We have a tradition of going to Whidbey for Thanksgiving.  We usually head up on Wednesday night and stay through Sunday night, taking the ponies and the dogs and having a little us time while helping Connie and Jerry with whatever projects are on their agendas. 

We had the opportunity to introduce Yukon to my first horse, Royal (21 y/o), take my dad and Lynette on a trail ride (second time riding ever for them), climb in the cranberry bog in search of local sustenance, cheer for the Seahawks, and enjoy some adult beverages.

Then, to top all of this off, we had snow.  

More electrical was done this week after Chris and I spent a few hours late at night driving to Covington to get the lights we picked out months ago that are now discontinued.  Frustrating that the contractors could not just get the lights when asked so that we aren't faced with these problems.  

These lights were installed this week and it really changed the look of the bathrooms and kitchen.  Things are looking so finished.

We did have a party on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so we cleaned up a little and got some good progress pictures of the house.  So close to being done, just creating our checklist of the last items... 

More progress this week.  We are so close but it still feels so incomplete.  Loren, our consultant came out this week to check progress and see if we can sign the job off.  Unfortunately he said no go - still too much to be done and we won't make our December 1st deadline.

The bathrooms are fully operational this week!  Mirrors are installed, sinks turn on, and toilets flush.  The tub was caulked to the floor, so we aren't having gapping issues any more against the tile.  Chris and I used haze remover and grout sealer on the tile so we could move furniture in as appropriate.  Only the lighting left to do to make these rooms finished!

Holes in the sub-floor have been repaired and are ready for carpet.  We decided not to go with the carpet guy our contractor works with, and are currently shopping around for other options.  His guy specialized in low-end apartments and that isn't the feel we are going for.  

Tito, the electrician, has been here this week a few times.  We have heaters installed and operational, but not all the thermostats installed, and a few of the wiring issues are getting worked out.  No power to the RV, however, and that is getting really hard for my parents.  The RV made it back this weekend and fist nicely into its new spot, but without the hookups it is a bit of a challenge.  They are gone for the week and so at least that is not as much of an inconvenience for them.

The best thing, however, is that two coats of poly and the railing were put on our deck this week.  We have to wait until it warms up again to get the last coat on, but this is such great progress.  

This week we met our third foreman for our job - John.  In the beginning we were told that Nate was our foreman, until he was sidelined with a kitchen remodel for the company owner.  That is when Steve took over.  Steve worked until two months of complaining that he was (a) not showing up for the appropriate number of hours and (b) not actually getting things done caused him to get reassigned.  At this point Nate came back to act as foreman for a few weeks, although he disappeared after a while and we were told that he quit.  Now we have John, who spent a good chunk of Tuesday just walking around the house to get a handle on what needed completing.  It was very fortuitous that I was home for Veteran's Day to be able to facilitate this process. 

It was fun, however, to see someone jump in, make a quick trip to Home Depot, and come back with necessary parts to get some work done.  The garage man door is now installed and the basement-garage door has been purchased.  We made some choices about how to wrap the beams in the guest room.  We discussed the drywall issues.  We addressed the incomplete siding and unfinished porch awning. Already this feels like progress.

The contractors ripped the deck off last week, but it was not able to be completed this week.  This has been an ongoing frustration - they left a project for the middle of winter that needs three consecutive days of dry, warm weather.  This week we finally have dry weather, but not 10 hour stretches of 45 degree or warmer temperatures.  Nothing we said or did could change the contractors' plans to do the deck last, though, so this has been a major challenge. 

The plumbing for the main bathroom is partially complete this week - awaiting the hookups to water lines so that we can actually use the sinks, and caulking in the tub so that we can actually shower on the main floor. 

The tile floors still needs to be sealed, though the contractors did chip out the tile broken by the drywallers and should be replacing it first.  

We painted all the baseboard trim, and it is getting installed, which is the final step in starting to regain control of our living spaces.  Well, that and carpet upstairs, but that seems to be on hold for some mysterious reason.

The guys continued to work on cleaning up the drywall edges, puttying the nail holes and caulking trim.  Lots of tedious work, but necessary in order to finish.  Likewise, we spent most evenings caulking the gaps in the tongue and groove and painting the walls that were available to us. The result is good... eventually.

This week we started to feel like the house was getting finished.  The doors inside were all hung, the trim was installed around them, and the tile floors were grouted.  The drywall was also finally dry enough that we could start to prime and paint the walls.  I always get excited about and then overwhelmed with painting, so it was great to have my mom and Chris there to make choices.  Mom and I got most of the drywall primed, focusing on the two bathrooms, and when Chris came home he powered through the majority of the painting in one of the two bathrooms.  I worked on the ceiling paint and got the first layer (of many) of that on.  It is amazing how much paint can help a room feel finished. 

The contractors have been promising for two weeks that the deck would get torn off and rebuilt on Tuesday of this week.  On Tuesday they revised to Wednesday, and on Wednesday they revised to Thursday.  Not sure how much more we can revise and still hit our deadlines.  

As a positive, the railing on the front deck was finished.  It is a little narrower than we had hoped and was intended, but it looks great and will definitely be functional.