Concrete, water and wood

by Ed Rozmiarek

Closer and closer we get to the end. The list of major items that need to be done on the house is getting really short. We are now just a couple weeks away from being able to move in. As the flurry of activity to finish up the house continues, Susan and I have been packing and getting ready to move.

The biggest physical change this week is actually outside the house. All of the exterior concrete “flatwork” is complete. Since our septic tank came in under budget, we had enough money to actually install a complete concrete driveway instead of a gravel drive. The driveway and sidewalk were laid out and poured since the last update. We can now drive up to the house and park in the garage. We can also get into the house without walking through the dirt. The concrete pad for the outside A/C units was poured allowing the HVAC guys to come back to finish up their work.

Inside the house the finish work continued. The plumbers returned for their last visits, finishing out their work by installing the plumbing fixtures. They also finally hooked up the house to the water supply. We now have running water in the house. Yea!

The wood floor in the loft.

The wood floor was installed in the living room.

The flooring guys came back as well and installed the wood floor. We had wood flooring installed in the living room and the loft. That just leaves the carpet as the last major addition that needs to be installed. That is scheduled for installation on May 23.

Finally, the hardware guy came in and installed all of the hardware, door knobs, bathroom hardware, mirrors, locks, etc. He also installed the final front door.

The rest of the work is basically clean up and touch up. The cleaning crew came out last week to make a first pass at cleaning the house, cleaning the windows, counter tops, bathrooms, etc. They did a pretty good job but there is still a lot of dust on the uncarpeted floors upstairs and in the garage so it’s still very easy to track in dust.

The front door and the entry way lights.

The kitchen cooking area.

The touch up painting is last major piece of work to be done this week. The painters have a lot of work to do to get the walls into shape. They also have to stain the front door, the outside beams on the porches and the wood of the loft railing. This work needs to get done before the carpet guys come in next Monday. We have also purchased a bunch of window shades and blinds we need to install and the builder does not want me to install them until the painters come back.

As always, you can see additional pictures from this week’s visit in the house photo album.

Posted by Ed Rozmiarek at May 17, 2005 9:36 AM