Okie Dokie

Our trim guy (who is about 18) is hilarious. I am pretty sure that the vast majority of his knowledge of the English language is "okie dokie"- hence the title. But, hey, we're not complaining; he does good work and FAST. He put up base boards, window trim, double crown moulding, and built-ins in six closets in 4 days.

Here is our very own fireplace (in Texas, I know...). It even comes with a remote! One very big TV will go above it. Apparetly we want the neighbors to be able to watch with us.

Here, if you look past the drawers, you can see the window seat that Luis also did within those 4 days. Monte's new favorite spot, no doubt.

And, of course, interior doors. This is the door to enter (or from this angle- depart) the master suite.

A very exciting Sunday afternoon

The plan for Sunday -as always- was work half a day and then go for a boat ride. This particular day did not go quite as planned. We completed our random tasks for the morning, leaving the culvert for last. Not a good idea. Let's just say by the end of the task -from hands on experience- we were quite sure that pouing down rain water would run through the existing culvert, into the new pieces and right out the other side.

Porch

This past weekend we poured a slab on the second floor porch. It really was quite an operation. Having no exterior staircase posed an interesting predicament. The choices were: a. spend $600 on a pump for 2 yards of concrete (I don't think so) b. fill buckets with concrete, take all the buckets -by hand- up the interior staircase, through the living room and out to the porch (really not a good nor appealing idea...those things are heavy) c. design and create some kind of pulley system (Ian mentioned a golf cart in this plan, so needless to say, that was quickly vetoed) or d. fill the buckets with concrete, find a friend with a tractor, fill the bucket of the tractor with the buckets of concrete, raise the bucket of the tractor up to the porch, have 2 or 3 guys up there to pour out the buckets, throw them back down, and repeat...did I mention we calculated it would take about 100 buckets and we only had an hour to do it? Well, we went with d. and it was a riot! I wish we had some pictures of this, but as you can imagine, I was busy.

Here is just one more shot of the Tangerine Dream. We can't wait till the rest of the exterior comes together. That should happen later this week. We'll see.

Drywall

We started drywall last week. This is the kitchen. You can see the front door there toward the left of the picture.

If you were to follow the kitchen wall (the one without windows) you will arrive at the next picture which shows the dining room windows and wall, and the stair case to the third floor.

Here is a quick shot of the master bedroom -complete with double tray ceiling.

That is all for now. We can't show you everything or no one will ever come to visit us!

Insulation

While staying warm was a big problem in Reading, staying cool might be even more of a problem here in Texas...we must insulate well. We put bats in the ceiling and went with blown in insulation in the walls.

Here is a picture of what it looked like inside when they were blowing the insulation in the walls. It is some wild stuff. They blow it in the walls, then shave it down so that it's flush, then vacuum up the excess and re-use it!

The job that NEVER ends...

I realize that the blog has been neglected for a while, but we are going to try to get you all updated for the most part. We did finally finish the elecetrical rough in, but only last night. It seems to be always something...

Here is the breaker box in the garage. This -of course- has all the fun electrical items like welding machines and such...

This box is in the back of the pantry with the REALLY imporant stuff like the washer and dryer, the fridge, all the light fixtures, the AC and most importantly... the

We do have priorities.

Tangerine Dream

The idea came from a house we saw in Coastal Living called the Tangerine Dream. Well, it definitly is Tangerine, there is no mistaking; and there is no missing it. It is a bit shocking at first, but with the roof and the trim, we LOVE it! In order to take in the whole image; in the upper picture where you see the exposed beams, these will be wrapped in Hardi board and painted white. We are still missing a few trim pieces around the doors, the center staircase and the deck railings which will either be white to match the trim or galvenized to match the roof. We will take votes on that. Now imagine blue skies, some nice big green palm trees and -presto- you're in the islands!

This picture makes the house look a bit more yellow that it actually is. The afternoon sun can do that. If you look under the eves you can get a pretty good idea of the true color of the house.

Treasure Hunt

Ian and I think more of you need to get involved in the blog, so we propose a Treasure Hunt (perhaps not searching for eggs this year has gotten the best of us).

None of the colors we have shown here on the blog are the color we chose. So, although we didn't take votes (which was good since we decided not to go with either blue) instead, we are taking guesses.

Your one clue is that we got our idea from the "Homes" section of Coastal Living in one of the past two editions (not counting May, we just got ours, so lets not count that one).

The prize: We'd like to offer up another pain killer at the Soggy Dollar bar, but we'll have to settle for a pain killer on the back porch bar of 211 Oak for now.

Please just click on the comment link to cast your vote!

The Moment of Truth

Today we told the painters what color the house will be. This color that you see here is only the primer. What is funny is that several people came by last night and just LOVED the color. Ha! They are in for a big surpirse!

This morning the painters started to paint the white accents. Come tomorrow you will get a glimpse of the house in true color!

Priorities.

In the heat of Texas, air conditioning is definitely a must. Just ask the Millers who spent a hot day -94 degrees- working on Monday.

It's electric!

This past weekend we ventured into the exciting world of electricity. Luckily we had several knowledgeable -albeit electrical novice- helpers.

If you look closely you can see a small portion of the approximately 5000 ft of Romex that we pulled Friday and Saturday.

To wire the boxes we did have the help of an actual electrician, but scarily he wasn't the one who did the grand majority of the house. He told us it won't burn down, however, there is always the possibility that nothing will turn on at all!

I am not sure how we failed to get picutures of our help this weekend. We were just so busy there weren't any free hands to take photos!

Inside work

Moving to the inside we have completed the plumbing rough in...here are just a few shots of that. The inside is not nearly as fun to watch progress as the outside, but necessary none the less.


Here are just three of the some 65 recessed light cans we installed last weekend in addition to all the outlets, switches, fans, hanging lights and wall lights. This was a really fabulous bonding experience for just the two of us ;-) ...let's just say I am so glad that Mom and Dad Miller along with Haley and Quinn are coming to help us pull the wire this weekend!

Color...

This may look drastic to some of you, but remember, this is an island folks, and darn it...we're going tropical. Sadly, most of the fun wasn't documented seeing as though this front section was blue, then pink, then seafoam green, then lime green, and now lets see...that is Mariner on the left and Celestial on the right. I honestly had professional help with these colors, so don't laugh. I did choose to keep the Pepto Bismol pink (aka Grenadine) on the back however...I don't want to scare the neighbors too much just yet!

Feel free to make comments as needed, but we're not taking votes. The color has been decided...you'll have to wait till next week to see!

Siding is complete!

The Hardi Plank is finally complete. We weren't in a real hurry since we've been dried in now for over a week and can continue work on the inside, but it is nice to be able to update the blog with something that looks different from the outside.

Dry!

We are finally dried in! We have all of the windows and exterior doors in place and the roof is complete! Very exciting!

Murphy's Law #17832

As states this particular law of Murphy's (whoever he is) no house shall be dried in without a little rain.

We actually had to drill holes in the subfloor to get rid of the water. Not good for plywood...

Interior sheathing

Here are a few pictures of the interior all closed off. This is one of the back bedrooms.

This wall is where the ridiculous amount of kitchen cabinents will go...

Here is the south facing wall. That piece in the middle is for our fireplace and above it is a nice huge spot for a TV. Yeah...it probably won't be used to its full capacity until we sell the house to some rich people...

No more creative climbing

At long last, we have stairs! Unfortuately, the ones you see go only from the second floor to the third. We are still working on the ground to second floor stairs...

Stairs to nowhere...anyone who had visited our Reading house should know what we're talking about...we always seem to end up with a house with stairs to nowhere- tell you what, head on up...we'll meet you up there!

Monte, however, has no problem.

Getting down -sadly- is a whole different story...

Sheathing

Here they have started sheathing the house.

Yet more roof shots