This week we lived with minimal interruptions from subcontractors. That can be good news or bad news depending on what you’re looking for. If you want things to quiet down, then you were great shape this week. If you wanted your house finished, then maybe that wasn’t so great.

We started the week with the solar team arriving bright and early, before the sun came up, and they started pulling a new set of wires because Stowe Electric insisted it be a different way. No one was happy with that decision. After a full morning of work (re-work…) they were ready for testing so we called Stowe Electric and they said they’d get to us when they had a chance. And it wasn’t going to be right away. So the crew had to leave again with solar still not working. Disappointing because it was the last sunny day in the forecast for the foreseeable future.

The interior of the house made incremental steps with us getting boxes from the storage space and hauling them in, unpacking them and putting the cardboard in a huge, ever-growing pile in the garage.

The electrician still stops by here and there to get exterior lights working and running wires for lights that are still on back order.

Outside, we have a mudpit in the north where the patio is due to be poured but we are on the bottom of the concrete company’s list given how small the task is. I just need it done before its too cold to pour concrete because we don’t want a frozen mudpit all winter. The prognosis isn’t good according to our builder. The concrete guys are doing big jobs like floor pours and basement walls before they do a small 8x10 patio for us.

The grass started growing from the last round of landscaping which is a good sign. I am hoping its well-established before the snow falls.

The leaf season has lasted a good long while this year. Trees are definitely starting to lose their leaves this week due to the rain and winds that have arrived but there is still a good amount of color around depending on where you look. As the leaves drop, we get a good idea of the views of the Worchester range to the south and the Pinnacle to the east.

I was dreading the delivery of a sofa this week. The last big delivery we got was a fiasco with the UPS driver insisting he couldn’t make it down our road and I had to bring a car to fetch the giant light from his 25 foot trailer (which is now hanging in our main room).

The dispatcher from the shipping company called on Friday and said that we were ready for delivery and said “We aren’t sure about your road so maybe plan on getting a truck or something in case we can’t make it down there.”

To which I replied, “I already did hire a truck. YOU are the truck I hired.” There was a few seconds of silence and he said “We’ll see you at noon.” I wasn’t happy.

Noon came and went. An hour or two later, the truck appeared and a good-natured Vermonter emerged from the driver’s seat. He said the road wasn’t a problem and he delivered here often. He helped unload the sofa, moved it to the house and carried it to where we could install it easily. All that worry was for nothing. The entire experience could have been worry-free so I’ll try to keep that in mind for the next two sofa deliveries.

Stowe Electric finally did arrive the next day to touch a testing device to the shut-offs and meter. It took 30 seconds and we were ok to start up the solar. A solar installer arrived later in the day to do the commissioning process so we have active solar panels now.

We also got our Certificate of Occupancy from the town of Stowe this week. It may not seem like much but we’re moving towards a “complete” house slowly but surely.