Sunday, March 28, 2010
Progress - had to do it myself
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Cool ride of the week.3
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Random musings, since there's no progress
good time - patience!
The rodeo has come & gone in Houston, three solid weeks of barbeque, animals, concerts, and deep fried anything you want (I had fried green tomatoes & fried cheesecake, both highly recommended).
After my last volunteer shift, I took a spin on Le Grande Wheel, which is said to be the largest portable ferris wheel in the country. It's a whopper. See how it dwarfs the Astrodome.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Nothing new!
Beautiful, dry weather day - and nothing happened on the jobsite. Bummer. Hope everyone had a nice weekend.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Cool ride of the week.2
Friday, March 19, 2010
Our pad is ready
Checked on the lot today during lunch, it looks like the pad is all ready (no basements in Houston, folks). The front sidewalk has been torn out, along with the rest of the driveway. Only the oak tree and that blasted groundcover that hubby hates remain.
Tree guy has strung yellow caution tape around it so the workers don't drive all over the tree roots. 
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
If you're lucky enough to be Irish . . .
You're lucky enough! St. Patrick's Day
-
drove over at lunch time to see what's going on. The dirt mover is pushing "new" dirt around where the house will be. When I pull up, the guy comes over, holding some crusty old horse shoes. No kidding - they were dug up when the tree guys were doing their work. How lucky is that? Brought them home in the back of the Smart - we'll find a place for them in the new house. Our neighborhood, just 5 miles west of downtown Houston, used to be farmland in the late 1800's. For a short time during WWI, a basic training facility, Camp Logan, was established. Maybe the shoes came from there!
drove over at lunch time to see what's going on. The dirt mover is pushing "new" dirt around where the house will be. When I pull up, the guy comes over, holding some crusty old horse shoes. No kidding - they were dug up when the tree guys were doing their work. How lucky is that? Brought them home in the back of the Smart - we'll find a place for them in the new house. Our neighborhood, just 5 miles west of downtown Houston, used to be farmland in the late 1800's. For a short time during WWI, a basic training facility, Camp Logan, was established. Maybe the shoes came from there!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Cracked the slab & trimmed the tree
After breakfast on Saturday, we went to check progress on the demolitio
n. The foundation has been broken up and is sitting around in sad piles trimmed with twisted rebar. That should be hauled away in the next few days.
Grrr!
Then the tree trimmers arrived. The big water oak in front had a large limb that extended over the roof of the old house. We knew we would need to cut that limb off to make room for the new house, but we didn't want to wreck the look of the tree. This picture, taken near sunset, shows the limb on the left side of the tree. A whole crew showed up and trimmed everything, plus they fed the roots. As they worked, neighbors kept stopping & asking, "are you taking that tree down?"
No way! As we look up & down the street, we think our water oak is the best looking tree. It's just beginning to leaf out and looks very handsome. Here's a photo of it, post-haircut.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Cool ride of the week
Who wants to talk about a patch of dirt with debris on it, day after day? Most of you know that half of this married couple is nuts for cars (Motown girl), so today we introduce a new feature of the blog: Cool ride of the week! Check out this late 50's Ford Fairlane Skyliner. See how my Smart almost fits in its trunk?
If it's a nice day where you are, get out and wash your car!
If it's a nice day where you are, get out and wash your car!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Lots of lot
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Get that debris out of here!
Sorry fans, no pictures today. The demo man removed tons of debris that used to be our house. He also removed the troublesome pecan tree from the back yard. We loved the pecans, but hated the mess, and besides, storms had blown away our pecan crop the past few years. Storms had also blown some large limbs from the pecan tree dangerously close to our roof, so take it away! Demo man said he was going to use it for barbeque. Good for him. See? We're recycling!
For those who have been wondering, we are keeping the magnificent water oak in the front yard.
For those who have been wondering, we are keeping the magnificent water oak in the front yard.
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Demo Man cometh!
March 8th - demolition begins - and ends! Hubby went to the house around 10am, and the backhoe was there. The workers fiddled around a little, then one of them climbed aboard and fired it up. An ominous puff of smoke belched from its stack. Buckle up, buttercup, here we go! The claw came to life and moved into position.

Going. . . .
Going. . .
Gone!
The whole thing took less than 2 hours. Our home for the past 17 years is history! Except for the garage.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Time to get started
We're going to build a new house! First, we had to get a new MORTGAGE loan. Here we are, trying to do our bit to stimulate the American economy, and they rake us over the coals! Two CPAs, stellar credit, no debt - it took 3 months. Finally, after signing a stack of papers 3/4" thick (I measured), we are the proud owners of a home loan. Let the building begin!
But wait, first we have to tear down the existing house, because we're building it
on the lot we already own. We moved to a lovely 3 bedroom apartment nearby. It's nice, but not "home." We jammed all our non-essentials in the 3rd bedroom, check out that pic!
Demolition takes place soon, and we are excited to get started! Follow along with us as we post stories and pictures of "Rose Raising."
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