And just like that...

...it's all done.  Okay, not done exactly, but we spent the first night here on August 1st!  I think that's close enough to the end of July to say I met my deadline.

The past two weeks have been a complete blur.   We hustled to get all the loose ends tied up to pass inspections and be ready for the move.  I can't remember the specifics at this point but in the past two weeks:
geothermal, light fixtures and fans, fire alarms, plumbing fixtures, barn door, upstairs trim, pocket door, closet shelving, cleaned up, cable hook up, inspections, moved stuff, built beds, cleaned windows, decorated, and lots of other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting.

For their various contributions in the last couple weeks, a HUGE thank you is in order for: Steve, Sharon, Sarah, Sue, Paul, Katie, Beth, Eric, Healy, Michelle, Sean, Colleen, Larry, Jeff, Pam, Buzzy.  And if I missed anybody, I apologize.  It's almost midnight and the new Bob-O-Pedic is calling...

Here's the story in pictures.  (There will be another batch of "finished" photos once we settle in enough to do it.)

Urethaned a set of three doors so I could install the pocket door that had to be put in before the trim could be done.  Dad painted the trim ahead of time since it wouldn't be accessible later.  Nothing like spending hours trying to get a perfect finish only to come back the next day to find 100 no-see-ums and a daddy long leg embalmed in the no-dry urethane.

Left over materials + 8 floor tiles = countertop in the mudroom.

Had an energy audit done by a third party Energy Star rater evaluating the New Homes with Energy Star program.  Found out the house is as tight as I had hoped and made $200 in the process.  Nice.

Dining room table and chairs (and assorted accesories) Ikea-style.

Kitchen backsplash, cabinets, and counter done and ready for fixtures.

The scratch ticket method of reducing our mortgage failed.  Shocker.

The "staging" dad and I set up to install the cathedral ceiling fan.

Looks safe, doesn't it?

Finishing up the last of the trim.  The pile of boards is getting smaller.  The pile of cut ends is getting bigger.

And the sawdust is building up.  Our battle with sawdust is almost over.  Just some around the table saw in the basement now.

The PVC trim around the bathroom shower transom.  Hopefully I'll never have to deal with rotted wood.

Chandelier in the stair case.

Ceiling fan in the bedroom.

Chandelier over the tub (and the reason I failed the final electrical inspection).  Big thanks to Sue for getting him to come back the next day after I replaced it to sign off on the permit.  I should also thank her for lining up the fire inspection twice, since i failed that one on the first try too.  Who would have thought you'd need a hard-wired smoke detector in the basement?

In the process of trimming the bedroom.  Exhaustion setting in.

Spent a day sanding the stairs to restore them after months of abuse during construction.  Then spent a day doing the last coat on the upstairs and down the stairs.  Neglected to open the windows since the AC was running, so I got a little sick by the end from the urethane fumes. 

Dean finished the island.  Slight moment of panic when we brought it in to find the straps holding it on the truck had left and X on the surface from being in the sun for one hour.  It has faded out since.

Drink break for our little helpers. 

Installing the island pendants.

Flexible track lighting over the wood stove.  A pain to install, but they look cool now.

2 minutes before tracking in massive amounts of mud onto the new floors.

In my mad rush to finish the electrical before the inspector came (I was screwing in the last outlet in the garage when he pulled up) I cut a few corners and got zapped for the first time of the entire process.  I cut through a live wire putting up the outside light fixtures.

Kitchen faucet up and running with hot water.  Amy could finally wash the stickers off the light fixture globes.

Kitchen just about complete.  It required a pretty good wrestling match with the range hood.  It came with 6 screws to hang the chimney part.  I shattered (yes, shattered) 5 of them.  I eventually won the battle, but it required an impact wrench and some sheet metal crews.  Job done.

Anni showing off the best use for the island overhang.

A rare sighting of Amy painting trim.  She limited herself to the insides of closets, but did a great job.

Paul came between mowing lawns and working to wash all of the windows in the house.  I had gotten used to them being "frosted."

The LAST piece of trim!!! I celebrated with a donut.

Amy and Katie moving the Amazing Furniture purchase so they could clean the floors.

A huge thank you to Colleen for spending an entire day crawling around the floors to try to remove the flooring glue that we missed while laying the floors.

Vac EVERYTHING!

Moving day!

Refreshments provided by Gramma Sharon.

The pregnant forewoman overseeing operations.

Healy and the last of the banana boxes coming off the truck.

Pantry shelving in and ready to be filled.  We went shopping yesterday for the first time in over a year.  Filled two carts; emptied one checking account.

Amy happily using her new kitchen faucet sprayer when the handle came off and water shot up to the ceiling.

Dad doing his best to resist lifting heavy boxes and injuring his back worse.  He didn't do a very good job resisting.

What to do with another barrel of wood?

The first beer at the newly built dining room table, courtesy of Paul.

The chaos of the media panel and a 12 way cable splitter.

August 1, 2011.  It's official.

The girls enjoying their rediscovered toys.

Ella also chose August 1 as the day she would get her ears pierced.  Daddy had no input in this one.

The last of the stuff from the Strozina's garage.

Due to a minor mix-up by Bob's furniture this was our bed for the first two nights in the house.  Tonight we get to sleep on the Bob-O-Pedic for the first time!

The end is in sight

In The Money Pit, the house is always guaranteed to be done "in about two weeks."  So I hesitate to say it, but we may be ready to move in "in about two weeks."  July 31 is looking likely.

We also had two anniversaries to celebrate this week.  I don't remember the exact date, but it was about 1 year ago we moved in with Amy's parents.  And yesterday Amy and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary with a trip to Bob's Furniture and Walmart.  Good times....

Work has continued fast and furious every day since school ended.  Today was only a half day since Amy went to see some country concert with her dad and sister.  It took me 5 hours to hang the last two doors (one was cut to fit the roofline between the closet and laundry room, the other opening was the only framed in the house by Milton and he made the door opening 1" too short).  Got to spend the rest of the day with the kids.  Very fun.

Laying the pine floors is underway.  Old fashioned square cut nails apparently aren't used much.  I bought all 17.43 pounds C&S had left.  Ran out of those and bought the only 16 pounds that Koopman's had (theirs were in one pound boxes).

Took a day off to spend my birthday at the lake with the Lefebvres and family.

The array of tools used in laying the flooring.  This is the last room I did, so the pile of boards is all that was left at this point.

Some help with the measuring and cutting.

Some help with setting the nails.

Sean, dad, and I set every nail in just about 3 hours.  Sean also came back yesterday and spent the day helping me hang almost all the doors on the second floor.  Thank you, thank you!

Crocs, the work shoe of choice for the professional carpenter.

During the nail setting, the granite counters were installed in the bathroom and...

...kitchen.

Fuel.

With the granite counters in I was able to install the rest of the upper cabinets and finish the over- and under-cabinet lighting.  This is the LED strip under the counter.  0.1" thick so it's invisible and came in a 16' roll that can be cut in 1.5" increments.  Very cool.

The edger.  I hated this thing.

The drum sander.  I hated this slightly less.  I rented both last Friday at 3 pm.  Sanded until midnight.  Sanded the next day from 6 am to 5 pm, but was only through 2 of the 4 sand paper grits.  Extended the rental for another day.  Sanded 15 hours on Sunday and quit when I hit the cord with the edger at 11 pm and tore up the paper and cord.  Returned Monday at 7 am to finish the last three feet and return the sanders by the 8 am deadline.  Tired.

Using the edger.

One of the four barrels of sawdust removed by the sanding to get all the boards to a uniform height.

Help cleaning up the saw dust before urethaning.

Testing the hearing protection.

Amy filling nail holes with her little helper.

Relaxing and taking a break on a refrigerator box.  There's nothing more comfortable...

After the second coat of urethane we took a trip to IKEA while the floors dried.  WAY overloaded Paul's truck.  But we were able to get bunk beds, dining room table and chairs, closet wardrobes, and every mirror needed.  Plus a cup of coffee and coffee roll for $0.69.

Loft Before.

Loft After.

Picture taken by Annika to show off the newly urethaned floors.

Master bedroom floor urethaned.

The vessel sink and fixture that will be going in the bathroom.

Tiled the backsplash and space behind the range hood.

Charlton Well came to tie the wells into the house!!!!!  The pipe crew came the next day to connect to the geo units and found they had all 1" fittings.  The piping is 1.25".  They'll be back Monday.  Should have fully functional HVAC by Tuesday.

After dad painted the window and door trim I trimmed out the rest of the kitchen, including the cove molding at the ceiling.  I also started the bed moldings at the tops of the cabinets. 

Back to work tomorrow.