Roof! Roof!

To make this story complete, I have to start at the beginning. We have loved the look of this Ivory Home not too far from our house since before we even thought of building our own home. We love the color of stucco, we love the stone work and we love the shingle color. We have driven by this house about 10 times and taken walks by the house to memorize it's features. Well we got to the point where needed to pick out a shingle color for our home and we were trying to match the color to this house we liked. But after going to the Roofers Supply store 2 times, we hadn't come up with the right color. So Ryan decided to talk to the people that live in this house. Of course it happens to be an older gentleman who speaks with an accent and keeps thinking that Ryan wants to buy and Ivory Home and doesn't give us much information. While Ryan is distracting the gentleman, he motions for me to take pictures with my cell phone. So while his back is turned, I'm taking pictures.




Well when we get home the pictures look terrible, so he sends me back to the house with the regular camera and the video camera. So I stake out in front of this house one more time. Of course the people that live there open the garage, so I jump back into my van, drive through the neighborhood until they are gone, and then start taking pictures again. Don't be surprised if these people get a restraining order out against us. But the good news is that we were able to take the pictures to the Roofers Supply store and we have ordered our shingles!!!! The color is Natural Timber. Anyway they were delivered today so they should finish our roof this week. Yeah!!

Flowers

I just have to post these beautiful pictures of my mother's flowers. These are her pride and joy every year and she does such a good job. I would love to take credit and say that I helped plant them but I really didn't. I think I put in 8 plants that's all. Aren't they beautiful!!!

Which Princess Are You?

You Are Belle!

Intelligent and kind. Your beauty goes much further than your apperance. Also, you make judgements of people based on their personality and not their looks. Attaining all the knowledge that you can is one of your major goals in life, but you are also a person who can make things happen.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I thought this survey was kind of fun. Belle has always been my favorite anyway.

Roughing It

Here are some pictures of the rough Heating and Air Conditioning ducts and rough plumbing fixtures.

Putting our Ducts in a Row

Well I apologize that it has been so long since I have blogged. My camera broke before we moved over to my parents house and I have been using theirs. But they went down to Arizona for over a week and took the camera with them. So I have been cameraless.

Well we have had some progress on the house. The roofers put on the tar paper that helps weather proof the house. And just in time since we had a lot of rain the week that they did it.

Our Heating and Air conditioning people have started to run their ducts. We have been a little frustrated with them since they have had staffing issues and haven't been able to move on our project as fast as we would have liked, but they are doing a good job when they show up.

Our friend that is doing the plumbing and electrical has been working like mad to install all the piping. It looks like he has re-decorated our house in red and blue (hot and cold). It has been exciting to see how much work goes in behind the walls, that you never see.

The only thing dampening the excitement is that we received a lien letter from the concrete company that poured our footings and foundation. Well what happened is that we paid the construction company (Wolverine Construction) for doing the demolition work and the footings and foundation but they did not pay the supplier concrete company for the concrete. Come to find out Wolverine Construction has filed for bankruptcy. Luckily they have changed the laws recently and if you fall under certain rules you can have the lien removed. One of those requirements is to have a signed contract which we have. We cannot begin to tell my friend Deveri how much we appreciate the information that she passed onto us before we started this project. We fill very blessed that we followed her advice and will hopefully have this lien stuff behind us soon. We have our attorney notified if we need him, but we are hoping to have this sorted out without too much help. I know we could never come up with another $10,000 to pay off the concrete company when we had already paid for it.

Does Anybody Know Spanish??

We had our walkout steps and porch poured (concrete) and let me tell you I thought I was going to scream!!! They set up the molds for the steps going from the basement to the backyard. And I hope you can visualize this, but they had the steps ending about 6 inches higher than the concrete that we already have in the backyard as a basketball court. So after you climb up the stairs you would have to take a step down instead of it being level, or have a really steep slope. So of course, I told them that I don't want that, and I wanted it to be almost level. Well since the only Spanish that I know I learned on "Dora The Explorer," and the people working knew very limited English we had a REALLY difficult time working out what I wanted changed. But I thought it was better to get the molds changed before they started pouring the concrete than after. So after talking really loudly (because that always helps) and using hand gestures (not the bad ones) we finally got the molds where I wanted them and they poured the concrete. They actually did a good job and I am pleased with them, but if you ever decide to do some major work on your house, make sure your Spanish is better than you learn on Dora the Explorer!!!

When It Rains, It Pours

At the end of last week things seemed to settle down for us - at least building wise. The framers took a few days off to rest, and so did I. But Wednesday this week it was full speed ahead. We had the window installers, the framers, the plumber, the HVAC guys, and the bathtubs installers all there at the same time. CRAZY!! I think I have a few extra gray hairs. We had our exterior doors delivered yesterday and found out that they had sent the wrong ones. So today I have spent my morning trying to get the right ones here. Then we found out that the framers had framed the front door area too big and the foundation people had poured the concrete area for the walkout door too small. AHHHHH!!! But I think we have it all worked out.

This week with the rain and snow it has been a real mess in the house. The roof leaks and the water runs from floor to floor until it reaches the basement. Mix the rain with mud from outside and sawdust from inside and it makes it really yucky!! But with warmer weather on the way we are hopeful to have it cleaned up.