It certainly can be done...the tile will take the longest, then the hardwoods, carpet takes no time. If your builder gets it all lined up right...ANYTHING can be done. One day, I was at the house and there were about 6 guys doing base and crown, 2 master carpenters doing the fireplace overmantle, panel jambs, wainscoting and all of the built ins in the closet, a guy working on installing the cabinets, and painters working on the exterior! It was crazy, there was a circular saw going in almost every room! BUT...like post above said, it may very well take a little longer. Just mentally prepare yourself. You are so close!! We are about 5 weeks out and while I can't wait to live in our new house...I start hyperventilating thinking about all we have to do between now and then. But it WILL get finished! When the going gets tough...focus on some aspect of your house that your love and think about that. There are things in our layout that would have been nice to change...but it is so much nicer and better suited to our family than our old house! I am focusing on all the positives. Best of luck to you! So exciting!

Kats, that is some real chutzpah. I feel for you. We've been in our home for a little more than a month after a 13-month build (that was only supposed to take 9 months) - the delays were excruciating because they would have been avoidable by someone with even a modicum or organizational ability, which our GC does not have. He's a lovely guy on a personal level but not nearly as good a contractor as he thinks, and we sorely need a break from the unrelenting pressure. He still has not finished one major item - two sets of steel stairs that go from our rear porches to our rear terrace, as well as several small punchlist items. There's always an excuse. He's disorganized, but resents it when we step in to organize, or take any kind of action to impose a deadline - this from a guy who is routinely hours late to scheduled meetings and never met any deadline in the construction process, even ones he imposed himself. Our new theory this week is to give him whatever time he needs (within reason) but to limit his intrusions into our home life to one day a week, arranged in advance, with a "one hour" rule - if he's not here within an hour of when he is supposed to be he has to wait until the next week. Apparently that is being just as "mean" and "difficult" as complaining about unmet deadlines - he thinks we should be there 24/7 for him to do what he wants, or we should just give him a key and trust him, in any event on his schedule. No way - he has needed watching every step of the way. We've done way more than our share of work that he should have done - I feel for you there too. He's been inches away from being fired more than once on this job, and we've talked to a construction lawyer several times about really contentious issues. In the end, even though we have the cash leverage (we still owe him more than our 10% retention, primarily because he's too lazy to do a requisition), it just hasn't been worth it to fire him. Assuming that you don't need clean title for a takeout of your construction loan, it sounds like you have little to worry about. I don't have huge faith in the court system, but even then I find it hard to believe that a judge would buy his argument that his subs are not under his control. Also, if he's not done, how in the world could he be owed a completion bonus? The courts are always a risk, but in this case it seems to me a pretty small one. If you do have to close any new financing that requires title work, you may need to think about it a bit more strategically. Do everything you can to get your loan closed without a lien being recorded. Otherwise, my advice to you is the advice I have a hard time taking myself. It's only as big a deal as you make it. So hire a lawyer and instruct him or her to deal with it in as cost-effective a manner as possible. Then let it go and enjoy your new house.

Thanks again for the positive feedback! DH and I met with the owner of the restoration company yesterday, so I thought I'd post an update. I've definitely learned an important lesson. This is the gist of our meeting. 1. The stain can be removed without damaging the logs. He sampled an area with his alcohol based stripper and it looks great. He applied the stripper with a paint brush and then scrubbed it with a scotch brite pad. The stripper is what furniture re-finishers would use. No water, no sand blasting, no sanding. 2. None of our logs were prepped properly (i.e. not all the gray wood was removed before staining). This is actually evident if you look at the "finished" bear paw log. The bottom of it still has gray staining. They will fix that on the inside and outside. The special brushes they use remove the gray wood without affecting the handpeeled logs (he demonstrated this in an area too- osbourne brushes - it's amazing). 3. The outside of our house did not have enough stain applied. This would have led to problems within 1-2 years. They are going to apply another heavy coat of stain. 4. Minor flaws in the logs from transport were not repaired. They are going to fix this too. Anyway, I think this is another example of the need to hire good, experienced, and well-trained trades. The painter who finished our logs is a good painter, but he has never finished logs before. Our contractor has never built a house like this before, so even he didn't know what kind of skill was needed to finish these logs. Obviously, DH and I didn't know any better, or we would have insisted on this restoration company to begin with. However, thanks to that "mistake", the right guys for the job are here and I'm going to have a beautifully finished house! Pay for good work everyone, it will save you money and hassle in the long run. Luckily, I feel like DH and I are following this advice with all other aspects of our build.

That drywall job is awful, do some people really let stuff like that slide? Many years ago I was with a friend negotiating for a car. She was not an aggressive person, and we both thought she might get steamrolled. But then the salesman made a critical mistake - he said "are you REALLY going to make such a big deal over $120?" My sweet, kind friend remembered what it took for her to earn that $120 (she was a floor nurse) and then had all the backbone she needed. If you feel uncertain about standing up for yourself, stand up for the next customer - you are doing her a favor if you help this guy learn to do things right in the first place.