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Indeed. We are getting very close to being able to call for our final inspection. A point which will be both a HUGE relief mentally and financially. Touch up work and fine tuning will linger on into winter, but the big stuff will be done. Also, we’ll be able to turn our land loan into a first on the house once we get certificate of occupancy, which will effectively shelve another stressful burden.

The past few weeks have had some significant completions and complications.  Things are getting done, but the hang-ups started to get a bit worrisome when we realized the temperature outside dropped to the high thirties at night and we are still showering outside.   No fear though, the tile setters started this AM and we’ll be showering indoors by Saturday!  On another note the kitchen is ALMOST complete.  We’ll have posts and pics on that and other projects coming out in the next couple of weeks.

It’s tough deciding which parts of this project to do yourself and which parts to hire out.  We’ve been striking a balance of sweat equity and financial prudence along the way that gets even more complicated with the finishing work.  Namely, do it yourself and live with some mistakes or hire it out and deal with the headaches of subcontractors and financial concerns.

We avoided both of these issues, we thought, by bartering with a friend to fabricate the Caesar Stone counter tops recently.  He had the know how to give us top notch craftsmanship for an exchange of our time.  When we struck this deal I thought, brilliant!  I’d go this route with everything I could.  Well… 3 weeks later and countless complications, the counter tops are in and we’re still friends.  However, we weren’t able to make it happen alone.  Our bartered deal fell apart and I had to spend close to $1,000 to get the project back on target with another sub contractor.

All in all though these are the breaks.  The stress comes and goes in waves and for the most part Al and I are taking everything in stride as much as possible.  But I can tell… it’s a good thing we’re getting close to the finish line.  We need the respite from headaches and clutter for a while until the next round of projects is upon us.  6 months of non-stop effort, outdoor showers, makeshift kitchens and general frenzy have been fun, exciting, tiresome and worth it, but hey let’s kick back for a while already!  Looking forward to having company soon, cooking together and living the lives we came here to share.