Barely three weeks until closing! Our paint problem is being remedied and progress continues inside. This week our light fixtures, toilets, sinks and whatnot were, for the most part, installed. We have counters in the bathrooms, but still no surface in the kitchen. The hardwood floors have their stain and are covered with paper; in the next couple weeks we'll see a coat of varnish going on to seal them up. My over-keen eye managed to spot a mistake in our bathroom. We had deleted the postformed backsplash on the laminate countertop and replaced it with a strip of the accent tile that we chose to use around the tub and shower. But the countertop in the bathroom is installed and does indeed have the postformed backsplash. We paid extra for the tile, so I want to make sure it goes in, whether the current backsplash is removed or whether they just put the tile in aboe it. But the builder has been quick to fix any problems we've had so far, so I'm sure they'll do the same in this case.

-Julie

The pedestal sink, resting in the kitchen while it waits for installation. The actual pedestal is still in its box in the hall closet.

And the kitchen sink, also waiting for installation. Finally, we get a sink with a sprayer thingie!

Let there be light! Can lights, vanity fixtures... pretty much all the lights in the house are installed.

Okay, so one light fixture still has to be installed - the powder room vanity lights. Plumbing for the pedestal looks ready to go, though.

The dining room light fixture. It hangs pretty low (as it should), but we can still walk under it without bumping it. We're house midgets. I hope they fix the cord and chain bunched up there in the middle. But if not, I suppose we can fix it ourselves.

The staircase fixture. Purdy.

Sinks, faucets and the laminate countertop in the guest bathroom. Looks good!

A poorly lit shot that shows off the vanity fixture (that's missing a bulb). There will be mirrors on either side of the window.

The other half of the guest bathroom, complete with toilet and faucet.

The master bath vanity with lights and sinks and all. There are footprints on the counter from the workers who put up the lights.

Master bath sinks. They match the pedestal sink in the powder room. A bead of caulk still needs to go around them to finish up, but I'm happy with how they turned out.

Our "super-flushing" Kohler Cimarron toilet, ready to rid us of a steady stream of waste.

Close-up of one of the sinks and faucets in the guest bathroom.

Close-up of the staircase light fixture that matches our dining room fixture. And bathroom vanity fixtures, for that matter; they're all from the Avalon line by Progress Lighting.

Wood in the fireplace! And the glass and screen are in place! Too bad they'll have to remove the screen to get those paint spots off.

PLumbing in the sink cabinet, ready for sink, disposal and dishwasher.

Close-up of the outlets we have throughout the house. The one on the right is obvious. The one on the left is our Tech Touch outlet. There is one in every room in the house (save the dining room and living room) and two in the master bedroom. Each one has two combination phone/ethernet ports and two cable jacks. Everything terminates in the basement, making setting up a LAN and such really, really easy.

Our breakfast nook with papered floor.

Close-up of the stain on the now-dirty kitchen floor. This bit of floor will be under the dishwasher.

The porch light - the fixture is a bit more grandiose than I was expecting, but it looks nice. There's an identical fixture outside the back door as well as outside the garage where the keypad will be.

Our hot water heater has been installed, so now the furnace has a friend down in the basement.

The basement also has insulation now! This is the west half of the basement, and our friend Sean is checking out the sump pump and master water shut-off valve.

And this is the east half of the basement. I'm standing in the laundry area (hook-ups are behind me), and you can see the capped drains for future bathroom plumbing. Our interior doors (there are more out of frame to the right, visible in the above photo) are chillin' down here, literally, waiting to be installed once everything is finished upstairs.

And at last, the final gridded window on the front of the house has been installed. Huzzah!