Getting Closer

I’ve been working on the stair railings, and I’ll have a post about them hopefully soon, but there’s been a bunch of other things going on we should get caught up on. For starters, we got our countertops! Sarah and I went shopping for stone countertops for the kitchen as well as the three bathroom vanities. We learned that while there are lots of installers, they all buy from distributors and the distributors won’t sell directly to you. We did some online shopping and then visited two different local distributors and figured out what we liked and didn’t. Unfortunately, the distributors only give you a pricing scale with no way to extrapolate how much anything is. We were able to estimate roughly from that, but it wasn’t until we went to our installer to pick out some remnants for the bathrooms that we finally got a quote. It was –somewhat predictably– more than we’d hoped (or budgeted). The granite we wanted for the kitchen wasn’t in stock and wouldn’t be for a while, so we went with our second choice. We bit the bullet and they came out and finalized the measurements and got it all installed about a week and a half later.

We started hollering at the GC to get the plumber, electrician, and trim guys out. The doors for the trim were a couple weeks out, but that had come and gone. Then they delivered the trim but it was still another week before they finally started work on that. After weeks of trying to get the electrician out, he showed up for a few hours and hooked up some lights, but apparently doesn’t want to put in the fixtures, outlets, and switches until everything else is done, which is really frustrating.

The plumbers, on the other hand, were able to get the sinks, showers, and toilet all working, which is exciting. We now have more than one flushing toilet! this morning they picked up the port-a-john that had been beautifying our back yard these last months. They still need to wrap up the freestanding tub in the master bath and the kitchen appliances, but plumbing is otherwise basically done.

Next up the carpet guy showed up. We’re carpeting the attic as well as the stairs that go up to it. Unfortunately, he said we couldn’t wrap the carpeting over the hallway and stair edges like I expected and Sarah decided she didn’t think that would look nice. After some back and forth, we decided to make an edge of hardwood that will match the first and second floors, so she’s been working on that. The carpeting is supposed to be installed next week, along with the glass for the master bathroom shower.

The HVAC installers got one of the two AC condensers up and running, the unit that runs the second floor and attic. They put all of the vent covers in and we realized the drywallers were a bit sloppy around a couple of them and we need to add a bit of mud, which I picked up today. They needed a part that they ordered to finish the other unit, but it’s been a week or two so I need to follow up and hopefully they can wrap things up.

The trim guys started putting in doors, door and window casings, and base molding. There’s definitely some things we’re going to touch up after they leave, but we’ve had them fix the more egregious problems, like installing the bi-fold closet doors upside down, or getting two of the doors mixed up, installing a door in the attic bedroom that swings the wrong direction, and then saying they need to exchange the remaining door for one that swings the other way. I was able to solve that dilemma when I went to turn off the light and noticed the switch was behind the door. Today they fixed those things and then started installing the tile backsplash in the kitchen. Then a whole bunch more boards showed up for them to continue on trim, since they’d chewed through the initial batch already with a lot of the house still to go.

Once Sarah finishes up the attic stair and hallway edging, I can varnish that along with the railings and newels and then install the iron balusters. We’re closing in on being able to move upstairs, and as exciting as that is, I really wish I could get all the contractors out of the house so we can take a deep breath. A few more weeks and I think we should actually be there.