The Home Stretch

We have begun counting down the days until we move to Crawford. Less than 20 days! When I got there last weekend so much was being completed.  The granite was all in and looks great.  Michael our excellent tile guy was busy installing the Travertine back-splash.  Jay and the electrician had been working on the over and under cabinet lighting.  It is using LED rope lights and is quite cool.  The concrete guys have been here and poured the walkway to the carport and the sloped approach to the carport from the road.  It has been like a little beehive here- (except that all the little worker bees have been male instead of female like real bees). They will be installing the flooring this next week, and we have ordered window coverings for the bedrooms and bathrooms that will be installed the following week along with our closet systems.

 Jay and I spent all day Saturday staining the walls in the Great Room.  We had some issues okay lots of issues and I am not going to go into them here, let's just say there was no blood, we are both still alive and the room got done... barely.  I'm not happy with it but it is what it is and once we have furniture in there it will be fine (I hope).  The downside of that little venture was that Jay re-damaged his shoulder and rotator cuff.  No I didn’t do anything to him.  It was from over working the arm with 14 ft high walls.  He has been in major pain since then and is going for an MRI today.  This is not what we needed with all that still needs to be done, and all the packing we need to do.  Ahhh life, never easy, but somehow you just muddle through.  Moving Van is scheduled to be here on November 13^th  and to unpack us on the 14^th.  We are having a big garage/estate sale next weekend and hope to get rid of lots of things we don’t use so why take them with us!
Here are a couple of pictures.  More to come!

kitchen really doesn't look this yellow- but it is very yellow.

Inch by Inch we move forward!

Finally AJ brought out the center island for the kitchen and the painters were able to get it painted on Saturday.  All that is missing now is the lazy susans for the corner cabinets and the little device that holds my mix master in its little garage.  Jay and Stanley were able to come up with a solution to fix one of my cabinet shelves in the cabinet I was going to use as a China Hutch.  AJ made all the shelves too small to accommodate any serving pieces and with a little ingenuity and a saw, they were able to give me a longer shelf in the middle.  The Stove was installed this morning. The granite guy will be out either today or tomorrow to measure for the countertops and then they will schedule for the flooring to be put in the house.  Like I said inch by inch, we're getting there.

New stove with vent-a-hood that has infrared heating for plates

 Now for the unveiling of the exterior light fixtures.  Notice the Miller Brand on the sides It is J M L.  Cool, don't you think?

Jay and I have decided to schedule our move for November 13th or 14th.  Can't believe it is just a month away.  So much to do and now so little time.  Here I am typing away on my blog when I need to call some movers and get some quotes, then book them.  Then I need to figure out the date for our BIG garage sale.  Oh plus I still have work and Caitlin's birthday and Jay's Birthday.  Guess I'm about to be a very busy girl!  So that's all for now folks!!

It's October and we are still in Dallas

Thanks to a few issues- AJ the most unreliable carpenter in TX and a housing market in Dallas that has dried up and blown away- we are still living in Dallas and will be here for the next 30 days at least.  To say I am frustrated is to say that the Pope is Catholic- just stating the obvious.  AJ has now promised to deliver the rebuilt cabinets four different time and all four times he has not shown up nor has he called with a reason why.  The great room is full of my cabinet doors and shelves all of which still need to be installed so we can get them out of the great room and stain the walls.  Plus until he gets done we can't install the granite in the Kitchen which means we can't install the backsplash or the pluming fixtures or the flooring and so on and so on and so on!  They are however working on the patio, porch and carport.  All things we added when we thought we would get over $700,000 for the house.

Last week we purchased all the light fixtures except the one for the Kitchen- hey what's the rush RIGHT??? and our friend Jimmy Don (who does some amazing metal work) has finished making our exterior wall lights- they look fantastic and were designed by Jay to compliment the house design.  Sorry no pictures yet, you have to wait with anticipation for the unveiling of the finished product.  Need something to keep you coming back week after week to read this blog!   

Now about the house.  It has been on the market for over 30 days now and we have had no showings.  There have been 3 open houses and the house looks good, but there are also 3 other houses similar to ours on the market in our neighborhood.  They are in the same price range and they have had no showings as well.  I hear talk about the hot housing market, but it seems that is for the houses that are $250,000 and less.  We had no trouble selling the rent house, but it was in that lower price range.  I asked the realtor about lowering the price by $20,000 and he said he believes if we want some action we are going to have to price it to sell and that means a price under $700,000.  He also believes that unless we need to get out from under it, we should wait for the right buyer to come along.  So I guess for the time being we will wait for that special buyer who really wants this house.

I do have a couple of pictures this time for you.

This is the Kitchen at night- still missing cabinets, shelves and hardware

  

here is our mail box