Almost...
Well... we almost have the boiler hooked up, and we almost have the range hooked up, and we almost have the shower hooked up, so we're sort of almost done. Sort of. We're both burned out but plugging along just trying to get done. Seems sometimes taht it will never end, but I think most anyone who's built their own house can attest to that painful truth. It never feels like it's going to be done.

It's really been rather frustrating, because it seems like the main problem is simply that we never have all the connections we need, or for some reason we were given the wrong thing in our order. It's happened multiple times with both the boiler and the range. Twice in my attempts to get the stove hooked up I've quit for the night thinking I needed just ONE more connector or adapter and then I'd be done. Then I get one more connector and find when I'm almost done that it still won't go together and I need another. Then when I try to communicate to the people who carry the adapter that I need what specifically I need, they tell me that it doesn't sound like I need that and do I even know the size and they don't sell those individually - they come with the flex connector that doesn't fit the pipe it's supposed to. And the adapter doesn't come with the flex connector at all - it came with the regulator on the propane tank. So they don't really have any clue what I'm talking about, and they'd rather not go to the trouble of trying. So I took the regulator off the tank and brought that, the flex connector, and the adapter in question into town with me today to see if I could POSSIBLY get the correct thing. If they still won't get it for me for whatever stupid reason, I'll just go to Ferguson's for one more 90 degree connector and make it work that way. Makes me tired...

Whoa...
Dude, so I haven't updated this in quite a while, as it would seem, and there is so much to report! For starters, that elusive plumbing is FINALLY installed! YAYYY!! Ok, well, we have the cold water hooked up. Still no hot, which means no shower, but we have a toilet dammit! Thank goodness for that. All the apartment lights are installed, including the previously unplanned dining room light that has a previously unplanned (but very nice) switch installed right in the side of the island. So, that's all really cool. We're currently working on the puzzle of the boiler - specifically, do we want zone valves, ball valves, or circulator pumps to run our zones, as we have decided that we most definitely want multiple zones to heat various parts of our house. We're thinking circulator pumps at the moment, but we'll see, I suppose. OO! And we have a CULLIGAN! Which means that, not only do we have water (cold though it may be), we have CLEAN water! And the tests just came back from the analysis labs telling us that our water is quite acceptable to drink. So it really IS clean water! YAY! Now it would just be nice to have some WARM water in which to bathe... Will is at least planning to hook up the washing machine this weekend so we can wash our clothes in our own facilities, because I tend to wash in cold water anyway, so that won't matter.
We also have the wood stove all hooked up and working, and that is an absolute dream. You start a fire, and within 30 minutes, the whole apartment is NICE and warm - and we don't even have the apartment entry door installed yet! So that's a good sign. Between the mass of the walls because of the logs we built it with, and the two layers of 2 inch Thermax underneath the framed walls, and the two layers of fiberglass insulation in the ceiling, that place holds some nice heat. Very comfy.
Also, we have most of the wires run through the garage for our lights, outlets, the washer and dryer, the boiler, utility room lighs, Culligan, pump, doorbell, and entry switches, so once we have the plumbing pretty well finished (have the baseboard pipes run for our heat) we can button up the ceiling with sound deadening fiberglass, and close it up with sheetrock. Then we just have to tape and mud and we can install the garage lights. Plus, once we get the ceiling all closed up, we can install our entryway/staircase lights so you can actually SEE in the stairwell when it's dark and NOT kill yourself on the stairs.
So we're actually getting pretty close to being finsihed. We have issues like trim and such to worry about, but those, on a relative scale, are quite minor when compared to the boiler and heat and everything. Oh, and hooking up the propane tank so we have a cookstove and oven. That'll be nice. And a dishwasher... ahh... to dream of such wonderful things...
Well, there's my lengthy update to make up for the long silence for all you who don't read this! Enjoy!

Movin' Along
We have countertops now, as well as installed sinks and all the drains are hooked up to the main sewer line. The drains of the SINKS aren't actually hooked up, but there are stand pipes coming up under them waiting to be attached. So that's cool. Not tons to technically report right now, though we got a whole lot done. So I'll update soon.

Still Working
Ok, so we have the light in our room installed, the guest room light installed, the whole livingroom, master bedroom, and guest bedroom wired. Yesterday we decided we probably should run power to the bathroom and hall light switches that we completely forgot. That was a concern as the electrical boxes were already installed in the walls that were sheetrocked, taped, mudded, and painted, thus making the backs of the boxes where the wires go in somewhat inaccessible. Actually, let me rephrase that... COMPLETELY inaccessible. So the trick here was that we needed to drill holes in the floor down under the electrical boxes we needed to work on, but we couldn't get to the bases of the walls where we'd have to drill because of the aforementioned sheetrock issue. As a result, we got to take measurements from a recognizeable mark that we could find from down in the garage to a point that intersected a line that ran under the outlet. We then took the chance of drilling upward from in the garage and hope that we were actually drilling up within a wall rather than through our vinyl or carpet, which we successfully achieved. After that, the real fun began because we had to somehow run the wire up through the newly drilled holes to the electrical boxes, which are probably 4 feet or thereabouts from the floor. We decided to straighten a metal clothes hanger that we stole from our closet, poke a hole in the insulation of the wire, loop the hanger through and bend it like a hook, then wrap that bit in electrical tape so it would be less likely to get caught on things in the middle of the wall somewhere that we couldn't reach. Then, with Will downstairs pushing the hanger and wire up through the hole and me up in the house waiting with bated breath by the outlet with needle nose pliers and a flashlight in my hand, we proceeded. What I am happy to report is that we ROCK. It took as about a minute or two per outlet to get the wire pulled up all the way through and ready to be attached. So, we now have power to the switches that we forgot initially. I think tonight Will and Dad might work on plumbing (potentially) and Mom and I will probably work on getting the counter tops installed. So that will be nice. We're getting there! We've been staying nice and warm at night in our room. That's been pleasant. So more updates later. Stay tuned!

Hmmm...
Ok, so I just created a whole update post for this journal, and for some reason it did not post. How annoying... I also just read through the old journals in here, and am sadly amused by how many times I said we were almost ready to be moved in. That's especially awful to see in the entries in 2004. And "we're about to do plumbing" seemed to be a fairly common theme. Guess what? We STILL don't have plumbing, though we're about to do it! hahah.. seriously though, Will ordered the last of the supplies today and is planning on picking them up tomorrow. We have our flooring in, which looks very nice, though it took THREE DAYS to do a simple installation. Will and I actually spent our first night in the house on Sunday night. It was pretty cool. Literally cool in the morning... we need to get heat going in there.. it's better now, though, because we found the electric blanket and have a little electric heater in there that kinda warms the bedroom up. The rest of the house is rather frigid when you walk through the bedroom door, but as long as we can sleep well, all is ok. The furniture is all upstairs now and looking lovely, as are the cabinets. Those are mostly installed, though the island construct still needs to be screwed together and attached to the floor and wired and all that fun. Will and I got countertops for the wall counters today, as well as particle board for under the tiles Mom and I got for the top of the island. We got the master bedroom fan/light fixture installed last night, so we even have our first light controlled by a switch in there. Very cool. I'm hoping for at least a plumbed toilet sometime in the next week-ish, just because it would be so handy. Not have to run to Mom and Dad's house over all those bumps in the morning when you really have to go... Dad's suggestion to plumb it in five minutes by attaching a pipe and hanging a 5 gallon bucket under it didn't exactly fly. He sure finds it hilarious though... *sigh* my dad the comedian. :)
Biddy is absolutely loving this whole house thing. He loves the carpet and the warm bedroom. Very comfort oriented, that dog... I'm really happy with how everything is looking, and the upstairs is probably half wired now. Just have to finish up the kitchen and living room area, and do the bathroom. The fridge is already wired and running, so we actually have a refrigerator, though as cold as the rest of the house is, I'm not sure we need it yet!
Anyway, that's the update for now, and I'm going to copy this whole thing in case it doesn't post again. Damn computers...

Stupid thing...
So you create a post to make up for the one that wouldn't post over the course of 10 minutes, post that one, and the missing one posts! What the heck is up with that?
Whatever...

And then...
The second update disappears. Sure to reappear who knows when...
Computers are truly an enigma.

First Night!
Sunday night was Will's and my first night in our room in our new house! It was very cool - literally in the morning... we need to get the heat going. Last night was better. We got our fan/light installed overhead so we have a regular light in there and we found the electric blanket so it was quite comfortable. The flooring is all in, and I will post pictures when I get them developed. It looks really good, though it took THREE DAYS for a simple flooring installation... :p Now the furniture is moved in upstairs, all the cabinets are up there and mostly installed, and the appliances like the stove, fridge, and dishwasher are up there. Will and I got countertops today for the wall counters and yesterday Mom and I got the tiles for the island, which we are obviously going to.. um.. tile... duh. So yeah, it's really coming together and is very exciting. Will's going to pick up the remainder of the plumbing supplies tomorrow, so soon we should have plumbing (meaning I can shower in my OWN HOUSE!!) and it's only a short matter of time before the whole place is wired up. We're at least half done. It's really cool!
So stay tuned! More fantastic news is yet to come!

A Woodstove Area!!
Wow does the house ever look COOL! We have the whole main room painted a lovely cream color - very warm and unthreateningly neutral so I can decorate with whatever colors I want and they won't clash!! The rest of the rooms are all primed and ready for paint that I believe they are getting today, so that's very exciting, and last night Mom started installing the tile for the area around my woodstove. Caro and I worked on the floor after Mom went to bed, and it looks soooo COOL!!! The plan is to be moved in by the end of this weekend because we're getting the flooring installed on Thursday, and with the walls painted and the flooring installed, I see no reason why we can't at least use our bedroom! So this weekend will largely be used moving our furniture and various belongings in. I just can't believe we're actually about to be moved in, and very close to being done! We still have a lot left to do before it's actually completely finished, but MAN are we getting close! It especially seems like it when I look back on the building album and see how things were even a year ago. We've come a long way since the truss disaster! I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Water is so useful
Last weekend we got our well thawed and pumped, so we should have formed a decent cavity by now. Today after work I'm going to take the water to Culligan to get it analyzed and I'll also pick up a couple of bottles from the water analysis lab in town so we can get the water tested for arsenic and bacteria and the like. So we're really on a roll toward having plumbing! Still plenty of work and waiting to be done, but it's coming together!