progress.

Thought I'd post a little update on the foster care licensing process. Today was our safety inspection, and we passed. Yay!

It's been a busy couple of weeks with finishing house projects in time for today's appointment.

Finished the tiles! Last Wednesday we grouted and then sealed them this past weekend.

Drained & locked the hot tub last Friday.

Fingerprint clearance cards came on Friday! We were told this is the part that takes the longest, but it came just as the rest came together.

Fixed the areas with flaking paint.

A friend came over on Saturday and helped us wire in six recessed lights. It took all day because getting the wires up the wall & through the ceiling where they needed to be was pretty tricky.  Sunday afternoon, Matt & I were able to get the drywall patch in place above the kitchen sink, install the last recessed light and get the new fixture in place where the ugly old fluorescent fixture used to be.

Some process photos on the light installation:

Matt getting the hole for the first recessed light in place, while our friend Matt checked out the light switch where we were drawing power from for the new lights.

I draped sheets over the open cabinets to keep everything from getting dusty. It worked.

Matt looking into the ceiling to help direct Matt G. with sending the fish tape up.

Matt G. working on getting the fish tape to go into the ceiling.

Wires in place for most of the recessed lights, working on getting the three-way switch installed.

Getting the lights wired in.

First testing of the lights. :)

Monday morning, with all the lights installed.  I love it!

We had a few smoke detectors missing, so I found replacements on Amazon and we wired them in on Sunday night.  So nice to have the right amount in the house now!

The half bath, in process.  The sink isn't fully plumbed in yet.  We have to get another part.  The toilet was a little tricky getting in place.  When we put it back after doing the tile, the tank cracked.  So we bought a replacement tank, only to discover that it, too, was cracked!  We took it back and got the current one, which works great. :)

We had to get all the dangerous things, cleaners, chemicals, etc. in the garage locked up.  So we did some rearranging to move those things into the white cabinet, and Matt put a magnetic lock on it.  About an hour before our inspection was to happen, I was adding a few things in the cabinet and dislodged two of the shelves, making everything fall onto me.  Thankfully, I am okay and only have a rather large bruise on my left forearm.  I was a little afraid when things started coming down on me, so I'm thankful it was just the bruise.

Looking the other way in the garage.

Ah yes, this photo was taken six hours before our inspection was scheduled.  Matt cut about 2/3 of the baseboards Monday evening, but we were getting so tired that we went to bed and I had to cut the rest in the morning.  Wow.  So surreal that this was just this morning!

Sitting down enjoying the peacefulness after all the rushing around and completing of projects that we'd been doing up to that point.  That's the paperwork from the inspection I've got there. :)

Baseboards in the front entry.

The front entry, from the front door.

Living room.

Oh yes, and here's that to-do list.  There are a couple things on there that didn't *have* to be done before the inspection.  Like CPR/First Aid, which will be taken care of by the end of the week.

I've updated my last blog post to show the dates we've completed things in the process of being licensed for foster care.  You can see the updated list here. :)

Funny story... we realized this afternoon that we didn't have enough time to get it all done, so we just pushed the sofas against the wall with the baseboards behind them.  The baseboards aren't nailed in yet, but nobody would know that unless they were looking closely.  The inspector didn't notice, and we didn't point it out. ;)  We also don't have the plumbing completely connected on the half bath sink, but that didn't keep us from passing the inspection, either.

It's so amazing that we got everything together in time.  I was praying that there wouldn't be anything else that we'd need to work on after the inspection before we could pass.  And it appears that God answered my prayers as I'd hoped.  I am glad. :)