More Progress

Darren is sanding and getting ready to put down the bamboo flooring on Friday.

The downstairs bathroom got a toilet.

The solar hot water heater is installed. It's a big 120 gallon tank so we should never run out of hot water.

The downstairs baseboards and tile are finished.

Randy got his garage toilet installed.

The painting is 85% done on the outside of the house.

Love the red door and the stained beams in the entry.

One color gray for the siding and a little darker color for the trim around the windows and the stucco areas.

South facing deck stained and painted.

Decks are waiting for railings. And we ordered a 7 ft. tall fence for a section of the yard for Cooper and a garden.

The Heat/Vac guys installed the in-house vacuum today as well as the speaker system in the great room and kitchen. And they terminated the cables for the computer network.

P.S. We have a move-in date......June 25th!!

Busy at the House Site

The bamboo flooring arrived.....yippee!

The box says it is 154% harder than red oak.......we shall see.

We had to pull it out of the boxes and stack it. It needs to acclimate for 3 days before Darren can start working with it.

Four boxes fell off the truck and got damaged so we may be short and have to go back to Phoenix to pick up some more.

Eric, the electrician, is putting in the outlets today.

Master bath outlets and a good shot of the marble counter.

Chuck is staining the outside beams and decks today.

The master bath shower door was installed.

And so were the bathroom mirrors.

Guess what.....Buster is missing. We haven't seen him for 5 days. We put up signs and talked to our neighbors. We also filled out a missing animal report with the Humane Society, and we put an ad on our local Trades and Sales. We've had Buster for 15 years so we are pretty upset. Maybe he will turn up.