Casa de Stew: A Palermo in PA: So, yeah, it's been a minute...

What can I say? It got a teency bit busy the last few weeks between my job, J's job, packing up one house, thinking about packing up another, attempting to adopt a rescue dog, dealing with a sick cat at the emergency vet and of course pool season! So the blog slipped a bit. In my defense, there wasn't really anything that interesting going on until about the last 10 days or so. Finishing drywall is about as exciting to see as it sounds. Well, maybe that's not entirely true as they did a really nice job, for the most part.

Now for the pictures and the true updates!

I'll start with the hanging of drywall. It was cool to see this in progress, cooler when it was taped & finished.

Great Room & Kitchen...Halfway There!

Half of the Morning Room

Good selection on that sheet...

Walls AND a ceiling in the kitchen?!?!? What next?!!

The Future Rickhouse (aka the basement & bar)

Now for some entertaining mishaps and utter nonsense (I'm guessing this will be fixed. Otherwise it's getting the blue tape treatment)

Fail!

Sweet crack. Hopefully it's just mud

Measure twice, cut once, punch off the corner?

Strong control of English..."You mist"
(this is the above hole)

Not really feeling this is a quality concrete repair job

Again, not a quality repair

Was a level optional? When is this door
going to close properly?
I know - on the 12th of Never!!!

Big Progress - here's a look at the exterior, then & now! Rumor has it we get stone this week...

Given how little is on the house that made Bucks County Ledgestone a no-go for us, I'm just amused. I think 2 pallets covered all 18 inches of stone on the elevation they chose. And for that we had to re-pick the stone & color scheme? Fail. Just Fail.

Exterior on May 24

Exterior on June 13

Stone! It's not Bucks County Ledgestone but we like it

And finally, Big Progress on the Inside!! Hold onto your seats - WE HAVE CABINETS! FLOORS! VANITIES! TILE! SHOWERS! ELECTRICAL OUTLETS & LIGHTS! We are carpeting and toilets away from a legit house! Oh, and of course all of the finishing work like countertops, cleanup, actually hanging doors properly, repainting the walls, final grading, etc. But since we are closing, yes...we have a date...there's an end in sight!

A garage full of goodies! Yet it was still unlocked. Very trusting...

This truly is my dream kitchen!

Close-up of my floors - darker in real life but I love them!

Floors & Tile

Main bath - it's livable. Not my fave but a fun shower curtain will cure it.

My master bath!

Shower & Soaking Tub!!

Yeah, this floor was so much better tiled vs fiberglass. Worth. Every. Penny.

Beast Mode is Definitely On!

As for the closing, well, RH has dropped the ball again. I don't know why I'm surprised at this point. After our pre-drywall meeting, our PM allegedly gave our Loan Officer the target date. Why that wasn't communicated to us to lock in our rates just isn't clear. At least not satisfactorily so. What I do know is by the time I found out, raised hell & put props under it, interest rates had risen from 3.85% to 4.125%. On a 30-year loan, that ain't chump change. To say I was livid is an understatement. EVERYONE felt it, from our SR to J. They did take a little off of our closing cost but nowhere near the amount that this mistake will cost us. I'm not above dangling the survey over peoples' heads. I've done it a few times with great results. I really am not a difficult or mean-spirited person but do NOT mess with my money. Ever. It ends very badly. Think Bane in the Dark Knight Rises movie bad.

Speaking of the whole SR situation, remember that debacle? We were apparently the red-headed stepchildren left hanging when the old one moved on to bother another community. The guy left eventually took us over & told her to buzz off. Not sure how much buzzing was done since she wasn't doing jack squat anyhow but she won't be bothering us anymore. New guy really is trying to placate us me. I'll give him that. But you better believe I'll be tearing the old, useless SR a new one in the "comments" section. What a waste of space she turned out to be. Her personal issues aren't my problem. Period. Everything is much smoother now but in all honesty I just want to be in the house. I've hit the "over building a house" stage full-on this week! 3 weeks...just 3 more weeks...

Oh, and here are just a few other pictures relating to why it took so long to make a new post - my sweet baby Vinny. This poor cat started HOWLING in pain at 7:45pm on a Saturday night. Of course this was right after his vet had closed so we got to visit the emergency vet. A TON of cash and a 5-night stay at the animal hospital later (thanks...that was for furniture, Vincent) he's all better. But I do not recommend trying to drug a cat on your own. The big benefit was that he was all cuddly due to the painkillers. J wants to know if we can get more & keep him drugged up. Maybe...maybe...