3rd Inspection's the charm! Right?

I went out to the house today to drop off the new burn barrel I bought.  We have a lot of stuff to burn and need a place to do it safely.  I set it up at the bottom of the hill below the house.  It has a lid on it but once I get the right tools I'll get it the way I want it.  

 All the staples have been pulled out.  We started unrolling the flooring and laying it out in the different rooms.  I absolutely love it!  It's going to look so amazing once it's all done!

The underbelly is done, but we learned that our 2nd inspection didn't pass because we still have water pooling on the front and driveway side of the house.  So now all that's needed is to have French drains installed on those two sides and we should pass!  Once that's done this week, then the state has until the week of the 15th to do their inspection.  Fingers crossed we can move by the end of the month!  

I'll be going out there some this week to see what I can get done (probably the ceiling beams, if not the floor).  Hubby has to work from home and he's going to watch Max.  We'll see how things go!

House Update

 We've been getting a lot of work done on the house lately.  Hubby's been working on the walkway on nice days and joining me inside pulling old carpet staples out on other days (SO MANY STAPLES).  So far we've done:

The master bathroom & closet
The master bedroom & closet
The living room
The hallway & closet
Max's room & closet

Still need to do the guest room, hubby's office, and the school room.  Then we can start making sure the rest of the sub-floor is ready for the new vinyl to go down.  

We've already dumped the carpet rolls.  Now we just need to dump the rest of the padding/trash.

I also stained the front door.  Now we just need it and the sliding glass door re-framed and installed.  

We had to have a different plumber out to fix a leaky drain pipe.  They did a great job and came out the next day.  So now, everything is done and the house is ready for inspection again.  Hopefully it will be done tomorrow, along with the underbelly which needs patching and new insulation in some areas.  Then the state has 2 weeks to do their inspection.  If we get the green light, we can move in (Mid-April).  The sooner the better!

We do still need to do some drywall repairs and priming and painting.  But hubby's family is going to come down and help with that.  I did put up most of the marriage line trimout pieces to cover the studs.  It looks more like a house now.  The one in the hallway will need a new piece (it broke and part is missing).  

Our new flooring!  We absolutely love it!  It's going to look amazing in the whole house!

We are also trying to figure out how we should tackle this bury hole.  Eventually we want to use the lower area.  We'll probably chop all that wood up and burn it.  Little by little. 

And grass!  We are getting lots of grass growing now!  It's going to look so good.

Carpet Removal - Day 2

 Hubby and I finished pulling up the old carpet today.  We removed the carpet in his office, our master bedroom and bathroom (yes, carpet in the bathroom, ugh!), and the school room/fireplace room.  We ran out of contractor trash bags near the end and had to just pile the carpet against a wall.  But we're done aside from a few places along some of the walls where the carpet was really stuck!  We also still need to remove the tack strips and the staples.  

The living room, full of bags of carpet

Living room

Master bedroom

School room

School room/fireplace room/den

Hallway looking from living room to bedrooms

The guest room

Max's room

Hubby's office

Hallway looking towards the living room

All the carpet

But wait, there's more!

Our plan for tomorrow is to take as much as we can to the dump.  Then I need to work on painting the front door so my dad can install it on Wednesday.  We also have our walkway to finish.

The walkway

Carpet Removal - Day 1

 

I finally remembered to get a picture of the new tub faucet.  The water comes out in a waterfall and it has a handheld shower wand too!  I can't wait to use our new tub!

With Max at Mimi's house, hubby and I got to work on removing the air vents and the carpet from the living room.  There was a lump under the carpet near the marriage line and when hubby lifted the carpet, he found a purple pair of panties.  (Scandalous!)  

We managed to get the living room done, with hubby cutting and pulling up the carpet and me rolling it up and throwing it in the trash bags.  After removing the carpet in the hall, we worked on Max's room and the guest room.  After those 4 rooms were done, we were exhausted and hungry.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sub-floor was in really good shape! 

 As we were leaving for the day, we noticed we have grass growing on the side of the hill and in the back!  Yay!

We'll be back tomorrow to keep going.  Hubby has the week off work so we can get stuff done.  

We also had another snag with the HVAC.  Turns out there was water in the brand new duct work from when the plumbers were checking the old pipes for leaks.  The whole span of duct work had to be replaced, so I informed the plumber of what had happened and he sent me enough money plus extra to cover the cost of the replacement duct.  The duct should be replaced by Monday.  Then we're having the caulk applied to the concrete/skirting on Tuesday.  The chimney vent pipe tape was redone the other day as well.  Then we should be ready for the 2nd inspection.

Almost time for flooring changes!

On Tuesday, I went out to the house to meet the flooring consultant.  She measured the house/rooms for the new flooring we're ordering.  After she left, I finished up the edge of the door that still had paint.  It looks so much better and is almost ready for the whitewash I picked out!  I think we'll have to sand the back of the door (seen above) because whatever veneer/stain they put on it is chipping off.  

I met another window salesman who gave me a similar quote to the one we got before ($22,000, or $1500 per window!) and later I looked at Home Depot and found windows that would fit for about $280 a piece.  I think that's the way we'll go. 

We've decided to start removing the old carpet and vinyl on Saturday (after our flooring removal tool arrives on Friday).  It's also supposed to rain this weekend so it's the perfect indoor activity to work on.  We are doing everything we can to be moved in by the end of March.  We still need the HVAC vents suspended off the ground, the fireplace vent pipe needs heat resistant tape instead of the duct tape that's on there right now, and the skirting needs caulk between it and the concrete.  Hopefully, tomorrow is a good day for that since it won't be raining.  Then the inspector will come back out, fix up the underbelly, and we should be good to pass his inspection.  Then the state has 2 weeks to come and do their own inspection.  Praying we pass so we can move in!!

We have lots of drywall work to do on the inside as well.  But we're doing the floor first since that's easier to do without furniture, and hubby's parents have offered to help us with drywall and painting and watching Max. 

A Day at the House

 Yesterday I drove out to the house by myself (hubby stayed home with Max) to finish up the detail work on our front door.  I managed to get the front of it all done.  All that's left is the edge that has the hinges.  I think it looks much better.  

While I was there, the gutter guys and the plumbers were getting their work done.  The plumbers fixed the various things they had on their list, as well as installing a new faucet in the laundry room and the master tub.  I'll have to get a picture next time I'm there, but I love it!  

The gutters look amazing and they have really nice guards on them to keep leaves out. 

I also went into the master closet and pulled out all the trim out pieces for where the studs are showing at the marriage line.  I found all of them, but one is broken and the top half is missing.  So we're going to have to cut a new piece for it.  

Our next task is sealing between the bottom of the skirting and the concrete footer to keep water from getting under the house.  I bought a few cans of sealant in case we need them, as the other option is lining the concrete with dirt from the bottom of the hill.

The back side needs some sealant or dirt covering it.

The very back of the house also needs it. 

While I was there, the mailman also marked where our mailbox should go with the little orange flag.  So now we can install it!