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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend May 11, 2006 From the Ground Up: Last details bring home close to completion It's vital to stay on track; missing a final deadline carries a penalty The project so far Reporter Sarah Lemon and her husband are more than 11 months into a custom home-building project. Here's how the project progressed over the past week: Finished laying tile. Finished wood floor. Finished installing plumbing and light fixtures. Installed carpet. Installed kitchen appliances. Installed stair and balcony railings. Installed bookcases and window seats. Hooked up septic system. Continued painting baseboard, trim and exterior. By SARAH LEMON The summer blockbuster season is drawing near. But the excitement of Hollywood can't compare with my own big-budget production. For nearly a year, my husband, Will, and I have been building a custom home, an endeavor largely modeled on the genre of slow-moving epic saga. Advertisement This week, however, it turned into a nail-biting thriller as the lenders' deadline loomed and construction reached an unprecedented speed. As tasks turned more surreal, it seemed like finishing this castle on the Rogue River and escaping the realm of never-ending toil was mere fantasy on our part. Recent developments kept the plot moving along. Wooden floors were finished to a reddish sheen. Sinks, appliances and light fixtures popped up around the house. Custom-built pine bookcases and window seats grew out of the floors. Bits of trim flew onto the walls. If the final details don't materialize by today, though, the penalty is approximately 1 percentage point of interest added to our mortgage rates. Given that kind of suspense, I could hardly sleep all week. Ever the calm and steady force, Will foreshadowed a happy ending. Indeed, Will has been the hero of this piece, as well as fill-in director and all-around gopher. This weighty responsibility has kept him working long hours and, at times, living on slim rations since June. He's installed cabinets, speaker wire and a built-in vacuum system; spent days cleaning up after the crew and nurtured enough creativity for a few custom touches, like transforming a salvaged beam into a rustic mantle. But Will also can play the villain. In his latest nefarious act, he decreed that we pack up and vacate our rental home while simultaneously trying to finish the new house. A prisoner of his own grand ambitions, Will was confined to the castle's dungeon for four days last week. His sentence: laying about 1,000 square feet of tile. That left Will's not-so-trusty sidekick me to wander the wilds of the valley's home improvement and construction supply stores. My quest: to eventually free him. To do this, I had to crack a cryptic code. It's no small task, I learned, to conjure the correct combination of towel bars and toilet paper holders for four bathrooms. This slight sidekick also called on reserves of superhuman strength to heft heavy boxes of closet organizers into a waiting steed. But then I landed in the dungeon, too, forced to handle flesh-eating grout until the clock struck midnight. Our bodies bruised and battered, we devised an anticlimactic escape, knowing we'd surely return for more punishment. But the carpet fairies arrived overnight, leaving a mercifully soft surface for our weary knees. Water flowed from the faucets as if by magic. Light filled nearly every room, illuminating our final steps. Still, an aura of uncertainty menaced the land. Will these intrepid heros reach the end of their epic journey? Their fate rests in the hands of county inspectors and mortgage brokers. See next week's At Home page for the saga's exciting conclusion. When she escapes to the office for a well-earned breather, reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] . The project so far Reporter Sarah Lemon and her husband are more than 11 months into a custom home-building project. Here's how the project progressed over the past week: Finished laying tile. Finished wood floor. Finished installing plumbing and light fixtures. Installed carpet. Installed kitchen appliances. Installed stair and balcony railings. Installed bookcases and window seats. Hooked up septic system. Continued painting baseboard, trim and exterior. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers Southern Oregon Loans California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy Advertisement s Advertisement