We're in...Sort of

Thursday the 8th, the inspector came and granted us temporary occupancy. We have 30 days to finish some things like the grading and the driveway. After such a busy few weeks, we went on holiday in Illinois for the weekend. Monday evening, on the 12th, we moved in a little bit. We only brought Elena's crib and our futon to sleep on to minimize having to move stuff off the carpet. After almost a week in the house, Eric and I found ourselves a little stressed. We think it's the whole carpet business, but man, there is still so much to do! The carpet guy comes tomorrow(Monday) and Tuesday, so after that hopefully we can move in like we mean it.

Here are some pictures of Morgan and Elena hanging out on Saturday. They both are getting around like crazy. Ahhh...Remember the days when we just plopped them together and they stayed...

Minimum Requirements

My parents and Team Gemo came up to help us out for the weekend. They mostly worked on the exterior. My mom and I watched the chillins and cleaned up the inside. Mrs. Team Gemo installed all the door handles upstairs early Saturday and then worked outside with the boys. The carpet was installed Friday. It looks great, but doesn't feel like it should. Since we are at a time in our life where we will be on the floor a lot with little kids, we went with less expensive carpet and a premium pad. Unfortunately, somehow along the way the wrong pad got ordered and I didn't catch it before the installers were done. The carpet people were really nice about it and are going to change it out, but it might take 2-3 weeks because the installer is booked up. Doh!
Lucian and Elena had a good time together. Here they are pondering the best way to hit the sledding jump.
Elena forgot she was 8 months old. She took off toward the stairs and decided to crawl up almost to the landing. The appraiser came Monday. He said he'd come back and take a picture of the front Wednesday so we could get the last few things that are obviously unfinished in the front done. that way the underwriters don't see red flags. Nanny found a way to keep Elena happy outside on the patio at the Cheddar Haus. The walker was provided courtesy of Trina's neighbor. Elena is digging it.

Thursday, Eric scheduled the inspector to come out and hopefully issue our occupancy permit. Eric has quite a list of odds and ends to bust through tonight. I'd keep my fingers crossed, but I'm not superstitious.

Cramming 3-4 weeks worth of work into 2 is fun. Throw in an 8 month old who is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything and blogging time is significantly reduced. Things are coming together. We ran a little short on casing and had to order more. That got delivered today. Other than the couple doors that need casing and the baseboard that joins up to that casing, all the trim work is done. I have all of the trim filled and sanded and all the carpeted rooms' trim 2nd coated. Carpet comes Friday morning at 8am. Today, I get to vacumm and mop the family room and stairs and paint the new casing.We had a bit of a snafu with the kitchen cabinets. They sent a 33 inch cabinet for under the cooktop. It is suppose to be a 30 inch. No biggee except Saturday morning we opened the reorder and it is a 30 inch standard door cabinet. It is suppose to be a 30 inch 3 drawer base. Doh! The best they could do was to get the cabinet to us on Monday the 5th which means half the kitchen will not be finished for the appraisal. I'm hoping it's not an issue... Of course then only half the countertops got installed Tuesday. The lumberyard is paying the $125 extra trip fee since the countertop installers have to come back for the cabinet snafu. With as many angled seams as we have, professional installation was well worth it. What is done looks really good. I think Wilsonart really hit the market right with their newer line of HD laminates. More of a granite, hard stonelike look, only warmer to touch and no loud clank when you put a glass down too hard and more economical. Of course it's laminate so no hot pans or cutting on it.On the exterior side of things, the weather again is making things challenging. Last weekend it was too windy to work outside, so that really is making things tight. Monday it was snow/sleet/ice/raining. Tuesday a little more random cold precipitation. Eric and Skip have been working on the standing seam porch roof. They have all except 3 end pieces of the porch roof done. Now he has to do the little roof under the upper front gable. After that it is dormers to trim out and the porch area to finish. At least he can work under the porch in the rain, since the weather isn't looking too cooperative the next few days.

Kodi believes that hard maple is really hard and can't wait for the carpet to come tomorrow.