Monday, January 26, 2009

Ok here are some more pictures-- I have been receiving requests of our progress-- I do not know if you can tell, but we HAVE been working- We put down the underlay for the roof, it is not as easy as it looks (if it looks easy). Actually the we consisted of Keith all the time and Brian with about 3/4 of it and then Keith had to settle for me for the last 1/4. We started laying it on a Saturday afternoon, and did the front porch. Sunday we were going to start the main roof, which has a bit more pitch.

I was some what nervous about this part. The angle is such that you have to lean all the time, more than it looks you would. My knees have become most uncooperative since my being sick, don't know why, or what, just know they REALLY hurt. The right one hurts to straighten and the left to bend. So sitting in a crouched position unrolling a huge roll of paper on a 12:5 pitch roof in the wind AND being a clutz makes me nervous. So I prayed for strength and ability all day Sunday before we began the roof. Just as I was climbing the ladder to begin this endeavor Keith's phone rang, it was Brian, my strength and ability calling, to see if we needed any help!!

The guys got all the front pitched roof done and the back porch. Keith and I finished the back pitch in two more afternoons. Keith has lots of holes in his tongue from biting it those two days.

The electric is mostly run, that took many days and wire.

I have 3600 square feet of 800 polishing and then 3600 square feet of 1500 polishing and probably a densifyer or sealer finish to go and the floors are finished. I have run 4 different grinds and will have run 6 rounds of polish- 36,000 feet of grinding polishing. NEVER NEVER again, the floors will be great, but NEVER NEVER again. We will be selling the grinder polisher-- we bought it for 7000$ and a little extra for the last polish pads and densifiyer-- If we sell if for 3000 then we will have 1$ per square foot floors... Anyone buying?
We are pretty sure we have the doors 'done', except for the front door Keith is proposing to build. Some friends just unbroke ground and we purchased some of their doors from them.
God has blessed us with a change in the building weather, our construction people are getting hungry and beginning to come to us for work and are actually coming DOWN and competing with each other on prices.
Steel prices came down this week so our roof cost will too.
What we are fixin to do:
Roof this weekend
Finish polish
Run rest of plumbing (exhaust)
Air ducts for air/heat ( need to have them 'compete' more)
Dry wall and texture
Doors hang
Master bath: toilet, sinks(have)build tile shower, bath(have)
Texture paint Master bed

The cabinets have been purchased!! They should be ready at end of February-- Again a God send. The cabinet maker, the timing, the cost, all perfect. After we had figured we could not afford anything but prefab and wondered if that would be worth it.. Here is this, they will be knotty alder, exactly what we want!!

Our hope is to be to a point of moving in it by April-- basically kitchen and master finished and the rest to be finished within a few weeks and $$ of that.

I gotta go and grind-- more soon--


Monday, January 5, 2009

STILL building a house


Okay my house is not finished. I was most sure that 6 months would be plenty of time to build a house.  Or at least be MUCH further along than we are. We really have been 'doin sumthin' the whole time. But obviously NOT ENOUGH.
We (Keith and some of his guys from work) started the electric this last weekend.  That to did not complete in one day-- It should in another.  
We did find that there are a bit more 'little things' the framers did askew.  So we are contemplating NOT using them for the dry wall work-- IF we do, I will be more aggressive and bossy(bitchy) with them while they are here.  The little things may be the norm, a few inches off here or there, a wall/door misplaced, (they fixed it,but it messed up a bit of my concrete floor, so I will have to become creative with the holes) A couple of walls were not anchored to the cement wall, which would really be an issue if they fell down.  Little things.... One of the little things was on the raising of the trusses, they (after much instruction of NOT to) put one too close to the gable, leaving us short one on one end.  They had to build another for that end. The end that got too many we had a room designed in the attic that might one day open into the living as a loft-- an after thought, but the truss guy designed it so we could do this.  The moving of the truss though made it so it would be impossible to open this loft to the living without much redesign.  So brain storm of Meg Ash and I was to put the opening to the room on the outside of the house, with stairs going up to it from the outside-- Like Doc's office on Gunsmoke.  -- It will be Keith's poker room and or 'doghouse'.  I keep trying to convince him to put a toilet and sink up there also, but so far he thinks the work will be more than the convenience

The porches look great.  
The roof metal guy is coming tomorrow to give us some estimates and measure
The jury is still out on the loan.
We brought the second set of doors home with us after Christmas (Keith went and picked them up in Houston)
We bought the master bath.
We have only had two really big arguments since last posting.. pretty good for the circumstances-- one of them being KEITH.  

It has been a few days-- So much to do this time of year!  Our Christmas was a completely new experience for us! A multitude of 1st.
1st Christmas to not have to put up a Christmas tree: One would not fit in our lovely abode. We thought of Christmas lights, but thoughts of Randy Quaid's character in National Lampoons Christmas danced through my head.  
1st Christmas in many many years to not spend it in Midland in my home.  We have hosted Christmas for YEARS. Without a house it was impossible. 
1st Christmas to spend in San Antonio.
1st Christmas no stockings were hung
1st Christmas to have 4 grandchildren-WOW. What joy!!
1st Christmas to have Christmas begin on the 23 and go through the 25-- Two Christmas celebrations with the two families.
1st Christmas to not have a house
1st Christmas none of my children are 'living' in my home.

1st Christmas to not have parents. This was sobering.  Last Christmas was the first without Dad alive, we had eased into his not being with us the year before, with him not being able to come to the house, and us visiting him at the nursing home.  Last year doing for Mom and making sure she was taken care of for Christmas seemed help with the missing of Dad. 
For the past few years I had been the 'Santa' for all of the gifts Mom and Dad had given to others, even the gifts they gave each other.  Mom would call often with the question of if I had taken care of so and so and what they were giving to whom, wondering if there should be more etc. She would have me pick out my own, insist to see it, since she knew I would sometimes NOT do this, it seemed self indulgent to me. This year of course none 'from' Mom and Dad. I missed it, even if it was really 'from' me. 
Mom had tried to 'back out' of last Christmas, which we spent at Brian and Ashtons for the main meal and present opening.  I was insistent and did not let her give in to her maladies of the day, and I am so very thankful! Had that been the case I would not have the last picture of her with me.  As small item, but with so very much meaning for me.
This bit of sadness did not 'ruin' my Christmas! Actually just the opposite, it made everything so much more precious. The time to share with the boys and their families, the grandkids, even the candlelight service, that Dad enjoyed so much in the past, was so very special.  I have my memories of Christmas past, with my parents, my family as a child. I can remember the love and the joy we shared.  I treasure that. 
This year as I watched my own grown children with their families, their children, making traditions, in their own homes, telling their children of Christ's birth, I felt pure joy. Joy of God's plan to save us. Joy that His plan is so constant so precise.
I was born to a young woman with no way to care for me, I was born without parents, with no one who wanted to keep me to love.  God had a plan. A perfect plan for me.  God gave me parents, brothers, a family. God gave me a husband a companion. God gave me children, 3 sons. God gave me daughters when my 2 sons married. God gave me grandchildren. 
The love continues. 
He continues the love.