Progress

So, I've been delinquent in updating in the past week. We are spending the Thanksgiving Weekend in Georgia with Sara & Josh, but the work continues! We've been making significant progress on the mechanicals & other inside stuff, and are quickly approaching drywall.

Here are the bullet points (since I have been accused by some readers of being too verbose:)
- Furnace is installed and working
- Water is turned on & a construction toilet is installed : )
- Master bathroom reframing is complete & the new window is ready to go in
- Master bathroom re-plumbing is finished
- New insulation is installed
- Electrical work is continuing
- Plumbing work is continuing
- Reframing of the living room fireplace is almost complete
- New water heater is purchased
- Speaker wire is run
- Drywaller is hired - hoping to start in 2(ish) weeks

That's all I can think of for now...thoughts of pumpkin pie are occupying most of my head...Happy Thanksgiving!!

My Bargain Safari

I have been shopping!!
Here are a few of the bargains I've hunted down in the past week or so:

Decisions, Decisions!

My much anticipated delivery of back splash tile samples arrived today, and let's just say I was not disappointed. From the moment I walked into this house at our "showing", I had a picture in my mind of what the kitchen & great room would look like finished. (Blame that on too much HGTV.) The key to the design puzzle was the kitchen back splash tile. The look I had in my mind was a combination of glass tile and natural stone in a non-traditional size and pattern (a "greatest hits of the tile world"). I spent countless hours scouring the Internet and visiting tile stores, but had begun to think that what I had in my head didn't exist in reality (a fairly common occurrence). But finally on Sunday night, I discovered an online vendor with not one, but four possibilities and I have been waiting with bated breath for them to arrive. And now that they're here, I have to decide which will work best (they are all the same price, so that's not a factor in the decision). I like them all for different reasons and they could all work very well in the space, but in order to move forward with other material and color decisions, I need to pick one soon. So if you have an opinion on these choices, shoot me a comment...maybe you'll pick the winner!

Here they are in no particular order:
(Some of the pics are vertical, but the tile will be installed horizontally. Additionally, they are photographed on a stainless surface & our appliances will be stainless... : )

Number One

Number Two
Number Three

Number Four

Mold Day

Foam, scrub, repeat. That was the essence of our day today. Pete and I, along with my dad and Lisa, provided the labor to assist the mold removal specialist for about 8 hours today. He foamed. We scrubbed. We bleached. He fogged. Mold died. Here are the pictures for your enjoyment:

And here is a little video if you're really curious:

Pictures

Here are the last of the "before" pictures. From here on out it's all "after" pictures! Move your mouse over the picture to see my descriptions.

Work, Work, Work

We're progressing nicely on the demolition. Since last Friday, another 80 hours of volunteer labor (us , plus family & friends) have been logged, and we have made tremendous progress! Thanks so much to everyone who has come out to help!
We have a hard deadline now that we are working toward. We need to have all of the demo completed by next Saturday, November 13. That's the day the mold guy is coming to disinfect the house. This company is allowing us to provide the labor (saving mucho dinero!!) and they are providing a mold expert, all the mold killing gear and space suits for us to wear. (Never fear, there will be pictures.) From what I understand, we will cover every exposed surface in the house with a mold killing foam, then we'll hand scrub every surface (volunteers?...anyone?), followed by a fogging of the house. Lastly, the mold guy will hepa-vac the fogged air out of the house, and viola!! Mold free guarantee!!

I haven't had much opportunity (or need) to make any fun purchases yet, which is a bummer, but I did do a little scouting today. (I believe the pros, like my she-ro, Sarah Richardson, call this "sourcing" : ) So many ideas; so little house! I'm anticipate that my life (and this blog) will become much more exciting once we start putting the house together instead of taking it apart. I can't wait!!

Pictures

Here's a link to our photos from our work day on Saturday:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55341872@N02/show/