Ready for inspection

Plumbing is in, heating is in and electrical is in - ready for inspection. Then we can move onto walls.

The girl's tub. I was taking pics of where all the wiring is, so once it is covered up w/ walls, we know what is where.

The electric panel is up. We are waiting for CILCO to bring the power to the house.

Bad news there is already mold in the basement. We'll have to clean that up good. The basement was closed up for a couple months w/ water and leaves. Perfect environment for fungi. Apparently this happens all the time w/ winter construction.

This is our latest decision. What color outlet and switch plates? I think we are going w/ the light almond, instead of white or ivory.

Tomorrow we have to cut the amt. for the cabinets. We are quite a bit over our allowance.

The masonry guy is getting ready to start on the brick work on the front of the house, and the columns.

Electrical

Jackie is growing up too fast. She sooo looks like a teenager now.

We celebrated my great neice, Bailey's 4th bday on Sat. She was born on Valentine's Day, and she is very sweet. Josie is posing w/ her.

Sunday the girls and I stopped after church. It is still too cold in the house even though it is enclosed now. I think it holds the cold in. The electrician put up outlet and switch boxes Friday. They are everywhere. Are there too many? I guess it has to be because of code.

Fireplace is in, and the vent is going up into the attic and it will eventually go out the back of the roof
We need a gas line to it and electricity, and lets fire this baby up!

We were initially trying to figure out what these are. They are vent hoses for the bathrooms. Interesting.

Steve and I checked things out Monday night w/ flashlights. We were afraid that the neighbors would call the cops on us. Not much happened Mon. Steve had to call the cops on Sun after he saw egg on the Jeep. Another neighbor also had egg on his truck. The police officer said he would patrol the area. I'm sure they probably won't be back. Houligans!

The Ag Lab was in the news tonight. Congressman Schock visited the lab today to get an idea of what we do. I had start a "fake" 100 L fermentor for photo ops. It just looks so cool running. It is much easier to clean w/o the fungus in it. I stayed behind the scenes, so no pics of me on the news.

Mom and I went to "Lord of the Dance" tonight at the Civic Center. A friend at work gave her free tickets she had won. They were 5 th row on the main level. Not too bad. It was fun. I always wanted to see it, but is not worth $50.

I'll take some more pics later this week after the plumber has done some work. Ta-ta!

Heating

So here it is, the front door. There is a dummy door on it right now to protect the good door from the contractors. They were supposed to leave the tape on the sidelight to protect it, but someone from LS took it off. I might put something on the glass to protect it until the construction is done.

This is the side door of the garage. I liked the glass at the top of this one. Let some light in, but not low enough so someone can break it.

This is the sidelight from inside.

The H/AC guy worked today. Steve stopped by and talked w/ him. It will be good to have heat soon.

I think these are the cold air vents in the kitchen walls.

This is the Carrier furnace. He cut all the vent holes and some of the duct work is up.

We meet w/ the electrician tomorrow morning to walk through the house and decide where outlets and switches go.

The plumber said he is going to start Monday. It's getting exciting!!! We still need to finalize the kitchen stuff and look at tile for bathrooms.

Windows

Monday they put all our windows in. I like them. I was afraid I wouldn't. Now I have to stain them all. I should ask Dan when I can start staining. It seems like it would be easier to do w/o drywall up. The first one is the dining room.

This the kitchen. We chose casement, so they would be easier to open over the sink.

This is the great room. The door goes out to the covered back porch. Awesome!!

This is our bedroom window. We chose this awning window to go above our bed.

Jackie and Josie have the same kind of windows. I need to figure out what kind of window treatments to use. We currently have roller blinds. I kind of like them, because they block out the light, and don't get dirty like slat type blinds.

I finally got to go down in the basement. Dan left the board over the basement opening up to air out the basement, so I went down. It is kind of dark, but the flash worked to get pics.

Time for some bragging about my kids. I'm so proud of them. Jackie is a seventh grade Student of the Month. The letter that was sent said that comments made by teachers include, "Jackie is polite, responsible, and hard-working. She completes her work and participates in class. Jackie has a good attitude and portrays that in her actions, making her a good role model." Her teacher bought her McDs for lunch on Monday. It makes me think that I might be doing something right as a parent. Even though I feel like I would get a failing grade sometimes.

Josie was invited to take the test for Washington Gifted. She took the tests this morning at Bradley. Afterwards she said it was kind of fun. She wished she didn't have to school though. I know that she will probably not get in, since they test between 150 and 200, and only select 60. We will know the results mid April. Both girls are getting such excellent opportunities at their schools.

Tomorrow LS is supposed to bring the outside doors, and Dan said they were going to clean up the house for the plumber, electrician, and H/AC guy. The H/AC guy is supposed to be there tomorrow too. The house could possibly be closed in tomorrow.

Crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrazy

I'm practicing reupholstery on some other chairs before I do our dining room chairs. The one on the right is the new fabric.


It has been a crazy week. I had to take time off from work almost every day. Thurs. I waited for the plumber to repair the copper pipe, and then I was unable to take Shelby to the vet to get her stitches out. I WAS able to resolve the late fee charged by LS, and called Dan to get the second payout, so I'm not late another pmt. I called to make sure the right shingles were sent to the house: Rustic Slate. So there is roofing going on, and Monday the windows and doors are going to be dropped off. But the front door is not stained, because I have the correct stain chip.

Fri. we canceled the appointment at Hampton's, so Steve could take Shel to the vet and I made a quick trip to Morton to drop off the stain color. We made the appointment for Hampton's for Sat. at 10 to discuss ways to bring down the cabinet estimate. We are off by about 4000 from the allowance. The electrician left a message to make an appointment to walk thru the house for outlet placement. I'm hoping to do that Fri. am. I also heard from Dan that the electrician said we have to bring the electricity in underground or we would have to take out a tree. There goes more money from the overages column.


Sat. was so beautiful. I'm sure the roofers were grateful for the warm weather. This is a pic from Sunday after church. They asked if they should pose.

Here's our garage door. It doesn't have the hardware on it yet.

It is so exciting to see the house is almost enclosed. Now the inside stuff can shift into high gear. Plumbing, electricity and H/AC is next.

Here's another project I've been putting off for a long time. I bought these tiles over a year ago to put over the shower. I got a wild hair and decided to put them up last night. I think I can grout them after 72 hrs. I'll probably have to do some of the tiling in the new house to keep the labor cost down.

Blood pressure is rising

Here's poor Shelby after her surgery. She didn't seem to be in too much pain.

Steve called her Frankenstein dog. She will get her stitches out Thurs. I don't look forward to taking her for that.

This is the screw that was in my new tire. It is all patched up and ready to roll.

Friday was the Honor Roll Breakfast at Rolling Acres Edison Junior Academy. Jackie made Principal's List for all As.

Jackie and her buds, Emily and Courtney.

Saturday we stood in line for 1 1/2 hrs to get autographs from Cody Linley from Hannah Montana and Dancing w/ the Stars. They pushed us through pretty fast, so my pics turned out bad.

It was Girl Scout night at the Rivermen game, so we got special rates on the tickets. Of course, I spent a lot on food to make up for the discount. The game was good and the girls enjoyed it. It was a bummer they lost though.

Not much going on at the house. Bitterly cold and the roofers don't want to get up there. Dan called me Monday w/ a couple questions.

1) Electricity above ground or below ground? Cilco charges extra for underground (of course) and the electrician will have to charge more for above ground because his estimate is for below ground. I'm losing ground here. We are leaning towards above ground because it will be cheaper and the whole neighborhood is already above.

2) Plumber - Do we want to go w/ the higher quote for the upgrades we made on the fixtures? Steve and I need to discuss this. What is most important? We seem to be running into cost over-runs on everything we do. Eventually we will run out of money on our construction loan and then what.

Today I went over to LS in Morton to look at stain samples again to make sure it is what we want on the front door. We are comparing what will be on the front door, interior doors, trim, flooring and cabinets. My mind seems to be whirling from all the variations of oak stain. Above is the garage side door, and below is our front door prepped for stain.

I get home and there was a bill from LS. They charged $300 late fee, because Dan did not get another pay-out in time. He needs to get the roof done for the bank to give him the second installment. The bill is 30 days past due. This is charged to me, because the LS account is in my name to get my dad's discount. I can literally feel my blood pressure rise.

And now at 9 pm at night, we find a leaking pipe It is spraying water up underneath Josie's room. These copper pipes can just spring a tiny leak out of nowhere. Steve's is back from his second trip to Lowe's and I should go see if he needs help. I need to go to bed and pull the covers over my head.

I hope to post some pics of shingles by this weekend. There is no excuse, because it is warming up.