Progress
In all that angst and elementary school memories resurfacing, I forgot to mention that I went over to the house this morning with Joycey-baby.
And behold, my jaw dropping.
Recall, if you will, that I worked in construction for some time. I guess I figured that they wouldn't work very quickly. Apparently, they are NOT unionized workers, because they have cleaned up the interior of the house and almost all of the drywall is done!
I was most pleased to meet Earl in the front yard, tearing out those overgrown shrubs that you may recall were obscuring the front of the house. Go ahead and scroll down if you need a visual. I'll wait right here.
Back? OK, the bushes weren't terrible, but they were unkempt and needed a serious pruning. I just assumed that the contractors would take care of the interior and some exterior things, but no landscaping. I found out today that they will be doing a lot more landscaping than I had previously thought.
Yay for bushes disappearing and some nice, new foundation plantings. I don't know if they will be doing any of the new planting, but they will be leaving us with a clean slate if not!
I also found out that instead of pouring a new concrete front walk, they are going to dig up the existing brickwork that has sunk and been covered by dirt, relevel that area and provide a solid base and re-lay all the existing lovely brick front walk. Yay! I would have been happy with concrete, but I'm ecstatic about using the original brick!
Took a few more window measurements, came home and ordered four sets of blinds for the downstairs windows. JC Penney has my favorite roman shades at a great cost--we bought a set for the current house for about $45 that I love. JCP has a current $10 off/$50 purchase, so I did two separate transactions and used the $10/off coupon twice and had them delivered to the store, saving another $20. Downstairs window coverings have cost $120 so far. We will need to cover the kitchen windows, the back half-bath and the back entry window at some point as well. I'm portioning them out so it doesn't affect the wallet quite so much. I went with sage green for the living room shades and a red shade for the dining room, since we have an Oriental-type rug we'll be using in there with shades of red in it.
Picked carpet for the third floor this week. Spent five hours arranging, rearranging and removing some things from our storage unit. Next step: have Hans bring down the boxes that we have in the attic so that I can comb through them and then move what's left to storage. Make a run to the thrift store for drop off.
I had another moving company in for a quote today--they will work on an hourly basis not to exceed 10 hours for the move--that's moving my packed boxes and furniture onto the truck, driving the one mile to the new house and unloading everything. They are $15/hr less than the first place, which gave me a set contract price. The estimator was very nice, they will blanket and shrink wrap all the furniture for that short ride and the price is right.
The project manager at the new house thinks that they "may" be done earlier than anticipated, which is wonderful since I wasn't really sure how we were going to close on 4/30 and move on 5/1. Even 3-4 days earlier will help a LOT. We will see what happens.
I am looking forward to my next visit next Thursday! I will try to take some pictures!
And behold, my jaw dropping.
Recall, if you will, that I worked in construction for some time. I guess I figured that they wouldn't work very quickly. Apparently, they are NOT unionized workers, because they have cleaned up the interior of the house and almost all of the drywall is done!
I was most pleased to meet Earl in the front yard, tearing out those overgrown shrubs that you may recall were obscuring the front of the house. Go ahead and scroll down if you need a visual. I'll wait right here.
Back? OK, the bushes weren't terrible, but they were unkempt and needed a serious pruning. I just assumed that the contractors would take care of the interior and some exterior things, but no landscaping. I found out today that they will be doing a lot more landscaping than I had previously thought.
Yay for bushes disappearing and some nice, new foundation plantings. I don't know if they will be doing any of the new planting, but they will be leaving us with a clean slate if not!
I also found out that instead of pouring a new concrete front walk, they are going to dig up the existing brickwork that has sunk and been covered by dirt, relevel that area and provide a solid base and re-lay all the existing lovely brick front walk. Yay! I would have been happy with concrete, but I'm ecstatic about using the original brick!
Took a few more window measurements, came home and ordered four sets of blinds for the downstairs windows. JC Penney has my favorite roman shades at a great cost--we bought a set for the current house for about $45 that I love. JCP has a current $10 off/$50 purchase, so I did two separate transactions and used the $10/off coupon twice and had them delivered to the store, saving another $20. Downstairs window coverings have cost $120 so far. We will need to cover the kitchen windows, the back half-bath and the back entry window at some point as well. I'm portioning them out so it doesn't affect the wallet quite so much. I went with sage green for the living room shades and a red shade for the dining room, since we have an Oriental-type rug we'll be using in there with shades of red in it.
Picked carpet for the third floor this week. Spent five hours arranging, rearranging and removing some things from our storage unit. Next step: have Hans bring down the boxes that we have in the attic so that I can comb through them and then move what's left to storage. Make a run to the thrift store for drop off.
I had another moving company in for a quote today--they will work on an hourly basis not to exceed 10 hours for the move--that's moving my packed boxes and furniture onto the truck, driving the one mile to the new house and unloading everything. They are $15/hr less than the first place, which gave me a set contract price. The estimator was very nice, they will blanket and shrink wrap all the furniture for that short ride and the price is right.
The project manager at the new house thinks that they "may" be done earlier than anticipated, which is wonderful since I wasn't really sure how we were going to close on 4/30 and move on 5/1. Even 3-4 days earlier will help a LOT. We will see what happens.
I am looking forward to my next visit next Thursday! I will try to take some pictures!
