Closed

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Monday November 20, 2006 was a very good day for us. We closed on our house!!! We had a long, exhausting weekend prior to that celebratory day but it was all worth it! I took half of Thursday and all of Friday prior to closing off work to work on the house. We worked until after dark on Thursday and were up and at it early on Friday but we didn't get it done by the time that the appraiser showed up. However, he saw how hard we were working and so he made us a deal. He took all his measurements and notes and said he would come back Monday morning early and take the pictures he needed to finish the appraisal. But it came with a few stipulations - things we didn't know we had to do for the outside of the house to be 'finished'. Like cleaning up all the scrap wood, putting up a some sort of railing over our 'doorways to nowhere' (where there is no deck) and more permanent stairs for the front and back doors. So we worked until well after dark on Friday, were back at it early on Saturday and Sunday. We had a few friends, Jen, Pat, Hadley, and Dan come out to help us clean up. Well actually since Hadley wasn't quite 4 months old she slept, Jen made a second pot of chili (I had put one in the crock pot early) and Pat and Dan helped us pick up wood, rotten drywall and start burning the unuseable scrap wood. It was a great day. We finished up just in time for Sunday night football.

Now we're relaxing some and working on some of the projects still left inside the house but are in no hurry!!

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Photos

Getting a 'lift'
We rented a lift to do the soffit in the gables and put the plywood in the gables.

Outfitting the Gables
We haven't decided what to put in the gables - debating on either a different type of wood or more metal. But in order to close we needed something up there - so in came the painted plywood for the gables.

Bats
Phil and Bryan cutting Bats for the front of the house.

Hanging
Phil and Bryan hanging the bats on the front of the house.

Dunky Watching
Dunky hung out almost all day, just watching the action.

Fenced In
So, we had to put up a safety measure over the 2 sliding glass doors, since they open to nowhere. So Bryan came up with using some cedar pickets he had left over from a job this summer. They actually look cute and will keep us, the dog and our friends kids from getting hurt!

Burning
We have a large pile for bonfires! Our friends Dan and Pat came over to help us clean up the front yard. And Jen stayed in the house with Hadley and made a second pot of chili. Then we all ate and the boys watched football and we girls had pedicures!

cheers!
Bryan, Pat and Dan toast an IPA to an afternoon (or a week, in Bryan's case) of hard work.

oops! Almost forgot the facia!
When I was taking pictures I realized we'd forgotten a bunch of facia on the back of the house, but we got it taken care of.

Front Finished
Here's what it looks like with the front finished. This spring we'll add a front porch and landscaping!

Back Finished
Here's what the back looks like finished. This spring we'll put the back deck on and plant some grass.

Comments

[Oscar]

Congrats!
Very nice. Good job!

[momma]

inside
Need to post some of your beautiful kitchen.. family room.. love the "dunky watching" pic.