My, how time flies!

My apologies for taking so long to update my blog. There hasn't been all that much going on with the house - at least that's my excuse! I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving day. We had some of DH's family down and had an enjoyable time.

I drove to Winchester, VA on Tuesday to pick up DD so that she could spend all her time in the car doing homework. It was the only way she could come home for Thanksgiving. She also did homework pretty much morning to night the whole time she was home, and also in the car on the way back (I didn't have to drive her back - she was able to catch a ride with a friend from OH).

We have been having a problem with water getting into the basement. While DH was up on a ladder outside my sewing studio, he spotted the problem. The flashing in this area is missing, or not done correctly. There is a gap between the gutter and the wall to the right and the water is missing the gutter and traveling down the brick wall into the basement.
You can see the white marks on the brick (to the left of the ladder shadow) where the water has been trickling down the bricks...
DH has made a lot of progress in sorting boxes and things in the basement. Here are all the games - we sure do have a lot! I've gotten rid of stacks of games the past few years at the church rummage sale. We used to go to garage sales and buy games for $1.00, which is the reason we have so many. I'll have to sort through these again and set aside some more for next year's sale. Our family was big into board games, but not so much anymore.
The holiday decorations and textbooks/papers are on shelves, but we either need to get rid of some, or get more shelves...
Here is the corner where the leftover paint is stored...
And here are the empty boxes and luggage...
Our kitchen/family room stools arrived today! I got them assembled (only 4 screws per stool) and I think they look nice there. They certainly are sturdy, not to mention heavy!
Here is a shot of the room where the stools are...
I spent a good part of today sorting through the items behind the French doors in the great room. I arranged the shelves and got all the plaster dust off the shelves from when DH when doing some electrical work inside the closet.
We were very surprised on this first day of deer hunting season that our hunter did not show up to hunt. We figured the hunter set the hunting blind up behind our house 3 weeks ago to stake out a spot for the first day of hunting season, but he was a no-show today. We'll see if he shows up tomorrow...

A view through the window...

While I was out at the house today waiting for the cable guy to show up, I took several photos from inside the house, so excuse the view of the window screens...

The septic guys were there on their bobcat, filling in the trenches with dirt...
The builder had someone doing the rough grading of the yard...
There were many painters there doing last minute jobs and touch-ups...
The electricians were there to install the small lights behind the valance in the great room. Each light was individually packaged and one guy sat there for a long time just unpacking all the lights.
The kitchen guy had put the fans up in the vent over the cooktop. He still doesn't have the vent cover and needs to add some insulation in around the fans to lessen the noise.
After the heavy rain we had last night, it looks like we still have a couple areas in the basement where water is getting in...
DH is heading out to the house after work tonight to see how things are coming along. I think I'm going to stay right here and pack, pack, pack!

Countdown to move day: 6 days and counting! (oh, and did I mention that we're going to a wedding in NC on Saturday? and that we're driving and leaving on Friday? and that we won't be home until late Sunday? well, DH decided he and DS need to stay here and move a bunch of stuff this weekend, so he won't be going to the wedding after all. dd and I will lose out on 2.5 days of packing while we're away - yikes!)

Odds and ends

There were lots of odds and ends that were tied up at the house this week. We couldn't get upstairs as all the ladders were chained together outside, but from downstairs we could see that the master bath and laundry room framing has been corrected (the framer had used the architect's plans to frame it instead of using the plans from our kitchen designer).

The fireplace area has been framed,

the stairs have been delivered,
a couple of the stair landings have been built in preparation for putting in the stairs,

the pipes have been laid in the basement and covered with gravel in preparation for pouring the slab and the plumbing for a future bath is in place,
the arch in the great room has been built,
all the windows are in,
the exterior wall of DS's room is now finished, the octagonal window near the front door was lowered (as per our request, as I couldn't see out of it in the original position),
and the awning has been built off the back of the garage as part of the patio area (didn't get a photo of this).