Day 45 & 46 - 10/22 10/23/2010

Whew!!  We've been running around like crazy on Friday and Saturday trying to get all the last minute items done before out guests arrive.

Andy, Kip and Miquel, the hired gun, finished hanging, installing and adding trim to the kitchen cabinets completing the work started on Thursday.  The insulation crew came to add the blow-in insulation to the new area and additional insulation was added to the old area as well.  Since all of the new roof decking had radiant barrier foil on the back, we had them add spray-on radiant barrier to the old parts of the roof as well.

While there was still work going on in the kitchen, the cleaning crew came and worked on de-dusting the house.  Things have more color without that thin layer of dust.  We expect that we haven't gotten all of the dust yet though. 

On Saturday, Andy and Kip created some temporary counter tops to do until we get the granite installed.  So we have fancy 3/4 plywood counters now.  They cut a hole and installed the sink and the new fancy touch activated faucet.  They also installed the dishwasher, range and refrigerator.  Andy had a bit of an issue with the dishwasher with no water filling into it.  He was extremely puzzled.  Finally, by chance, he noticed that the water feed has a special flowsafe feature where it will stop the water flow if it detects a leak.  In the instructions, it mentioned to turn the water on SLOWLY... well, once Andy did that, the dishwasher worked like a charm.

Andy also had to put away his tools and clean up the kitchen.  He also assembled the table and got in the shower just about time that the first Swiss guests were arriving at DFW airport.  That is what we call just-in-time.  But that was only because of the delays caused by bad weather in Dallas!!

Yeay.. the fridge is back in it's home with working ice maker and water.

The range is installed and working.  Above the range is the range hood.  Still need the electrician to add an outlet and the HVAC crew to run the exhaust vent.  Anna was so happy to see the range she gave it a big hug.

The fancy plywood counter top isn't much to look at but we do have a working faucet, sink and dishwasher.  Miquel did a fantastic job with the trim work at the type of the cabinets.

We even have a place to eat again! 

Of course, there is still a lot of work to do as you can tell.  There are no shelves, drawers or doors on the cabinets and there is just bare concrete for floors.  But, everything is functional.  Andy will be taking a couple of weeks off from his second job as a construction worker to enjoy the wedding and the Swiss guests.  Unfortunately, he burned the last two weeks of his vacation and has to go back to his day job on Monday.

Anna and Courts gave up their bedroom for our first two guests and will use the upstairs office as their bedrooms.

At the beginning of the project, we were just hoping that we would have some type of functional kitchen by the time our Swiss guests arrived.  We had just a faint hope to have enough finished space to house our guests instead of having to put them up at hotels.  Well, those hopes were greatly exceeded.  RHD did a fantastic job in getting up to this point. Hats of to Pat, Joseph and their sub-contractors and crews.

There are still a few items for RHD to do and a LOT of items for Andy to do but the primary pressure is over.  Everything else can be accomplished over time.

There may not be many updates to the blog for a couple of weeks due to the wedding..  And if we post, the topics will be centered on the wedding and our visitors.  Maybe you will find that interesting as well.