New House - Part 6 - Count down begins

The builder has given us the two week warning! I can't believe we're this close. Before going through the photo update, I am going to reflect a little on this whole process. Today's topic ... the budget!

Suffice it to say this is by far the largest financial investment we've ever made and probably ever will make. At work I manage project budgets pretty regularly, but none have compared with this! At home the closest we've had to managing a project budget was during our wedding.

In both the wedding and this house my wife and I started out with a very firm budget in mind ... "there's no way we'll go over $x" was something said frequently in the early stages in both the house and wedding "projects". However, the further along we got the budget grew and the less strict we became over those increases.

Early on while picking out the finishes for the new house, we negotiated regularly with the builder to ensure we got the most bang for our buck. But once the walls started going up, our excitement overtook our keen negotiating skills! Thankfully the project is almost done and we've remained under our "worst case scenario" budget! :)

Now onto the latest pictures:

The trim is going in. This includes stairs, crown molding, wainscoting, built-in shelves, etc.
And then the trim was primed and painted.
Hardwood floors are going in ...
Stone has been laid on the outside ...
The counters have been installed, including our huge kitchen island!
And last but not least, the tile is being installed ...