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Okay, so it's been a rough few days. Let's review.

Tuesday morning we received confirmation that the papers had been signed and the funding came through. We know own the house. Yay us! It's been such a long road just to get to this point, and now that we're here...well, it's a little underwhelming, frankly. I think the problem is that there was no real clear moment of "now the house is yours". Typically at closing all the paperwork is signed, the funding and stuff happens and the keys are handed over. That's it, you own the house! But here, with the dry closing and then a weekend of being in limbo, and then a day of getting the papers signed, and the "maybe the papers are signed, I think they are, if they are we'll release the funds"...it's still only now sinking in that I do in fact own the house. Maybe I'll have that moment when the completed paperwork is delivered. We'll see.

On the more physical realm of homeownership, we've been working our asses off (I mean that literally, I've lost 10 pounds). Lots of setbacks, finally some progress. We discovered that two floor joists in the space between the original house and the addition were badly damaged, which was very unpleasant. It was especially frustrating seeing some half-assed attempts at repairing the damage by the last person who discovered the problem. Had they just repaired it correctly the first time, but no. So now we first have to take out their attempts and then repair the damage. Which we have done. Yay us. We still have to finish putting the vapor barrier and insulation in, and then put down the subfloor, but we're much much closer to having a livable space now, and having a solid floor will be great.

Okay, let's go with list form:

- Kitchen floor is full removed. We need to sand it before we can put the vinyl tile down, but the worst of it is over. A tip for homeowners - 1/4" plywood doesn't need 25 staples per square foot to be secure. Seriously. Pneumatic staplers are a privilege, not a right.

- All the particle board in the addition has been removed. The plywood underneath is in okay condition, but being only a half inch thick was not going to be enough to put any new flooring in. We had Empire Today out to give an estimate on putting a new floor in, but man was that going to be expensive. $1,600 just to put the second layer of subfloor down. Seriously? $1,600?? I bought the materials for under $300, and the installation will have taken up about 15-20 man hours total, and that's us working rather slow as we're all wearing out physically. So not a $1,600 project. The flooring material, too, was crazy expensive, so we decided to go with a self-install floor. It's engineered flooring, which is nifty, and uses a click-lock system. Anyone interested in helping and/or learning how to install such a floor is welcome to join me when I put it in. It's gonna be purty. And cost about $6,700 less than what Empire Today was going to do for us. Sure, the type of material is different, and it'll take a few more days to get done, but that's still a huge price difference.

- The drywall in the living room and bedroom has gone up. Still waiting to do the parts in the addition. We wanted to get the subfloor in first, but we should be able to put it up tonight. Only four sheets to put into place, with minimal cutting. Very exciting. The wall in the living room is looking pretty nifty, and the rest of the walls have had all the nail holes patched. Getting the glue off the dining room walls took a lot more effort than anticipated, but they're looking great now.

- The ceilings in the bedroom and original dining room have been painted. The bedroom has been primed, although there's a section that needs to be fixed, still. The glue they used to put the drywall up was black and gross, and bleeds through every primer and sealant we've tried so far. Mom is going to try to figure out what to use on it today. Which is good, 'cause there's a ton of that crap on the walls in the addition.

- Gene has installed a new toilet in the downstairs bathroom, and taken out the faulty garbage disposal in the kitchen. We determined that the oven and dishwasher do not work, and the fridge is a beast, so mom is loaning us her credit to get new appliances (yay for 6 months no interest/no payments). Those will be delivered on Tuesday. Very exciting. Mom is going to be cleaning the kitchen cabinets today, so once the new appliances are in and the floor is down, the kitchen should be in good shape.

- Mom is working at the house today with Jody, who works at Gene's sign shop. Apparently there's no work to do at the shop today, so Gene asked if she'd be willing to come help my mom, and she is. They're going to paint the bedroom and living room/sunroom/entryway, and clean the kitchen. Should be huge improvements when I go over after work.

I'm hoping that we'll be able to finish the subfloor situation tonight when Justin and I are both done with our performances. The hardest part will be clearing out the excess wood to make way for the new plywood, but I think we're in the home stretch with that. Seth and Pree might be coming over, too, so we can work on hanging the drywall and sanding the glue off the old walls. We'll also ideally be able to seal the old drywall (necessary since a lot of the paper has ripped from the glue) before we leave tonight, so that tomorrow we can prime and hopefully paint in the addition, and be in a good place for moving in on Sunday. Saturday will also see Gene in, finishing the toilet, working on the garage door, and the rest of us working on cleaning and other stuff to get the downstairs in good shape.

It's good to feel like progress is finally being made. We had a couple days where it didn't feel like things were happening, but getting the new plywood down feels great, and seeing paint start to go up on the walls is great. Tearing it all down was really hard, but seeing it go back up, better than before, is really gratifying.

One last thing - I want to send out my sincerest thanks to everyone who has helped us with the house. I know that most people who have don't read this blog, and I will make sure that they know how grateful I am on an individual level, but I need to say it here, too. I am so blessed to have so many people in my life who love me and are willing to do whatever they can when they see that I am in need. I have always tried hard, and will try even harder now, to support my loved ones as much as I can, and it's wonderful to know that when I need the support, they are there. Thank you to everyone who has helped, even if it was just a kind word when needed.