Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Big commitments - and a DATE

Never fear, my radio silence has not been due to lack of activity! We have signed a contract with Hammer & Hand and officially submitted all paperwork to the bank. The permits are trickling in. We expect to close on the loan the first week in September, pick up the permits immediately after, and break ground on Monday, September 10. Wooohooooo!!!

The only major things left for us to finalize are the plumbing fixtures and master bathroom vanities. Although we had picked out the ones we thought we would get, the plumber has other options with very competitive pricing -- so we'll be visiting the plumbing fixture store next week to check out his options, including vanities, and hopefully make final decisions on those.

In the meantime, IKEA had a sale on kitchens and today we ordered our entire kitchen, including cabinets and countertops (but not appliances), as well as our laundry room cabinets and mudroom cubbies (which we're hacking from various IKEA items). Whew! We spent a lot of money, but we saved a huge chunk by purchasing during the sale -- and, thankfully, Bryan's dad is letting us store our flat-packed cabinets in his garage until roughly March, when the kitchen goes in. Fortunately, the counter vendors will wait until installation before they deliver. That's a big CHECK off the to-do list!

And then there are the trees ... Bryan, our friend John and the excavator will all meet up on the property the weekend before we break ground to knock down the trees. We've already been working hard, but the real work is just beginning.