The beautiful weekend has just flown by and I am exhausted from working on the house. We made some progress and I feel less stressed. Last week I was worrying that we won’t get to finish the house before the little guy sees the light. I was talking to a colleague of mine and she gave me the best advice: “Just work on the part were you can move in and continue later on.” If we don’t have enough time, I can still work on the basement later. Why didn’t I think of that?

Again, my sister-in-law and her husband had given us their unconditional support. We are very fortunate to have them around and we can’t thank them enough. Unlike me, my sister-in-law’s husband is a very skillful handyman. He could do pretty much anything around the house, yet he is so humble about it. My father, too, is very good at fixing around the house and he, too, is worrying about us not getting the house ready before his first grandchild comes out. He offers to help us next weekend since he will be off for President Day. I guess that’s family is for.

This weekend we had an electrician came in to hook up some lights for us. We originally was going to hired a friend of a friend, but he charged three times more than this guy who is recommended to us through our real estate agent. He has done a great job at an economical price. He put up all the lights we requested with minimal cut through dry walls and ceilings.

When he was up in the attic, he discovered lots of flies. Why would an attic have lots of flies? Does anyone know? Obviously it’s not a good thing. Could it be that the roof was left opened? We had the roof patched up but the problem already exist? Please let me know if you know any treatment. When he left the door open, the flies got into the bedrooms and these flies aren’t so active. I could just suck them up with a vacuum tube. Even with the loud noise, they couldn’t fly away.

The roof is fixed and seal. Most of the minor fixes inside the house are done. The major replacement is going to be the heating and cooling system. From several estimates, we will have to drop at least five grants to replace both units inside and outside the house.

We have three levels (including the basement) added up to about 2500 square feet. Sears quoted us a 3-ton Kenmore heat pump and air handler with 14 SEER for $8,446 and a Carrier model with 15 SEER for $9,480. Evercool, a local company, quoted us a 2.5-ton American Standard at 13 SEER for $4,650.

We have one more estimate coming in, but we know that we would want a 3-ton system with either 14 or 15 SEER. Does anyone have some experiences in field? We would love to hear your advices and cautions. If you have any recommendations, please feel free to do so.

Thanks to those who have offered us your suggestions in the previous posts. Your comments helped us tremendously.

Old house comes with tons of work is more like it. Going into a foreclosure we knew that we would need to do some fixings. The problem is I am clueless when it comes to home improvement. My dad and his side of family in Viet Nam are all in the construction business, yet I am the only exception. I have been renting all my life up to this point.

Friday will be the official day that I’ll own a house and will take the advantage of the long week, including Martin Luther King on Monday and Inauguration day on Tuesday, to try to fix the place like reversing the hot-and-cold faucet in master bathroom and change a gasket in the toilet tank to stop the water leaking. That’s right, even when Barack Obama moves into the White House, I’ll be working on my house.

My man HmL will swing by on Saturday to take a look at the landscaping and give us suggestions on how to prevent the soil compaction and erosion around the house. A friend will always drop by to check out the heat pump unit. That thing looks old and quite dusty. The only real concern we have is the roof. Several shingles were damaged from the tree branches and a small leak from inside the attic. The previous owner attached the Satellite Dish on the roof and left the holes open after he removed it. So if you know any roofer who could take on a small repairing in Virginia, please holler at me. We also need an electrician if you know anyone.

Other than that we just need to repaint and move in. I can’t wait.