Home Building Headaches

I haven't been around too much lately and it's for a good reason. My wife and I have been so busy building a new home. Contractors, builders, plumbers, electricians... it can get hairy at times :). The good news is I see the light at the end of the tunnel. The house should be done and ready to move-in by the end of next month.

Last week we were supposed to meet with the landscaper to go over my plans for a new patio. However my daughter brought home a little 24-hour cold which when given to my wife and I turned into a 7-day flu (in the summer, I know!). Either way, we finally met with the guy this past weekend and got that taken care of. We also finalized our lighting choices and a few other things.

Sheet rocking has just been completed and I think the painter has started painting.

Although my certification expired years ago I was hoping to get some low-voltage wiring done, but the inspectors would never let that happen. So I met with the low-voltage wiring guys a month ago to give them a map of some wiring requirements (home networking, phone, fax, cable, central-vac, and home-entertainment). Unfortunately they didn't know what HDMI was and I had to order the wire and face-plates on my own and hand-deliver it to them. They've already finished all their work and I haven't had a chance to go see if that's all squared away.

Oh, and I should be kicking myself because we haven't put our current home on the market yet (arrg). We spent weeks packing and storing items (in a storage facility) so we could make the house look more inviting (less clutter). Because we've had a drought all summer the lawn is somewhat brown so I've spent the past few weeks watering it and adding a small amount of fertilizer in the front (It's starting to come around). The landscaping in the front and back needed a little sprucing-up and we'll be adding some mums sometime this week. We plan to have the house on the market by this weekend and will try for a couple weeks to sell it on our own (before going to a realtor). Wish me luck on that one =\.

So that's where I'm currently at. We've been taking progress shots (photos) as the building has gone along so I'll make sure to upload some of those to the site soon.