A tale of a tub (and a driveway)

When we moved in that Friday, the house wasn't completely done. But honestly, whose new house is ever finished when they move in? Here were a few of the "need to be dones": clawfoot tub, shutters, gravel on the driveway, fixing scratches on the hardwood floor, shades for the windows, internet connections.

Here's the story about the clawfoot tub...remember when we bought it? Well the tub sat patiently for the longest time as we decided how we would go about getting it refinished. Finally I convinced Ashley to go with the deal where the man offered to come pick it up, finish it and bring it back to us. But this was right at the beginning of April and we were hitting crunch time. The man picked it up and had it ready to be delivered Friday of move-in; however, the ball bearing on his trailer broke when he reached Columbia, leaving our tub almost stranded downtown. Martin, Ashley's cousin, rescued it and Ashley picked it up from him later. Keep in mind this is a CAST IRON tub. Heavy thing!

That Sunday, Ashley and his dad settle on their method for getting the tub off the truck and into the house, which involved a handtruck, cardboard, carpet, and a lot of manpower. Here they are, coming in the front door.

Through the living room.

Through the bedroom heading into the bathroom. No, I don't have a picture of it in place. Once the tub was put in place, we had to wait on the plumber to attach the pipes and faucet. I'll share a picture once I have real blinds in the bathroom (right now we're using these marvelous temporary paper shades).

Another piece of the house that was needed was a sidewalk. Ashley and his friend Josh finished laying the pavers after we had been here for a week or so. It looks great, even with kids' toys and clothing strewn about.

We also needed a properly surfaced driveway. Ashley's dad assisted us again with this one--two loads of sand and two loads of gravel helped get it started.

As you can imagine, my boys were pretty excited about dump trucks and dirt.

Our favorite piece of heavy equipment has to be the skidsteer (or Bobcat as we usually call it). Here's Ashley working on the grading.

The basically finished product. Ashley's dad is fantastic at creating a smooth surface--we definitely appreciate his handiwork here!

It's hard to see here but we've made a circle driveway--and now we've added a shade playspace to the left.

Who knows what the deal was on the guys who were supposed to come put the shutters up weeks ago. What I do know is they came last Friday at 3:30 p.m. and were done in an hour. Again, you'll have to wait for a later post to see pictures (I haven't taken them yet). Without the shutters, the house looked like a classic farmhouse; with the shutters its Southern-ness shines through.