Paulette and I drove by the house yesterday and took a look inside and out, with the builders' blessing. As you can see from the photo, they've cleared away the debris in front of the garage and begun framing where the driveway is to be poured.

Inside, they had installed many (but not all) of the remaining electrical fixtures, many (but not all) of the plumbing fixtures, much (but not all) of the millwork (baseboards, framing around the doors and fireplace, etc., etc.), and had even managed to paint most (but not all) of said millwork.

Today (Monday) is Presidents' Day, and thus it is a scheduled non-workday for the builders -- which is why my entry today is listed as "Day Before Day 43". Today is not on the schedule, but tomorrow is Day 43. Of course, just because today is scheduled as a non-workday doesn't mean no work has been done at the site.

We are, however, a mere two and a half weeks away from the end of the 54-workday building cycle. The schedule calls for carpet to be installed this week. Next week? Well, I don't think "installing blinds" can possibly take up the entire week, but that's pretty much all they have listed. Rather, I expect that next week is pretty much entirely spent in inspections, fixes, more inspections, more fixes, and so on. Oh, and installing the window screens. That might take a few days.

Okay, and landscaping the front yard is also on the list.

Of course, there are also things that should have been done, according to the schedule, that haven't been done yet. Like finishing painting the outside of the house. Like finishing installing the guest bathtub. That sort of thing. My guess is those items are also going to be occupying the bulk of what appears to be an otherwise non-busy week.

We're in the home stretch, if you'll pardon the pun.

And even if you won't.