Memorial Day 2010

Thank you - all servicemen and women, current and former. Hug a veteran today.

Cool ride of the week.12

This week's cool ride is courtesy of Beverly & Bill, friends at church. Look at this slammin' Caddy! And those chrome hoops! Seniors like a cool ride, too.

Sign, sign everywhere a sign

That was a song by the Five Man Electrical Band (and what would we do without Google?). We couldn't see any progress today, but an inspector, or the boss, someone has gone through the house and made notes to fix this or that.

Seems to be builders' shorthand.

F/S might mean foam seal, as in, "foam seal the window when it's installed." This one is by the front door, that's where one of our recycled windows from the old house will go.

We're supposed to have the pre-drywall meeting pretty soon, I'm calling the builder tomorrow to see when that will be.

Make ours with medium foam

More brick was delivered today, a lot more brick. You've seen that, why post another picture? Today, they went crazy with the expanding foam that seals all those nooks & crannies. Look at all that glop, it's everywhere.

Here it is around the back door. I'm sure it will be trimmed up tomorrow.

And they have framed up the tub in the master bath. . .

I saw the following sign on my way home from the house the other day. I wonder if the management of CVS knows what geniuses work at the Washington Avenue store?

Cool ride of the week.11

I've always been a sucker for these Jags with the mile-long hood and all that horsepower under it. Here's a nice one:

Even the way the hood opens is cool. . .

Behind the scenes - or walls

Now that the framing is done, sometimes we have to hunt to see what has happened since our previous visit. They have installed the magnetic sensors on all the windows for the security system. We had a break-in a few years ago, so we're glad to have these.

Earlier this week, we told our builder where we wanted all of the cable and phone connections. He painted "TV" or "MM" (for multimedia) on the slab or decking. Now, the cable has been run to all those spots. This is in one of the upstairs bedrooms.This is a little stroke of genius, to us - they have installed small metal plates over the studs where water/sewer pipes are located. I wonder how many people have started a little weekend project, "let's put a new light fixture here!", located the stud in the wall, and proceeded to drill into the water line. Oops! That shouldn't happen here.

In the attic, the tankless water heater has been installed.

Tune in tomorrow for this week's cool ride.

Stuff that happened the past two days

We can't always think of a clever title. The eyebrow windows downstairs have been installed now, and they shingled the entry. And added the decorative louvers. Aren't they festive?

They also put Hardie plank on the ceiling of the patio. That little block at the apex is where the ceiling fan will hang. This is one big patio.

Here is the eyebrow window from inside the living room.

And this is the flat screen niche, check out that awesome orange conduit where we can drop all the power cords. No tangled maze of cables at our Jardin!

Stay tuned to see what happens tomorrow.

She's a brick . . . HOUSE

If you were a teenager in the late 70s, as your humble blogmistress was, you turn up the car radio and belt it out when the Commodores' "Brick house" is on. Right? Of course you do. Today, our bricks were delivered. Are these 11 bundles enough to brick the whole house? No idea.

What else happened today? They have installed the pest control system, these blue and green tubes running through the studs. There will be a port outside the house when it's done, and I guess they'll shoot some Raid or whatever in there.
Cool - we won't have to wait for the pest control service to show up every quarter and spray all over the house (it did work, though - the only roaches we ever saw were good and DEAD).

Here's hubby, enjoying one of the only cigs he'll ever smoke inside the house. Look at his happy face! Short-order home inspector boy.

Primed for inspection

Not much to report today. We had rain last Friday & Saturday. This is the ceiling of the back patio, it has been primed. We walked through the house with our builder today and pointed to where we want our cable and phone outlets. The "eyebrow" front windows were delivered, but haven't been installed yet. I think they were waiting for the City to inspect all the electrical wiring, so no other progress until that happens. Hope it was today!

Cool ride of the week.10

Last weekend we went to the "Aeros & Autos" show at Ellington Field. There were some cool aeros there, but there were hundreds of cool rides. Check out this nice old Packard, maybe from the late 40's. It would look better with white sidewalls and fender skirts, but this one still looks cool. Who needs an SUV if you can pile a family of 8 into a land yacht like this? Enjoy.

Window day

We stopped at the house just before dark tonight - almost all the windows were installed today, as well as the back doors. Here is the master bedroom, they switched that door. . . .

And the side lights by the front door are in. . . .

The window below is one of the upstairs bedrooms. As far as we could tell, there are only 4 windows in the front that haven't been installed. Those are the "eyebrow" windows, curved on the top.

The stained glass windows that we have recycled from the old house won't be installed until later - they don't want to risk breaking them while construction continues.

Like water off a duct's back

The roof has been shingled, that was done on Monday.

Now they're installing the duct work for the HVAC (mostly AC). Look at that maze of ducts.

Here's one in the breakfast room.

And, the fireplace is in! Oh boy! We'll use it on Christmas Day, even if it's 75 degrees that day.

They're also doing all the electrical wiring now, junction boxes everywhere. Luckily, we caught the electricians before they left this evening - they missed one in the pantry.

You want fries with that?

The roof has all the plywood on it now, no more "sunroof."

And they're putting this window tape around the doors and windows, keeps the cool air in and the hot air out.

They have also finished adding all the Hardie plank trim around the soffits.

Our lot has a storm sewer easement along the west side. At the old house, that's where the driveway was. Now, we're going to have a side yard where we used to have a driveway. This picture was taken from the back corner of the lot, looking down toward the street. Kind of looks like a drive-in window, doesn't it?


The problem is, those are bathroom windows. We're not going to be serving any burgers & fries from them. Maybe just a roll of t.p.

Cool ride of the week.9

This late-model Chevy Camaro was at the Mexican seafood restaurant we like. Bro Dave says they are too heavy, but I think this car looks boss.

Take a close look at the hang tag on the rearview mirror. People who are handicapped like a cool ride, too!

Shut the front door!

Look, the entry was re-framed today. Now it looks right. And that lost limb, may it R.I.P, doesn't look quite so naked (that's nekked in TX).

Here is the grownups' retreat again (see yesterday's post). Now the radiant barrier has been added above the ceiling, so it looks like it has a roof. Still a nice view.

The shrimp plant is happily blooming in the front garden, despite complete neglect.

Look at all that stinkin' ivy that still needs to be pulled up. Well, I miss my gardening, and that's about all I have right now. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms who follow the blog!

Jiffy Pop house

If that shiny silver stuff they're putting all over the house were twisted into a swirl, wouldn't it look like a big square version of Jiffy Pop? Ok, I'm dating myself with that reference, who cares! They haven't changed the framing over the front door yet - maybe tomorrow.

Here's the master bedroom, which will have a door leading out to the patio. They installed this door today, but it should be in the kitchen. Switcheroo tomorrow.

This is a big room upstairs which the builder calls the Children's Retreat. We don't have any kids, but this is looking like it will be a nice Grownups Retreat - go up there, read a book, gaze out the window. Yell at the neighbor's idiot dog. Four nice windows that face north. The roof isn't on yet.

A view from the bridge - isn't that a play? This pic looks down from the bridge (open hallway between the two bedrooms on the east side and the other two on the west side) toward the living room and kitchen. That frame on the lower right will become the kitchen island, where hubby will cook fabulous meals.

Which one of these is not like the other?

Is it the sheathing? No. . .

It's the tree limb. :-(

We lost that battle today, hard as we had tried to save it. It was about 2 inches from the roof gable, with no space for plywood, or shingles, or gutters. The tree man said it would hit the roof in the wind. ARGGH! Off it went today. The good news is that the ugly, shed-style roof they had framed over the entry (to accommodate the limb) will be changed back to the original, gabled design. We think it will look better.

Rooms with a view

All the rooms have a view, at least until they put on the drywall (that's sheetrock for all the Texans). Here is our nice walk-in pantry:

Hubby, singing in the shower:

There I am in our master bedroom closet:

Here's the living room, one of our stained glass windows will go in that big rectangle:

Look, the tubs are installed in the upstairs bathrooms:

Roofing and windows this week, if the weather holds up. It's getting hot already.