What's that smell?

It's paint - big buckets of tan paint. Here's the commercial spray-paint unit, sucking paint from a bucket in the garage:

I stuck my head in the back door and snapped the following picture, I think those are tiny paint droplets in the air. It's definitely not snow:

They covered up the kitchen cabinets, that's good.

We could only stand about 5 minutes of admiring the paint tonight - PEW!!

Locked out!

We went over tonight to check progress, and all the doors were locked! Our builder had told us that they would begin locking the doors at some point - I guess that day was today. Not to worry, we took some pix on Saturday. Here is the re-work on the stairs.

And here are our shoe shelves in the closet:

Sometimes we're frustrated with the lack of progress, but at least our house is progressing - some days faster than others. Every time we go over there, we pass by this half-built loft project that must have run out of money some time ago. Look at the Tyvek wrap (that white stuff), all chewed up and falling off. See that little red mark, down in the lower left corner? Let's zoom in.

Why, it's a little burro! He pretty well sums up the status of this project, doesn't he?

Cool ride of the week.16

More classic hot rods this week, featuring flames. Here's a nice orange number with a flaming eagle. What's the advantage of taking off the door handles? I've never understood that. It's not like he's going to race this car & needs to cut the wind resistance.

How about this smokin' land yacht? That's a nice paint job.

Re-supplied with rocks

Today they delivered more stone so they can finish the patio in the back. They need to empty that dumpster again, too.

The trim carpenters were back at work today, here is the shelf in the laundry room for detergent & stuff. This is a windowless room, and we could barely see the shelf in the dark, but the flash on the camera lit it right up.

Here is the beginning of the do-over on the stairs - they removed those spindles so they can get at the stair treads. So the staircase looks kind of funky again.

This will be the shoe area of the master closet, we'll have nice angled shelves so we can see everything.

Sure Happy It's Thursday.

Wasted a trip

We must have jinxed ourselves on Monday, saying we could hardly keep up with the progress. Now they have given us two days to catch up and take it all in - because nothing has happened! Well, they did take down most of the scaffolding the brick masons used. Here's a clear shot of the front. The trim guys put most of the closet shelves in on Monday, forgot to show that.
And here are the cabinets in the master bath. The tall one on the left has little glass doors for displaying pretty stuff. You don't want to put your deodorant and toothpaste in there.

Stovie Wonder, or the CPA in the cupboard

The trim carpenters are installing our cabinets now. Here I am, where the oven will be:
Here are the rest of the kitchen cabinets:

Below is the butler's pantry in the dining room.

They did the stair railings on Saturday, but our builder told us today that they'll have to do that over. They didn't pay attention to the plans, and thought our staircase would be carpeted. Nope! We will have wooden treads, so they're supposed to install those first, and then the rails. OOPS. Do over! Lucky for us, this is a fixed price contract.

They have also installed all the doors. These french doors lead into the study.

It took so long to get started a few months ago, and now we can hardly keep up with the daily progress.

Cool ride of the week.15

Happy Father's Day to all the dads who follow the blog. We miss our dads. Here's a nice ride that any dad would like to own - then or now. The guy driving it is probably a dad, too.

Trim work begins

Yesterday, the texture was sprayed all over the drywall. Then, the carpenters brought in the lumber for trim work - door frames, window sills, all that. They have already hung several doors. Here are the spindles that will be on the stairs:

They removed the temporary railings, so the "bridge" was open and unprotected last night. We couldn't resist taking this picture - and yes, it freaked me out a little to be that close to the edge:

Here's hubby at the top of the stairs:

This picture is taken from the family room, looking toward the front of the house. Part of the attraction of the floor plan we chose is the open design.

I went over this morning to rip out more ivy. The bricklayers were finishing up the back of the house, and the trim carpenters were busy inside.

If you moved the dumpster, the Texas Outhouse, etc.

If you moved all that stuff, it would look like a really nice house, wouldn't it? We think so. They're finished with brick on the front, and you can see the scaffolds in place to work on the east side tomorrow.

They installed the garage door today, too. Even without an electric opener, it works nice & easy. We are so jazzed to finally have a two car garage - ahhhhh.

Drywall mud and brick

This week, they have been taping the drywall, and filling in with that mud they use. We went over on Monday, and there were some spots where the mud was really thick, and then it was cracking. It's hard to get a good picture, white on white, but here's an example:

Well, not to worry, that's part of the process. Now, it has been smoothed out and the cracks are gone. Moving on, below is the west side of the house, all the brick is done there:

Now they're working on the front, it looks nice:

This angle iron was delivered by Mortar Man a few weeks ago, not sure what its purpose is. We'll find out.

The builder told hubby today that our garage door will be installed this week, then they'll put the texture on the walls, then start the trim work. Door jambs, crown moulding, all that stuff.

Brick pix

The brick masons were at the house on Saturday, but we think they were just setting up for their work today. They put up these scaffolds and loaded piles of brick on two levels. This photo was taken from the bathroom window:

More stacks - we're betting there was a guy on the scaffold, catching. Another guy on the ground - throwing.

Here is the back wall where the master bedroom is, looks like it's about done.

And here is today's progress on that side wall - the lower level of scaffolding has been cleared of brick - moving up tomorrow.

Cool ride of the week.14

Our library of cool rides is stacked with pictures right now, so this week, we're featuring two Cool Rides. First, we have this nice white Mercury with ghost flames. How about those push-button suicide doors? The car is so big, it barely fits in the frame.

Here's another hot rod with flames, I don't know what make the car is. Brother B? We'll get back to you on that.

Drywall, day 2

Drywall started yesterday, and might be finished by the time we write this post. Those guys don't mess around - we walked in the house tonight, and everything was nearly done. Here's the family room with the super high ceiling:

This is the view as you walk in the front door. Those metal railings on the staircase are temporary:

Here's the kitchen:

Hubby in the Grownups' Retreat upstairs- so big (the room, not him)!

And now, presenting, your blogmistress in the big master closet - how many shoes can I fit in there? (right now, the answer is two...they're on my feet)

Drywall begins

The walls were insulated in a matter of hours last Friday. Stone work continued outside, but the drywall just sat in piles, waiting to be installed. Another inspection had to be done on the insulation stage. On one hand, we want everything to be right, but on the other, nothing happens in the meantime. We went over after dinner tonight, and the workers are installing drywall - yeah! Here's the little closet under the staircase, I guess that was for practice:

This is the Grownups' Retreat, there's a guy on stilts installing drywall.

Here is another upstairs bedroom. They run the drywall lengthwise, we haven't seen that before. As long as it's smooth and flat, we don't care.

Here's another friendly drywall installer. I told him he would be on our blog, I can tell he was super-excited about that.

Stone work on entry

Last Friday, the stone masons began trimming the entry and front of the house with stone. Brother Bill tells me they can only do a few feet per day so that the lower courses don't sag under the weight of the top layers. Makes sense. So this pic was taken on Saturday:

It's painstaking work, they chip away at each stone until it fits correctly. Here are some of the pieces they broke off:

We took this picture yesterday (Sunday) with no one blocking the view:

Today, they nearly finished the entry. We had some rain today (needed it!), so they may not have been able to work all day.

We saw some rocks piled up by the back patio, they'll probably start that tomorrow.