The stairs are finally in!

Yesterday we went out to the lake and the stairs and final octagon window were finally in! This has been a challenging week as we've had some difficulty getting in contact with our builder. But, progress was made and we are no longer going to stick to a schedule - we are just going to let things happen when they do and not worry so much about it. I know if things were different we'd like to enforce a few rules about timing, but that hasn't worked so well so far so we are just going to relax about it and enjoy the last few weeks of the process.

So, the good news is that the upstairs is all done and now that the window and stairs are done the downstairs is now being sheetrocked. We had fun building a hearth for the fireplace and getting it all ready to be rocked yesterday. It was a lot of work putting up a vapor barrier and then this wire mesh, but it is better to do the work now to ensure the rocks don't fall down once we put them up :)

We also continued finishing the trim pieces. I think we've split it into 4 piles - we finished one last weekend (both coats) and started on the 2nd pile yesterday. Next weekend we're going to do the second coat on the 2nd pile and finish the fireplace. This week our builder is having some other guys put on the siding so he can focus on the basement sheetrock. Next weekend we'll post pictures of that progress too.

A note on our class: we're turning in the first draft of the marketing section next week. I have a lot of PTO days to use up before the end of the year or I'll lose them, so I'm planning to take every Friday off until the end of the year. It is nice to have a day off of work to work on the project and still have time to go to the lake on Saturday and/or Sunday too.

Here is a picture of the fireplace from Dan's phone (the quality isn't the best and it was dark out but you get the point). It will be fun to put up the rock next weekend!