Mid-April House Status

For some reason I'm antsy about the house today. Some days I'm pretty cool and calm about how the project is progressing. Other days I'm just ready to be DONE. I think a couple reasons I'm impatient today are that I just wrote a big check, and we seem to be on the home stretch. But we seem to be ambling along the home stretch rather than racing towards the finish line. 

Since I last wrote about the house, 

• The interior walls are primed.
• The bookcases in the hall are in.
• The garage doors have been hung.
• The hardwood floors are laid -- excepting for about four square feet in my bedroom where they ran out of flooring. 
• The tile floors are being laid as we speak.
• The drive has been graded and spread with crush-and-run. 
• The light fixtures and ceiling fans are ready to be installed. 

Next steps include:

• Finishing the wood floors.
• Laying the vinyl flooring in the studio. 
• Installing the bathroom cabinets and toilets.
• Installing the light fixtures.
• Painting the interior.

The cabinet maker is working on the kitchen cabinets. I'm expecting great cabinets since the bookcases are really nice. This design element was my idea. The hall was built wider than usual to permit bookcases to go in on either side. My father-in-law remarked he was skeptical, expecting the hall to seem narrow and cramped, but it's still a good four feet wide, even with the bookcases in place.

Last week I ordered furniture for my studio -- a sturdy table, a couple kitchen islands on casters which I can use for cutting and pressing stations, and some chairs. I also ordered a small table for my kitchen. This furniture is unfinished and I'm looking forward to finishing it. It's been a few years (probably 20!) since I finished any furniture, and the products available now for the DIYer look pretty user-friendly. I also found a pair of twin beds when my mother-in-law took me to the Metrolina Antique Show near Charlotte. They are mahogany and seem to be sort of Art-Deco style -- perhaps from the 20s or 30s.

So I'm hopeful that the end is in sight. I'm ready to be in my own home, sorting through stuff and settling in.