SHUT The Front Door!

Lee was back to install exterior doors!

 I can officially say, "Shut the front door."  Our exterior doors were installed on Saturday!  I LOVE the front door.  It is 8' tall and looks great on our beautiful front porch.  We decided to not do sidelight windows from the door company and do actual windows.  The front of the house faces south/west and we wanted to be able to get that nice west breeze.  

For the last two weeks we've had many trades working on our house.  We have been blessed by guys that do wonderful work and keep their word.  Let me tell ya a little about them...

First, we have Nieboer Heating & Cooling.  Our first meeting with them was in May or June when we were still finalizing our blueprints.  We relayed to one of the owners, Luke, what our biggest concerns were and he assured us they could handle the job.  We made a few minor changes to our house plans, one was changing an exterior wall to a 2 x 8 wall to accommodate two heat runs to the second floor.  I'm so glad we met with them early on.  

We had four guys on site working on our home.  Jason, Lee, Adam and Dan.  

Lee, Adam and Jason working on the vent for the fireplace.

The mechanicals are complete and passed inspection!  We may even have timed it just right to get Carriers new Wi-Fi heating control system.  This would enable us to download an app to our I-phones and control our heating remotely!  So cool!!!

 We hired Fawley door for our garage doors.  From the time I ordered them to the installation was a week and a half!  The day I walked into their showroom I walked right over to these beautiful barn style doors and said this is exactly what I want.  Michelle the sales lady wrote up the pricing, (of course ridiculously expensive) and I proceeded to continue looking.  This was before I realized the oops with the tray ceiling, so  I ended up with a very basic door under my budget so I could afford the tray.  I have no doubt I made the correct decision.  

We still have hardware to install on the doors.  

This is Andy and in that cardboard is garage door parts.

Mike Deleeuw of Deleeuw Plumbing is our plumbing contractor.  I think I've only driven Mike and his guy Jon slightly crazy!  First, I should have ordered my shower/tubs earlier.  Rookie mistake!  This week I watched them cut out a few wall studs to get the tubs in.   Second, I forgot to mention an additional dishwasher.  And third, we had a shower unit missing in action.  It was suppose to arrive on Thursday.  Of course I didn't go over to the house on Thursday and when Pete did go at 10 pm at night the (unnamed) plumbing supply company wasn't open to inquire on the whereabouts of our shower unit.  I assumed they said Thursday, it would be there Thursday, and no one contacted me to inform me different.  I called first thing Friday morning only to find out they weren't sure when it would be delivered.  This was frustrating because Jon from Deleeuw was at our house ready to install the shower.  I'm not sure why no one called to inform us of the delay when we had been told Thursday.  

This did not go over well with Pete.  He just happened to be leaving a sales call right by the unnamed plumbing supply company and paid them a visit.  Wouldn't ya know it they placed the shower unit on a truck in Grand Rapids and drove it down to our jobsite.  We had it by 1:15pm on Friday.  

Jon is on the left and Mike is on the right!

They should be finishing everything up and I'm hoping for a plumbing inspection on Tuesday!

That's Max's tub going up the stairs.  

 Our electricical contractor is JR Electric.  Jesse is the owner and has been working late many nights to get our job finished.  He has a big commercial job he is working on and owns Jaspares Pizza on Gull Road.  He is one busy guy!

 A few weeks ago we spent about 2 hours going through the house to discuss outlets, switches and lighting.  I appreciate his level of detail.  He was patient with me as I walked from our master bedroom trying to figure out what lights I would want on as I made my way to the coffee pot!

So, tons has happened in the past two weeks.  Again, many people worked hard to get us a few big steps closer to our dream.   We are hopeful to pass all inspections and start insulation at the end of this week.  I'm just excited to say, "Shut the Front Door!!!"