We’re done! (and by that I mean the contractors stopped coming every day)

It all happened while I was away in California visiting my family (and my lovely mother sending me back with 140 pounds worth of house stuff – three über full bags to check at the airport – yay! (So now we have pretty much a fully stocked kitchen and bathroom situation and then some).)

Radiators got installed. Except one of the radiators was installed crooked and covering an outlet. So that needs to be fixed.

Appliances came. Even just having the stove in the space for the stove makes all the difference.

Fence was put up. Thank goodness we insisted the contractor put the fence across the whole yard – he only budgeted to put in one section (which, why???) and we had to cough of the difference, but it was totally worth it.

Mailbox installed. Now we can get mail delivered, whoo! Except our mail carrier actually told us that we needed to move the mailbox lower because he didn’t like climbing up steps and if there is snow, he definitely won’t be climbing up the steps. WTF?? Where else can it even go?? Can a mail carrier make such a request on account of sheer laziness? Definitely going to be calling the post office about that one.

What we are still missing:

Gas. Which means: No working stoves. No hot showers. No dryer.

Those damn entryway tiles. Took three months to hit US soil. I’ve actually be in direct contact with the distributor. They’re very nice, but have been at the mercy of the tile manufacturer basically always.

The final HUD inspection happened. All the money is going to be technically paid out. But since not everything is done, I’m going to deposit the check and hold back the money it takes to hook up the boiler to the stoves and dryer (which I guess can’t happen until we have gas) and put in those last 8 tiles (and stop having an annoying gap in our entryway.

Our expediter has been on top of our architect and then on top of the dob to get this gas situation authorized. Fingers crossed that we have it next week. Otherwise fingers crossed that the weather stays relatively warm so those cold showers are something we would take anyway.

Man they are cold though.

We actually had our housewarming already a few weeks ago, sans furniture or a working stove – it was a pie party (a time honored tradition we usually hold on 3.14 – get it?? – but pushed off until we could have it in our new house, which we naively thought was going to be done back in March).

So next up is maintaining the actual house stuff, like:

Controlling our serious ant/bug problem (ugh, my worst enemy – maybe we have to pour ant killer in the backyard and everywhere – so far some crazy ant spray has kept them at bay for now and our exterminator put some crazy gel in the doorways. Still bugs though. Bugs I’ve never seen before).

Buying a couch (such a commitment – It’s inevitably going to be the centerpiece of the room. We were specifically looking for a couch bed but there are no cool affordable couch beds so instead were going to get a fancy air mattress to go with our cool couches).

Figuring out the best way to clean hardwood floors (so far my super crazy awesome dyson has been able to pick up all the loose dirt, now time to invest in some kind of wet swiffery situation to get up all caked on stuff, which totally sounds grosser than it actually is).

Buying other furniture (not so fast and cheap that we rush the decision and hate everything in the house and have to rebuy everything, but not so slowly that we have boxes for a year and have to eat off the kitchen counter for every meal. Delicate balance).

Fix our leaky basement/cracked front steps (thanks to all the rainstorms, we found out that the concrete on our steps needs to be totally redone, and no it hasn’t gotten better the less we do about it, so it’s time to suck it up and call some folks about some steps).

It has been over 6 weeks since starting the gas meter process. If your contractor ever tells you this can wait, don’t listen to them!! They are wrong!! Also, double check all your architect’s work. You may not know everything to look for, but you will at least know the stuff that was supposed to be fixed in the first place. We just had to resubmit the paperwork for a 3rd time because a few things weren’t exactly right. Again.

Basically micromanage the shit out of everyone. Also try to find at least one other person on your side to help reiterate some of the micromanaging (i.e. Wells Fargo and my expediter).

Yep, totally done.