WE PASSED!!

We just passed our Final Inspection with the county!! We are so thankful to be done with the county and have the Certificate of Occupancy in hand! Thank you to those that prayed for us, we are very excited!

We just submitted the paperwork to the bank, so we're waiting on them to get things wrapped up. Yay!

Sooooo Close

We are getting so very close to being done with the house!! The bank inspection went well on Friday, but the county inspection did not. We were left with a list of things to fix and a fee to pay. We managed to get everything complete this weekend and payed the fee first thing this morning. To make a long story short, the inspector will out there first thing tomorrow. This should mean a passed Final Inspection and a Certificate of Occupancy! We will then turn the form into the bank and get things wrapped up.

We finished the flooring! The last bit of flooring to be complete was the Master Bedroom. We installed the wood laminate and it looks great.

Master Bedroom - I'm looking forward to all the extra space.

The main reason we failed last week's inspection was because of the paper backing on the insulation upstairs. You are not allowed to have exposed kraft paper on the insulation in an open attic space. Apparently the insulators and inspector forgot this 4 months ago and it didn't get noticed until Friday. We were unsuccessful at contacting the insulators (didn't get failed until 4:30 pm on Friday). So, we spent a good chunk of the weekend taking the insulation down, pealing off the paper backing, and reinstalling it ourselves. This was an itchy and tedious job - NOT happy with the insulators about this. I'm thankful Brian & a friend helped us out with this.

Here's the insulation now, paper free.

And the other side of the attic.

After finishing up the flooring & insulation yesterday, we spent a few hours cleaning. We haven't been the best at picking up after each task recently and things really piled up. So, we cleaned the entire house and wow, what a difference. Here's some pictures:

We cleaned off the counter in the Jack and Jill Bathroom. The only thing it's missing now is the mirror.

The Guest Bath is also cleaned up and I added the glass around the light fixture. We have the mirrow for this bath, it's just not hung yet.

The hallway, without the cardboard walkway.

The Master Bath, clean counter. We're in the process if getting the drawer pulls in and drawer faces adjusted.

I finally caulked around the tub, but still have to caulk the top of the tile to wall and along the floor.

The Kitchen & Breakfast Nook from the Living Room. This was the first time we saw the floors together without them being covered up. We still need transition strips, but it's looking really nice.

Looking into the Foyer from the Living Room.

The Kitchen without that box on the counter. I like things being clean.

From the Foyer, into the Dining/Kitchen and Living Room.

The appraiser is coming out soon and we should get everything wrapped up with the construction loan this week. We can't wait for this to be done!

Covering Up Concrete

We have spent the last week covering up the concrete on the inside. It has been so nice to get finished flooring down! Carpet was installed Sept. 22nd. We put in the best pad, which makes it a very comfortable. The carpet is a "frieze" which is a short shag - I really like it. Check it out:

The back bedroom.

The other bedroom.

The master closet.

The stairs.

We have also been working on completing the wood flooring. We're making good progress, but it is a time-consuming process.

We finished the wood flooring in the Dining Room.

The Living Room in progress.

The finished Living Room. We ended up doing wood up to the fireplace, I think this is a nice look. The only room left for flooring is the Master Bedroom. As of last night, it is cleaned and ready for the wood to go down, which we'll start tonight.

Handrail for stairs. This was one of the requirements to get the Final Inspection.

We have the final inspection scheduled for today and hope we have everything ready for the inspector. The bank inspector is also due out today. These are both huge and have the potential to greatly help or hurt us. Please pray everything works in our favor.

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.

Power AND Air Conditioning!

This past Saturday, JEA turned on our power AND we got our mechanical equipment started up . . . WE HAVE AIR CONDITIONING!! As you can tell, we’re just a little excited. We are very happy that everything worked out this weekend and we didn’t have to delay things further.

Over the last couple weeks, we finished installing the rest of the electrical fixtures, outlets and switches. They are ALL complete and we passed our Temp Electrical Final last week. This meant we could get the power turned on. Here are some of the last fixtures in place . . .

The light in the foyer.

The chandelier in the Dining Room. This has glass covering the lights that matches the glass in the foyer fixture – we’ll install that later to protect the glass.

The lights on the front porch. It’s so great to look at these lights on at night!

Here’s a picture of the cabinets in the Jack and Jill Bathroom. We installed the medicine cabinet mirror yesterday – but didn’t get a picture.

We installed all but three interior doors. The doors to the upstairs attic spaces and garage are particularly important because they separate conditioned space from non-conditioned space.

The wall in the attic area containing the dormers – the outlets and switches are active on this wall.

Our meter in place – it’s at zero . . . but not for long . . .

The thermostat in the Living Room. We have a zoned system that includes three thermostats – so we can have different temperature set points in different areas in the house. We’re keeping it at 80 during construction.

Here are the lights in the kitchen, shining brightly. You can also see the newly painted walls. We did a final coat in preparation for installing the cabinets.

Here is our condensing unit. It’s working wonderfully in the 100-degree heat.

We installed the fan blades and lights since we have the air conditioner getting all the humidity out of the air. Here’s the one in the Living Room.

This fan is in one of the bedrooms. Also, notice the newly installed double swinging closet doors.

In other news, we started tiling the shower in the master bathroom. We only have one wall done so far, but ain’t it pretty?

In order to pass the Electrical Final Inspection, we just have to have the water heater installed. That should happen shortly. Our Mechanical Final Inspection is scheduled for tomorrow. The kitchen cabinets should be installed this weekend. Things are going great and really moving along.