Moving Right Along

Wow, they put down the bottom plates to lay-out all the rooms.  Seems like it was just yesterday that they were pouring the concrete.  Oh it was!  Monday or Tuesday they will begin the framing.  Jay sent me these two photos. When I looked at them the bedrooms seemed smaller than they looked on the plans.  I immediately called him and when he answered the phone he doesn’t say hello, he says Stanley says NO! and starts laughing.  He knew I would be calling and had told Stanley something to that affect.  I said that I needed a picture with someone in the bedroom so I could visualize how big the room really is.  He say’s “it’s small, I told you it would be”.  I said I just need to know I can get a double bed in there with a nightstand”

 They took the picture and then I felt better. It is little, but it's a guest room.  I want my guests to be comfortable, but not too comfortable..... Remember you are coming to visit me, not camp out in the bedroom! 

 Next time I see it, should look really different.

Lonely Helen and One eyed Fred

Though I am a city girl, I do enjoy that our neighbor has farm animals.  He is a great guy.  He takes care of Hamburger and Helper for us along with his cows plus he has pigs and some chickens.  He has guinea hens, a broody hen and a rooster.  The hen’s name is Lonely Helen and the Rooster’s name is One Eyed Fred.  Who says you can’t have names for your animals…..  Anyway, Lonely Helen wasn’t laying any eggs so Darvin told her, either she starts laying or she’s gonna be the chicken for chicken and dumplings.  A few days later, surprise, there were eggs.  Then a few weeks after that, lonely Helen must not have been so lonely because she laid about 7 fertilized eggs.  I guess One Eyed Fred finally saw Helen with his good eye.  As I understand it the whole mating process takes about 30 seconds, so how excited can you get???   Anyway, back to Helen.  She has been brooding those eggs and won’t let Darvin near her- probably not much nicer to Fred!  We were all excited that we were going to have chicks.  Okay, I like living vicariously through my neighbor, all the fun of farming without really getting dirty.  Thursday night Darvin stopped by the cabin after work to see our progress.  Sitting on the porch we asked about Helen and the soon to be chicks.  It seems a fox got into the hen house and killed Helen and broke open all the eggs.  Poor Helen, we are going to miss her. 

Pouring the Foundation

On Thursday afternoon they began pouring the foundation.  We began the morning waiting for the cement trucks to arrive.  When they hadn't arrived by 1:00, Jay and I took off for Waco to pick out our doors and windows.  As we were headed down the road we saw the first trucks headed towards the property.  They  finally started arriving at 1:30.  We continued on with our mission knowing it would take at least 3 or 4 hours to pour the concrete.  So far picking what we wanted has been the easy part of this process.  We found our windows and the doors that lead to the patio right away.  There was a little discussion about what we wanted for the back door off the mud room, but it was an easy pick too.  Now for the front door.  This had to be the right door and I was worried we weren't going to see eye to eye on this pick.  The sales lady helping us pulled out a catalog of front doors and there it was on the cover.  Both of us at the same time said that's it!  Then there was a short discussion about the hardware.  I said I wanted satin or brushed nickle.  Jay says with a questioning look, "you don't want brass?"  "Hell no", I said.  I have had all the brass I care to ever have.!  He looked a little disappointed but I hate the way it looks once it starts to tarnish.  there's a reason we took it out of all those apartments.

 So now we head back and the place is jumping!  One concrete truck leaving, one ready to come in and two down on the site.  Wow they move fast.  Yes, it is starting to look like a slab for a house.

The concrete guys were busy until after 7:00 that night.  Just before they left we went over to the guys and asked if we could put the date and our initials in it.  Like a cornerstone we did it on the NE corner of the slab (actually on the porch).  Here it is!

Cows in the Bluebonnets

 In the springtime in Texas people love to photograph their young children sitting in the bluebonnets.  Since our children are grown now (however, I do have a picture I will post on another day) I am posting a couple of pictures of the cows that graze on our land, affording us our ag exemption. The two on the left are our new additions- Hamburger and Helper.  One should never get too attached to the livestock!

 

Adventures in building a house!

So we have begun the construction of our home in the country... Crawford, Texas to be exact.  We purchased the land 8 years ago and have slowly been constructing what I have come to call Millerville.  First we (by we, I mean mostly Jay and his wonderful friends) built a log cabin.  You see I am not from the outdoors campers.  To me roughing it means Best Western- no room service.  I love the outdoors as long as I don't have to pee in the woods or sleep on the ground without a roof.  Once the cabin was complete and we could spend the night at our place, we had to build a storage shed. After that came the Barn, which houses the 4-wheel gator, Jay's temporary ham radio station and lots of boxes of "stuff").  Then two years ago Jay began construction on (what I lovingly refer to as) the man palace.  Why Man Palace instead of Man Cave you ask?  Well what would you call 3200 sf full of man toys from radios to guns to trains to a workshop?  To give you perspective, the house we are building is less that 2800 sf.

We signed documents for the construction loan in early March and work commenced a few weeks later. Trampling through the trees and bramble, Jay and I marked off the corner points of the house and then the construction guys came in and cleared the site.

Clearing the site - Amazing how quickly they were able to clear out all the trees and whatever

All cleared!

Contractor Stanley and Plumber Randy

Forms Set