I know many of you are dying to know if we finished the home in time for judging.  I didn’t mean to make you wait this long to find out, but I ended up taking a few days off to re-charge.

Well, by the skin of our teeth, we finished the home in time.

Yahoo!

When I arrived at the jobsite Wednesday morning there had to have been at least 20 people working in the house.  From painters, cleaning crew, plumbers, electricians, powerwashers, cabinet crew, and of course Neil, Jimmy and myself.  We even solicited our older boys to help since they were home on Spring Break.  I’m going to be honest, there was a lot still to do Wednesday morning and I was nervous.  But everyone showed up, everyone worked around each other and by lunch we had it down to about 6-7 people working.  By 5pm we had it down to Jimmy, Neil and our boys.

Hmmm, how many people does it take to install one sign???

When I came back to check on things Wednesday night after church service, we were there til 10pm finishing up last minute details.  That’s not the way I like to do it, but it seems to be a tradition at this point.  It just wouldn’t be Parade of Homes if we actually finished early.  But boy, what a difference since last post.  I hope if you are reading this, you live close enough to come tour this home in person.  Pictures just don’t do it justice. But I’m going to attempt to show you the transformation from my last post to finished project.

Let’s start with my favorite room in the house, the Master Bath.  In one week, the bathroom went from this:

to this. . .

Taken Thursday morning

Master shower

Taken Wedn. night

No shower door

What a difference a week makes!  Again, my photos don’t do it justice.  You physically need to stand in the space to appreciate all the details from the texture of the floor tile to the crystal knobs.  It came together beautifully.

Now that’s its finished and we made it time for judging I can share a story.  Last post I mentioned a few weeks back I had a week where I was ready to pull my hair out.  Well one of the reasons I was so upset on one of my site visits is due to the beautiful light fixture hanging in the middle of the Master Bath.  I literally spent hours upon hours looking for the perfect light fixture for that space.  It is a 10′ ceiling so I couldn’t install a hanging chandelier, it would have come down too low.  Although you see these gorgeous chandeliers hanging over tubs all the time in magazines and on Houzz, in real life, we can’t meet code by hanging fixtures over bathtubs.  So I knew I wanted a semi-flush style fixture in the center of the room. This light is not needed functionally, my goal was more aesthetic by tying together the elegance and glamour of the crystal knobs and chrome fixtures.  Well, that day when I came to deliver the light fixture personally, my electrican asked me, where is that suppose to go??  I look up at the ceiling and my heart starts to race–the light had never been roughed-in.    It was on the electrical plan, but somehow got missed and I never realized that it hadn’t been done until right that minute. So we start talking about what it will take to wire it now that sheetrock and paint have been completed.  There was no easy answer.  I had closed in all attic access to that spot by adding my bookshelves in the room upstairs.  After much deliberation, the only solution was cutting three holes in the ceiling to run a new wire to connect to the existing line.   So I have to make a decision.  My mind starts racing:  I realize I am the only person that knows about this light.  It’s not really functional, we don’t need it, there is already plenty of light in the room.  We are running out of time, it’s going to be a big headache for everyone– the electricians of course but also scheduling the the drywall and paint back to patch the holes.  It will slow everything down and I’m not even sure we can finish on time as is. I leave that day feeling utterly defeated and put the light back in my car and drive home.

Two days go by and I can’t stop thinking about this light.  I know that no one will miss it but me, but I keep thinking how it ties everything together, it needs to be in there.  So I go to Neil and tell him I want the light wired and installed.  What does he do?. . . He gets it done.  No complaining, no questions asked, he just makes it happen.  And I’m so grateful, because it really does tie the whole space together.  Here’s the full view with the light in the picture.

The other space we looked at last post was the Wet Bar area in the Bonus Room.  I stressed over that space literally til Wednesday around 5pm, (the day before judging) but it finally came together and turned out incredible.

The Parade committee request each Builder to submit what we feel is our Special Feature for the home. Each price category will be awarded one Special Feature Award.  Last year we won the special feature award for our stained ceiling in the Breakfast Nook.

This year, I found it tough to select ONE Best Special Feature in this home, I had several in mind.  Next post we will look at the features we were considering and you can vote on which feature you would chose as the winner.  You will be able to vote online or in person when you tour the home.

Well, Parade Banquet is tomorrow night (Tuesday) and we find out how we did.  Wish us luck.  Hopefully by Wednesday, I’ll have some good news to post.