Congrats on growing beautiful children! Don't feel guilty about allocating some $$ of the budget to keep your home happy and functioning. When I had my son the Csection went badly and I couldn't function in the yard for almost a year. The only plus side was that house was on a in-town lot and a half with sand-based soil. It wasn't so horrible to get going again as the soil was so loose and the property was small. But, it did break my heart to look out and see weeds, weeds, weeds. When we moved to our current property it was is sorry shape. Nothing had been done with the 2-acre property other than cut the open lawn areas for at least a 4 year period! (When I say "cut the open areas" I mean the cutting a riding mower can do around trees, ditches, etc). The original owner had circled the house with plantings of green hosta, forsythia, and purple iris, with double white peonies alongside the steps. The forsythia had overgrown the windows of the house, the gutter had come off the high end of the house and allowed erosion along the steps (there were no peonies to see at the time...only a waist-deep gully), and knee high grass was present from the landscape timber edger across the 3' "bed" to the house. An orchard of over 20 fruit trees that had not been pruned, maintained (or even mowed) for 4 years. No sidewalks. Just a vast green weed expanse of 2 acres with an orchard of fruit "bushes" inside a meadow and a house with basically no windows as the forsythia covered them. I hired a guy to pull out all of the forsythia, repair the deck, put in a gravel sidewalk, spray-kill the grass in my intended new flower bed, and bring in two tandem truck loads of mulch. I put my efforts into terrace gardening along the steps to get rid of the gully and reclaiming the hostas, irises, and fruit trees. Imagine my surprise when beautiful, fragrant peonies came up in my new terraced rock garden. Apparently peony roots will withstand a lot of abuse as there didn't seem to be anything but brick-solid eroded gully there before! The point of this long story: if its a big project you have to budget between your time, your priorities, and your $$$. We are ALL doing that on a regular basis. Who are we trying to impress??? OURSELVES!!! Feel good at the end of the day! Have time for your babies! Create a beautiful and peaceful haven for your family. Some people can put more of their own time and muscle behind it; others will need to put more of their $$ into a project because its beyond their physical abilities. Its all good if you can enjoy the results at the end of the day...and don't forget to sit down in that nice yard with your loved ones and ENJOY IT (there's where I miss a priority from time to time). A "before" shot, sort of, I had trimmed the forsythia off the windows, put the gutter up, and shoveled the gully wash out dirt off the driveway. An "after" shot:

Wow, it's amazing how fast the threads move these days...my post was already down near the bottom so I rescued it just in time...LOL. THANK YOU for commenting and for your enthusiasm. After lugging an unending chain of garden hoses from garden to garden for 4 1/2 hours to water everything I really appreciate positive feedback! mantis....the last rose pictured (palest pink)is Austin's 'Belle Story'. And yes, that is Rosarium Uetersen in the cat patrol photo. It is immediately recognizable, isn't it? Great color that lights up a garden. Thanks again everyone....and YES, I am exhausted. Celeste

Maybe I'm just sleep-deprived from two young kids, but I haven't laughed that hard in so long. Thanks for posting!

check out your contract as well, because most building agreements have a completion clause or penalties for being late. perhaps this is something that could motivate them to coordinate with you? i don't mean that you should threaten them-- i understand that you don't want to take action against the builder, and that is admirable-- esp because he is ill right now. but it is always important for both sides to have their situation understood. you never know what kind of compromises can be made...even when it seems like everything is a done deal. it sounds like a challenging situation all the way around and you are doing your best to get through it one day at a time. in the end, you will be in your home and all of this will eventually fade...replaced with loving memories you've made in your home. new construction is tough on the psyche without all of the extra stuff you're going through. hang in there! it's almost over.