Progress report

I don't think there are many blog posts left to do, so I figured it was about time to zero in on the end of the story. This is a start of that.

We are nearly a month in the new house now, and things are going great. There are a few minor things that are still undone, but if you didn't know about them, you might never notice. For example, the screw holes in the front door casing are still uncovered - we've been promised the covers will be here soon. Another: two of the three toilets have cheaper polished chrome handles. We paid for brushed nickel - we're awaiting replacements. There are still a few boxes of clothing unpacked. We obviously have not missed the packed items, but you never know what might be in there. Our older HDTV is still at mom and dad's house, but Nick and I have plans to transpoitto the new house this weekend, with a showing the Pats game to immediately follow. We ordered a leather bench for our front foyer nearly eight weeks ago, and it still is not in.

But that's it, all pretty minor stuff. Other things previously reported are fixed. After all the electrical had been examined and fixed, the fireplace blower was still not working. Turns out it was because the thermostat was not getting hot enough to trigger it. When it did come on, it blew out the hot air so well that it shut off after 60 seconds. The fireplace guys came out and gerry-rigged it so that instead of using the thermostat location on the bottom of the fireplace, it used a hole on the less-well-insulated side. Ever since then, it has worked like a charm.

My computer required a new hard drive. I have the old one, so that I can try to pull data off of it (turns out I did not do a backup before we moved, but I did do one on 9/11, so I only lost about six weeks of photos and email). Reloading the operating system and all programs was a major pain in the ass, but it is now done. Ironically, my backup hard drive got fried somehow after I restored the data. I did a format and check on the drive and it now seems fine, but it made me think the new house hated computers for a time. Then, the computer crashed and would not restart. After examining some lights and consulting Dell's web site, the memory ships seemed to be at fault. I pulled them and reseated them, and everything's been good since then. Hopefully I have come to the end of the computer trouble. We were nearly at the point of buying a new one, but I think this one has lots of life left in it. And it is quicker than ever, now that the entire things been reloaded!

The tile in the foyer that was no good was replaced finally. The tile guys were in and out in 30 minutes. Too bad they hadn't spotted it the first time, saved the trip... We also are missing the carpet we paid for to cover the stairs. We called the carpet place, and they had it still. They will drop it off soon. We plan to hold onto it, just in case (especially since we paid for it), though we seem to be doing ok with the wood stairs. I think everyone has either slipped or nearly slipped at least once, though.

The fridge was giving us some trouble - the fan in the freezer was making an awful racket. I got out the wrenches and pulled some panels off and found the fan has ice on it - not frost, but ice. The fan was hitting the ice and making the racket (or the fan was thrown off center by the ice - I couldn't tell which). I cleared that out and it was quiet again for about a week. It started making the noise again, so I pulled it all out and watched the ice maker as it dumped a load of ice. The ice was wet. I suspect the freezer was not cold enough to fully freeze the ice and the extra water was dripping down the back and one the fan, where it finally froze. I turned down the freezer a few degrees hoping that takes care of it. We'll see.

I spotted the work of a local artist in the local library and liked the whimsical nature of her work. We actually have commissioned her to do two pieces for us, using her style and characters to draw images of the kids. We'll hang these near their rooms. They'll be something we can keep forever, something to show the grandkids eventually. In addition, I went back to our favority art gallery/flower shop and bought a couple of pieces for the master bedroom. One is a macro close up of red clover and the other a close up of a white flower that looks like an upside-down tulip (floral taxonomy is not my forte). Pretty, but we need more.

I also ordered blinds for all of the windows - not a cheap order, either. We got samples to decide if we should do real wood or faux, and we decided that if you're going to have painted wood, the faux looks exactly the same. Since we wanted off-white blinds, the expense of real wood was just not worth it. Still, though we spent almost $1700 instead of $2200, it was still $1700. For the bathrooms, we bought neat little temporary shades from Home Depot. You cut to fit and stick them on like Post-Its.

The only really big thing left undone is the yard - it is a messy mess that only a bulldozer can navigate. It has been far too muddy for them to level yet, and they may decide to just wait until spring to level it, place topsoil, and plant grass. We knew the latter two would wait, but we were not (and still aren't) sure about the former.

That's it for now. One or two more updates ought to take care of this blog - it will be nice to put the finishing touches on it!

Whew!!

I saw an article in my email this morning about Blogger going out of beta and said to myself, "Blogger? Ah, yes, that thing you used to update every day, but have been too busy to touch for a week..."

So we've been busy because we moved. Yes, we are in, and thank goodness for that.

In the last week, lots and lots has happened. First, earlier in the week, I went to the doctor with a cough and a funky-sounding lung. The doctor took a listen and said it was pneumonia. I needed drugs, because there was no way I could be sick for the move. The drugs were a 10-day regimen, and yesterday was day 10. Though the cough still lingers, likely because I've been outside in the cold, working so much rather than tucked into bed, but the worst of it held off, and I was able to move things without much trouble.

Friday was the closing, and that went very smoothly. We drove straight to the house from the lawyer's office, with a drained bank account and a new mortgage. But all that was rendered minor when we walked into the house. Empty and echoing, it was a huge relief. The night before, we'd gone into the house and set up a fake tree, a nine footer, and when we stepped in and turned the lights on, even during the day, it was glorious.

Within minutes, though, I was slogging up and down the ramp to the trailer. Phase 1 of the move was underway. I unloaded as much as I could by myself, and as time passed, people trickled in to help: father and mother in law, brother in law, brothers, mother, and father. We went until 10pm that night and very nearly got the entire thing unloaded.

Most of the stuff went into the garage, but a good share went directly into the house. The large foyer was a holding area for furniture as we brought in the large pieces and left them there until final placement. Saturday, we had four pieces of furniture to move in and about 20 boxes. All in all, the trailer worked out well. Everything survived, though one corner did leak and got about a dozen boxes wet. The boxes themselves took the brunt of the water, and the contents were damp at worst. I had to wipe a little mold off a couple of encyclopedias, and that was about it. If it had stayed in there longer, or if it had been wetter, it might be a very different story, but that's not what happened.

We all slept on mattresses the first night. On Saturday, I built my bed and Rick built the kids' beds. We also got the kitchen table and guest room set delivered. The cable guy came on Friday, so we had cable for the weekend, though only a 13" TV to watch anything. Monday, the new TV was delivered and installed, and the sound system was hooked up. It sounds great (which it had better considering the cost). There were some major problems with the cable box, and I had to drive to Comcast's offices three times to get a working box - but the third time was the charm and we're now watching TV like old pros. We watched our first movie on the system last night, The Lady in the Water. It has several very loud spots and at one point it woke Brittany up - sorry!

The painter had an illness in the business, so their arrival was delayed, but once the painter did come, he fixed all the spots they'd missed the first time and touched up several places that we'd scuffed moving furniture.

The main phone plug had something screwy and it caused the phone to ring after hanging it up - we thought we were going nuts. Phones are pretty simple, hard to screw up. But when the electrician came, he said he'd never seen it before, but the phone jack was bad. Once he replaced it, it was OK.

Not everything was peachy, though. Aside from the cable box problem, the blower on the fireplace is not functioning, and the fireplace guys said the electrical is no good. The builder says the fireplace guys don't know what they're talking about, and is sending out an electrician to look at it. He said they screwed something up in the original installation that had to be fixed in the waning days of the build. Confidence builder! The master bath shower door gave the installer a lot of trouble. The first floor shower door went in in about 10 minutes, but the second one took three hours.

My computer crashed the first time I tried to use it. I set up the new cable modem with it, and when I tried to open my email, I got a blue screen and a message that there was a bad system file. I tried to recover from the Recovery CD, but something's still not right. Either I'm doing something wrong or the hard drive is fried. Fortunately, I did a backup in the days before I packed it all up, so the most important files will be safe, but it is a big pain in the ass to start from scratch, so I'm really really really hoping I don't have to do that. Hopefully I'll have some time to work on it this weekend or next week. Until then, we're working off our work laptops. I set up Brittany's computer last night and it survived the move fine. Speaking of Brittany, the only thing not done is her desk. The parts are stacked in the garage. Maybe this weekend I'll put it together. The biggest issue for her will be figuring out where to put it.

We hung all of our new art and it looks great, though in the end, we only were able to fill three rooms - the guest bedroom has four pieces, the dining room has two, and the foyer has three. We bought several small winter scenes that we plan to hang in the office, but I'm waiting to be sure the layout is not going to change before I put them up. So we need more. We have our eye on several pieces, but at $200 each, we need to either be willing to part with a wad of cash or we need to be judicious with our purchases. Maybe a bit of both.

So, things are going well. We're home.

Soooooo close

So today I didn't get to see the house because I was too busy at work to take a lunch break and I had scouts after work. But Karen got to see it and said a few things we'd noted have been fixed. She saw the fireplace in action, which she must have liked immensely. She also spotted something wrong with one of the 18x18 tiles in the front foyer, a tile which has been mostly covered for the past three weeks. I have yet to see the problem myself, though.

The biggest news of the day is that tomorrow we have our walk-through with the builder, our last best chance to spot anything amiss and have it fixed. It won't be the last last chance - they said they will come back in a year from now to do a touch-up pass.

Tomorrow will be our last day officially living in my parents' house. It has been a trip and a godsend. I got to know my sister again, and got to know and like her new fiancee. I even got to sleep in my old bedroom again, though redecorated by my youngest brother. It will be a chance to going from living with eight other people, with the occasional ninth, to just four others again... and going from five cats back down to two will be somewhat of a relief.

But first there is the walk-through and all the paperwork on Friday. After that, though, it is all ours. I have to say that I wasn't always sure we'd get here, but here is where we are. Phew.

Getting close

So we decided to pay some points to get our interest rate down, and reduce our monthly payment by nearly $80. The bank said it wasn't a good idea if we planned to sell within a few years - and we certainly don't. The points will help with this year's taxes, too.

The cleaning crew has now been through both the first and second floors, though neither I nor Karen would agree that they are done. If they are, then we have some work cut out for us. There is dust everywhere you look. She can't see on top of the fridge, for example, but I can, and the dust is thick up there. There are lots of places where paint needs to be touched up and the like - we assume that will be taken care of, but we'll see.

Some things were fixed. One I was worried about was the set of hall lights in the upstairs hall - four switches to turn one set of lights on and off. I've worked with such things before and the wiring is tricky. Must be a few wires were swapped, because it is all working now. I was worried the wiring itself was the problem, but fortunately, it must have only been the connections. The caulking around the tub has been done and all of the bathroom fixtures (towel bars and the like) have been installed. All of the appliances have been prepped, which just means all the plastic covering has been removed, exposing the stainless steel. Very nice.

We're in a little bit of a dispute over some labor charges we paid for the central audio. We paid for seven hours worth of labor to install the speakers, and as far as we could tell, it only took a couple of hours to do. The contractor says his crew told him they took seven hours to do it, but we're skeptical, and have asked for an accounting of that time. We don't want to antagonize anyone, but at $60/hour, we want to be sure we are paying for what we got.

The furniture we want for the audio/visual equipment was not available locally, so I found the same thing on line, and got it for about 33% of the price, and with no shipping. That's good.

So, we're now two and a half days away. It has been a long haul. We're nearly at the end of the tunnel. We can't wait.

Quick update

Nothing happened at the house this weekend, in terms of work. We did meet with Tom Jr on Saturday and Karen gave him a list of small items that she'd spotted throughout the house, things like spots between tiles that were devoid of grout, nicks and scratches in glass or walls, and the few odd things with the electrical. I wasn't feeling very well, so I just followed them.

Sunday we went to see the house for a little while, and then got called back to it to show my brother-in-law, and we went again later to show Kristin and Nick. The upstairs had mostly been cleaned up, but the laundry and main bathroom in particular were not done, and the entire first floor was still a mess.

I drove by this morning and was flagged down by the carpenters and asked to show where they should install the towel bars, hooks, and toilet paper rolls. I did so, and hoped to see them in when I went to visit at lunchtime, but they weren't. The closets were all finished, though, which was nice to see.

We're counting down the days, just four to go!!

Really good progress

So we got hit with our first significant snowfall of the season yesterday, which only means that we found it imprudent to drive to see the house after work. So when we go today, we can be pleased with all the work that has been done.

We went yesterday at lunch and found that the painters were nearly done with the painting. They said that they had a little touch up to do and a few minor repairs to make. They were painting the stairs yesterday, the risers, not the treads. Lots more work than one might think - all of it needed to be primed and then painted, and the work is all detail work. The railings and treads are also getting a coat of varnish or urethane (not sure which, not sure I care).

The kitchen cabinets are missing some doors, as they were not exactly the right size. The rest of the kitchen is done, though.

The recessed lights in the batchrooms have been installed - they are a bit different than the other recessed lights, in that they have a cover of the light bulb itself, likely to avoid exposure to moisture.

The carpets had been put in at least half the house - the entire first floor (office, bedroom, living room) had been done, and one room on the second floor had been done. I think I saw the carpeters driving to the house with another roll of carpet as I was driving out. It is nice carpet, though not as soft-feeling underfoot as the best carpet we bought in our old house. That's ok, though, we can upgrade in a few years if we feel the need.

The cabinets are in in the laundry room. Mom asked where we planned to put the litterbox in the new house and Karen and I said we hadn't given it much thought. She suggested the laundry room, and it is a perfect idea. There is space to either side of the washer and dryer, and one side will be filled with shelving. The other is perfect for the litterbox - out of sight, on linoleum for easy cleanup, etc.

I got all the utilities set up yesterday: power, phone, cable, gas, rubbish, water, and sewer. Most of these places already had accounts in our name, and I just needed to transfer the account to the new address. The gas company was the only new one. James and my father in law have suggested satellite over cable, but I'm happy with cable and don't want a dish hanging off my house. Apparently there are more HD channels, but truthfully, I don't watch many of the extras - mostly local CBS and ESPN, which Comcast has. I also like Sopranos in HD on HBO and I've seen the ocassional movie on HDnet, but that's about it. What I really want is the rest of my local channels to go HD: ABC, NBC, and Fox. Anyway.

So we got our closing date - why was this not at the top of this entry? I duno - but it is the 15th, just one week away. We are now looking at some numbers, deciding if we can pay points to shave our interest rate by using some of our down payment money. One scenario had us paying $50 per month by paying 2 points, but we would have to take about $7800 out of the down payment to do it. It is all well and good as long as we're financing less than 80% of the cost, so we can avoid mortgage insurance (which is another scam of the mortgage industry). And it may be too late to decide to pay points. We're figuring that out.

Anxiety setting in

It's been a few days - the problem is that I'm easily distracted.

So, we've moved quite a bit in the house. The kitchen is all done, all the appliances are moved into place. There are some issues with the cupboard doors that we noticed and that the builder noticed. Two of the doors have spice racks built into them, and the screws used to secure the racks to the doors pushed out the laminate on the outside, such that the door is visibly different from the rest. I think the only fix for that is to start again. The builder noticed that some of the doors are slightly but noticably smaller than the rest. A new order to replace those has been made.

The lights, sockets, and switches are all in place except for a few in the bathrooms. There are a couple of issues with switches that we've noticed, espeically where three-way switches are involved. The hall lights upstairs have four switches, and that's a considerable electrical challenge, I realize, and I hope a fix is a matter of reattaching some wiring and does not involve new wire anywhere.

The doorknobs are all in, but we noticed some odd places where locks should be and are not, in batchrooms in particular. The master bath, for example, has no lock at all. The master bedroom door has one, and maybe the thought process is that that is sufficient, but it is inconvenient, to say the least, to lock the master bedroom door to get privacy in the master bath.

The painters were in and painted all the rooms that are getting carpeting, so that the carpeters don't have to wait for them. There are still several places that are absent paint, but only where there is hardwood or tile floor. They did all that painting on Monday and as far as we can tell, didn't do any yesterday, which we found odd, but whatever.

I got a call from the phone company that they want to go on site on Friday to hook everything up. I still have to call the cable company to have them do the same, but I'm waiting to get our closing date to do that. Ditto the audio/visual company, they will come in after closing and install the TV and hook everything up. Karen is getting espcially anxious to get the date. Hearing it is a milestone that so many other things hinge upon that we need to have it soon. We have to schedule things not just with utilities and installers, but also with the lawyers, the bank, and the moving company. And we need to take time off from work to got to the meetings and to actually move. We're getting close and knowing when "the end" will be is a big deal now.

Anyway, things continue to move, and we're happy. Happy, but anxious.