Internet shut off- no more pictures for a bit! Sorry!!

Today's Happenings

Spoke to Builder Dad, who was at the house on his lunch break, and he said that the place was bumpin' today. Lots of people out there--- driveway forms going up, city inspector to be out today to do a final inspection (Builder says he's 20% sure it won't pass, but there's always a chance and we'll figure out what we might be missing at least).

Our current house is a mess of boxes! Lots of Craigslist ads went up yesterday and have already come down!! You have got to love the frugal Austinites!!

Dry wall and patching

The drywall guy was out patching the front door and various other things. Other than that, the driveway guy was out to try to figure out what our physical address is so he can send his workers out (hopefully by tomorrow!!!).

Looks like we'll be camping in with our sister next week!!

Big door, skinny windows, dead bolt

The large front door has been installed as well as the side tempered windows at the front door. The back door windows still have not come in so they may hold us up on final inspection, but we shall see. The dead bolt and front door handle have been added by Builder Dad. The electricians put light fixtures outside by each door (to pass inspection).

Almost done!! Go Obama!!

Another new toilet, shower trim, the sidewalk chopped up, kitchen garbage disposal, and the EAST AUSTIN OBAMA HEADQUARTERS IN OUR BACK YARD!!

Saturday Pics of the property line

This picture shows the daycare center's back yard.

The red spray paint in the picture shows our property at the daycare center.


Here is the back of our house.

Here is the south side of our house.

Here is the north side of our house- and we just finished playing duck duck goose and are hiding from dad!!

Outdoor Fans, Toilets, AC

Plumbers move reeeaaallll sssllllooowwww. We have a couple of sinks hooked up and one toilet. The outdoor fans looks FANtastic! The AC is chugging along. Soon my children!! Soon!!

Today's News from Builder

At the EARLIEST, we could get our CO on Tuesday. Plumbers need some things changed or moved around. Garbage disposal won't fit with the deep sink (forget about it!!), the master bath needs to be knocked out a little bit (the tile around the faucet trim) because the valve was installed improperly... may need to get the tiler out again after that. The driveway could be in by Tuesday. Found a water heater that will fit- 40 gallon 18" wide, tall and skinny.

More to come later....

Progress as of 5pm today- the plumber needs help!

I could have taken the faucets out of the boxes and placed them in their correct places. Seems as though that's about all the plumber did today. Builder told him he needs to bring a helper tomorrow. AC is almost done (although needs some changes), we got our big front door, now we need the windows for the front and back.

Progress as of 12pm today

Plumber showed up with lots of parts.. he was a little upset that the sinks don't give him much room to install the faucets... he thinks he will have to unbolt the guest bath sinks to get the faucets in too. We kept telling him, "Just do what you've got to do to get it done!" The AC guys put some more ducting in... still haven't done anything about the utility closet. We may need to go for a tankless water heater (fine with us but Builder seems to think he can find a skinny tank somewhere... we'd rather have the tankless since we supposedly saved money on texturing and such). Here are some pics of today's mess, I mean progress.

The Misadventures of Building

HVAC is too big for our utility closet... must redo closet. Plumbers can't use the phone correctly to call the builder to ask where the key is, so they just leave. So, no plumbing was done today (except for the fact that our builder picked up the toilets and the covers all over town today and brought them to the house). The gas line is apparently under where the driveway is going so the gas company has to come out to move the line before we can put up forms or a driveway.

It's possible I'll be hanging out in Dallas for a week or so after all! I can't imagine we'll be in by our planned Feb. 25th date now (wait, it was a planned Dec. 23rd date, then Feb. 18th, Feb. 25th, now who knows- good thing this year is a leap year).

More photos...

Electricians were out today--- maybe just taking inventory or looking at the inspection, not sure. Driveway bid should be in soon... hopefully very soon. Door and windows at the front should be in by the end of the week (let's hope!!), HVAC was out there today but still have more to finish up. Not sure if the plumber showed today or not.

Here are pics from this AM (some updated ones from our guest bath that we finished up yesterday)

Bathroom Tiles Pics, Kitchen, etc

More Kitchen, Bathroom Tile

When we arrived at the house today at 1pm, the tile was already in the master bathroom, and the tiler was doing the guest bathroom. He was done in no time and will be back tomorrow to finish the grout.

Builder Dad and I installed the counter top in the kitchen, cut a hole in it, and placed the cook top in. We also put a few cabinet shelves in and a couple of doors on. We started on the first bathroom by bolting the three cabinets on the wall. Tomorrow we still need to put the counter top on, drill some more holes in the top, and place the sinks on it. I think we'll need to put some more brackets underneath the sink cabinets (as they are just hung on the wall- they have no feet). We may also have to drill into the sink cabinets some more. For some reason, the Ikea sinks don't fit in them without them being a couple of inches away from the back wall... and they're not... so we'll be using the jig saw some more tomorrow!

Little Builder #1 had 1/2 of a birthday today (with Gramma and Papa) and will have his other 1/2 tomorrow with Tita, Papa, and GG. Maybe we can take him out to pick out a video game since the one we bought him didn't work. What a cruddy birthday party for a 5 year old!! At least he got to go to the mall with his grandparents and see a clown!!

Kitchen getting closer

Here is the work from yesterday. Builder Dad has today to complete a lot of stuff and then get home for my 2pm haircut!! He's still asleep, so I better go wake him!!

More ground leveling

Today's News from Builder

Builder Dad chatted this to me today:

Plumbing is done in guest bath, drywall is patched up all over, trenches are being filled in right now and the trash will be hauled away today. The grade guys will be back in the morning to finish leveling everything and the AC guys will be there tomorrow morning as well.
Driveway/Sidewalk forms go up tomorrow afternoon hopefully or Friday