I don't normally write a Saturday entry, but this weekend I am making an exception. And if future weekends are as productive as this one, I will write on those days as well. Excitement was building throughout the day as things began to look a little less chaotic around our backyard. Wood was burned in a giant backyard bonfire and everything else disposed in the awkwardly placed dumpster. Still a lot of dirt and mud everywhere, but no more trash and construction remnants...for now. The contractor's father came by and very efficiently built the interior staircase. No longer must we struggle up a little ladder perched tentatively through the window of our new master suite to take a look around the inside. Like other civilized people we can now tread through the mud into the opening framed for a new basement door at some point.
We walked through the addition with the contractor to plot out the placement of canned lights, ceiling fans, electrical outlets, cable TV ports, and telephone jacks while it was still a little too cold this morning. Since he took no notes along the way, Cara and I get to spend Sunday writing it all down to send to him to make sure everything is placed where we need it.
Saturday afternoon was spent wondering through stores, looking at items we need to buy, and in the end we purchased nothing. We did work out a deal with our contractor to purchase the front door and the tub with his contractor's discount. Hopefully he will be able to do the same with the back door and the interior doors once we settle on those. We also looked fruitlessly for lighting at a local gallery where our contractor has a big discount. While we found some lights we liked, nothing was quite exactly "it." We need a new hanging light for the soon-to-be-built new front porch, a new hanging light for the landing of the interior staircase, and sconces for the master bathroom. Prior to the start of this project, I am pretty sure I had never used the word "sconce" before. So we scheduled an appointment with a lighting expert and will hopefully finalize the lighting plan next Friday.
Late in the day on Saturday, the roofer came to drop off his scaffolding and a few other supplies, and will be back again on Monday to start hammering away. I'm disappointed that the roof wasn't completed today, but that will give me something to look forward to on Monday. We did get a pretty good schedule from the contractor - shingles and bricks early next week; HVAC, plumbing, and electrical completed by mid-week; and possibly interior demolition by the end of the week. After that it is drywalling, hardwood floor installation, and painting, which is how I will spend most of my time off the last two weeks of the year.
Overall it was a very good week despite one day lost due to rain. We now truly have a structure that resembles a house and I feel the excitement once again that I had when we saw the drawings of our finalized plans several months ago. My fingers are crossed for a good inspection from the bank this week to say we are right on track with where we need to be. After that it will be dust and chaos indoors, but at least we will finally cross the midway point and start heading downhill toward the finish line from there.
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