Phone jack #1 is in!

Buried Treasure

I didn't write yesterday. We only got a little done. Tony evened up the intake hole-in-the-ground so the duct cleaners could come today and clean the ducts without cutting their hands off. I was going to polyurethane the floor, but (as I fear) the putty didn't stain well. I had to re-stain those spots and needed to give it time to dry.

Today we had to go about the whole messy business of getting the ducts cleaned.

First off, never, ever, ever use Home Best to get your ducts cleaned. they advertise in the Penny Saver a lot. The price on the ad is '$79.95 for unlimited ducts'. Somehow the price escalated to $600 when they got there. 'Oh, because that doesn't cover cleaning the furnace, or the intake or the main ducts, or sanitation.' The guy tried to use double-talk and high pressure sell to get me to pay an outrageous amount of money for a glorified vacuuming (I'll discuss the actual services in a moment). If we didn't need this done to move in I would have told him to 'get out'. They lower the price to a meager $430, an amount I would have still been unwilling to pay (Tony did).

What they actually did was run what looked like an industrial sized duster on the end of a power drill into the vents, spun it (on the drill) and kick up the dust in the vents everywhere. And when I say dust everywhere I mean dust everywhere. Then they vacuumed the ducts out with a regular old shop vac. And, even after we told them that we just did construction and to expect dry wall, they told us that the sheet rock was 'plaster' and it was 'meant to insulate the ducts'.

Look, I know we're stupid for paying you guys that much money to do this crap, but we're not idiots.

Anyway, they did their thing and left. There was dust still in the air so I thought it was a bad idea to put down polyurethane. Eluded me again, have you floors! I did all of the touch up painting for the hall and the bedroom and then had to blow 2 and a half hours waiting for a ride. So I decided to raid the basement.

All my dishes and pots! I haven't seen that shit in years... or months. It kind of feels like years with my living situation. They say that packing is a bitch. But unpacking is fun! I think I got about half of the kitchen unpacked.

Yeah, I haven't taken pictures of the floor yet, but I took pictures of my dishes. Everyone has their priorities, I guess.

Stained

I've been busy, so it's been a couple of weeks since I've had time to finish the work that needs to be done. The goal is to have it done by the end of next week. What's left to do it finish the touch up painting, finish the living room floors, get the ducts cleaned (scheduled for Tuesday) and install a phone line. Of course there will be more work after we move in, these things just being what is required to move in. The bathroom is the biggest mess.

Today I got the floors stained. It took a lot longer than the other wood I had to stain. This floor was more damaged and I had to fill several places with putty. Unfortunately the putty didn't stain so well and I'm going to have to go over it again with gel stain. I put another coat of the hall floor too, to try to hide the damage Sam did. It looks better. Lets hope it still looks better when its dry. The kitchen has been touch-up-painted. That leaves the hall, living room, bedroom and bathroom, all of which I hope to get done this weekend.

LIGHTS!!!

Hehehehehehehehehe! We have lights!

We went over last night to see them. You have never seen two full grown adults so amused by turning a bunch of light switches on and off. We didn't want to leave. Soon, very, very soon we'll be living there. *joy-gasm*

The camera battery was dead (I didn't know until I got there) so you'll have to settle with crappy cell phone pictures.

Bathroom Vanity Light, we made a 'slight' measuring error (we didn't measure) and now the scones overlap the mirror

Living Room Ceiling Fan

Bar Lights


Dinning Room Chandelier

Bedroom Ceiling Fan

LIGHTS! LIGHTS!!!! HOLY SHIT WE HAVE LIGHTS!!!!
*runs away laughing*

The Light Faeires Were Here

Yeah, we've become pretty lethargic at this point only going over to the house once a week. I think I'm getting this weird 'it's going to be over soon so prolong it so it won't be over' stupid feeling. Anyway, Saturday we went over and did a little work. Tony scrubbed the bathtub and got a lot of the grout off. I painted the closet and touched up the paint in the hall as well as finished scrubbing the hall floor and got the living room floor mostly ready to be stained (there was dry wall mud in the cracks).

The really exciting part is that there were some lights hung on Saturday, the bathroom, circus room and bedroom. We made a measuring error with the bathroom vanity light. The glass domes overhang the medicine cabinet so it won't open. We can fix it, eventually. We have to fix Sam's shoddy workmanship anyway. Then when we came back on Sunday to check on the basement there were more lights hung, the hall, kitchen, dinning room and bar lights. It was really surprising. If this pace continues the lights will all be done really soon. We have to stop by Home Depot to get a new porch light (the current one is too big). All we have left to do is touch up paint, get the floors stained and have the ducts cleaned and then we can move in. There's still other non-essential stuff to do (clean grout off the bathroom floor, paint the basement stairs, fix the cracks in the basement wall, etc.), but we can do that once we're in.

I didn't bring the camera yesterday to get a pictures of the lights (I didn't expect them to be done) so I take some shots when we stop over today.

Finished touching up the ceilings and moldings today. And I sanded out the stain spots on the living room floor. I couldn't start staining it though. I need a clean brush. Tony sealed the door and porch with foamy stuff. We're still waiting on the electrician :(