willowisp and I took off our shoes and went wandering around in the house in our socks for the first time. After a few minutes I pinned down what had been nagging at me since I walked in: with carpeted floors instead of bare cement, the house is very, very quiet. I like this development a lot. I took pictures of the entryway, study, dining room / great room, master bedroom, game room, stairs, kitchen, and one of the upstairs bedrooms. I also took another picture of the kitchen to give a better view of the countertop now that it's uncovered.They've also installed the plumbing fixtures. The kitchen sink is in, as is the utility sink. The downstairs powder room has been mostly finished. Faucets are in the master bath. The tub itself has been cleaned up quite a lot. All of the johns are now installed. (Why do I hear Patrick Stewart in Robin Hood, Men in Tights whenever I say that?)
Last and not least, they've cleaned up the yard (also the courtyard) in preparation for landscaping. I don't know whether that will happen this week or next but I'm looking forward to it.
At this stage there's not a huge amount of work remaining. The biggest part is probably the landscaping in front. The tile backsplash still needs to go in -- I'm guessing that's an afternoon's work for two guys; one to cut the tiles, one to put them up on the walls. Vents still need to go on top of the ducts for the air conditioning and over the manifolds for the radiant heat. Door hardware needs to be installed. The cooktop, oven, microwave, and dishwasher need to come in. The gigantic pile of trash in the garage has to go. There's a little bit of trim work remaining, mostly baseboards around the tile and such. Then some general touch-up work to fix the dents in the wall where they hit it with something heavy, then another coat of paint, and then it's done.
It sounds like a lot when I write it out like that, but I'm thinking about it from the perspective of doing it all myself. For a decent-sized crew it really isn't too much.
17 days until closing.
