A Fixture

The house-building went on that winter, but I did not go out often to take photos. It was too cold, and one time the baby and I sat out there for a while, freezing, while a contractor decided not to show up. Eventually I did get out there and what progress had been made!

Plumbers had come to hook the downstairs bathtub drain up.

Wires for ceiling lights! The Electrician made it back out. I need to explain something-- it was extremely difficult to find an electrician with any openings back then (and almost impossible now). Ours was busy, and not always available to schedule nor easy to get a hold of. One evening my husband and sons were driving back from the site, and said "let's just go to the electrician's house and beg him to come." Just as they were turning towards his driveway, the phone rang and it was him! He had finally checked his messages! Or else he recognized headlights? The electrician was nice enough to work patiently with our boys to get the wiring and outlet boxes done. It was COLD out there on site and I'm sure they were working with numb fingers most of the time!

Now for the big news: that winter we passed our Rough Inspections. 

It was rather NOT like I expected. I didn't faint, or cry, or breathe a sigh of relief. The inspector did not pat us on the back and say "You've done a great job!" (I didn't really expect that, I thought it was maybe an in-and-out-routine type inspection), or go around with a checklist full of "yes" marks. Instead, it was lots of questions. "What are you doing here?" "Why is that there?" and when he finally signed off, "Well, I'll sign this as approved but I want to see that you have done XYZ by the drywall inspection." Really it didn't feel approved at all!

  Well, later it sunk in. We had passed a major inspection! The next phase was open to us!

So we went to Lowe's to buy something we could not have before Rough Inspection. We were bubbling with joy and wanted to grin and giggle-- or try not to cry in front of a Lowe's employee. We were going to buy an important fixture. 

As we turned down the aisle we were seeking, lined with white porcelain, under the bright lights, a white-haired employee from the plumbing department was walking toward us. "Can I help you folks?"  He looked like an angel...

Yes, it was our huge leap into the 19th Century (oh, is it the 21st now?). Our house was going to join the rest of Western Civilization and contain indoor plumbing. Well, 2/3 indoor plumbing (there wasn't a sink yet).

 Rather an odd thing to do to mark the celebratory occasion!  But we were so happy to be in the next stage-- now we were on to FINISH plumbing, not rough-in. FINISH electric and FINISH everything! We were FINALLY done with rough ins. I was hopeful that we would be done with the whole house by Spring!