cardboard, packing tape, and caffeine...

It's been quiet on the blog lately for one BIG reason...

We moved!

We closed on the house on Friday, August 28th... a mere 223 days from the day we started our build.

I'm sure I'll eventually recap more in depth what the last few days of the process were like, but for now.. just know it was down to the wire.

As in, we were leaving Friday to meet with the lawyers at 11am.. and at 10:45am the flooring guys were ripping out our hardwoods in the kitchen.  No lie.  I walked by and saw subfloor.  The floors had been scratched horribly during the install of our dishwasher and had to be replaced.  Still, it was terrifying to see our beautiful floors (not to brag) being bashed with prybars and hammers as we were on our way to sign for the place.

I still cringe.

At least the cats were chill about moving.. or at least, about the boxes.

Here's the breakdown of how the last few days of building went.

Monday, August 24th  -  both our Realtor and banker were concerned we'd have to move closing.  Alternate arrangements start being discussed, but our builder insists it will be done.

Tuesday, August 25th -  I took off work in the morning for our appliances to be delivered.  We love our appliance guy, but this had me a nervous WRECK!  And understandbly so... since 3 hours after they were supposed to arrive -  they still weren't there.  The reason, our cooktop (that I so carefully chose) had been cracked during shipping and had been sitting in their warehouse for almost a month without being discovered as broken.  Oh, and it's discontinued.  And a special order.

In the meantime, they go on and deliver the rest of the appliances (after a stern conversation with me) and at the house we have insulation being blown in, gutters installed, painters working on touch ups, and flurry of other activity.

Wednesday, August 26th - More concerned conversations about time lines, and we meet with the home inspector.  No huge issues are found, but there are a few that need to be handled.

Emails are sent back and forth and we have to bring even more paperwork to the bank.  They are serious about their paperwork!

Thursday, August 27th - We are a go for the punch list meeting and our builder has called in a 2nd project manager to help get us to closing.  It's fairly quiet at the house, but we give a pretty comprehensive list and discuss keeping an amount from the upgrade payment until everything on the punch list is completed.

After the walk through, Adam and I utility-hopped all afternoon trying to get our water, power, and internet swapped over and setup.  There were also quite a few "is this real" moments and "OMG I'm freaking out" moments.. and lots of caffeine.  We've been burning the midnight oil between prepping for inspections (doing our own walk through's), packing, and spending time with family.

Friday, August 28th -  We met over at the house early to check on the progress of the punch list and things are hopping!  Lots of workers there and things are looking much better than the day before.  At this point, my focus went away from perfection and was moving towards the "this is home" end of the scale.  Still, as I mentioned above, seeing floors ripped out right before signing was pretty scary.

We closed and spent the afternoon and evening packing, running errands, and all those other fun pre-moving things.

Saturday was a surprise day of family and visitors at the house.  It was a loong day and I knew the weekend was going to be an exhausting one.

We moved in on Monday, August 31st, and spent our first night in our home sweet home.

Moving was crazy, unpacking even crazier.. but we made it.  Thank goodness for the kindness of our neighbors, the support of our family and friends, the willingness to pay movers to do the heavy lifting, and the wonder that is Krispy Kreme, Coca-Cola, and sweet tea.  Without that... and the love and patience of my darling husband... I don't think we would have ever made it.

But we did!

We're moved in! - Day 226 of our build