We’re getting close to finishing up everything in the new house.  I made the decision that we’re “moving” into the new house on November 15th.  All the big items will be finished by then except maybe the kitchen floor.  However, since we’re doing the kitchen floor ourselves I’m not counting that as a big project because no outside contractors are involved.

The latest big item to get finished was our new furnace and AC.  Both of those went in on Friday and we got a new thermostat to go along with it.  They’re both high efficiency units which means a giant rebate from our local power company.  Unfortunately, because of the temperature on the day of the install, they could not do the efficiency testing for the AC so we have to wait until the spring before the HVAC company can do the testing and establish the efficiency.

New Furnace

New Thermostat

It sounds like this week my wife and her father will start on the kitchen floor.  I’ll try to help as much as I can after work, but her father will be gone by that point so not sure how much help I can give.  We also have to paint a ton of cord around this week to put in our new house.  This week should also see the delivery of our new kitchen island as well as the rubber floor matting we’re going to put in the back two rooms that will be used as the “dog” rooms.  The crates will be back there along with ribbons, trophies, and other knick knacks from our dogs.  And lastly we should be getting our new refrigerator delivered finally.  It’s been sitting in the Menards warehouse for about 3 weeks now.  Never called to get it delivered as the kitchen floor was still just subflooring.

We’re in the home stretch here at the new house!  Today our living room and master bedroom floors were finished.  They are absolutely gorgeous even with the minor patching they had to do.  Can’t even tell where the patching was done if you weren’t previously aware.  We had the same guy do the floors in this house who did the floors in our current house.  He had previously done a great job so we were very comfortable with how it would turn out.

Finished Living Room Floor

Finished Bedroom Floor

Electrical work will be finished up tomorrow.  It was so nice walking into the house yesterday and being able to turn on the kitchen light from the back door without having to walk across the kitchen to get to the switch!

On Friday our new furnace and air conditioner are scheduled to be installed.  Not sure when the kitchen floor will go in.  I think we might get a start on it this weekend.

Lastly, not technically house related, but part of our new home.  Our agility contact equipment was delivered last weekend.  Tonight I had just enough daylight to get the dog walk out to the field and put it together.  Luna and Jane then broke it in while Onyx was out doing the important work of patrolling for squirrels. 🙂  Maybe tomorrow will see enough light to get the teeter or a-frame out there.

New Dog Walk

Progress is continuing, slowly but surely, on the new home.  All of the rooms have had the painting finished except for the kitchen.  Neutral colors have been chosen for each room with white paint being chosen for the window frames.  Here is what our master bedroom looks like with finished paint.

Master Bedroom With New Neutral Paint

The kitchen is still in disrepair as it’s kind of the hub for all the tools, materials, and miscellaneous items needed while we fix up the house.  The laminate floor was taken up so that we could put our own tile laminate flooring down.  The wallpaper was stripped off the walls which, after 3 days, caused some severe shoulder pain for me that I’m still recovering from.  Needless to say, I will not be doing that again.

Kitchen Floor After Laminate Was Removed

Kitchen Wall After Partial Wallpaper Removal. The Bottom Half Was Also Eventually Removed

Also, last week while I was in Tennessee our 2 fences got put in and they are just gorgeous!  So happy that we decided to have them professionally installed.  They look amazing.  The 5 foot black chain link fence is where the agility field will be located.  The 6 foot wood privacy fence is located around our garage and house.  It will give us enough space to put in a pool next year and allow the dogs some running around room.

6 Foot Wood Privacy Fence Around House and Garage

Chain Link Fencing Enclosing the Agility Area

We still have a few items left to be done before we will start moving in.  The hardwood flooring in the living room and bedroom are scheduled to be finished early next week. Furnace and AC will be go in at the end of next week.  New pressure tank and new pressure tank location in our utility room will be completed this week.  We are also getting some quotes for some electrical work we need done for not only the AC, but also for us and our preferences. All light switches are placed as if your main entry is the front door. However, our main entry will be the back door so we have to get light switches placed appropriately for that.  We also need to install the kitchen floor, accept delivery of our new refrigerator, buy a new stove, and buy and assemble the kitchen island we decided to put in place.  Once all of that is done, we can finally move in!  Middle of November is hopefully the target date.

Earlier this year I decided I wanted to find a house with enough flat land so that I could walk out to my yard and practice agility with my dogs.  Some of the things I want to teach my dogs in the world of agility require almost daily practice in the beginning of learning the behavior.  So, a new house with a large yard was needed.  We stumbled upon this house on accident as it was a For Sale By Owner far below the price range we were looking at. However, at 2.63 acres, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and just under 1200 sq ft we were ecstatic we found it.  Amusingly, we would often drive by the area and comment about how we wish one of those houses would go up for sale as we would like to buy one for the land. And, specifically, this property was the one I always looked at it because it had the last amount of trees and was the biggest property in the area.  And now we have it!

Here are some pictures of what shape it was in when we first bought it.

The enclosed porch with the door to the house to the left.

The kitchen looking towards the front of the house.

The kitchen looking towards the back of the house.

The living room.

The master bedroom.

The bathroom.

The 2nd bedroom with the closest holding the pressure tank and electrical for the well.

The non-conforming room which is connected to the 2nd bedroom.

The utility room.

Welcome to a new niche blog that I started here at Agility Lunatics.  This blog will not deal with actual training–that will still belong on the main blog–but more to document the new real life home of the Lunatics.  My wife and I just purchased a new home a little over a week ago and this will be where I document where we started to where we finish.  I will try to add photos as often as possible as I document the changes we make to the new home to make it what we want.  To start, here is a picture of the backyard where the agility field will be located.  The field will be located on the other side of the farthest tree in the middle.  The dimensions of it will be 130×115.  I’ll add more pictures over the following days of the transformation our new home has already gone through in the short time we’ve had it.

Future Training Field