Since our contractor had done such a poor job, we had piles of rocks to move and some earthwork to do. My wife is skilled on the tractor, her dad taught her to drive it when she was a kid, so she got to work on trying to finish what the contractor failed to do. He left large rock piles in what we hope one day will be the front yead. We moved several of the larger rocks to the driveway area to create a retaining wall and graded the area we filled that was the old driveway turnaround. This task took hours and hours to complete, and since it was unplanned, it meant we couldn't work on other projects we had planned on focusing on.
Our custom window order came in, and we were disappointed. When we placed the order, we discussed having internal grilles with the salesman, my wife was very specific as to the look she wanted. However, when we were e-mailed the order to sign and pay for, it just had an order code, and we didn't think to ask about the grilles and we obviously didn't know those manufacturer codes. We depended on the salesman to get it right since we had a 20 minute in-person conversation with him and we already took delivery of the exterior doors that matched. This was the last time we would make this mistake. Imagine our disappointment when the windows showed up without any grilles, but the company told us it'd double the cost to get it fixed. That company will forever lose our business and we spread the word on their service. Oh well, lesson learned. We would verify every detail before signing, ordering, or paying for anything again. My brother-in-law helped me install the windows, and while not exactly the look we want, they do look okay.
Lastly, we roughed in a bathroom on the first level. While we don't plan on having plumbing or running water, we knew we'd be installing a composting toilet.
