Ah, the JOY of BUILDING a house.....

Got a call last week from the Builder's office..... we're closing the first or second week of August. Yep, that's the original close date (August 11). Oh well, as long as we don't close LATER (school starts the following week!!!).......

And the State has been dragging their heels on submitting HB's paperwork, for the national licensing exam. Others have received their go-ahead, but his case manager (or whatever the heck the job title is) claims he submitted approval "weeks ago" - turns out he didn't really submit it until last week. NO IDEA why it took him a MONTH to check the "approved" box. So we're still in limbo (unlicensed), so HB can't start his job...... He's working, but at half salary, and as a glorified tech in the meanwhile.......

Times like these remind you that everything happens for a reason. If the house were as far ahead of schedule as we'd been told, we wouldn't be able to close, because of the delays in licensing. If the license wasn't being delayed, HB would have to travel as soon as he is licensed, or to stay on a couch in P-town, until the house was done and we could move down there. It will all work out, I am sure, but I am getting tired of waiting, LOL!!

The painters were delayed, because there was a problem with the drywall. The tile guy can't work until the painters are done, the cabinets can't go in until the tile is down, etc.......

That ate up about 2 weeks of time. And when we went down on Sunday, we discovered one of the doors is hung wrong: instead of opening from the laundry INTO the rest of the house, it swings into the laundry room, which will make it collide with the garage door, and they will BOTH block the bathroom door. Took a couple of back and forth calls with the builder to explain what was wrong, and that we want it like it is on the PLANS..... once he understood, he of course agreed to take a look, and get it fixed. Ah..... another delay.

Handsome Buffalo tells me not to worry. I just want to get into the house!!

Here are the latest pictures. Drywall done, walls primed, trim painted, a coat of stucco on (and some guy named "Fransisco" signed his name in the stucco. I am FAIRLY CERTAIN his autograph will not still be on the house at closing.......)

Holy Drywall, Batman!!

So, since the last time we saw the house (and the plumbing was nearly finished), the crews have been hard at work doing the following:

• finishing up the plumbing
• electrical, including a few things we added (outlets in the soffits for Christmas lights, 220 outlet in the garage, some extra outlets in closets and master bath, as well as the laundry room....)
• Insulation
• Septic system is in and finished!
• and yes, we have DRYWALL!!!

All in the last 2 weeks. The drywall guy will be back today to tape and mud, etc.

The monkeys didn't want to go: MiniMe whined "it's too far to drive" (it is two hours from our current house, after all). We promised to bring the portable DVD player, and our latest Netflix loaner - The Bridge to Terabithia (awesome movie, btw). When I plugged the car adapter into the car, after we were on the road..... it blew the fuse. My wonderful and handsome hubby stopped at a hardware store for more fuses - and they strangely didn't have the one we needed. So we drove onward, and the monkeys surprised us by being happy anyway. (they aren't used to movies in the car, so we worried that the promise, and then reneging of such a special treat, would cause anarchy - not so!!)

In the end, they had so much fun walking through the house (and picking their bedrooms, lol), that even after an hour, they didn't want to leave!!

Our real estate agent (who is wonderful, btw - anyone in P-town need one?) wanted to see the house too, so we had him meet us there.

The house looks great, aside from the requisite dust and mess of drywalling!!!

My bathroom:
Living room:
Master bedroom:
secondary bedrooms:
Handsome Buffalo in the garage:


And here's our ginormous garage, in all it's glory - well, MOST, anyway - I forgot my camera (yes, I know, how dumb is that???), and my phone only records 10 seconds of video.

Yes, folks, this is a 1200 square foot garage. That's bigger than the whole house we are living in now. Insane? Well, it was the cheapest thing we added, actually! And we certainly won't need anything bigger......ever.