We finally moved in!!!!!

 We headed over on Wednesday 7/31 with a van and a suburban packed to the roofs and only two seats each, ( Tom & Ryan departed nola at 7:30, Maggie and David left at 9:30).  Furniture from two different places was scheduled to come right after us, along with cable people and alarm system people.  It was a crazy day.  The cable and internet people left at 7:30 that night after dodging rain storms and other stuff.

We cleaned like crazy Wednesday and  Thursday, and put furniture together.  David and Ryan left for nola at noon on Thursday to spend a couple days away from the prison-work program called "da camp", only to return Saturday to complete their sentence. :-)

Our good friends Julie and Paul arrived Friday to help out, and got to see the front yard sodded.  Sod finally arrived late Thursday after weeks of delay, but they laid most of it on Friday.  We still don't have it all, but the majority is covered.  Whew!  Hopefully more this week.

On Saturday David, Kristina, Ryan and Kevin arrived and we had an all-out work day. Everybody was busy except Beignet, cleaning, assembling, washing, drying, putting away, and being helpful.  A long day for all, then Ikea showed up at 7:30 pm, ( as per their forecast), and we schlepped boxes up the stairs and in and out of the elevator.  We will award the elevator  the most valuable player award for saving many back-breaking lifts and stair climbs.  Julie and Paul left after dinner, ( not enough beds yet!), so the rest of us cleaned up and played trivial pursuit.  One game and we all collapsed.

Sunday was more cleaning, assembling and getting ready to head back to nola.  We arrived home in time to unload and clean up for church.

All in all, the house is great, ( wasn't clean enough, and still has a few issues), and we had a wonderful time.  Everyone was great helping out with all the work details.  Five very busy days, no doubt.

Here's a series of pictures as we moved in.

The thing was packed to the roof before we unloaded some and I took this pic:



 Unloading the junk!


Kitchen crew, hard at work:


Beignet's first visit:


The Saturday crew relaxing after a tough day:



Finally some grass!

gotta love the green after weeks of red clay dirt everywhere

A few new views, and flooring

Living room with wood floor

Master bath shower and tub

one master sink

 Entertainment center

 coo ktop and tile backsplash

AC's are both running now, wood floors almost ready to go in

We went over to meet with the landscape guy and discussed some things with him.  SInce the prior week, one AC unit wasn't running, which held up the floor guy, so no wood floor was installed as of Thursday evening.  A call to the AC man solved it, but we lost several days while our contractor was out of town.  Don't know if any flooring got put down Friday.  Still lots of other stuff to do as well.

A better picture of the front of the house.

Handrails and Screen Porch

Quick trip this afternoon to check on things after being gone for a while.

The yard is graded, the propane tank and sewerage tank and grinder pump are set, the mirrors are in, the master shower glass is installed, and the porch railing as and screens are up.

Still alot to do though: get power, do rough clean up, get AC going, finish hanging lights, finish ceiling above ground floor, many trim pieces to be completed, stair treads to finish, front stairs to complete, final grading outside and driveways to put in.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll have power, then AC units, then a few days later and we will have wood floors being installed.  After that, trim carpenter and on and on....  Finally we'll need the final inspections.

The front with handrails: that's alot of white!

The ceiling of the ground floor.  The color is a light blue, but you can't tell here.

Front stairs and porch handrails.  Stairs need the bottom flight and risers installed.

Screen porch,

Door hardware and trees...

quick trip today to work out details for the front stairs, and took a look at a few things.

The nice oak tree in our front yard was not looking too good, and the pine trees at the waterfront had died - both caused by adding soil around the trees.  I knew it was a risk when we filled in the land at the waterfront, but the oak tree was an unwelcome development we were not expecting.  This past week our tree guy took down the pine trees and trimmed the oak, then took topsoil off the oak and fertilized it.  He says the oak tree now has a good chance to make it - we sure hope so - its a beautiful tree.

New door hardware inside and out:

View from the porch of the oak tree after trimming

View of the waterfront without pine trees,

Trimmed oak from the ground:

David's Graduation!!!

We had a great several days, with many happy occasions.  Many awards and celebrations for David, and lots of good times and conversation with the outa towners that made the long trek to share the celebrations.

Here are a few pix of David's graduation:

first the leadership banquet, where he received an award for Intellect, ( got that from his mother!), and other things.

Here are graduation pictures: 

the distinguished guests:

An award for excellence in English.

 Waiting to get the diploma, next to a teacher.

 Diploma presented by school principle

 the happy grad!

and with parents...

 and with Kristina

 the whole Judd gang

the outa towners..

Counters are in!

Made a trip today to deliver the last light kits for ceiling fans, and meet with our contractor and with the kitchen designer to look at ideas for the backsplash behind the cooktop.  While we were there, we had plumbers, electricians and security system guys all doing installation work - wow - alot of activity!

The counters are now installed in the kitchen and all bathrooms.

Kitchen views:

the cooktop will be to the right in this view, and will have some nice tilework on the wall behind it.

Little bar sink with icemaker below.  There's window/pass-through over the sink that looks into the den area beyond.

views from the dining area looking into the kitchen:

Kitchen sink is on the right side, below the window.  The peninsula in the foreground has a bit of overhang for a few barstools and lunch counter, ( like Linden Hills! )

Master bathroom sinks and tub and shower:

Upstairs bath sink area:

The elevator has been installed, but does not yet have power: