House talk: plumbing, masonry, gutters, mail, and hail

Only 10 days until the end of the month. And sometime between now and then we will be moving in.

Needless to say, there has been lots of excitement and house progress lately.

Last week the driveway/slab was poured. I marked it with an "H" for Hager, and the year.

Corey and I installed our mailbox, which was much more complicated than I ever thought possible. It is on the post but certainly not secure ... so we'll be re-intsalling it again soon.

The mud-room flooring was installed on Friday, July 16. It looks like slate, but is linoleum. Since this area will gets lots of wear and tear, we wanted something we could easily replace later-on if it gets damaged/worn.

Gutters were also installed on Friday.

The front porch was started on Sunday, July 18.

On Monday it was nearly complete.


Lighting fixtures started on Monday, July 19. This is the half-bath off the mudroom.

This is one of the lights in the mudroom hallway.

Also on Monday, the retaining wall was back-filled. The driveway was leveled and smoothed in preparation for gravel.

Monday was also the day for installing interior doors and hardware.

Kya was impressed.

After our Monday house tour, Corey went dumpster-diving for wood scraps to help secure our mailbox. Found some!

And yesterday (Tuesday, July 20) after work, we ventured out to the house again. On the way my mom called from California to ask about the approaching hail storm. I was totally oblivious to any storm. Since we were almost at the house, we decided to test our luck, and kept on going.

It was worth it. Nearly all the plumbing fixtures were installed. This is the mud room half-bath. This misplaced mirror will hang above the sink.

This is the main bath. Corey and I are both excited about the shower curtain rod. We're simple folks.

Lance the masonry dude was there piecing the fireplace. I trust it will look cleaner/better next time I see it.

Then, we started the drive home.

We got a few miles down the road when the storm hit.

It was raining so hard (and hailing too) that we couldn't see the road, so we slowly pulled off onto a side street and sought shelter under some big evergreens.

Kys was getting antsy, so we get her out of her seat and threw a little hail storm party in Corey's car.

When all was said and done, no hail damage to the car or house, and all is well.

Thanks for the storm warnings mom!