Playing catch-up with reporting our progress...

As you may remember my block mason was sloppy, lazy and refused to lay to a string... I should have fired the worthless "sumbitch" early on except that the block mason was ME. The result was a bow in the west wall (and to a lesser extent the east wall) that collected water in a blowing downpour which found it's way (like water does) under my top plate and down the inside of my block wall. In an effort to prevent this from happening I went on CraigsList and bought some beautiful (and expensive even at 25% under wholesale) "Nailite" siding to cover the 1 1/2" space between the gable end stick-built-wall and the top of the AAC block wall. Aaron and I finished putting this siding up last Friday and the hope is that this will cover the gap and solve my water problem. Here's a picture of the east end gable with the Nailite siding (the pipe sticking out of the wall is my sewer vent and still needs to have an "L" and a vertical 10' piece added to it to get above the roof line... presently, it STINKS over there when the wind is blowing just right!):I obviously still have to stucco the block and to save money I'm going to do it myself with "surface bonding cement." Here's a shot of my test run of stuccoing on the east front corner... I'll get better as I go:
Here are two pictures of our "almost" completed utility room/1/2 bath... this first picture is looking NE towards the dryer and counter top work area:
This picture is looking NW towards the washing machine (which I call "the magic box" because I don't have a clue how it washes the clothes without an agitator... and when you try to peek in to see what's going on, the thing INSTANTLY stops?):
And one more gratuitous shot of my incredibly beautiful grandson, Ethan:

An early morning look out our bedroom window...

We awoke this morning to find that the mountain had been dusted with snow overnight... here is a look out the bedroom window into our woods (our 3 acres is in the middle of 100+ wooded acres that will likely never be built on):And another picture of Ethan... I love that baby boy (all pictures of Ethan are available for sale in the lobby):

Long time... no see...

Forgive me for being negligent in keeping up with our house building progress. We spent our first night in the house on the 20th of December (2008)... so in effect we have been here for 60 days. As I tell people most of the major stuff is finished but there are literally 1,000s of things left to be done... from window trim to sheet rock finishing to floor stain to stuccoing the outside block, etc., etc. We do love living here though in spite of having to "camp out." Over the next few days I'll begin to update you on some of the things that we have gotten accomplished. The kitchen - with the exception of staining the floor - is pretty much finished. Here are two shots:

And here are a couple of recent pictures of my beautiful grandson Ethan:

If you would like to see the blog I'm doing for Ethan as my legacy to him, check it out here.

Happy Birthday to my grandson, Ethan!

Here's a picture of my beautiful grandson, Ethan Dail (pronounced Dale)... his 1st birthday was December 3rd. Ain't he somethin'!

No hot water yet but the shower's in...

Howell King came this afternoon. Unfortunately the weather was not conducive for working outside so he wasn't able to hook up the tankless hot water heater (it's on the outside of the house behind the tub. He was able to install the shower which we'll obviously need before we can move in. This picture is not exciting but shows the shower installed. Eventually I'll cover the "Home Advantage" waterproof OSB with tile or wood or standing seam roofing?
When Howell comes back Thursday, he'll hook up the water heater if the weather permits and set the kitchen sink. In the meantime I've got to get the sheet rocking finished in the kitchen so we can paint in there before Thursday. It'll be MUCH easier to paint before the cabinets are set. Before Howell arrived this afternoon I spent the day sanding and finishing the sheet rock. I'm almost finished in the utility room and kitchen.

To avoid finishing sheet rock (ugh!) I plumbed today...

It ALL has to be finished eventually but I look for ANY excuse to avoid finishing the sheet rock... it's just SOOOO tedious and I'm NOT good at it. Yesterday I avoided the mud bucket by doing some necessary plumbing and hanging some cabinets in the utility room (wrenching my back in the process). Here is a picture of the plumbing maize behind the bath tub... I hooked up the water to the new tub and redid the toilet supply line (oops, I forgot... I shouldn't have put the valve on before I sheet rock... oh well, it can be cut off and redone later). The shop towels under the connections are to check for leaks/drips in my newly glued joints... there were NO LEAKS!... ooh-rah!:Here's the end result... WATER!... oh, I tested the Jacuzzi and it WORKS... that earns me 50 brownie points with Alexis... you know how women like to soak their tush!?I also hooked up the water line for the kitchen sink (all these pipes will be inside the base cabinets):I should have waited for some help (for my back's sake) but I wanted to surprise Alexis by hanging some cabinets in the utility room (6 wall cabinets and two base cabinets came out of a Vanderbilt Medical Center remodel... I got 'em CHEAP!... less than $200 for all 8 cabinets). These are temporarily hung with just nails. I need to screw them to the wall and remove the 2" X 4." By the end of the week I'll get the white Corian counter top cut for the top surface of the base cabinets... we'll use this area for folding clothes, etc.In the corner to the left of the base cabinets we'll put the "new" CraigsList dryer. We'll put a lint/dryer sheet trash can in the space between them. I also had the BRILLIANT idea of putting a short clothes rod (14") between the wall cabinets on which to hang clothes during ironing or to prevent wrinkles when clothes are first coming out of the dryer.
Howell King, our plumber/electrician extraordinaire, returns this afternoon and we'll work on hooking up the shower hardware, getting the kitchen sink cut in to the counter top and firing off the propane hot water heater. Slowly but surely it's getting done.

Two weeks late with a report...

I apologize for the delay in getting Brigid's Wood information posted... sanding sheet rock is a whole lot like watching paint dry... NOT very exciting and even less photogenic. We have been making progress although our move in date has been changed to just before Christmas (move in = camping out).
I may not have made mention of the garden tub set back but last week we discovered that we had leaks in two of the four Jacuzzi jets. The Jacuzzi repairman said that it would cost about $1,000 to fix the tub (I guess you get what you pay for?... $0.00). The main problem was that even if we didn't use the whirlpool option the tub would still leak during any normal bathtub bath. Bummer! I had to drop back 15 yards and punt... errrr... actually I jumped on CraigsList and found another Jacuzzi-type tub north of Nashville. It was 6' feet long and 42" wide... additionally it had a VERY nice Delta brand facet that would have cost as much as I paid for the tub & facet together. Alexis and I jumped in the truck and went to pick it up (we love going on road trips together). Being from Texas where you can drive all day and never leave the state, Alexis continues to be amazed that we can be in another state within hours (actually 15 minutes if we drive south into Alabama). It was a long trip to Nashville and beyond - especially since Alexis had to teach school the next day - but the tub looks great and is an easier color to decorate around... white. Now we have a white ceiling, a white tub... a white toilet... and a white Corian vanity top.
Getting back to today... Howell King, our illustrious plumber/electrician, came today and we got quite a bit accomplished. We tore out the brown garden tub and hauled it outside (for photographing before being posted "for sale as is" on CraigsList although Alexis may want to keep it for catfish farming... really!). Next, we brought in the "new" tub and got it installed. There were a few problems with the installation but Howell has an incredible "can do" attitude and we (mostly him) were able to "git-er-done." Here's a picture of me in the tub getting ready to nail up the waterproof backer board:Howell also got one of our toilets and the vanity installed in the utility room (the utility room will double as a half bath). Alexis chose "bicycle YELLOW" as the color for the utility room to honor her dear departed Aunt Gladys who LOVED yellow (it's now OFFICIALLY the Aunt Gladys Memorial Utility Room and Half Bath). The picture (below) is not a true representation of just how YELLOW bicycle YELLOW is. Actually, I'm just teasing Alexis because I like bright colors... and bicycle YELLOW is bright and happy. She plans on using a "sun flower theme" with the bicycle YELLOW. Next, we'll put up the six wall cabinets, the two 30" floor cabinets and set the dryer in place (we'll bring the washer when we move... it goes just beyond the vanity in the corner). I also hung the mirror today. Cost: toilet = $0.00 (thanks to Howell)... vanity = $0.00 (CraigsList)... mirror = $12 (CraigsList).Howell said that he'll be back Monday and we'll hook up the shower, finish the kitchen sink and run some wiring for this new Jacuzzi tub. We're getting there... in fact, if it weren't for my SLOW sheet rock finishing, WE'D BE THERE!