As of last Thursday, which was Day 36 on the schedule, we officially hit two-thirds of the way through our fifty-four day building schedule for our house-in-progress.

The photo to the left was taken yesterday afternoon, and it reveals how schedule items are starting to bump into each other.

First, you'll notice that the paint trim has still not been completed, but the gutters have been installed. This implies that whoever does the paint trim work is now going to have to work around the gutters in some fashion.

Second, the contractors have started putting up framing for the front (and back) porch. That's what all that wood is on the left-hand side of the photo. As of yesterday, they hadn't yet framed the sidewalk or the driveway, and I think that is at least partly because of the big blower thingy that is sitting where our driveway is going to end up.

Third, the big blower thingy that is sitting where our driveway is supposed to be is being used to dry out the crawl space beneath the house (and, presumably, the floors above it). In our part of the world, winter is typically the rainy season, and that means the house was put up mostly in the rain and mostly over wet, wet ground. Sometime past the half-way point in the schedule, the builder takes humidity measurements in the house and, if they deem it to be too moist, they use this big portable forced air heater to dry out the house from the ground up. (These pictures of the blower thingy in action were taken a day before the gutters went up, in case you were curious.)

This portable heater/dryer-outer machine runs on its own generator which they have to leave running day and night. I'm sure the neighbors who have already moved in love it. Given how long this device was parked next to a house further up the street that is/was a couple of weeks ahead of ours in the schedule, I'm guessing that this thing will probably be done at some point this week.

The device forces dry hot air through long tubes that attach to the crawl space vents all along the house, plus a couple of windows on the first floor. This, combined with having the heater within the house running pretty much constantly, seems to be doing a good job not only of drying the place out, but also of taking care of the massive out gassing that has been going on with the fresh paint and vinyl and glues that have been applied throughout the house during construction. It may be hot and dry in that house, but at least it's not stinky.

Work on the interior is also starting to back up just a wee bit, but there's nothing to indicate that the schedule is in jeopardy. Most of the cabinetry in the kitchen and bathrooms is now installed, and much (but not quite all) of the millwork around the doors and windows has been nailed into place. They'll still have to prep and paint the millwork after it's all installed. This week (well, according to the schedule, *today*) should also see the hardwood flooring installed in the kitchen and entryway. The vinyl floors in the bathrooms and pantry are already in place and lookin' good.

If I understand the schedule correctly, the rest of the bathroom and kitchen fixtures (sinks, toilets, faucets, etc.) should be installed by the end of this week, as well. Likewise, the driveway should be poured by then. My guess is that they'll wait on the porch and patio and sidewalk until they can do the driveway at the same time. The schedule appears to have originally called for the porch and patio to be poured a couple of weeks ago, but that didn't happen.

In the meantime, we're scheduling movers and keeping in touch with our financing folks on pretty much a daily basis. Then there's setting up our independent inspection (which our real estate agent has taken care of quite quickly), and details along those lines. There's always room for more stress, even when the construction itself seems to be going along okay. I can only imagine how much more stressful it is for new construction with a builder who is not as good about hitting deadlines (which, I'm told, is the vast majority of builders).

As fun as watching the house go up is proving to be, I don't imagine we'll be in a rush to buy any other new homes in the very near future. I'm not looking forward to the move, but I most definitely am looking forward to having the move completed.