Baseboards & Moving Date

We have been getting things finished up at the house. The main thing we've been working on has been the baseboards. We have them installed throughout most of the house. The only places we're missing now is closets and the hall. It's amazing how complete a room looks with the addition of this final trim.

The office.

From the Foyer, looking in the Dining Room on the left and Living Room on the right.

Master Bedroom.

We also have all the drawer pulls installed on the cabinets. Here's the Master Bath.

Besides baseboards & cabinet pulls . . . we set the washer and dryer, got the dumpster hauled away for the last time, began installing shelving in the Master Closet, began packing up the condo and moving some of our stuff into the house. We set our big move in date for this Saturday, Oct. 16th! We plan on finishing the rest of the punch list while living there. It'll be nice to take things slow.

Landscaping and Wood Flooring

Every week is so exciting around the house, there have been some major changes! A big thank you to Fred Gratto for helping us get and plant all of our trees, bushes & flowers. It really changes the look of the house. See for yourself . . .

Curb appeal.

Butterfly Plants, Knockout Roses, Fall Cassia, Muhly Grass, Juniper Parsoni . . . We are also going to put down a pavered walkway from the driveway to the front porch, explaining the large expanse of dirt.

The plants on the right side of the yard: more Knockout Roses, Changs Ruby Loropetalum, Gardenia, Juniper Parsoni and Fall Cassia.

I guess there’s a reason they call these butterfly plants. The butterflies came out before we even got all the plants in the ground.

We have a Lace-bark Elm in the front yard, it’s doing well.

We put down another four pallets of sod on Friday. The backyard is staying like this until next year (give or take) and we’ll finish the sod then. We’ll probably put some seed down in the mean time. We planted an oak tree in the back and it’s not looking so good. I’ve been trying to water it a bunch – any other tips out there?

Here’s the side yard, next to our neighbors. This was part of the four pallets we put down last week.

On the inside of the house, we’ve started the wood flooring! Here is the office, about half-way complete.

We finished the office, hallway and it’s two closets. I didn’t take up all the cardboard flooring protection, but you get the idea.

Here’s the hallway – ignore the cardboard. We’re glad to get out of little spaces with this flooring; the larger rooms should be easier.

We have also been preparing for carpet. This floor is much cleaner now than how it started, trust me. The two back bedrooms, stairs and master closet get carpet. It is scheduled to be installed tomorrow!

The stairs are clean and the trim is caulked and painted. Adam installed the brackets for the handrail, which is stained and ready to be put in after the carpet.


Brian has been installing the hardware on the cabinets – like our pulls? Also, notice the gap above the refrigerator has been filled in, looks much better.

What’s next – since there’s so much already complete, you ask? Well, we have to do the wood flooring in the Dining, Living Room and Master Bedroom. Then, finish all the baseboards. The shelving, mirrors, towel rods, paver walkway, front porch columns and railing also needs to be installed. But, we don’t need all that done for the final inspection. So, we’re going to push for our final inspection to be next week and then get the bank inspector out here. We’ll see what they say – please pray that everything goes smooth and we get our Certificate of Occupancy next week and the loan process goes well. We’re excited to get this thing done – or at least done enough to where we can finish the rest at our own pace.

Also, tomorrow is our 5 year wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Adam - I love you!!

Plumbing & Window Sills

There has been a lot going on at the Harris house the past couple weeks.

The foyer and master bath tile have been grouted. Here is the foyer. We also sealed the grout, which should keep it protected.

Here is the Master shower & tub, complete with shower heads. This has grout, but I’m not quite finished with the caulking around the edges/corners. We are getting pricing for a glass enclosure.

Here’s our water heater. We have our electrical final scheduled for tomorrow. We needed the water heater installed for this inspection.

Our kitchen – notice the tile is not covered up and the faucet is installed. We also have the garbage disposal hooked up.

Our dishwaster . . . just kidding, Mom. Thanks for helping out this weekend, Mom & Dad.

Okay, here’s our real dishwasher, hooked up and ready to wash.

Let me show you the rest of our plumbing fixtures:

Double sink in the Jack & Jill Bathroom.

Under one of the sinks. We have to fix the toilet in this bathroom and then we should be ready for the final plumbing inspection.

The vanity and toilet all finished in the Hall Bath. These are now functional and we got our portolet hauled away – yippee!

The Master Bath Sink – this is one of two and the faucets are goosenecks, which is fun.

Master Toilet

We also finished the door going to the toilet room. This door gave us quite a bit of trouble, but it’s all fixed now.

The window sills are all in – thanks for helping us out, Nels!

Guest Bedroom. We kept the edges long in case we ever want to add casing around the windows later.

Dining Room. We ran the sills across double windows to make one large sill.

Our fireplace. This has been installed for awhile now, but it’s been covered up until recently. The hood in the bubble wrap inside goes over the blank spot above the doors.

There was a lot of painting and caulking completed this weekend too. Thanks to Adam’s dad for helping us out so much!! Up next: dirt and concrete for the front yard.

Marble and Granite

I love seeing all the finishes come together in our house. Let me show you some of the work that has gone in over the last couple weeks.

The mortar on the master shower floor, we got just the right slope and it's ready for tile.

Here is the tile and floor drain (covered with blue tape), everything still needs to be grouted. You can also see the marble threshold that the glass door will sit on.

We ordered the rest of our door trim and base boards. They are already primed, but I have been working on getting a final coat of paint on them so the installation is a little easier. Here’s my work station.

We took the temporary treads off the stairs and replaced them with the final treads – they are MUCH sturdier. We also started doing the trim and baseboards. We’ll be ready for carpet before we know it.

Adam installed this pocket door going from one of the bedrooms to a bathroom. Works great, still needs trim.

I installed all of the glass globes for our light fixtures. Here’s the hall.

The marble countertops were installed in the bathrooms on Monday. Here is the Hall Bath. Ignore the plastic, we're just trying to keep it protected.

The Jack & Jill Bath.

The Master Bath. I love my vanity area!

The granite was installed in the kitchen yesterday and it looks GREAT!! We couldn’t be happier. Enjoy the pictures.

Note the finished crown molding on top and the toe kicks on the bottom.

The cabinet in the corner has a glass front where I will display my fiestaware. We'll install that door later, to make sure it stays in one piece.

The bar is 18" wide and is very long. It'll be great to get chairs here and have a spot to hang out in the kitchen.

We're ready to finish up the tile and install plumbing fixtures. Then, the plan is to move outdoors to do the sprinklers, driveway and landscaping. Then, back inside to finish the flooring (we already have the wood laminate delivered) and trim. Then, it's DONE!! Simple as that.

Cabinets & More

We have been painting the doors and trim white. A special thanks to my parents for coming up last weekend to help paint. We have most of the doors and trim painted now and it’s looking great.

Here is our door painting station.

The doors in the study.

The door knobs are in.

We also fixed a leak under the garden tub by sweating copper – check out our handy-work.

The tile in the master bath is getting close to being done. The final product is going to look great!

The cabinets in the Master Bath are in and the cultured marble people came out today to measure for the bathroom countertops. They should be ready to install in 2 weeks.

Brian helped us install the kitchen cabinets. The cabinet boxes are in and we are working on the rest of the trim and filler pieces. Our cabinets are mostly installed . . . check it out!

Our wood floors and water heater are ready to be picked up. The list of things left to do is getting shorter . . . yay!