Punch list making me punchy

David comes home tomorrow after two weeks away. Thank god! I can't wait to give him back all the day to day stuff with the final renovation details. The fireplace is still not in - electric, gas, sheetrock, channels, all ready now and the masons have just about finished the chimney. But the fireplace installer keeps coming - pointing out something that is not right - and going away again. He's supposedly coming at 11am tomorrow now. That's his last chance as far as I'm concerned. I already called Amanda's to complain about the delay. The good news is that the downstairs bathroom is done now and the hardware for all the closet doors came in. So tomorrow we'll be just about done with everything (she says cautiously!) besides the rest of the unpacking as you can see from the library shot. But I know you are all dying for some more pictures so here you go! The killer sunset this evening from my beautiful living room reminded me how grateful I am for all of this despite unfinished punch lists :-)

Cabinets and Range Installed, Granite Templated!

More big stuff every day - kitchen cabinets are all installed. One panel to the left of the island sink was sent wrong and reordered (wrong style on the bottom) but the rest is done. The range is in (oven door to be replaced as it arrived dented!) and the other appliances will be delivered any time, probably next week. See David standing in the space for the new green technology Liebherr refrigerator! M&J Granite was there today to template and will now get to work on finishing the stone. That should be done within two weeks or so. Our master painter finished the master bathroom in "Almond Yellow" and the vanity was moved in. Stone for the top of it comes Tuesday. Most of the flooring in the master bedroom was laid out by Mike today. The finishing work on the window wells has been started by our crack carpentry team of TJ and Jeff and the HVAC guys, Jack and Al did more work on the A/C today. I picked up the lighting for the island, the chandelier and sconce for the dining room and the ceiling fans. I like the calla lily sconce so much we're going to order them for the hallway too. But today I noticed (and had Loretta from next door confirm) that the electrical boxes for the hallway sconces are too high so we'll need to get Ross to move all 5 of them and repair the sheet rock where they were. They're not going to like that but hey, this is our house! Gas, water lines and electric aren't finished yet but hopefully that all rolls next week.

First bathroom tiles!!

Lots is happening while I'm away. David just sent me this one photo of the first tiles going up in the master bath shower. I got so excited that I had to post it right away!!! Slate Solutions "Summer Wheat" looks like it turned out to be a great choice. We just heard that the vanity top isn't going to be done until Aug 29th so that's now the thing that's delaying finishing a bit but the kitchen cabinets come tomorrow and once that's done we should be able to move back in!!

Fastest sheetrockers in the east!

Check it out! The sheet rock is basically finished after just two days. They've still got some taping and finishing work to do but the upstairs is coming together. It's amazing to step inside the rooms now - they feel like real rooms now that the walls are filled in. They can't sheet rock the guest suite until the electrician and plumber finish their work down there but that will come in the next week or so provided Jim can shake them loose from their other commitments for a bit. The cement guy is working to finish the breezeway/garage foundation too. Today we picked out vanity and mirror for the master bath - a beautiful shaker style cabinet with a double sink, inset glass doors and lovely wrought iron hardware. Jim and David finalized the plan for the tile last week and our tile guy will get to work shortly. We still need to work on that lighting but that will have to wait until we get back from our business trips next week. We think the kitchen cabinets are coming in August 18th and Jim's putting two crews on to finish things up once that happens so with any luck we really will be back in at the end of August.