A Banner Day!

As you know, we had our appraisal yesterday at 5 and .... we passed! The appraiser said we're over 95% done and that she'll make sure she gets it to the 97% we need for the mortgage. I can't believe how excited I am about this. I was ready to run over and hug her when she said this would be her last visit!

She also said that her initial appraised value of the house was missing lots of upgrades, such as the garage, radiant heat, wood stove, built-in appliances, etc ... so as long as the bank requests it she will do up another appraisal to give us a better idea of what the house is worth as built.

Not too much else going on with the house ... just had to share the awesome news. A long process will hopefully end in the next few weeks with the signing of some mortgage papers!

Peter and I are busy all night tonight, and tomorrow afternoon and evening. I'm hoping to get the last two window cases painted tomorrow morning but that's all I have planned for the weekend :) We don't want to get too slack now that we don't have the financial motivation to finish the house, but I think the impending arrival of Baby M will help with that.

We got the call ...

**ETA: Appraisal is tonight at 5 ... eeks!

When we got home last night there was a message on the machine that the assessment should be done by the end of the week. Peter called the bank back this morning to arrange an appointment but hasn't heard anything yet. I'll update when we have a time.

In case anyone's interested, I've been slowly going back and adding posts from when we first started building in the 2005 archives. We originally had these at a different url until they decided to stop having free service. Enjoy!

We have slightly slowed down this past week, but we've still accomplished quite a bit. Since my last post, Peter has finished the trim downstairs (pictures will be forthcoming when I get a chance). I managed to finish caulking almost 4 windows (1/4 of the total - yay ... I guess). I have continued with the house clean-up and things are starting to look pretty good. Peter installed most of the trim in the orange room - he needs some strong help to move the desk before he can finish the baseboard along one wall. He also installed the window trim in our bedroom, the nursery, hallway, and laundry room. Wow - he's really flying!

We're still missing trim in our bedroom and bathroom (other than the windows), the laundry room, and the yellow (guest) room. Actually, the half-bath still needs trim, too. Other than that all the trim is on. Peter still has 2 closet doors to install (our bedroom and guest room) before he's finished with doors forever. I'm sure he'll shed a tear on that day ... not ... lol. He's really not a fan of hanging doors.

I will keep you posted on the appraisal.

Encouragement ...

I was reading through last year's posts the other day and came across a list I had made just after the assessor left last time. Here is the post. Here is the list along with updated comments about what we've actually accomplished since that time - I feel much better after seeing all the things checked off!

Big Items Left to Finish (As of August 18, 2006)

• Urethane on stairs (Not really done, but not noticeable)
  
• Hang drywall in third spare room (Done)
  
• Hang drywall in back closet (Done)
  
• Hang, paint and install doorknob on door to half-bath (Not painted, but done otherwise)
  
• Crack-fill, prime, and paint third spare room and second spare room closet (Third bedroom done, second closet not done)
  
• Crack-fill, prime, and paint master closet (Have a few coats of crack-fill on it)
  
• Crack-fill, prime, and paint back hallway (Done)
  
• Finish laying and grouting tile in kitchen (Done)
  
• Build and install pantry and oven cupboards (Done)
  
• Build and install upper cupboards (Done)
  
• Build and install shelves and drawers in kitchen cupboards and master vanity
• Build window returns (Done)
  
• Install trim throughout (About half done)

Not too shabby!

Last night we didn't get anything done on the house. Tonight Peter is planning to install the rest of the baseboard on the main floor and possibly do another bedroom upstairs. I think I'm back to caulking and painting trim ... probably won't be any progress pictures from that, it's slow going!

The little things ...

We made more progress on our list this weekend :) Friday night Peter wanted to get the drawer together that he started a few weeks ago before his router bit broke (very strange occurrence, apparently). He had already planed the boards and had the jig set up, so he didn't want to leave it any longer. So ... he got the above drawer all glued together and left it to dry overnight. He then finished hanging the door and the closet door in the nursery. I got a first coat of paint on the wall in our bedroom. Unfortunately, when I got up Saturday I could see that it needed another coat.

Saturday Peter finished the trim in the hallway (the door on the far right is the nursery door and obviously needs a coat of paint) :


He also trimmed out the inside of the nursery, including the doors and baseboards. Now we're just missing window trim and this room will be ready to start setting up!



Lastly, Peter put the baseboards on in the living room - having them on really finishes off the room (also notice that all the windowsills are white now instead of brown) :



Saturday I got the second coat of paint on the wall in our bedroom - it looks much better now. In the process I figured out how to take our wall sconces down and clean them. Very good to know. After that I spent the rest of the day unpacking and organizing the orange room ... tada!


As a bonus I also got the other guest room (yellow) all cleaned up and organized. It's so nice to not have rooms I'd be embarrassed for people to see! After our long day we just crashed on Saturday night, so the construction mess from setting up the chop saw and air nailer in the house is still there. I have a free night tonight so my goal is to get that all cleaned up :)

Details, Details

Work continues at a furious pace as we anxiously await a call from the appraiser to schedule the walk-through. I was looking over our list and it is definitely possible to finish by the end of the weekend. We may also have some of the things checked off our "unfinished" list. I am going to scratch item 4 off the "to finish" list (painting the nursery closet) as you honestly can't tell it's not painted, and there are other things to be done that will make a bigger difference - like painting the marred wall in our bedroom (the white crack-fill really stands out on the raspberry-coloured walls!)

Last night was a productive night. Peter got the door to the electrical room installed along with most of the trim for that door (check off part of number 3 from "to finish") and almost finished installing the closet door in the nursery (from the "unfinished" list!).

I painted the first coat on two more windows in the living room. I only have 4 more to go - 2 upstairs and 2 on the main floor. I also did a bit of touch-up crack-filling on one wall in our bedroom that I had to repaint anyway.

For tonight, I'm not sure what Peter's planning on working on (although I know he has lots to choose from). I'm planning to prime the wall in our bedroom and paint the last two windows on the main floor.

At lunch I headed to the hardware store to pick up covers for our air exchanger pipes (details, details) along with our last interior door (for the nursery) and the door for our closet. The doors should be delivered tomorrow.

Peter has been doing an awesome job on the trim - I can't believe how quickly it's going!

One last detail. Peter's Dad gave us some money for Christmas, with which we decided to purchase a nice mirror for the master bath. The one we'd been using just wasn't cutting it - even I had to bend over to see in it as it was just resting on the counter. Now we have a beautiful 3' x 5' mirror hanging over our vanity - it makes the whole room look so much bigger. The one we were using in our bathroom I will install in the main floor half-bath.

Our friend, Trevor, is also buying our leftover hardwood flooring from us today - yay for extra cash *and* more space in the electrical room :)

I will try to get some pictures tonight!

Apologies

My apologies if this page is loading slowly for you - I didn't realize there was a problem until Peter pointed it out to me. I will shrink the pictures when I get a chance and that should speed things up ...

Busy little bees

Peter and I had a fairly productive weekend on the house. Knowing the possibility of a mortgage is just around the corner has served as great motivation for the last week. Peter worked all weekend on installing door trim and baseboards. Here are three shots of his progress:




I spent Friday night painting some more window trim. I got a first coat on three more windows. I have 6 left, total. We also realized that I should repaint one of the walls in our bedroom. It got pretty banged up when we installed the hardwood. The dents have been crack-filled, but I will prime and paint that wall this week. It *should* (fingers crossed) only need one coat. On Saturday I continued with my quest for organization. Here are the same two shots as before.



I think we're making progress. Unfortunately we still can't check any items off our list, but we've made progress on at least 3 of them!