The painting continues...

Well, I was wrong about the exterior color. I thought the red was going on the trim, but it is going on the front door. We met the painter today and he said the door would be the very last thing - after the carpet, cabinets, and everything else is inside. That way the door won't get nicked as they bring things in and out.


Oops - once again I forgot to turn the picture. It shows some of our closet doors that were painted today. It's easy to paint when you don't have to worry about the floor!
You can see the insulation at the top of the house - they still need to put something there - not sure what it is called.

Our kitchen cabinets, awaiting installation.

We were disappointed to find out that not only are they doing just plain white, but they are also using flat paint in all the rooms and hallways. It would take about a week for the boys to make it dirty, if that. So we're planning on painting all of the rooms (except bathrooms, which are done in semi-gloss) before we move in. Good thing our closing date is a week before our move-in date! We're in the process of choosing colors right now, playing around on the Sherwin Williams web site. Even though it's a pain, I am excited to have COLOR in the house. I thought we were going to have all white walls, which is not especially appealing. More money, more work, but a better final product!

November 16th is the magic day!

This has been quite a busy week. It started on a high note, when we got word that we will be closing on November 16th - only a month away!! To say we are excited is an understatement. The timing couldn't be better - we have to be out of this apartment on the 24th, which will give us a week leeway. I will be away at a women's retreat from the 13th to the 15th. There won't be much for us to do that weekend, as we are not allowed to do ANYTHING to the house until it is officially ours. Plus, we'll be in by Thanksgiving. Yea!! We've scheduled the movers to get our big furniture on the 23rd, a day I have off from school. The public schools are still in session, but that's even better. We'll be moved in by the time they get off the bus. We plan to spend the week of the 16th painting, installing new appliances and a garage door opener, and putting in solar electricity. So much to do, but all so worth it!
Mom and Dad's room - closets on either side and Benjamin standing in the bathroom.

The interior doors and trim have been installed.
I am amazed at the amount of trash our one house is generating.

We often see our blueprints haphardardly shoved into a corner on laying on the floor. They must not use them too often. Hopefully they've made other "monroe" models before and know what they're doing.
Family room and dinining room, all textured and ready.

The walls and ceilings show their texture, awaiting paint.

Our yard is now graded and awaiting landscaping.

On Wednesday, they put the primer on the exterior of the house.

Awaiting the concrete

They were busy today - when I came by at 2:30, the outside paint was on. Inside, they were working on the interior paint, so I didn't get to go around. I also met the cabinet delivery team. We now have kitchen cabinets sitting in our living/dining room. They're scheduled to be installed on Monday.

The white around the windows, etc. will be a nice shade of red. My mother-in-law asked me if I like the color. Yes! I have to - it's what we chose and what we're stuck with. But, I do like it and I think it's going to look great with the red trim.

Oops - forgot to turn this picture. Oh well - It's our sidewalk. The driveway will be done with pavers.

The walls are done and ready for paint.

We stopped by the house Saturday morning to check out the walls. They have finished all of the seams. This is a closet - you can see the edges aren't finished. It took me awhile, but I finally figured out that is where molding is going to go.

Going up the stairs. It's a good thing the stairs are going to be covered with carpet - they are a royal mess!
Jonathan is standing in the formal living room/dining room.

Here's mom and dad's room. The archway leads to the bathroom.

The hallway upstairs. I feel like I should have brought a broom.

The loft. We're going to put wall-to-wall bookshelves on the left-hand wall.

Whenever Chris and I run together, we always make sure to go by the house. This morning we had a 10-miler to do. At mile 7, we arrived at the house and took a break to look inside. We discovered that they had textured the walls yesterday! Here's a close-up of the texture.
The family room, ready to be painted.

Yet another huge pile of trash. Yuck.

U2 by Benjamin, part 1

U2 360 finally arrived on Friday!!!!!!! And my dad and I were there to see it! Of course, we did have to stand in line for 9 hours, but it was totally worth it.

We arrived at 9:30a.m. (The show started at 7:00p.m.). We got in line and received wristbands. Then we camped out. We just sat and read, ate, and listened to music until 10:30, when security decided to squish us up. That's when it started to get HOT. We kept being bored until a couple of people invited us to play UNO. That lasted us up to 2:00, when we had to bring our stuff back to the cars. At 2:10, security divided us into groups according to our wristband #s. Then, we all had to stand in the sun. At 3:00, we were coralled into a tunnel. We thought this was good until we realized that we were even more cramped, plus, there was no breeze. There we stood 'till 5:00.

To Be Continued

The house continues!

I stopped by yesterday to get some pictures of the completed stucco. I wasn't able to get inside because a crew was working.
They are finishing up the drywall and will probably paint very soon.

I was standing there, taking pictures, when all of a sudden this giant walked out of the garage. I had heard that they wear stilts to work on the ceilings, but I hadn't seen it yet. Sure enough, they were! I wasn't able to get in the house, but that's fine with me if they're working! I'll try again today.

He played six Bach pieces for 60 minutes

Musician playing violin in a Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007.

He played six Bach pieces for about 60 minutes. During that time approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After:

• 3 minutes: A middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
• 4 minutes: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, continued to walk.
• 6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
• 10 minutes: A three year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly, as the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced them to move on.
• 45 minutes: The musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.
• 1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over.. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

This is a real story. The Washington Post, as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities, arranged the entire scenario. Playing incognito, no one knew the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days prior to this, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the tickets averaged $100 per seat.

The questions raised: In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty; do we stop to appreciate it; do we recognize talent in such an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be:If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ....... How many other things are we missing?

Just a reminder..."Stop and smell the Roses" !

Time for Stucco!!

I drove by afterschool today, and there was a crew busy at work putting the stucco on our house. I tried to talk to them, but I don't think any of them spoke English.

After watching for awhile, I figured out the process. First, they put a smooth layer of cement down (look at the bottom of the house). Then they kind of sprinkle some more on top to give it the textured look.

Close up so you can see textured and untextured.

After church, around 6:30, I stopped by again, hoping to get inside the house. To my surprise, they were still hard at work (they still were at 7:30 when Chris drove by.) Now they are almost done.

The machine that mixes it.

There was scaffolding all around the house, which they were taking down at night.
The back is done and the scaffolding has been taken down. They were starting to pick up their mess.

View from the back, looking out to the street. The houses in this subdivision are close together, but we chose this lot because it has this "conservation area" next to it. Once the house is done, they'll put a dirt/mulch trail through it to...

...our back yard. Jonathan had to take a few minutes to run through it before we left.

As we were ready to leave, we met some of the neighborhood kids. They seemed very nice. We found out that there are at least 4 boys around Benjamin and Alexander's age just in the 10 houses around us. Nick took Alexander into the big conservation area and showed him the downed tree.

They didn't see the owl today, but Nick says he has seen it in the forest and in the neighborhood, too.

The view down our street. Our house is on the right, by the port-o-potty.

To add some excitement to our evening, Benjamin tried to jump over the laundry basket and instead fell on it (and my foot) and broke it.

Goodbye allowance for the next few weeks.