16 mile run

Here is the run Chris and I will do next weekend. I'm posting it mostly so we don't forget it!

"Um, we have a problem..."

Those are words you just don't want to hear from your builder. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Barry told us on Tuesday. The electrician was at our house, doing final checks. He went to hook the house up to the street, and discovered that WE DON'T HAVE AN ELECTRICAL HOOK UP!!!! Somehow, FPL skipped our lot a few years ago when they were wiring the subdivision. And it took until now to find this out. A few calls to FPL later, a wired check from Maronda homes, and we think we're on schedule to get the wiring. FPL has to come out and tear up our street. Won't the neighbors love us? Ironically, we will be putting in solar electric panels, but are not allowed to do so until we close on the house. We can't close on the house until we have electric. Ugh.


On a brighter note, our landscaping was put in. We have four trees in the front and some more in the back.
They also put the hurricane shutter bolts on all of the windows. We will get hurricane shuttters with the house. How we'll ever get them up on the second floor, I don't know.

Then we walked around back and realized they had done the porch in a day. The slab was already there.

I like the location of the back door. We should have room for our table, 4 chairs, and lounge chair.

They haven't put the sod in yet, but they probably won't until they get electricity to run the sprinklers! I hope they can keep the trees alive until then.

Closets and bathrooms

Chris and Benjamin went by today to take some measurements and found more work had been done. Here the living room is awaiting carpet. Our stair rail is in. The plans originally called for a half wall, and I'm so glad we upgraded to a railing.

Gotta love those pull-out cabinets!!!

More cabinets!

Master closet now has shelving (minimal, but some shelving.)

Our master sink - a double

Single sink bathroom

Closet in Mom and Dad's bathroom - it has 5 shelves!

Kitchen - appliances will be pulled out and replaced with ones we have chosen from Sears.

Landscaping and Quilt

Many years ago, when I was a full-time mom, I got ambitious and started a scrap quilt. I cut up hundreds of triangles from material remnants and started piecing them together, making about 12 or so squares. Then I had a third child, started working part time, and it stayed under my bed in a box. When we moved to the apartment, I discovered it and handed it off to my mother-in-law, who makes amazing quilts. She quickly took on the project and was cranking out the squares. It's now done and ready for quilting! Incredible, isn't it????
Close up of the squares. Many of the squares on the outside are ones I made. Some of the fabric came from my mom and was used in some of my childhood clothes.

It's really fun to look at and remember the clothing from each fabric.

On another note, I drove by the house today and they were quite busy. There was a cleaning crew working on the windows and another man working on the sprinkler system.

Look carefully to see the tree that will be planted.

I took a quick peek inside and saw that they have begun to lay the floor!

Kitchen/dining room, awaitng completion

Hallway
I also took pictures of the yard so we will know where the pipes are. He said he would be back tomorrow to finish up before they lay the sod.

electricity goes in!!

When we stopped by this afternoon, we were unable to get in the house. I was, however, able to take some pictures outside and through the windows. We now have a back porch light. No back porch yet, but I'm sure that's coming soon.
The two air conditioners are in and hooked up. I could see the control through the window.

As usual, the plans are just strewn around. I took this through the dining room window. They had better do some serious window cleaning before we walk through.

The dishwasher and range hood are installed, as is the faucet. I'm assuming the faucets in the bathroom are in, too. You can even see the water connector for the fridge.

Looking through the front window, you can see our formal dining room light.

The pavers were put in. There's lots of sand on them, which I understand is how they are placed in.

Light next to the garage door.

Look - a doorbell!

Jonathan trying to get in the front door.

Benjamin and the house

We now have our air conditioners!

Tonight we rode our bikes by the house to see what progress was made. As we pulled up, Barry (the sales agent) had just finished showing the model to another family. He informed us that from now on the house will stay locked to prevent theivery. Bummer. So now we will have to time our drive-by's to coincide with the workers. He let us in, and here is a picture of the kitchen cabinets.

Can you tell that the front of our house looks a bit different? No longer can you see the insulation hanging out of the roof. They installed the aluminum things (neither Benjamin nor I can remember what they are called) right below the roof line. Barry says they are breathable and allow the air to flow in and out of the attic, helping with ventilation.

Close up of those things...

Inside, we saw the airconditioner controls. I sent Benjamin running around back to snap a picture of the airconditioners. I wonder which one is the top floor and which one is the bottom.

That's about all we had time for tonight - we had to get back before darkness fell. Dusk is a very unsafe time to be riding our bikes.

The cabinets are in!

Yahoo!!! The kitchen cabinets were put in today, as were the bathroom cabinets. Here is the spot for the fridge.

The island, with Jonathan peeking out of the sink hole.

Mom and Dad's bathroom

Looking at the dining room/kitchen
Our sink

Jonathan and Alexander's sink Jonathan's closets - he's peeking out from inside. Most of the closet doors are installed.

Benjamin's sink

Outside view from the side

The pavers are sitting by the curb, waiting to be made into a driveway.

U2 Part 2 by Benjamin

At 5:30, the security let us onto the field. The stage, AKA "The Claw" was huge and covered half of the stadium floor. They had carpeted the grass with metal so you could walk on it. Dad and I walked as quickly as we could without running, and were able to get a place at the rail on Adam's side. There we met an older man and his daughter, who was crazy about Muse, U2's opening act. We waited until 7:00 until Muse started playing. We really enjoyed their act, but were kind of disappointed that they didn't play Knights of Cydonia, one of our favorite pieces.


After they were finished, we had to wait another half hour for U2 to set up. In that time, the people next to us were given a bass string and the set list for Muse. We also bought frozen lemonade.


Then, finally, U2 started their concert with "Breathe." Everybody screamed as The Edge, Larry, and Adam walked on to the stage. Then, they screamed louder as Bono came on. I was so excited because I looked up and Bono was right there. Also I was able to see my favorite band LIVE after watching all of Dad's music videos. They also played some of my favorite pieces, like Vertigo, Elevation, and City of Blinding Lights. During City of Blinding Lights, one boy my age was taken out of the crowd to walk/run with Bono. I was so jealous. Afterwards, Dad and I were talking, and Dad was like "That could have been you!"


It was a great experience.

This is me, in front of "The Claw." We had awesome "seats."

Bono (lead singer) and Larry (bassist)
Larry during City of Blinding Lights. The screen (top) split apart and descended upon the stage. It was an awesome effect.

During the concert, I was estatic!

The noisy, stuffy hallway where we stood for 2 1/2 hours! If anybody asks me what hell is like, that's it.