February 18th through February 24th

February 18^th through February 24^th: Monday was a big day where we saw lots of progress on the apartment.  I grouted the tile in the bathroom.  The carpet we ordered for the bedroom was delivered and installed.  The dishwasher, refrigerator, stove and washer and dryer were delivered.  The delivery guys were supposed to install the washer and dryer, but said they could not install the dryer because they did not deliver the feet for the dryer so they could be stacked.  Home Depot had given me the new feet and told me to give them to the delivery guys.  Well they said if we don’t deliver them we don’t install them.  They did install the gas stove.  That left me with the installation of the microwave above the stove, the dishwasher, the refrigerator, and the dryer.  Tuesday I got the backsplash grouted in the kitchen and the microwave installed.  John B. helped me get the doors re-installed in the bedroom.  I got the hardware installed on the doors also.  I got the backsplash on the desk cut, polished and installed.  

Carpet installed and closet doors reinstalled.

Stove and microwave installed.

Wednesday the plumbers came and installed the toilet in our bath. They also installed the shower fixtures, the sink in the bath, the sink in the kitchen, the dishwasher and disposal, the water line to the refrigerator, and they helped me get the dryer installed.  I installed the smoke and carbon dioxide detectors.  I got the closet under the stairs painted and baseboard installed.  It is the nicest closet I have ever seen.  Mom drove John B. and Jill to the airport.  They are headed to Italy for a 10 day vacation.  We are now officially on grandparent duty.  That really means we are now a taxi service and cooks for 2 teenagers and 2 almost teenagers.  Mom went to one of Ellie's basketball games and we both went to Luke's game and then we went to Charlotte’s home for cake and ice cream to celebrate Tilly’s birthday.  She turned 5. 

Ellie # 6 at her young women's basketball game.

Luke in the green shirt at his rec. center basketball game.

Tilly ready to blow out her candles. 

New washer and dryer installed and working.

The under the stairs closet.

Thursday the inspector came and we passed except that one of the smoke detectors was not working in series with the other two.  He said we can move in and he will come back when I get Badger’s bedroom done and reinspect the detectors.  He thought the communication wire was loose or that the detector was bad.  I spent the rest of the day getting our bed and clothes moved from Badger’s bedroom to our new bedroom.  While the inspector was here I looked up our building permit and it was issued on November 20^th.  He gave us the go ahead to move in on the 21^st of February.  That is 3 months and one day of construction.  I got our 4 grandchildren to go to the storage unit and we brought a load back to the apartment.  They have been out of school all week for a long break.  We slept in our new apartment.  

Moose after our trip to the storage unit. It was really cold.

The bed is installed.  I had to paint the headboard.

Friday morning we unpacked boxes of kitchen stuff and tried to get everything washed and put away.  We washed and dried our clothes that were covered in construction dust.  Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust. The dishwasher works and we did many loads of dishes.  

I also installed shelves above the toilet.

Shower works great.

Saturday was much of the same.  We did get another load from the storage unit and now we have a big mess of boxes and furniture to unpack and put away.  We went to the water polo dinner for the start of water polo session.  Badger and Moose both were in lip- sinking skits.  It was pretty funny.  

Saturday we had a visit from our youngest grandchild.  Campbell climbed into one of our kitchen cabinets and found a nice place to take a nap.  He is a real character.

Badger is one of the guys in the back.

Moose is the one with no shirt on.

This is all the kids that were in the skits.

After the second load from the storage unit.

Unpacking is messy.

Saturday I picked up 497 boxes of girl scout cookies. They are now ready for Ellie to deliver to the people she sold the cookies to.

Sunday we went to church and then went to dinner at Judy Lever’s home.  She is the other grandmother to John B. and Jill’s kids.  It was nice to have a break from cooking for the 4 always hungry kids.  We are so happy to be moving into our apartment, but we realize that we still have a lot of work to do to get settled and moved in.   Maybe in a few more weeks we will feel settled.  But we do feel lucky and blessed that we are coming to an end of this project.