The Anti-Picture Post

I promise this is an exception, not the rule.

We've failed at pictures recently.... It's not for a lack of effort, but our phones have been left behind and our camera battery has died at particularly inopportune times. Excuses, excuses.

Despite our lack of photographic evidence, there has been quite a bit of progress on the house!

Since Thanksgiving:

• The entire house has been wired and inspected
• Including locating all the outlets, lights, fans, switches, cable outlets, and service entrance
• The entire house has been plumbed and inspected
• Including all the bathrooms, kitchen, heating, and outdoor water
• TV bought on Black Friday, with thanks to the determination (and insanity?) of Irene and Libby
• Missoula stores scoured for HDMI cables over 30' - no luck - then luck! Matt is clearly better at this task than we and, apparently, the employees at Home Depot themselves...
• Sound system laid out, speakers and receiver (wifi) system getting quoted by the mysterious and elusive "Claude"
• We still don't believe Claude exists...
• Random phone tag with the Lubrecht mill operators trying to get our wood planed down to size...still waiting...
• Vacuum system has been installed (central vac, with various ports scattered throughout)
• The entire house has been insulated
• Al the exterior walls on the first and second floor and, now, the attic
• Blocking and conduit installed for a solar panel system
• For you nerds, its a 9 panel 2.2KW system with micro-converters on each panel
• We can net meter on an annual basis so we'll make power all summer and spend our credits all winter
• For you non-nerds, that means no power bill. Ever. Yes, please.
• Roof - all metal installed
• Siding - I think (haven't seen it today) all the siding is now done! Or at least it should be by the time I get back over to take a picture.
• The entire house has dry wall hung.
• THE PLACE HAS CHANGED FROM A CONSTRUCTION SITE TO A HOME OVERNIGHT!
• Mudding should have begun today or will tomorrow
• Base paint color (non-"feature" walls and ceiling) has been selected
• Sherwin-Williams fans, it's called "Snowfall," although we prefer "Snowflake" a la Ace Ventura
• Painting should begin early next week
• Other things we've forgotten and/or didn't know about...

This weekend we head to the IKEA in Seattle to pick up our cabinets and some other random stuff. We met with Richard and Cassey Massey (that's a joke, Casey) and inventoried all our needs, their current materials, and made a master shopping list. Really looking forward to seeing Seattle (think Sushi), not to mention pick out awesome stuff for the house!!

With the camera battery charging and a trip across Montana, Idaho, and Washington to the ocean in the works, I promise our next post will require much less reading and be far more visually appealing!