Getting Close!!!

Well, this past weekend's trip to the house was very exciting! Not that they all haven't been, but this particular visit elicited a fair amount of squeals from me!

At this point, they have to keep the door locked (you'll see why in a moment), so we had to go and get the key from Bill.

Of course, this was far more exciting when I thought this was THE key to OUR house, but it turns out it's a master that opens all the houses that haven't gone to settlement yet. Once we go to settlement, we'll be given our keys that once they are used to open the door, the tumblers will be reset and the master rendered useless. So still, kinda cool.

Check it out - the driveway is paved! At least the first stage anyway. It looks as though it will get another coat of asphalt and sealant. But it was very fun to be able to pull into the driveway!

In addition to the handle and lock, a knocker and kick plate have been added to the front door.

Here we go!!

The hard wood floors are in!!! Of course, they are all covered up since there is still painting and other work going on, but here you can get a glimpse of the color. I love them!!

And - drum-roll, please!!!

THE APPLIANCES!!!!!!!!!! (Hence why the doors now need to be locked!)

Look how pretty......

All GE Profile appliances. The refrigerator wasn't pushed back into place, but it was plugged in. I think the water line still has to be hooked up to it though. You can kind of see the fancy ice maker in the front!! There is a door alarm too.

Just another view of the kitchen... You can see the basic black laminate countertops that hopefully sooner rather than later will be replaced with granite.

Here's the kitchen sink - I like the little side sink where the disposal is. And the faucet has the pull-out sprayer. We didn't have a sprayer at all in the TH and I missed having one desperately!!

My pantry!!! Have I mentioned how excited I am about my pantry? Oh, about a hundred times?? Sorry.

Here's a close up of my nice brushed nickel hardware that will be throughout the house - door handles, hinges, etc. This was definitely worth the extra money in my opinion. Hate that standard builder's brass!!

Here's Tyler inspecting the fireplace...

We're thinking we'll probably do the Uba-Tuba granite in the kitchen to match the fireplace surround.

More lighting fixtures! And you can kind of see in this next picture that the railings have been stained to match the floors:

My big laundry room sink!!:

All bathroom tiling is complete, and the shower doors are in:

The boys gave them a good testing going in and out, in and out, in and out!!

All plumbing fixtures are in...

including the toilets (below in the hall bathroom), which Tyler went around testing as well. Pretty sure he flushed every toilet in the house...

ONE of my linen closets! This is the one in the hall outside Baby Girl's room. I don't have a picture of the one in the laundry room, but it's pretty much the same except the shelves are slightly deeper.

Insulation has been installed in the huge basement storage area. We're waiting to see what, if anything, they are going to put over it. It will be all too easy for this plastic covering to get shredded...

The 75-gallon water tank:

I'll need it to fill up that big tub!!!

Mom's bathroom:

Here is the back view of the house. I believe I was standing nearly at the edge of our property. It's going to be a pretty decent sized back yard!

The boys had a blast playing in the dirt....

They were FILTHY when we left!!

I believe in this next picture, Evan is showing us where he wants the swing-set....

While Tyler's job was testing the plumbing, Evan's was testing the doorbell. I took a video so you could get the full effect.

Nine days until the final walk-through, and 13 days until settlement!! Pretty soon we'll be counting minutes....


And lastly, here's just a fun little video from the past week of the boys playing with Grandad:

Three-day weekends are the best! Well, truth be told, four-day weekends are THE best, but those only happen once in a blue moon, so I have to be satisfied with three-day weekends!



Saturday was beautiful. The morning started out quietly. At one point, after doling out the mid-morning snack (goldfish crackers) to the boys, it got a little too quiet. The boys had wandered off and suddenly we were aware that there was no noise. Mitch went to investigate and found this:

There they were, in the livingroom, quietly enjoying their snacks seated across the room from each other, not bothering anyone. It was adorable.

And yes, I typically keep them in their jammies until after morning nap, which is typically after morning snack. However, Tyler chose this weekend to stop taking his morning naps, therefore, not taking any naps at all since he gave up the afternoon nap a long time ago (at least when he's at home - he naps just fine for Bila!). He also chose this weekend to perfect his skill of climbing out of the crib. So guess who'll be getting his big-boy bed a little sooner than expected?

While Evan napped, Daddy took Tyler to the park to run off some energy. By the time they returned, Evan was awake and they enjoyed a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich for lunch.



For those of you that know my struggles with Tyler's eating, you understand what a glorious site this was - to see Tyler jumping into the chair (notice he has also given up the booster seat) and diving into this sandwich. The same kind of sandwich that just a few weeks ago he adamently refused to eat. I'm sure he'll change his mind again in the blink of an eye, but in that moment, I was thrilled. When he informed me that he was going to "sit [on his] knees", I said "Sweetie, if you're eating your sandwich, you can sit on your head for all I care!"


After lunch, it was time for the weekly trek out to see the house. Needless to say, Tyler was asleep in his carseat before we even got on the highway!

Siding installation complete? Sidwalk installation complete?



CHECK and CHECK!!



Walkway (from front door to driveway) installation complete?

CHECK!!

Front door painted (Old Colonial Red)?

CHECK!!

Garage doors installed?


CHECK!!


Kitchen counters ready to be installed?

CHECK!! We are going with just a laminate to start off with, and then we will do granite on our own. Our salesman told us we'd be much better off price-wise doing it after the fact.

Railings installed?

CHECK!!

Columns?

CHECK!!

All interior doors hung?

CHECK!!

Chandeliers?

CHECK!!

Crown moulding?



CHECK!!



Bathroom tiles?

CHECK!! I don't have any pictures of the master bath this trip because the guy was working on the tiling when we were there. I did walk in to take a look but I didn't want to disrupt him too much!

So by next week, the kitchen counters should be in, and probably all the door hardware. And who knows what else! Can't wait to find out!!



On Sunday, we headed to the mall after lunch (again, no morning nap for Tyler). Our main purpose was to check out a couch at Macy's, and revisit the couch we looked at last week at JcPenney's. But also very important, was to get our shaggy boys haircuts!



Tyler was first.


He was very cooperative. Evan waited patiently for his turn...


Just a little more off the sides......


Voila!! Take a gander at this handsome (and extremely tired!) devil!

Your turn, Evan!!

He was cooperative too, but not to happy about it!

Yay!!!


As tired as Tyler was, he was content to stay in the stroller while Evan enjoyed a ride around on Daddy's shoulders.






Here's just a random shot of Evan doing one of his favorite things - walking around in other people's shoes. We fear he may have a shoe fetish... But it sure it cute!




On Monday morning after snack, instead of naps, Daddy took the boys to this new park/ball field up the road to run around for a couple of hours. This enabled me to get a good jump on the huge amount of laundry I had to do. He took a lot of video with his phone - enjoy!

When they got back, it was lunch time. After that, Evan easily went down for a nap. Tyler, while nearly delirious from exhaustion, fought it hard. After putting up a mighty struggle (I should have taken a picture of the bruise on my arm...), he basically passed out. The two of them slept for a good 2 hours or more!

Then it was time to head back to the mall where the Labor Day furniture sales were in their final hours!! In the end, we chose the sectional from Macy's because 1) we liked it better; 2) the color selection was more palatable; 3) the delivery time was more conducive to our needs; 4) it was cheaper; and finally 5) because Mitch's mom works at Macy's so we got an additional discount! All very good reasons, don't you think?

Here it is:

Nice, eh? That is the color we are getting too. Yes, it is huge. We measured, and it will definitely fit in the room, but we may have to break it up to get it to work better in the space. At any rate, we see lots of comfy movie watching in our future. You know, because we have soooo much time to lounge around and watch movies!! *Sigh*. Maybe in a few years.

Ok, I had two other pictures of the couch on here but I just deleted them by mistake. ARGH!! I'll have to add them back later.

So, a good weekend, lots accomplished, and more milestones for my Ty-baby who is suddenly not quite a baby anymore :( I guess the next shopping trip will be for big-boy bedroom furniture!!