It’s Down to a Final Cleanup Before Closing

Well, we made it. It’s been the longest five months of my life, but we finally have the closing scheduled for Monday the 2nd of November. We had a real scare a few weeks ago because the appraisal came back low, and the builder wanted a few weeks to dispute it. We weren’t sure if we would be living in our cars for a few weeks, or what. Luckily we were able to arrange with our current Landlord to stay a few extra weeks beyond our original vacate date. The builder lost the appeal on the appraisal. As a result, we are getting the house for cheaper, and the rest of our deal remained largely unchanged. They took back some of the money they had been paying to buy-down the mortgage rate, so 4.75% turned to 5.00%, but who can complain about five per-cent?

Here is the current state of the house. We still have to do a final cleaning before the closing on Monday as the last part of out sweat-equity, but everything else is done. I am taking off next week to repaint some of the rooms in living color, and to move over some of our smaller, more fragile stuff (crystal wineglasses and stereo components, I’m talking about you!). Moving day is next Saturday. If you’re not busy we could use another strong back and a good pair of hands. But be aware that the beer is not being opened until the last box and stick of furniture is off the truck. Sorry, but them’s the rules. I let my friends start drinking on a move once when we were still loading the truck. Mistake. Big mistake. I never did patch all the holes in that drywall.

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—Michael

Painting Day

Painting day was actually countless hours spread over a three-day period. We never could have made it through without the generous help of our family. Much thanks and love goes out to our painters T.J., Kelly, Brandon, and Cathy. Brandon was over the house with us for four hours on Friday, then the whole gang was with us for nearly twelve hours on Saturday (we let Grandma Cathy and T.J. leave a little early). We finally finished up with Kelly on Sunday, putting in five more hours. In total we spent over 90 man-hours prepping and painting the house. Of course, a couple of professional painters could probably have knocked it out in a single afternoon! 

I didn’t realize how few pictures we had taken until after the fact. I spilled about a quart of paint down my right side, dousing my cellphone and rendering it useless. The paint was literally running from my waist down to my right shoe, which was completely covered. No pictures. Anyway, the ones of T.J are cute!

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—Michael

 

Helping Hand Commences

Well, it’s been over a month since I last posted. We have been so busy at work and with our Helping Hand projects at the house that I have had no time or desire to post. Sorry. Today I will try to catch up. Look below for some pictures of the work that went into prepping the house for paint and flooring. We had to wipe down all the walls, scrape and vacuum the floors and baseboards, and tape all the wood trim in the entire house.

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—Michael

 

Siding Complete

On Friday the 4th of September we were pleased to see the siding was complete, but nothing much more had been done this past week. The breaker box had two breakers installed, and a sticker had been posted heralding the arrival of the drywall stage. Otherwise, the interior looks the same as it did the week before. Houses on either side had the sidewalks poured and driveways paved. Two more houses to the left have started framing. By the time we move in every house on the block should be in process.

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—Michael

 

Siding Started and Rough Electric Almost Complete

This week ended with almost all of the electrical rough-in completed, and about half of the siding installed. There is still no lock on the front door, so we still have access to the interior. I noticed that the plumbing inspection has been completed, as has the HVAC inspection. All in all, things are progressing rather rapidly, and we expect to begin our “Helping Hand” projects within a couple weeks.

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—Michael

 

Roof Complete

This week the roof was finished and the plumbing and HVAC have been started. Click on any photo to see a larger version, and use your browser’s back button to return to the gallery.

 

—Michael