quick update

Well, a quick (and now that I see it somewhat fuzzy) picture of some of the interior trim. And a picture of the area outside the garage after the rough grading. The trees next to the old driveway that didn't burn up in the fire died as a result of the fire, so we had them removed last week and the low area filled, which leaves a much bigger area to park and turn around.

the trim man cometh!!!

Well, not only did the trim man come and start to work, the loader guy came and finished the rough grading. Unfortunately, while the garage doors alledgedly left Mars and came to Atlanta, the installers were unable to make it to Marietta. Hopefully, they will be able to load up their truck and make the trek up the hill to Marietta (also known as the land of the big chicken as evidenced by the attached).

I don't have any usable pictures of the trim or the grading since I waited until it was too dark to take any so I will try to post some tomorrow.

The trim man is hoping to finish this week which means paint can start the week of Memorial Day. Raul the stone man never did find us; he apparently did not know his right from left in english which made it hard to give directions. So, hopefully we will meet with another stone man this week.

more progress but not much to show

Regular readers may recall the sheetrock was hung week before last. They spent the week finishing the sheetrock and completed it yesterday. So, much accomplished although, from a blog picture perspective, not much to show.

We did visit a stone yard and discovered our first choice is Tennessee Medium Fieldstone. Stone work is both complex and a little primitive, when you really think about it. I was surprised at how little a ton of stone can cover. For our application, a ton of stone is normally used every 40 to 45 square feet. So, before it is all said and done, we could easily end up using 40 to 50 tons of stone. That's a lot of stone.

This week will be a big week. Trim and interior doors are to be delivered tomorrow; the trim man is to start on Tuesday, the loader will return on Tuesday to do some more grading and I am to meet with the mason on Tuesday as well. The garage doors were apparently shipped to Mars and have now been promised to be delivered and installed on Friday. Hopefully by week's end we will be able to lock the house.

The power of sheetrock

There is a book entitled Praying for Sheetrock that recounts the sad but true story of life and politics in a backwoods county in south Georgia in the 1970’s. One of the stories told is how the local sheriff, anytime there was a big truck accident, would oversee the looting and then the distribution of the freight to the poor and oppressed, in an attempt to win their vote in the next election.

The author tells of speaking with an old woman who’d lived a hard and difficult life who added a small room on her house to care for a disabled adult child. She’d run out of money and was “praying for sheetrock, praying hard for sheetrock”, hoping a sheetrock truck would wreck so she could finish the room. Sure enough, a sheetrock truck did wreck and the sheriff made sure she got the sheetrock she needed.

We’re not poor and were not oppressed, for which I am very thankful. And we’re a paying customer, not a truck wreck beneficiary, for which I am also very thankful. But I think I’ve learned just a small bit of how she felt.

There’s power in sheetrock. Sheetrock turns sticks into walls and walls into rooms and rooms into a house. Sheetrock is a tipping point, where you know it’s really going to happen, where you can see what it’s going to look like.

We’ve got sheetrock. And it feels good.

Workers insulated the house early in the week and then the sheetrock came. Actually, it came twice, as the first time the truck was too heavy to make it up the driveway, so it had to go back and be reloaded on two trucks instead of one. Then the sheetrock hangers started. They wasted no time and hung it a day and a half. Then the finishers started. They should finish this week, at which time the trim guy can start. So, much progress. This has been a good week and in more ways than one.

Some may remember after the fire Leo the cat was missing and was one of our prayer concerns. He showed up about a week later, prompting my brother-in-law to refer to him as the “most prayed for cat in the history of mankind”. We brought him to where we are staying but he took off the first chance he got, only to turn up back at the old house five days later. We brought him back again and he seemed to adjust to indoor living a little.

Where we are staying is about a mile or so with four or five major subdivisions and one heavily travel road in between. I figure he is about five percent of my size, so a mile or so to me would be 20 or 40 miles to him.

Leo found an open door week before last and took off again. This time he made it back in three days. A neighbor called to said they had seen him in their backyard.

He’s back with us now, although clearly not his first choice. He’s reminded us that he is not our cat as much as we are his people. He likes the outdoors and living in a one bedroom apartment is just alittle much for him. Hopefully, he can stay put another six or eight weeks until we can move.

And one more point; we obviously live in the age of technology and the power of the internet is upon us. Although I don’t know who all reads this I must admit I was alittle surprised to read comments last week left by Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, Zig Zigular and Hurley, also known as Hugo from the television series Lost, all in the same week. What are the odds?

Not much to report, week 2

I have concluded I should stop talking about sheetrock since we still don't have any. But the framer's trip to China apparently paid off for we passed our framing inspection last week without any problems.

A few folks raised questions about his trip to China. While the details of the trip should probably remain with him, I too found the whole concept alittle unusual.

I've known him for four or five years and have worked with him on several office building projects. I also know he, after a great deal of effort, got unmarried a year or so ago. Earlier this year I was talking with the lumber salesman who asked who I was going to use to frame the house. I mentioned this framer and he looked somewhat surprised and asked, "don't you know he is going to China?"

Actually, I didn't know that. And, when you think about it, scheduling the framer to come frame is an important piece of the house building puzzle. So I immediately sent word we had work and would be needing him to frame.

In the end all worked out well as he had time to frame the house before the plane left.

He apparently met the new Mrs. Framer (and her nine year old son) on the internet. And love came a-calling. I hope the rest of the story, which has yet to occur, will have a "happily ever after" ending. And I hope she learns to speak English without too much trouble.

On an unrelated subject, I think there are times in every ones life where they wonder what it is all about and what exactly is their purpose in life.

I received an email from my sister last week about the blog that may help shed some light on that topic for me. She wrote:

"After reviewing your blog last week, it occurs to me that not only can you do math, you also write. My next thought is why do I recall many home challenges during the third and fourth grade years with you "not working to potential"?"

I will admit there were some challenges in my educational career, which I am not proud of but did occur for many years (more than just the third and fourth grade). These challenges were usually triggered by . . .

- a note home from a teacher
- a phone call from a teacher
- a test or paper that had to be signed by a parent and returned to the teacher
- a parent-teacher conference or
- a report card

Invariable, the phrase "not working to potential" would come up, at which point my parents would implore me to work "up to potential". These sessions were usually traumatic (at least for me) and in the end I would agree to try harder, which unfortunately would only last for a week or two before I was back to watching Hogan's Heros and reading Popular Mechanics (where I could learn cool stuff about the tensile strength of bolts and how to bend wood and stuff like that).

(I should also add that once you saw the teacher do a problem a few times on the board, why did they have to beat it into the ground for the next week? We already saw it! And what's with this trying to find the symbolism in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis? He's writing about a man who turned into a six foot cockroach! I still don't know what to make of that!)

My thoughts on the world of education not withstanding, my sister went on to write:

"You provide hope to those who have children who aren't working to potential!"

So there you have it. My new found purpose in life is to provide hope to parents whose children are not working to potential!

Hopefully, by this time next week I will have something exciting to report.

not much to report

Well, not much visible progress to report from this week.

We failed the framing inspection on Monday. Nothing major, just some minor stuff but the framer had gone to China to get a new wife and was accordingly unavailable. But rumor had it he was to return shortly so we waited and then waited some more.

But return he did and he was in fine spirits. I asked him if he got married and he said he thought he did but had to sign his name so many times on documents (all of which were in Chinese) that he really didn't know what all he did. But regardless of what he signed, he made it back and hopes to be able to bring his new wife here later in the year. (Note to the English majors out there; I know using the word "he" six times in one sentence is a bit much but I had a complex thought to express. Please submit some alternative wordings if you'd like.)

And he fixed the framing issues. Or at least I hope he did; we will find out for sure tomorrow when the inspector comes again.

The "not one word of English" siding guys brought their ladders back and finished up what they lacked too. Looks good.

And the smurf tube is installed, so we can now pipe smurfs throughout the house.

Someone did ask about the kitchen saga. As you may recall, when we left it last we had assembled a "kitchen design team" consisting of a kitchen designer (the one who does all the work), the sales person (the lady with the makeup and jewelry who gets the commission) and the installation coordinator (the guy with the tape measure). After two weeks of scheduling conflicts, we had the big meeting where the guy with the tape measure measured with great precision and deliberation. After 30 minutes of detailed measuring he asked to borrow a pencil which then became the official marking pencil and put marks on the floor, which happened to be on top of the marks I drew a month earlier. So success of sorts; after weeks of preparation it was determined that yes, our kitchen would work better with cabinets and yes, cabinets would fit and yes, they would take our money and order cabinets and request the tree be cut down. Of course we would be advised shortly of when they are to arrive (of which we are still waiting to be told when they might arrive). (Actually I made up the part about requesting the tree be cut down. I'd like to think it has already been cut down).

But this tree nonsense is important for I did not want cabinets that were made out of little more than sawdust and glue. This of course is an extraordinary request, which means you have just catapulted the price range of the cabinets from reasonable past significant to "what did you say?". None the less, hopefully the cabinets will come, made out of real wood that looks like what we saw and will come when we need them.

What we did not order was cabinet hardware. The hardware on the cabinets we saw was, get this, $21 for the handle and $13 for the backplate. For the math majors out there, this comes to $34 per door plus tax plus installation. Just to open the door. Of course the drawer handles were different and were only $16 a piece, once again before tax and installation. While this may come as a surprise to some, I am currently looking for some alternatives. Preferably something on sale. And if they all match that would be good too.

And finally, it was pointed out to me it was actually Bren's birthday last week, so my creative photography was not in waste. Bren, the boy who spent a significant portion of his youth at our house. Bren, the boy who broke out one of our greatroom windows with a rock thrown like a bullet. Bren, the boy who had someone video tape him skateboarding on the edge of the bathtub in the house next door. Bren, who was at the infamous Braves game with his older brother and my son when they were about four or five where his older brother accidentally poured 32 ounces of Coke down the back of the guy who had the misfortune of sitting in front of us. That Bren. How could I forget? So, happy birthday, Mr. Bren, it was good to hear from you. Come by and see the house then next time you are in town.

So, as I have said every week for the last three weeks (or is it four), hopefully by this time next week we should have sheetrock.

more progress! and happy birthday to someone!

Technology can be a powerful tool, as evidenced by this very blog. On the other hand, technology can have its challenges, as evidenced by this weeks photos.

I'm not too sure what I did, but I do know it was cold and windy and I was in a hurry and somehow I've got balloons and a "happy birthday" caption on all the pictures. So, I don't know whose birthday it is, but Happy Birthday nonetheless.

Oh well, progress has been made. On Monday, the siding crew showed up. With many work crews today, English is a second language. With this crew, it wasn't even a second language. What I do know is they showed up for four days, worked very hard, did nice work and then loaded up their ladders and left. The 80 percent that they completed looks good, as evidenced by the photos. What I don't know is when they will come back. But what I do know is they don't get paid until it's done.

(The big sections in the pictures that do not have siding are where the stone will go. They have yet to finish the fireplace end of the house and some porch trim).

On the inside we passed some more crucial inspections and hope to pass one more this week and then insulate and sheetrock.

So, as I have said every week for the last three weeks, hopefully next time this week we will have sheetrock.