At Last...

Remember our prediction that the final inspection would come on June 8th?  Weeeeellll, that didn't happen.  But a week later, this did.

Yes, that would be us carpeting the street in front of our house:).  Although it looked super different in the bright sunlight, it was PERFECT once installed inside.  Aiden and Liam would have posed for a picture attesting to this, except I couldn't get them to sit still...

They were so happy to be in their room at LAST!  And we were thrilled to get the carpet in because the very next day... we moved the contents of our storage unit into the new house!  To keep the kids out of the way, we baby gated them in their new room and threw boxes of toys in to them every 20 minutes.

When that grew old, I took them over for a swim in the 100 degree weather while Itay continued the move...

And at the end of the day, we were in!  Well, at least our STUFF was in:).  We were most definitely not ready to be habitating with two small children in this precarious situation.

The next week was spent trying to plow through that pile of boxes, and supervising the final coat of exterior paint...

putting in a comically pretty mailbox slot...

And setting up at least a few of our domestic areas so we could FINALLY get in the house!  

By Friday, we were ready.  

And yet, the work is not done.  Saturday saw a crew clearing the back patio and leveling the yard to prep it for a deck and lawn!!! Theoretically in the next few weeks!

I am so excited to finally have my stuff back.  I really forgot how much I missed all my kitchen gadgets!  We enjoyed our first family dinner with our first house guests, Uncle Sam and Aunt Sara...

We are home.

AT LAST.

In the Final Stretch...

Well, it's official... we are rounding the final bend in the remodel road...

...and not a moment too soon.  Although we have all weathered our journey remarkably well (and by all, I refer to myself, Itay, our children, but especially my poor in-laws who were unwittingly duped into housing us for a year instead of 6 weeks), we are all ready for some "normalcy."

Happily, that is expected to come in the next few weeks, as we wrap up final decisions and watch the finishing touches applied to our long-awaited dream house!

Our countertops turned out amazing. 

And we have water in the house once again, which is awesome, especially since our plumbing fixtures are so lovely!

We finalized all our lighting decisions.  I am fairly sure no one will walk into any of the bedrooms and say "Whoa, that is a killer ceiling light fixture!" But I love the dining room pendant drum shade we chose from Crate and Barrel, and think someone just might give us that reaction at one point or another:).

 The outdoor lights are super cute too.

And most excitingly... we are 75% towards hardwood floor completion!  They look STUNNING, if I can be a bit modest.  Perhaps my dear husband's WEEKS of deliberating over the hardwood choice were worth it... but I will never admit that.

Our final inspection is scheduled for this Friday, June 8.  I am still very skeptical about that date, especially given the amazing ability of our contractor to treat every one of our to-do tasks like a first draft.  I am not sure if there is anything that has been done in the last few months that was right the first time.  Sigh.  And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why some contractors give such dramatically lower bids than others!  Happily, that drama is just a few weeks away from being a funny memory:).

I. Can't. Wait!!!!!