The Itchies

If you happen to run into either Trent or me in the next few days, warning: we have the itchies and are scratching our arms and legs continuously. Thankfully, it's not contagious. This past weekend we insulated the house. Honestly, it was not the most enjoyable project. However, it is done and that means drywall starts tomorrow (yippee!).

In somewhat related news, we passed all of our inspections this past weekend as well (which is great timing since they all had to be done prior to the insulation and drywall).

If it ain't broke don't fix it

Everything in the project house is new. New and rather costly. Originally, we had planned to put on 2 new garage doors (they were even included in our budget). As we got closer to making that purchase and installation, we both realized that maybe there wasn't a reason to pay the money and use our efforts for this particular item. Trent looked the doors over, deemed them "working", and I went out to purchase a gallon of paint. About 3 hours later we had "new" doors. New, less expensive, and less work-for-me doors.

How long does it take....

How long does it take two fairly intelligent, college educated women to install a door handle on a screen door? 3 hours. (That's 2 hours and 30 minutes longer than it would take anyone else.)

A couple of weeks ago some friends of ours (Ben and Vanessa Sanders) offered to come up and help for an evening on the house. We jumped at their offer so fast that it should have tipped them off. Ben and Trent started the back deck (see photo) while Vanessa and I were given the "girlie" job. Trent had installed the new front screen door the night before, but ran out of time to install the handle. It should have been a quick and easy job - especially given the fact that Vanessa is the most handy girl I know.

We set out all the parts, read through the instructions (well, Vanessa did....I'm more of a "wing it" kind of gal) and grabbed Trent's drill. After 10 minutes of me figuring out how to change the drill bits, we were off and running. The first few holes I drilled seemed to be pretty tough (the door IS metal). Vanessa suggested that I keep the drill running as I try to pull it out of the freshly created hole. She made the suggestion just as I broke the drill bit...and got it stuck in the hole. We then (while laughing hysterically) ran around trying to find a nail to push through the hole to get the drill bit out. Yes, you guessed it....the nail got stuck. That's basically how the entire task went down: mistake, laughter, attempted fix-it, more laughter, 2nd attempted fix-it, laughter until tears, done.

In the end the door handle is complete and looks like a pro did it. And I only owe my husband a few parts for his power tools.

Let there be light, heat, and water

The good news: we officially have lights (throughout the entire house), water, and a furnace. The bad news: we still have no toilets installed. Forget toilets (plural) - I'll just take a toilet. I'm sick of running to McDonald's every hour from all the water and Gatorade I've consumed.
On a more technical and less grumpy note, the plumbing (PEX system) went in like a breeze. I have mentioned before how wonderful this stuff is and let me say it again: easier and cheaper to install. Greatest invention ever.
The heating and cooling is all installed but apparently you don't actually test it out until after the drywall is complete (I'm learning things along the way).
The wiring for the lights is complete and the wiring for the outlets is almost done. Little tidbit we've learned with wiring: whatever amount of wire you think you need for a project, just go ahead and add 30% to it.
Up next: drywall!