a variety of things

have been happening at the house. some more roof is up. on. whatever.


chris finally got to assuage his OCD tendencies and produced this....

which resulted from him doing this...

and this. he has a problem. you should see his shop. there is no farm shop in the near vicinity that can rival the organization that is going on at his. every bolt bin is labelled. with a label maker. which he was excited about buying. a 1/8" bolt better not be in the 1/4" bolt bin, but 25 back issues of truck trader on my sofa table is cool?

it is finally starting to get a little nicer out, and somebody needed to go fishing while on the job. then had to yell at my about how she "didn't catch a single thing. a SINGLE thing!" i said "too bad, you are supposed to be picking up nails anyway."

she fished. i took the 45th picture from "across the pond".

the brick masons are on site. and they have constructed some elaborate walkway around the house. that, or they are making each other walk the plank.

besides their gangplank skills, they do also have some brick skills.


and speaking of weird things at the site. this thing just like showed up out of nowhere. it was constructed by my roofers on a sunday afternoon (that's right, sunday. THEY work on sundays). anyway, chris and i have yet to figure out what it is. my guess was catapult, easel, or some sort of torture device. my bet is on the latter of these 3. this is based on the fact that on sunday one roofer reported to me that the framers "got him" on friday. and that he was going to "get them on monday". i decided it best not to ask any questions about how they "get" each other. and then i saw this thing, and i knew i really didn't want to know any more. coincidentally, it was destroyed on monday afternoon. and on a related note, my other roofer informed me that framers are "the pri maddonnas of the construction world." and wow.

i've heard they existed.

i just have never seen one until now. the elusive job site worker. i showed up at the house at a little after 5. and all these men where there. working. on the roof. i was like "what are y'all doing here?". they said they worked until 5:30 or so everyday. then they promptly threw the framers under the bus, and said they had all left at 4:00. there's no love on the jobsite i tell you. this particular group reminds me of the 7 dwarfs. but theres only 4 of them. so the 4 dwarfs. not so much their size per se, but when you get out there. they all start coming out of the woodwork. just so happy and proud of their work. very nice. and they are talkers. my goodness. i have had some picture requests of them, and this group might be up for it. none as of yet, but they like to smile. so.


so as a consequence of the roofers being there. we have some roof! looks good.

fast eddie got me some wood above the exposed rafters. which i also think is quite delightful. i used to be excited about new shoes. new jeans. now its tongue and groove lumber. where has my life gone?




p.s. roofers and framers are a different sort of people. let me tell you. there is no way i am shimmying up any scaffolding or climbing across any sort of roof. not even on a dog house.

windoooooooows!

most of the windows are in. i say most, because one is "missing" and one is still "on the way" supposedly. we will see.

our bedroom...

looking into the living room/dining room area.

the kitchen (from the dining room)

i use to use this phrase in order to get things i wanted. it went something like this "i want a pizza. make it happen". now you might think that wouldn't work, and honestly the first time i threw it out there i thought the same thing too. but it DID work. i only use it during desperate times. (fyi, the pizza was a desperate time). and i think i'm about to have to pull it out now. i need some windows and doors. make it happen.

bare with me

it snowed! so in an effort to document our lives in the middle of building a house. here's a ton of pics from this weekend.

look alive bo, open your eyes. its snowing! i bought that hat at a convenience store for $4.99 like two weeks ago. good purchase.

i may have mentioned my sweet doggies before. but you haven't seen them. bessie (the basset hound) and smeagle (the ???). have never seen snow before and acted like donkeys on a rope. bucking and carrying on like crazy.
bo sneaks outside at about 9 at night in this get up. i tell her that outfit isn't fit for inside wear with weather like this, much less outside. in fact, its not fit for any time wear. she finally figures it would be best to head on back in.
and comes out in the morning dressed more appropriately.

and proceeds to make a lovely snowwoman.

a few pics of the house covered in snow, from across the pond.
our new driveway...

the soggy mess that is the new yard.

and then the sledding began. now we have no hills here. but i grew up somewhere with hills and slightly more snowfall than we get here. so i have a sled. but no hills turns sledding into something that looks more like a sleigh ride. notice the two clydesdales up there.

this is fun, but its missing something.we need a little bit of a hill at least.

uh oh, now we are really missing something. the boys said it was lots easier without those two hanging on.

lets try once more up the other side.

and greg is done. so that pretty much wrapped the day up.the girls had so much fun in the snow. and this may be the only real snowfall the new house ever sees.

i also worked on some house projects this weekend. some nightstands and a lamp. so i did something constructive.

everything and

the kitchen sink! my mom informed me yesterdays blog was too depressing. i thought i was funny. anywhoooo, so for some better news. i got to see my new kitchen sink. i cannot even tell you how excited i am about it. its my one splurge. and even then i only got it, because i got a great deal on it. don't you go around thinking i paid full price for something.

its by belle foret. and its beautiful.

its gonna be looking like this...

(not sure where i got the pic from. had it foreeeever)and i want that faucet too. now i just have to find a deal on that....

please hope it snows here! the littlest building inspector wants to build a snowman really really bad.

dear reader

i would like to reemphasize what i may have mentioned in an earlier post. building a house is a terrible,terrible idea. its an extreme form of torture, devised by whom i am not sure. but i loathe them. if presented with the opportunity, do not build a new house. ever. in fact, go ahead and see if you can just rent a hotel room to live in. that would be a)easier on upkeep and 2) probably cheaper in the long run. i actually work in an architect's office, so i probably shouldn't be touting living in a hotel room versus in a new home. but hey, we design hotels too. so i'm not too worried about it. plus i tell my coworkers every time they pass by my office door "this was a bad idea. why did you draw those plans for me? there should have been some kind of warning label on them." this results in them avoiding me a lot.

i used to take offense when people would make the offhand comment "oh you must be rich, you are building a house". we would think "um no we aren't". recently i have realized its because you NEED to be rich to build a house, so its natural that people have assumed this. i am no longer mad at the comment. i get where you are coming from now. too bad I'm not coming from a rich place.

be that as it may, the house moves on.

there are stairs. it will be nice to get upstairs now. you know without risking my life on scaffolding. if that is against some building code for me to be doing. will you please come arrest me now? because then i will have free housing. and somebody to cook.

bo says it's silly to have a seat in the shower. i'm sure she's right.
it's totally fine to be excited that your stairs are going to be pink. i dread the day she realizes they won't actually be that color. sorry mr. painter guy. you are going to catch hell.

i think

that during the course of every home building project, there comes a time where that thing will turn on you. like a caged dog. oh one day we are all friends, the next day BAM not anymore. and that day has come. this house is not my friend anymore. i'm scared to go down there. every time i get it under control it will come at you out of the blue with something else. i think it even growled at me the other day. and i know it yelled at me in this boogey man type voice "I NEED 145 WINDOWS EVEN THOUGH YOU ONLY BUDGETED FOR 10". i mean dang.

its gotten so bad, chris said he would just tear the thing down and be done with it.
the littlest building inspector stopped him though, thank goodness. she said he didn't have the proper permits anyhow.

and now there is a porch off of the kitchen.
and a front porch. which both of them seem to be giving a pretty good once over.


is it against child labor laws to make your almost 4 year old pick up a whole empty bread bag full of nails? i think not, if she 1)agrees to it herself and 2) appears to be having a delightful time. i do take offense that there were actually enough nails to fill this bag up and like 5 more at least.

mom and deborah discuss the amount of nails and generally uncleanliness of the area.
so its tanking along i guess.

and in better news. chris is bulloch county's conservationist of the year. he originally tried to turn down the honor, and they said "um that really isn't how it works. you just show up for the banquet". so we did and we accepted it graciously.

bo does not accept it graciously however. and shows her disgust at being left out of the presentation.

we redeem ourselves by letting her hold the sign.

and by letting her finally get on the stage. she is very happy about it, tho she appears not to be.
and i wear my corsage for about the 1oth time lately. its just as fun as the first time.

elvis has left the building.

so i realize this blog is supposed to be more about building a house than anything. but i have sort of turned into my elvis blog also. so bare with me. i mean it sort of relates to my house, right? anyway, the ultimate elvis artist tribute concert was good good times. it is all sanctioned through elvis presley enterprises and the guys really sing, and actually look like elvis. they had good voices and everybody had a good time. lots of ladies were screaming and carrying on. not me of course mind you. i did snap some photographs, which i believe is against the rules. i believe this because a guy told me not to do it anymore. so please please don't report me to graceland. there were different era's of elvis, so that's why there were 4 performers. they were only on stage together at the end. and if you don't like elvis, well i am sorry that you are no fun. (chris thompson).

we were having such a good time, we got our picture taken for the paper. you can check out all the pics at the augusta chronical i'm sure my mom is really proud right now. that's my friend greg. the only person smart enough to go with me.

soooo in a bit of house news. we picked up the tile for the littlest building inspector's bathroom this past weekend. i'm telling you, one piece at a time. some white hexagon tile, with a dark grey grout is what i have in mind....

maybe some interior house shots tomorrow. depending on whats cracking out there today.