Carved in Stone

Well, not carved exactly. More like etched.


And it's not stone either.
















It's concrete.


And we are DONE!!!

I was up at 5:30 a.m., wondering if that sound I was hearing was the pump truck over at the new house. It definitely was. We drove over at 6:02 on the way to bring Steve to work. I wanted to take some pre-dawn photos of the work being started, only to discover my camera battery was dead. Completely dead. So I could only get "finished" pictures.

Hurray and Praise God! I'm SO glad we are done. Although "done" is relative. Because, like all homeowners, the to-do list never ends.

It's a Lake!

No. :::sigh::: It's just my driveway. Or where my driveway is supposed to be, if it EVER stops raining.

Forecast for the next 10 days? Rain, every single stinkin' day. :::sigh:::

Here's Your Sign!

We are not the only house under construction in the neighborhood. There is this house across the street:





Last year for Christmas, the husband had one log left over and wanted to carve it into a bear for his wife as a surprise. She was surprised alright. With a hospital bill after a trip to the emergency room. The chainsaw slipped and almost cut his fingers off. He had quite a number of stitches. He was very fortunate tendon and muscle damage didn't occur.

Since The Accident, the bear has been hidden under a blue tarp. Until recently. I don't know why he was "unveiled," but the blue tarp disappeared a few weeks ago. I think the new neighbor needed it to cover construction materials.


Another neighbor, whom we'll call Jokester, asked Steve about the bear. Steve told Jokester the story and Jokester said, "Oh! The bear needs a sign! I think I'll make one!" Steve chuckled at that and went back to work on our new house.


This morning when I drove over to the house, I saw the bear. And the sign. Can you read it?




It says, "I fought the law saw and the law saw won."




The new neighbor saw it this morning, too. And thinks his coworkers did it. :::giggle::: Now THAT'S funny!

It's Working!

The a/c guys came and it's working! Hurray! Cooler temperatures are on the way!

Steve has also fixed all the electrical glitches, so we also have a fridge!

Oh - and my tub works GREAT! Two days with electricity and two days of a long soak in the whirlpool tub! If anyone wants to find me, I think you'll know where to look.

Look What I Can Do!

I can turn on the lights! And the fan!






I have a clock on my oven!





And I can make tea in the microwave!





"So what?" you say. It's not the "what," it's the "where." And the "where" is my new house! We have electricity! Hurray!!!

We may STILL not have a driveway because of continuing rains, but we do have electricity. Okay, so there are a few bugs. But they'll get worked out. The biggest bug - our a/c isn't working. So the a/c guys come out tomorrow to see if they can fix t he problem.

Some of the other electrical issues stem from the sheetrock hangers covering up boxes that we didn't realize. Thankfully we took pictures before the 'rock went up and Steve has looked them over and found two more that he didn't know about. This puts the count for covered electrical boxes up to 14. He was so mad! But at least that will be a fairly easy fix.

Today's "Most Beautiful Thing"

Today the parish inspector came for our final. He had me worried because he started complaining before he even got up to the house. ("Your building permit card is the wrong color. This is a copy. Where is the original?" That WAS the original. :::sigh:::)


So when he handed me THIS, I almost fell out.

We passed our final inspection with the parish and received our occupancy permit. Whew! I was so relieved, as soon as he left, I just broke down and cried. This has been so incredibly stressful and I'll be glad when we are finished.

Now if the RAIN would stop so we can get our driveway concrete poured.

I Lied

I'm sorry, blog readers. I didn't mean to lie to you when I said this was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen.

I was wrong. I realized that after we failed the sewer inspection because we had a concentric reducer and needed an ecentric one, blah blah blah. So I watched my husband and nephew spend a million hours in the muddy ditch changing out the reducer and working to get the fall of the pipe 1/4" per 4'. I have new respect for ditch diggers and sewer pipe installers.

But Steve finally got it finished and we passed the inspection the second time. So the line is covered and THIS is my new "one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen."

There it is. Dirt. Covering an official sewer line. Which means when my little neighbor comes to visit, she can finally use my potty. She'll be so happy.

Can We Do Something Just Once, Please?

I'm thinking the answer is no.

Today we go from this......

....to this.

The fireplace people came out and put on the fireplace's face plate and doors. Which were scratched. "No problem," Mr. Fireplace Guy says. "They send this little can of handy-dandy spray paint to fix that." So now the face plate looks like it has been spray painted with black glitter paint. Not gonna work. Of course, the replacement one will be out in three weeks.

This is no longer fun. Can anything just be right the FIRST time?

Don't answer that.

99° With a Wind Chill of 105°

This was the forecast I saw on my computer today. Wind chill? 105? Really?

Yes, it truly was 99°. I guess it's better than the other day, when the "wind chill" was 108.

Well, to ward off that wind chill, I had better show a picture of my fireplace with it's new surround.

There. Don't we all feel warmer?

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

My tub has been installed! Hurray!

My little neighbor came over to see the tub, which Steve had filled with water and plugged in to check the jets, and decided it was missing something.....

There! Now it's perfect!

A Beautiful Sight

Today, I show you one of the most beautiful sights I think I may have ever seen.









Are you thinking I've lost my mind? Why would I think a ditch with PVC pipe is a beautiful thing?







Because it means our sewer line is being hooked up, that's why! And now they can do the driveway and we can FINALLY get our last inspection. Hurray!

This is the trench for our buried electrical lines. I'm glad to see them, too! They'll also be underneath the concrete drive.

Steve is oh, so ready for the house to be finished.





Although "finished" is a relative term for a homeowner, don't you agree?

Saturday Happenings

We had an Adventure today! We got to go to the New House and sit on the Porch to watch.....



Daddy on the Roaring Tractor! Mommy said he's smoothing the ground for the driveway. We don't know why they need a driveway. What's wrong with running through the mud?

We think he enjoys playing Tractor Man!

Here's a picture of the backsplash in Mommy's Kitchen. She says the under cabinet lights and the stovetop will be installed tomorrow.

The cabinet maker came and put Mommy's seeded glass in the cabinet doors.

We like seeded glass! It looks like raindrops on the window, which is good for licking! Only these are too high. I don't think Mommy would let us lick these cabinets, though.

We don't know why the bathtub is not here. Cosette looked and looked. We know we've seen it before, but some Person must have moved it. It wasn't us!

Now we're going to let Mommy say something. It's about scrapbooking and we don't know anything about that.

Ginger here. I'm still getting pictures of projects for the Virtual Hostess Club! My gals have had quite a busy week with all the scrappin' and stampin'! I've been so tickled to see all they have done. Here are some projects from Heather.

Just a few more days, so keep up the good work, ladies!

Need a Shower?

We finally have one....

Guest shower

or two.

Steve's shower

And a tub as well! Okay, so there is no tub. They had to take it out to tile the deck. So until this is grouted, the tub is hanging out in the bedroom. Whatever works.




The tile company shorted us the decorative tiles for the girls' tub surround (same tile as in the guest bath) and it will be in next Tuesday, so everything should be finished Wednesday. At least as far as the tile goes.

Lights, Camera, Action!!!

Well, at the very least, lights! Chandelier for the dining room.

Foyer light.

And pendants for the bar!

Floor is Finished!

I have finally sealed ALL of the floor. Getting the appliances out of the middle of the living room helped. :::grin:::

Now we need a fireplace surround and mantle.

The "Chicks" Came to Visit

Today we had some neighbor "chicks" come to visit.


They just popped in, didn't call first. They just walked around checking out progress on the new house.


They liked the new bar in the kitchen.

They were distressed to hear about the little "'naccident" in the ceiling and were glad Steve didn't break his leg.


They'll be glad when the temporary electric pole is converted to underground lines. In their opinion, it makes the yard look tacky.

Their "man" was waiting over the back fence for them, so they decided to cut their visit short and go home. Perhaps they'll come visit again.

Handy Gal for Hire

I have learned quite a few new skills over the course of building this house. In addition to staining and finishing concrete floors and painting, and installing doors, I've learned some other new things in the past two weeks.

I can install doorknobs (and learned to use a drill for the first time - I told Steve I need my own pink screw gun/drill).

I can install lights, ceiling fans, and receptacles. This is easy because I know my colors (white wire to white wire, black to black, copper wire to green screw) and chemistry. :::grin:::

I can install cabinet hardware (this one is a no brainer).

Today I learned to install cable lines. Tomorrow, who knows! I may decide to put in the sewer line myself.

Or maybe not. :::grin:::