For those of you who read all these little anecdotes, I have a pre-move in story before posting any more pictures. It's a little late, because yes, we have moved in. I mean, WE'VE MOVED IN!!! (He says with a combination of immense joy and extreme exhaustion)
With about a week to go before move, we weren't really sure if we were going to hit our target move in date of Labor Day weekend. We didn't have our gas hooked up to the house yet, do to a snafu with the gas company, and we weren't sure if the bank had to do their final inspection before we moved in either. A simple call to the bank relieved us of those fears. She said it was basically our house from the get go and we could move in at any time (if the City told us we could). So what about that gas thing? Well, turns out that it really didn't affect anything else because we are only using gas for our stove (only cooktop really) and for our gas logs. These were hardly on the list of essentials to move in. So that crisis was averted as well. So what about the City?
We had all sorts of little tasks to complete to get ready for electrical, plumbing, and mechanical inspections, and then the final building inspection before getting our certificate of occupancy (that little paper that tells you that you have the right to actually live in the house). We had a massive to do list and a short time, and the final inspection also had to come after the other 3 had been passed. It was like that scene in Apollo 13 where they had to find a way to fit a square CO2 filter onto a round vent with only a small kit of parts available to them in the space capsule, or when they had to find the right combination of switches and equipment to turn on to get them to exactly 12 amps. We had to get to an exact degree of completion with a limited time and a limited amount of parts in order to get passed by 4 inspectors.
First was mechanical, which we initially felt was going to get held up due to our gas situation (well, the house's situation actually), but that one went reasonably well. We passed on Tuesday. Next was plumbing and electrical. Our builder had called them in and they said the electrical inspector was backed up and it might not be until Friday that they could get to us. So move-in chances looked slim. Wednesday came and went with nothing new. Thursday, the electrical inspector miraculously fit us in his schedule, and all that was left was plumbing. We might just be able to get a C/O by the weekend! The plumbing inspector came Thursday afternoon and failed us. @!&%!? "WHAT?" we said, thinking plumbing was going to be a breeze. Two things. One, our contractor should have done weeks ago, but kind of slipped through the cracks. The second was that we found out the City of Greenville requires all plumbing fixtures to be installed in the house. There can be no stubbed-out areas, or areas with piping already in place for future fixtures. How come we didn't know this before now?? Well, as those of you familiar with the building trade know, sometimes these inspectors get a feeling of power from knowing they can make people do whatever they want in order to be able to use a building. Was this one of those cases? Turns out, all we had to do was to change to wording on the building permit to read that we had an unfinished basement and attic. How's that for bureaucracy? Well, we jumped through the hoops, but the building inspector was going to be busy and wouldn't be able to come by on Friday. Would we have to move plans back to next weekend? (By the way, we already had a truck rented for Saturday and Sunday) Nope, the inspector said we could move our things, but he would just need access to walls and panels and things. No problem we said!
Saturday and Sunday went off without a hitch! Both sets of parents and Lura's brother Tommy and his wife all came and lent a hand. My dad was a machine! I'd say for a 60-year old, he kicked butt! Everyone else was amazing too. We pretty much got the apartment emptied in 2 days. After that we slept on air mattresses for a few days until we could get the C/O.
So, after a day of Clemson festivities on Monday culminating in a fantastic victory over FSU Monday night, it was back to the real world. The inspector was set to come on Tuesday. What was left. We had passed all the others. What more could he find?? Remember that power thing?? Well he came and shortened our must do list to 2 things. House numbers and drywall. House numbers were easy, and was kind of a "duh" thing on our part. You have to have those so the post office and 911 can find you. The other thing was more major. We had to drywall the entire inside of the garage, which meant more time. The builders got some guys out there Wednesday morning to drwall (not that much to do really) and the inspector came out Wednesday afternoon. We didn't know this until about 5:00. Our builder had not been there and Lura and I had not been there, but then late in the day, we got the news we had been waiting 8 months to hear! WE COULD LIVE IN OUR NEW HOUSE!!
Below are some more in progress photos, but not of the work, of the moving in. And not actually of the moving truck either (we were a little busy those days to stop and take pictures), but of our stuff in our home. There will be be more progress and more pictures and more stories, but everything looks better from this side of the finish line!!
Well, it's been two months since we moved in (hard to believe) and we love being here. During the Fall for Greenville Festival last month we walked downtown several times and we have walked down to the library and to eat at some neighborhood restaurants. As far as inside goes, we have now almost completely finished Lura's office, hung all our bedroom closet doors, hung the rest of our living room and kitchen lights, had a fence installed, planted some things, and stained and sealed the foyer floor. We are now starting to think about finishing other projects like the light panels around the fireplace, the built-ins for the TV, DVDs, books, and CDs, the garage (a monster task) and the downstairs guest room and bathroom. Of course there's always the yard, but with no rain out there anywhere, it's hard to plant things. Even with our rainbarrels, which have lasted for a long time, without being refilled, even us earthy types have to use city water. Although we did just start that this past week and it hasn't rained in about a month.
