The house is coming along. I'm still dubious (as is everyone else) that we will meet our mid-April deadline, when our current house closes. But we have all the new windows in (with all their sashes) and all the new siding is up. 
The plumbing is for the downstairs is roughed in and tested.
Once we get some termite damage to a sill repaired, we can get the floors put back together and readied for tile in the laundry room and master bathroom.
A week ago, we put our current house on the market. We got one person who was desperate to see it that night, so we were disappointed the next morning to hear that it wasn't what they were looking for. We had one showing on Saturday, but never heard anything. Our open house was on Sunday and we returned home afterwards to be greeted at the front gate by our realtor with the news that we not only had an offer, but an offer for more than the asking price. I guess location really is everything. Too bad we are moving to a less desirable one.
Anyway, assuming the appraisal and inspection go well, which we have no reason to believe they won't, we'll be closing in mid-April. Which means we really need to get things moving along at the Big Purple House. Right now there isn't a working bathroom, kitchen or laundry room. In fact, the water is totally shut off over there and the only "plumbing" is the port-a-potty in the front yard.
However, great strides have been made in that department in the last two days. I believe that by the end of today, the plumbing for most, if not all, of the downstairs will be roughed in. If we can get our concrete guys in to cover things back up and get the sub-floor down next week, perhaps we could be ready for tile very soon.
Naturally, I've been working on something pretty much unimportant. I put in the contract that I wanted to divide plants and take some things with me. So I've been out digging up the flower beds, dividing almost everything. Where I'll put things over at the purple house where there are no flower beds at present, is another question.
As I mentioned below, we had to take down a very large, very rotten tree. It wasn't a particularly nice tree -- just a hackberry, but it was huge. We got the best price on taking it down from a guy known to some as "Crazy Billy."
Crazy Billy might not be what you'd call an educated man and looking at him just might make you think of Deliverance, but he knows trees and he knows how to cut them down safely.
So Crazy Billy and his guys were roping up and cutting the large limbs off the giant hackberry when one of our neighbors to be came running up, demanding they stop immediately and come down. Apparently the neighbor started demanding their license and taking photos of their trucks to document what was going on and when words were exchanged, they went inside and complained to our carpenters about the incident.
Then the neighbors called Justin, saying that it was a "historic" tree and would irreparably change the skyline. They wanted to know who diagnosed that the tree was rotten and noted that "the tree guys didn't seem very educated."
We hate to make enemies with neighbors we haven't even met yet. The other three neighbors we've met have all been extremely nice and neighborly. At least this couple doesn't live right next door. Of course, since they aren't even right next door, one wonders even more at their extreme concern over our tree.
We took pictures of the rot just in case we ever hear any more about it. But I'd rather have angry neighbors than a rotten tree in a yard I hope to let my kids run around.
Things are still moving along at the purple house. Of course, we originally hoped we'd be moving in right about now, but naturally that was over optimistic.
Anyway, here's what's been done to date:
