A hive of activity

Our house has been busy! Yesterday the guys worked on the floor more, a cabinet guy put together (but didn't install) most of our cabinets, and we had an evening vanity delivery.

Today was a little more crazy: The truck with all our interior trim (doors, moldings and so on) arrived at the same time as the garage door guy, who was here all day. The cabinet installer got started. Our master bath vanity arrived, and Pete installed it. The guys worked more on the concrete floor, which looks amazing, and Pete also got started installing our beautiful window sills.

And that was just at the site. Back at home, I put out a few fires -- such as managing the first electricity usage bill we've gotten from PGE, which said we were overdue and they were about to shut off our power. Thanks to the wonders of paperless billing and autopay, both of which I immediately signed up for, power will not be cut off, either now or in the future.

And then there was the mystery of the missing vanity sinks, which were linked to the vanity countertop that apparently wasn't going be installed at the same time as our kitchen counters. With a little investigating, a lot of phone calls and some quick action as Bryan rushed to the rescue, another crisis was averted.

And look how great things are looking!

Garage doors!

One of Pete's beautiful window sills.

Our awesome floor.

Some of the kitchen cabinets are in place, though they need facing, doors and shelves.

The cabinets on the left will be part of our mudroom cubbies. To the right are the drawers for the kitchen cabinets.

Our floor's on an acid trip

Although the rain screen and siding are progressing at a snail's pace, things are starting to hit high gear inside the house. The drywallers finished up this week and the painters moved in -- and now we have a coat of primer on everything, once again changing the entire feel of the house:

The great room/kitchen.

Looking through the entry toward the garage.

On Friday, the guys powerwashed the concrete floor and put down an acid wash, which has been working its magic all weekend:

We can't wait to see what the floor looks like when it's cleaned and polished!

The tile guy has been in to lay down the floor heating and the shower floor in the master bath:

Apparently the tile guy also snuck in during the past week or so to put tile down in our entry -- but since it's always covered with paper to protect the tile, we didn't even notice!

And yesterday, Bryan, the boys and I moved our flat-packed kitchen cabinets from Bryan's dad's garage to the new house in preparation for the cabinet installers, who arrive tomorrow and should be here through Wednesday.

Our kitchen cabinets.

We're also getting some appliances and vanities delivered tomorrow, our mudroom linoleum will be installed then, and we get our garage doors on Tuesday. So much going on this week!

Our beautiful, sunny weather has dried out the yard, but our efforts on the soccer field have still yielded some patchy grass. As much as I'm enjoying this sunshine, I'm looking forward to the rain that's expected tonight so that my new plants can have a good drink.

And finally, our slow but steady exterior progress:

Inch by inch

OK, I lied: We really aren't anywhere near ready to put our current house on the market -- it's full of boxed fixtures for the new house, and we were already overcrowded with furniture and stuff that has nowhere to go for the moment. We don't even have space to put a storage pod (which we would need to access for all the fixtures). So we'll wait.

We did, however, get some bids on asphalting our driveway -- and one of them even fit in with the budget I allotted for this! Now we need to compare this to the cost of extending our concrete.

In the meantime, our drywall guys have moved on to mudding the drywall seams and our siding guys are creeping along:

This was Wednesday. Hanging the rain screen is slow going.

South-facing rain screen as of today. Siding should come next.

More drywall and siding prep

The drywall is just about finished and our paint colors are selected. Tomorrow I'll purchase the final vanities and a few bathroom mirrors from IKEA, plus some extra cabinet facing for the island. And we're ready to gather bids on asphalting our driveway and compare it to just extending the concrete apron. We also need to start thinking about booking the mover for our heavy teak furniture, and even consider putting our current house on the market. Things to do, things to do!

This niche in the stairwell will hold a carving we're trying to keep away from the cats. Beyond that is the office, with its half-wall into the stairwell -- adding light, views and the ability to yell down at the kids below.

Even the garage is drywalled.

Drywall and other bits

We've been busy again! This weekend, we took the boys to pick out paint colors for their rooms, then painted big pieces of paper to see if we actually liked the colors. We also pulled out the paint that we like from our current house to show Val and Pete. Some colors weren't right, so we have more paint picking to do -- hopefully Hayden (age 13) and I can get this done on Friday, when he doesn't have school.

On Monday, Bryan and I confirmed and ordered our appliances --  thankfully, not too much had changed in the 10 months since we picked and priced our appliances. On the same day, a representative from Globe Lighting (where we're purchasing our lighting) walked through the house with Val to double-check all our lighting. Today, Bryan and I met with our gal in the store to answer the questions raised at this walk-through. And we thought we were done with lighting! Hopefully, we are now. I visited the house with a few specific lighting questions in mind (How much track lighting goes over the stairs? Would a different kind of light be better in the pantry? Does the layout of the track lighting in the great room work?), answered the questions, and got a peek at our new drywall and sound insulation at the same time.

Drywall changes the whole atmosphere.

This is our regular insulation: high-density cellulose, which includes a mishmash of recycled paper. If we ever need to change a wall, the insulation guys can come suck the insulation out of the walls, then blow it back in.
Eternally reusable, and already recycled!

This is sound insulation, which we have between most of the downstairs and the upstairs.
(This is the downstairs guest room, right below the master bedroom.) We also have sound insulation between the powder room and great room upstairs.

Progress toward siding continues.

Siding and drywall continue this week and next week, and next week we also get tile in our master bathroom. We love visible progress! We still need to make one more trip to IKEA to order some vanities and cabinet facing for the island in the kitchen/great room; that will go on next week's to-do list ...

Insulation & grass seeds

Stay away, birds! Today Bryan and I spent a couple of hours smoothing out the compost on the soccer field, then spreading fertilizer and seed, then raking the seed in. Grow, grass, grow!

Fertilized, seeded and raked.

Last week we got insulation and some preparation for the siding. I also spent lots of money on the rest of our lights, bought a master vanity, arranged for installation of our kitchen and laundry room cabinets and scheduled the templating and installation of our counters. Phew! Next week, in theory, we get drywall, and Bryan and I will confirm and purchase our appliances. Things are moving right along again!

Prepping for siding. (The hose on the left is pumping insulation from the truck into the garage.)

Wall insulation.

Pieces coming together

The electrician has been very busy, but he should finish up today. I had no idea how many wires went into a house until this past week; no wonder it's taking a while!

Our stairs are also framed in and waiting for drywall, which starts next week. (This week the insulation goes in and siding starts.)

And we have rails on the south side of the house -- the track that the sun shades will roll on (to minimize the blast of the hot summer sun on our southern exposure):

Other details in the works include safety rails for the upper windows (because all windows can both tilt open and pivot, like a door, which is a definite hazard), potential screens for the windows, ordering the final lights and scheduling our cable/satellite wiring install. We're also ready to schedule kitchen cabinet and counter install and actually order the vanities and appliances. And we're working on the yard: The boys and I spent an afternoon raking hay off the "soccer field" to clear it for compost and then seeding. Since the excavator has to come back to smooth out an angle that's too steep, we're taking advantage of his presence and having him move our piles of compost tomorrow. After that's done, planting can start -- what great timing!