Walk Through is Tomorrow

After 7 months of construction, things are about to wrap up. Tomorrow is the "walk-through" where Carrie and I check out each aspect of the house and with the contractor, create a list of all unfinished items or details that need more attention. Having been in the house nearly every afternoon for the past month, I am certain the list will be very short.

We will also be receiving the final invoice too. Yeah!

Today the house was cleaned thoroughly so I decided to take a series of photos. They can be found on my Flickr site at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uklars/sets/72157624192680258/.

The one big remaining issue is the finish on the floors. The contractor was not happy with the way the stain took to the floor. There are several light patches that are quite noticable. It is my understanding that the floor finisher will be coming back on Friday to remove the layer of poly over the stain - then applying a new layer of poly with a stain additive. This may darken the entire floor area which would be a good thing - as long as the light patches are no longer noticable. I have faith that our contractor will see that it looks great before handing the house over to us.

Though the official hand-off is Saturday the 12th, Todd told us that it would be possible to move some items into the house as early as Tuesday - assuming the floors are dry and acceptable. There is no big hurry - but we may hang a few paintings and start the furniture delivery process next Friday with our bedroom set. After that, we'll have a gradual move-in over the following two weeks: moving the piano and some furniture from our rental house, the washer and dryer, the furniture coming from Mitchell Gold, and numerous boxes in storage.

It will be bittersweet to finish this project. On one hand, we are very eager to make use of the many cool features of the new house - like central air conditioning, a dishwasher, and a shower that you can turn around in. As for me, I will also be very glad to have no more decisions to make. After a while, it can become a chore.

On the other hand, I will miss the anticipation of coming by the house each day to discover what was done. For the past two years, I've held the design in my mind and then on paper. As with all projects I work on, it's very cool to see it come to form. There are always a few things that don't work out exactly as anticipated. Considering the complexity of the project however, I couldn't be more pleased with how things came together. The craftsmanship and attention to detail are superb.

Thanks to Michael, Todd, and everyone who worked on the house - and filled in the details where my design left off.