BillsHappyFamily.com

Today I worked a 1/2 day this morning, and then took a 1/2 day off this afternoon. So, this afternoon I got to work getting our window candles all hooked up. This was the moment of truth for us. Christy and I had run all of the low-voltage wiring for these back in the beginning of July, and now it’s time to finally get the candles hooked up to the wiring and the transformer in the basement and see whether it all works. This past Monday I had hooked up the first two candles, in Gwen&Meghan’s bedroom and in the playroom upstairs, just to get a feel for what was involved in hooking up a candle. Well, today Christy and I managed to get all of the rest of the candles wired up and installed, and got everything wired up to the transformer in the basement. We flipped the switch…and….…tada! They work! Thank You, Lord! Ok, well, they *almost* all worked…guess which ones were the only two that didn’t work? That’s right, the first two that I installed the other night. So I’ll have to troubleshoot those at some point soon, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a problem with the connections I made or something, seeing as those were the first two that I ever did. But those two faulty candles are on the back and side of the house, so even with those not working, the lights in the front of the house look very nice. I’m very happy to see that overall they are in working order.

Well, the cable guy was here today, got everything switched over to the new house. So, now tonight in the trailer, there’s no TV, and no broadband internet, and we’re sitting here wondering “ok, no TV, no computer, what’s there to do?”

This morning our friend Jeff, who owns Closets Plus, showed up promptly at 7:50AM, ready to get started installing the closet systems. In spite of the help he got from me (that’s sarcasm, in case you missed it), he still managed to get all of the closets completely installed by shortly after noon! Very impressive! And the closets are very impressive looking, too!

See more pictures of the closets in today’s picture gallery

…with our well.

Today the well guys were here, to switch the well over from the trailer to the house. This involved cutting off the water to the trailer, extending the well casing and installing a pitless adapter, and installing a new pump tank and switch and control box in the basement of the house. By early afternoon they had all of the work completed. However, the doesn’t mean there’s water throughout the pipes in the house yet. That work will be done tomorrow by Dale and Dale, connecting their pipes to the pump tank in the basement, charging the lines, etc. But what about us in the trailer, having water for tonight? Well, Dennis & Gail came up with some of their hoses, and we ran hose from the outlet valve at the new pump tank, out the back bilco door of the basement, and down to the outside spigot on the back of the trailer.

In doing so, we found out much to our surprise that the trailer had one of these newer outdoor spigots that don’t allow water to be ‘backpressurized’ back through the spigot from the outside. Nothing that a screwdriver and a hacksaw can’t fix. So, after reassembling the hacked trailer spigot, there’s now once again water for us to use in the trailer tonight… (…and tomorrow and until we move into the house)

Here’s some of today’s accomplishments:
The front door got stained:

Kitchen appliances got installed (and the washer and dryer too):

The fireplace mantel got attached:

Some of the final light fixtures got installed:

The outside spigots got installed and the plumbing for the master tub started to get installed:

Ok, less than an hour after hearing the news that the trailer deal fell through, we may already have another interested party. I mentioned my disappointing news about the failed trailer deal to Jonny at school (the school we send our children to), and right away he replied that the school may be interested in the trailer for at the soccer field, to use it as interim “changing rooms” for the soccer teams. Now, I have to admit, my initial reaction to this is mixed, as I had been originally anticipating that the trailer was going to be hauled away and never seen again. However, putting that feeling of mine aside, I have to be happy for someone else being interested in the trailer so quickly like this. So if the school genuinely sees a need for it and can get use out of it, then I am happy for that.

Ok, not literally speaking. I’m talking about the trailer *deal*. The deal that had seemed relatively definite for the past several months just fell through this morning. It seems that the gentleman that has long been interested in purchasing the trailer for the asking price of $500 found out a day or two ago that it was going to cost approximately $1200-$1500 to transport the trailer, and apparently that was too expensive to suit him. So now he’s not taking the trailer. Christy’s dad even told him to forget about the $500 asking price, that he could just have it if he wants it, but even that didn’t help to save the deal. So apparently for $500 it was a deal…for $1200-$1500, eh, not so much. So now removing the trailer from the lot has been added to *our* to-do list. This is disappointing news…

Today I got the posts, railing, and balusters installed on the front steps, so now they are complete. Now they just need to be painted. I think Christy’s going to try to do that tomorrow.

This morning I went down to my father-in-law’s shop and started building the front porch steps. I had bought some pine risers and treads at Lowes last night, along with some white exterior paint to paint them with, so I was all ready to get started this morning. By shortly after lunchtime I had the steps themselves completed, and just needed to finish up with the posts and handrailing. But I was out of time to complete that today, because Samantha wasn’t falling asleep for her afternoon nap, so it was time to head out shopping for vanity mirrors…

…you were reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally difficult to pick out! One of the last things that we had to get done was to finally pick out some vanity mirrors for all of the bathrooms. Well, I thought this would be pretty easy, but it turned into more of a project than I expected. Long story short, we ended up buying framed mirrors for our master bath and the powder room at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and got simple beveled edge mirrors at Lowes for the main bath upstairs. I breathed a sigh of relief once we had finally picked out and purchased the mirrors. Now Rocky (the electrician) will finally be able to get the vanity lights installed on the walls now that he knows the mirror sizes and placements.