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.