Today, the painter put two coats of paint on the garage walls and ceiling, and removed the tarps/dropcloths from the floor and doors. The garage looks really good. Garage doors should be installed either tomorrow or Friday.

The drywall finisher is working his tail off. His goal is to be able to spray texture on the ceilings on Saturday morning, so he can be done by mid-week next week. He's doing a great job.

J got a deal on some Trex deck material, from the same company that cut us a pretty sweet deal on the Koma exterior trim. I guess one of the up-sides to building a house in a crappy economy is that the supply houses are looking to offload slow-moving premium materials.

I like the house and the layout more every time I walk through it. There's a lot of natural light that filters in during the day. It's pretty sweet.

The only real hangups with the whole project have been financing-related, and I encountered another one today. I deposited funds into the bank last Thursday morning, and paid the builder on Friday afternoon. The check I wrote to the builder cleared the bank yesterday, and my deposit still isn't cleared. So, for the first time in my life, I've passed a bad check. Nice. I found this out when I checked my e-mail tonight and found a NSF notice from the bank - I promptly called J and apologized profusely. The last thing I need to be doing at this point is pissing off the builder and/or damaging his reputation, since he's both a friend of the family, and is putting a lot of extra effort into a house that's much more modest than those he typically builds.

Oh, well. I'm pretty sure I can get this ironed out with a friendly phone call or two in the morning.

On we go......