We were so excited when we went by the house yesterday - the roof is now shingled!

Inside the house are the ceiling and wall boards, waiting to go up.

All of the lower wood is now green - it's been treated for bugs.

The air conditioner is all hooked up and ready to go.

The archways are in, too.

I guess the plumbing is done - all of the tubs and showers are full of water.

Archway in our bedroom

Steps, also treated

More work on the house!!!

Wires, wires everywhere!!!
The kids loved the insulation around all of the wiring - called it marshmallows

Looking thrilled, as usual

Isn't this stuff weird looking???

Mom and Dad's tub with plumbing

The boys found a tortoise hole in the backyard, along with footprints

Jonathan's windows

Our back porch light hook-up

Our main electrical wires

Our bathroom, wired, and plumbing started

Our bathroom - ventilation fan and light hook-up

Jonathan in his room

Some kind of ventilation pipe?? It goes from the laundry area, through Alexander's closet, and up and out the roof.

We had some rain this week, so the back retention area is a bit wet.

Electric, plumbing, and air conditioning

Lots of work going on in our house! Here's our tub and sink, with some of the pipes ready. We now have all but one of our windows.

Our shingles, just waiting to be nailed on. They can't put them on until the roof has been inspected. There are a bunch of roofs like this in the subdivision.
View from the front

Here's our air conditioner, with the blueprints just squished in next to it. Way to take care of them, guys!

Here's mom and dad's bathroom. The shower is ready for the hot and cold water.

They keep all of the pipes together with this purple gunk. It's splashed on the floor, too.

Upstairs, all of the electric wiring is done. Now we can't "walk through the walls" like we have been used to.

Hmmm...was there no paper around? I don't usually use wood to write myself messages.

These are the exhaust pipes, with some sort of insulation around them. It looks very space age to me.

This picture reminds me of a man in a space suit, glued to our roof. Who knew we had so much behind our walls and above our ceilings? Not me.

The boys will have these vents above their doors. I sense a spying opportunity.

The first floor has not yet been wired - the wires are hanging down, waiting to be installed.

Mom and Dad's window

Duct work and plumbing

A few pictures from the work they did today. I'd label them, but I'm not sure what everything is. I'll be back tomorrow to see what else is done. As far as I can tell, the plumber drilled some holes and left small pipes laying around, and the airconditioning guy put in the two units and some of the duct work. I'm always excited when they do something!!!

Star Wars funny

This is great - especially when you grew up with a Star Wars fanatic!

Lots of work was done on the house today. They framed the wall under the stairs.
The plumber was there, too. Here are a few of the pieces. I couldn't tell what other work was done because the air conditioner man was busy upstairs and I didn't want to get in his way.

Here is our downstairs airconditioner.

They also wrapped the house. We'll be going to the website to learn what it is and why they do it. I'm not quite sure.

The roofers were there, too, putting down the tar paper.

Close up of roof

Here's our new electrical box. You may recall a previous picture of one. That one is gone, and this one reappeared, on the OTHER side of the house. I'm sure there's a story behind that...

Side view

Framing finished

Took the boys by the house this weekend. Here's Benjamin in his room.

Standing in the master bed, looking at the loft that has now been fixed.

Jonathan, standing in his closet.

Looking out the back window

Now looking the other way

The electrician has put the master box on the house.

I wondered how they secured the second floor. Now I know - with these hurricane straps, both outside and inside.

They have smoothed out the dirt and taken all of the trash away. Now the roofers, electrician, and airconditioner crew comes in.

Framing of the second floor...with a mistake!!!

Today we stopped by the house and they were at work framing the upstairs. We peeked in, then returned later in the evening to take pictures.
Standing in Alexander's room, looking through his two closets into Jonathan's room (he has two closets, too.)

Uh-oh. This is the broken truss. They know about it and said they're going to replace it. I'll be watching to make sure they do before they put the ceiling in.

Standing in Benjamin's room, looking into his bathroom, then into Jonathan's room

Standing in Benjamin's room, looking toward the loft through his closet. He only has one closet, but it's bigger than the boys' closets.

He's the mistake - this is the loft to the left. It's supposed to be only a half wall. I told the framer, but he wasn't the foreman. I'll stop by again tomorrow to make sure they fix it. One of the things we like about the loft is its openness.

Standing in the loft, looking toward Benjamin's room

Looking out of the loft window

Standing in the master bedroom. Closets to the right, bathroom to the left.

Standing in the master bedroom again, this time looking toward the hallway and loft on the right

Closet under the stairs

Standing on the back porch, looking through a window into the family room/kitchen

Back porch, plus slabs for our two air conditioning units

This pile seems to grow each day!

Funny from Jeff

On Facebook, Jeff posted a link to "35 truisms." They're from lemondrop.com and are completely hilarious. I laughed out loud at #16.

1. There is a great need for sarcasm font.

2. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

3. Bad decisions make good stories.

4. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

5. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

6. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

7. The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

8. A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

9. Was learning cursive really necessary?

10. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

11. Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

12. Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

13. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

14. Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

15. What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

16. While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

17. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

18. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

19. I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

20. Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

21. If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

22. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

23. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

24. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

25. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

26. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

27. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

28. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

29. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

30. Why is a school zone 15 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

31. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

32. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

33. It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

34. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

35. I think that if, years down the road when I'm trying to have a kid, I find out that I'm sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.

Interior pictures

Alexander and I drove by today before grocery shopping to take a look (and a few pictures) inside the house. Here is what we saw:


Going upstairs

The garage

Looking toward the front door. Kitchen island in the foreground, kitchen wall behind it

Mom and Dad's room, plus a bunch of closets

This is the entire upstairs, looking huge without walls! The right two windows are in Alexander's room, and the left two are in Jonathan's.

The ceiling/second floor. I was wondering how they made it strong enough for my kids!

Looking out toward the front of our house, this will be the formal dining/living room.

Bathrooms shower, just waiting installation

Tub

Boy, do they have lots of tools and hardware.

Alexander on the steps

Roof rafters

Close up of the floor/ceiling

Mom and Dad's shower is partially installed

As is their tub.

Standing in their room, looking out toward the garage

Just a sample of the junk lying around

There's the house!

Garage side

More roof work

The framing crew has been very busy. Yesterday they began putting the roof itself on. They cut the boards into squares and hammered them on. It was a very noisy project and I felt sorry for the neighbors, who were awakened by the pounding at 7AM.

They left it like this, with the board waiting to be cut the next day.

They have also started framing the interior walls. Here you can see the wall dividing the kitchen and living room. The beginning of the kitchen island is also there.

This morning Chris and I had to do a 7 mile run, so we went by the house around 8AM. I was by the garage, peeking in, when the crew showed up! I didn't expect them to be working on a Sunday. One of the men was nice enough to take us upstairs - too bad I didn't have the camera with me! There were no interior walls yet, but you could see the hurricane straps on the roof (very important to us, since our last house had them improperly installed). Downstairs has all of the walls and closets framed. They'll be back again tomorrow. I plan on bringing them some watermelon and rice krispie treats. It is, after all, Labor Day, and they might as well have some picnic food if they have to work!

A funny from my friend Susie:

In a recent Harris On-line poll 38,562 men across the U.S. were asked to identify a woman's ultimate fantasy and 87.8% of the respondents said that a woman's ultimate fantasy is to have two men at once. While this has been verified by a recent sociological study, it appears that most men do not realize that, in this fantasy, one man is cooking and the other is cleaning.

wall work today

Today when I went by, they were working inside. They put up the stairs...

and some interior wall frames. The head framer tells me they'll be working Saturday and Monday on the roof. We're going to go over and watch, and maybe even bring them another batch of cookies.

The roof goes up!!!

I rushed home from work today because I thought they w0uld be working on our roof. I was right! We watched for about a half hour and here is what I saw:

And the building continues!!!

Last night, on our way to Publix, Benjamin and I drove by the house. We didn't think they were going to do anything, but to our delight, they had put up a load bearing wall and attached the front porch roof. The roof trusses are sitting in our front yard. They were working on another house today, but I ex pect they will be doing ours tomorrow. Can I take a sick day to watch?? Just kidding. I think.