This was the good news...

A big 'thank you' to Thomas at Reeves HVAC. He's the technician who figures the combustible air requirements for the gas appliances. I explained to him our concerns about the doors to the laundry closet being in the entry way, and not wanting them to be full of grills or louvers. He came out this morning to look at the space, called the tankless water heater manufacturer (Rheem), and hurray! we get to put a hole in the ceiling of the closet! Turns out the w.h. DOES pull air from outside via the double-walled venting, so we only have to pull air for the dryer. That means a 7"x14" hole up high, and a 2" gap under the doors. That almost eases the pain of the $985 cost of the venting. The other good thing is now we think the inspectors will be very distracted by this issue, and not pay much attention to the rest of the house.

Rob is painting today. He's going to finish each room at a time. The trim is done in the spare room and the boy's room, so they will get painted, and be finished! We'll move the misc stuff in there, and then he'll move through the rest of the house this weekend. Then he finishes off installing the plumbing fixtures (I better buy some toilets), runs a water line from the street to the house, and then we will be ready for final inspection. We fully expect to have to fix or change something to pass, but that's okay.

Frank wants to grade our yard, so we will generously let him play with his tractor, disc-er, and smoothers in our dirt. Get some gravel delivered for the driveway, build a goat shed, and hopefully be able to have a summer garden.