It's about having connections.

A BIG milestone was reached this week with the final connections of both gas and sewer. All utilities are in place and ready to work. The only loose end right now is the gas water heater has no vent stack yet. 

4" line from the house. 

Connection. The smaller line comes from the shop. Sandi already mentioned that we are having to raise the driveway for this, 10"-12".  This means a 56' retention wall (12x5") and now a 30' planter box of concrete. Since we are burying pipes, we will include power, water and a remoted french drain for the rain gutters.

Wolf the propane guy came out and did the final tank connections, and the range has been lit. I had to convert the range from NG to LPG but it was easy with the kit provided of 10 orifices.

Quite a difference between LP and NG. LP is smaller. 

I want to make cookies but I think Sandi has her sites set on the first boil-over. 

Propane tank & signatures

The 500 gallon propane tank has been delivered and the underground line is in place and under pressure. I had called the inspection in yesterday and I am now two signatures closer to living in the real house!

Septic & gas line prep

Tom and the girls worked on digging the trench for the propane line which will be installed tomorrow.

They also dug down a bit between the house and the septic tank to connect the gravity feed septic pipe. We definitely want that to only flow one-way...

And since we have the machine here... Tom decided to do some brush bustin'.

Outside preparations

Tom and the girls worked on the curb around the porch today so we can hook up the septic and raise the driveway in front of the house to cover it. 

I scraped all the thin- set that oozed up between the tiles in the den. 

Next step: ripping and setting the few remaining tiles between the entry and den. Then grout. 

Templates made

Brandon and Jason were here today to make the templates for all the countertops.  Should be installed in 2-3 weeks. I am so flippin' excited!!!

Birthday presents

I now have 3 MATCHING baskets for my beautiful new laundry room as well as a lightweight stepladder so I can reach above the bottom shelf of the cabinets. No short jokes, please. :-/

And Scott and Di helped us bring in the range from the garage. Soon we'll be cookin' with gas!  I can hardly wait to host Thanksgiving...

Just some updated photos of the kitchen with crown. Countertops will be measured this week. tee*hee!!!

More kitchen cabinets... And tile...

Nephew Matt put the tile on the ledge over the front door and also over the fireplace. It looks awesome and is just awaiting grout.

And Jason was out yesterday and got the hardware and the crown molding installed in the kitchen.

First appliances installed

Yup. Those are real, working appliances. In the real house. Awaiting real food to cook...

Tom & Amanda hooking up the hood:

Master bath cabinets with hardware

CABINETS!!

Just like the truck says...

First cabinet unloaded:

Unloading from trucks. Yes, trucks. Took two of them to bring all the cabinets.

This is the range hood piece:

In our infinite frugality, we used the cheaper tile where the cabinets would cover. This is all well and good if we had known about the 3" toe kick on the island. Alas, we did not and luckily nephew Matt was here finishing the tile and was able to chip out the exposed stuff and replace it with the wood look stuff. So glad he was here, thank you!!

Laundry room:

Master bath before hardware:

They will be back to add the hardware and finish the crown molding etc. 

Master bath:

Girls' bathroom: