There IS a light at the end of the tunnel!

Will we actually be done with this house by the end of December? I feel like it's a real possibility...I mean, we might squeak a little into January, but I'd say we stuck to a pretty tight timeline.

So, what is done:
Exterior Paint
Interior Paint (minus my brick in the sunken living room, which I'm going today to work on)
Kitchen Tile
Kitchen Cabinets
Trim
Upstairs bathroom shower tile and floor tile
Downstairs bathroom shower tile and floor tile
Downstairs carpet
Downstairs laundry room utility sink & floor tile
Crazy giant, ivy covered monster tree removed from front
Hot tub GONE
Concrete pressure washer
Roof pressure washer
Bark spread
80% landscaping done

What do we still need to do:
Electricians need to finish installing lights and switching outlets
Plumber needs to install laundry room toilet
Home Depot needs to install all new appliances (including washer/dryer)
Paint brick wall
Put hardware on cabinets in kitchen
Install bathroom mirror and trim it out
Mop hardwoods and apply wood oil
Paint stair trim & hand rail
20% more landscaping

I know our list seems long, but if you break it down it really isn't that much! What do YOU think?

Painting the fireplace brick white

Painting the dingy brick wall white

Soft-close cabinets and new back door

Larger opening into kitchen from dining room (granite slab will create a bar)

Our "transition" tile (see, we need to clean the hardwoods)

Large upstairs room (minus random french doors leading to a window well)

Downstairs room with a real window and carpet

Downstairs double shower...I love this shower!!

My flipping advice:
1) Try to make it nice, but not super expensive. I'd like to think we made some really great, but super affordable choices. We didn't cut corners, we either found a cheaper option, did it ourselves or took money from somewhere else to make things happen. I guess this goes back to my previous advice of looking for your own subs...if you don't like the price, keep looking.
2) Know your end plan at the beginning. Me and the Husband are having a rent or sell battle on a daily basis.

Our painter is AMAZING!!

It's been awhile, huh? We hit a lull...then work got busy...then there was more fighting about the lull...then people got to work and shit got done.

We went with our own painter, not the one the contractor wanted to bring in, because our friends used him and he did a great job AND his bid was significantly less (think about what YOU could do with an extra 10k)!

So every sub-contractor has their own timeline because they all have other jobs. Makes perfect sense to me, which is why people hire a General Contractor in the first place...let them juggle all of the subs and different timelines. Our GC needs some coaching and his guys definitely need a little work ethic, but I digress. Our painter needed to be done by December 16. The way things were crawling along there was no way this was happening so the Husband had to have a little chat with our GC. His sheetrock sub really came through in the 11th hour. There was one guy working from 5:30pm until who knows when. Not sure why they didn't send him with...I don't know...HELP, but he busted ass to get things done. HIS boss came a few days into the sheetrock project and was profusely apologizing to the Husband because even he thought it should be further along. Magically, the sheetrock, taping and mudding was done the next day. If only our GC got that mad about the lack of progress.
 
So, our painter came in later than scheduled (because of our GC) and worked 4, 16 hour days. Ceilings, trim, doors and walls are all painted. Done and done. He's amazing and pretty much got us back on track to be done by the end of December. We didn't add a lot of color because we wanted to keep it easy for our painter and we wanted it to be bright (aka white). I'll add more pictures of paint when my phone cooperates with me and my constant photo demands.

Downstairs Master closet (pocket door)

Downstairs Master closet (and bathroom door) Paint color: Sand 

Downstairs hallway (DOORS!!)

Downstairs laundry/half bath (toilet on left, w/d on right)

My flipping advice:
1) I know I've already said this, but see if your GC will let you get some of your own subs. We just got an invoice for $4,000 for our GCs guy to tile the downstairs walk-in shower. That doesn't include tile...just labor. What does that man make a year???? If your GC says no, I'd find another GC.
2) I would also have a weekly check-in about budget with your GC. If they don't have any overages in writing that I've signed off on, I'm not paying it. They cannot make those decisions without your approval.