Update on Robbery

Not much has happened. The detective in charge of the case was off Friday so nothing has been done. I talked to him this morning and he said that even though he and I know they did it, it won't hold up in court because the wire could have came from any house. There was a piece of blue plastic still on some of it and they have it at the recycling place. We think it came from our plumbers extension cord. He is going to go by there and try to identify it. If he can do that, then maybe we will have some evidence. If we could find any of his tools or our faucets, then we would have some evidence. The mom of one of the guys has offered to pay our deductible but we told her we want to know where our faucets are, the plumbers tools and for him to turn the other guy in. We will see. It's a mess. Just pray that we can move on from this and that nothing else will happen. It's a miserable feeling thinking you have to camp out over there all the time in fear that they will come back and do it again.

The electricians did come repair everything Saturday so we will be able to insulate Wednesday. Our flooring will be in next week and the sheetrockers will come as well. Once we get the sheetrock up, we can get the security system hooked up. We put a lock on the door that goes under the house. If they try it again, it will take a lot of effort to get under there.

Robbery

Our plumber called at 7:45 a.m. yesterday morning and said the house had been broken in to. They stole all his tools ($1,000 value) and cut the wires from under the house and inside the house. They were coming back for more, but didn't for some reason. They took my faucets, cut the cable/phone wires, and some of the security system wires. Our insurance will cover our stuff, but the plumber is out all that money because he didn't have insurance on it. I'm hoping they will pawn it and we will be able to find it. We do know who did it because a neighbor saw them coming up the driveway with the wire over their shoulders and a back pack full of stuff. He overheard them talking saying they needed to go back and get the rest and another boy said he was too tired. When they turned the copper in to the recycling center, they asked for ID and one of them gave him his drivers license. He lives on our road, so it was pretty obvious. It will be Monday before the police will do anything because the detective has the day off (that really doesn't make sense to me, but whatever).

The insulators were supposed to start yesterday so I had to call and reschedule them for next Wednesday. So we will now do the sheetrock the week of the 7th. The electricians are going to go back Saturday and redo everything. Kenny wants to stay down there, but it's just too hot. I don't know what we are going to do. Pray for wisdom and a hedge of angels around our place to protect it from anymore theft.

If these boys get arrested, it will be worth it because they are suspected of stealing a lot of wire and other things around town and throughout the community so I'm glad we had a witness and maybe they will go to jail this time.

Plumber Finally Worked

The plumber worked a full day yesterday and got a lot done. He should finish up this morning and get it inspected this afternoon. The insulators are coming tommorow.
Randy came and dug the trenches for the electric and the water. They will both be hooked up to the meters today. That was really exciting. He went over his plan for the yard work with me and I can't wait. He's supposed to do it tommorow, but I heard it is supposed to rain all day so he won't be able to if that happens. We are going to need a lot of top soil on the yard in front of the house because it will be down to rock when he levels it. He's going to take out a few trees and use some of the soil around them. I was wanting them gone anyways so it works out great.

Newest Member of the Family

This is our newest turtle. (Thought you would appreciate this one Lana) He is so cute. We've had turtles for a few years now. If we see one on the road we will get out and move it, but if it's injured I usually end of bringing it home. This one hatched at our house. We didn't even know any of ours had laid eggs. Braedon spent the night with Colton last week and they went out to look at the turtles. They called me so excited. They found this one upside down in the water bowl. They got it out and he seemed fine. We then had to do a little research to find out which ones were boys and which were girls. This is not an easy task with turtles mind you. Really, all you can go by is their eye color and if the bottom of their shell has an indention. We think "Harry" is really "Harriet". Colton is disappointed. We've had him the longest. He actually stayed through the winter and hybernated in our pen we built for them. We only keep the ones that are about the size or your hand or smaller. The bigger ones kind of get mean. Apparently they are old enough to lay eggs because now we have this little bugger. We've built them a "resort" (as Kenny calls it) at the new house. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it and post it later. We even made them a little "cement pond" out of some morter we had left over. It's really cool.

Garden Update

I thought I would give an update on the garden. Everything is growing pretty good. The green peppers are kind of taking off slow, but everything else is doing well.

Cucumbers

Watermelon
Blackberries
Potatoes (Cosmo's in the back)
Corn (2nd time around)
Pumpkins (seed from Florida-thanks Pam)
Cabbage
Cantaloupe

Squash
Tomatoes
Cauliflower
Banana Peppers

Plumbers!!!!!

Well, he did do a little work yesterday, but he still isn't finished and I didn't leave him a check. He hasn't even connected anything under house yet and hasn't drilled the drains for our tub or the kids. He has a lot to do today. I hope he can get done. He says he will be finished this afternoon and it will be inspected tommorow.

The sheetrockers are supposed to be there Monday and it will take them about a week to finish it all. Then paint the next week.

I ordered my flooring this morning. I love it and I got a great deal on it. It's called carbonized bamboo and comes with a 25 year warranty. It's strandwoven so they claim it's the strongest solid hardwood available. I got it from BuildDirect for $3.65 a sq. ft. and that's including the shipping. We're going to do the whole house in it except the utility room and the bathrooms.

The Plumber Is Pushing My Buttons!!!

He finally shows up at 1 p.m. Friday, drills a few holes, and leaves. He said he would work Saturday so we could get the inspection on Monday. The insulators are supposed to start Tuesday. Kenny goes over there Saturday morning and no one is there. I call him and he said he wouldn't be able to make it, but would be there Monday. I asked him about the inspection and he said they only do them Monday,Wednesday, and Friday so it would have to be Wednesday. He said it would be ok if they insulated and that the inspector shouldn't say anything since it's just one wall. I'm not feeling too confident in that.

update: I talked to him at 10:30 this morning and he was on his way over there. He said he had to pick up some supplies. He assures me that he will be finished today and to leave him a check. We'll see.

Still No Plumber!

Well, we're still waiting on the plumber to show up so I thought I would take some pictures of the inside of the house to kind of give you an idea of what it will look like. It's hard to get good pictures of a whole room so these are the best I could do.

This is my favorite spot right now, the front porch, because it's too hot in the house. It's 34' X 8" and I can't wait to get a swing for it. It has three can lights, two ceiling fans, and there will be two lights on either side of the door.
This is the master bedroom. It's 16' X 12'. I put two windows in it so we could see the creek from that side of the house. A little deer came out the other afternoon. There is enough room between the windows for our bed or we can turn our bed the other way and put a dresser there.
This is one of our can lights. We have 33 of them. They are in almost every room.

This is the hall. It has four can lights. The first door on the left is the kids bathroom, then our room, the door directly at the end is a quilt closet and behind it is Kenny's closet. To the right, coming back up the hall, is Morgan's bedroom and then Colton's room.
This is a better view of the kid's rooms. They are 11' X 11'6" with double closet doors in each.
This is our den. It's 24' X 13'. We are going to have the tv, deer heads, the turkey, (Kenny) and a play area for the kids in there. We will probably spend most of our time here. It's right off the kitchen, beside the garage.
This is my office/Morgan's scrapbooking room. It's 8' X 8'. It will have a wall of cabinets starting with a pantry type cabinet for scrapbook materials and photo albums. Then it will have cabinets along the top and a desk along the bottom.
There are a few rooms I've left out because I forgot to take a picture of them. We have a laundry room that is also 8' X 8'. It will have a utilily sink, front load washer and dryer with a counter top that will go all the way accross it all. Over them will be two wall cabinets and a bar in the middle where you can hang clothes up as you take them out of the dryer.

In the picture above, I'm standing in the little mud room off the garage. You can see it at the bottom of the picture. It's just big enough to come in, take your shoes off and hang your jacket in the coat closet.

I have a pantry that I love. It's 4' X 8'. Everyone makes fun of me that it could be another room but I don't think you can have enough storage, plus my husband took a chunk of my floor space for the air conditioner return.

We have a one car garage that is insulated and will have heating and cooling in it. We are going to put Colton's drums in there so it will probably end up being a huge play room. Time will tell. We want to build a bigger garage seperate from the house, later on.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, but I would love it if you come see it in person. Just give me a call and I'll meet you there. I'm always looking for an excuse to go over there--(hee!hee!).

Slow Week on the Homefront

Not much has happened so far this week. The plumber is behind because of an accident he had a few weeks ago, but is supposed to start today. He said he would work through the weekend to get it finished so it can be inspected Monday morning.

The security system people came yesterday and installed the rough-in for it. I was only there for a few minutes yesterday, but it looked cool.

The insulators are going to do the prep work Friday and start installing Tuesday morning. They have to wait for the plumbing inspection to be completed.

We Have A House!!!!

We are so excited!!!!! I came around the curve and saw it Friday afternoon and was just overwhelmed with joy. The contractor put the rails on the porch and it looks like a whole different house. I LOVE IT!!!!!! It looks much better in person. You will have to come see it.He is pretty much finished with his part for now. He will come back to build the deck, hang the cabinets, interior doors, and stuff like that.

Our plumber and security system guy is supposed to start tommorow. The excavation guy is going to come at the end of the week and push the dirt up against the house so we can get the gutters on. He finished the septic system and got it inspected Thursday. The electricians are finished with the rough in. We should get our garage door pretty soon. I'll be glad to see it. Right now we just have sheets of OSB screwed to the wall.

God has really blessed us with this build. Everything has been so timely, the contractor has done an awesome job, his work is remarkable and quick, and the weather has been great (a little hot at times). Please pray we sell our other house. We should be in this house by the end of July if everything stays on schedule like it has been. We had someone interested in seeing our old house this weekend and then never came so I'm not sure what happened there. I know God is in control with that house just like He has been with the new one. I believe we are going to be able to move right out of one and in to the other because he's a Just In Time God and is more than able. Please pray we continue to have peace about it and that everything will go really smoothly with the transition. We love you guys and thank you so much for all your encouragements, the comments you leave, for coming to see the house, and mostly for all your prayers. You are wonderful friends and we are truly blessed. (Thanks for putting up with all my "House Talk" as well (espcecially you AJ). It can overtake you if you aren't careful.)

Sewage Anyone????

Well, we have a septic tank now. My yard is torn all to pieces, but it didn't look like much anyways so it didn't really matter.

They continued with the siding on the side of the house. The electricians started pulling wire Tuesday.

It's hard watching me work in the garden.

We Have Siding and Windows

(Sorry about the dates. I changed the battery in the camera and didn't realize the date was wrong until last night.)

Monday was a whirlwind, crazy day. My contractor calls me at 7:45 a.m. and says the electrician was there and I need to come show him where I want everything. I leave work, go do that, and he tells me he's going to start wiring the house first thing Tuesday morning and I need to know what kind of lights I'm going to use. I haven't picked them out yet, because I thought I had a couple of weeks, so I go frantically to Lowe's when I get off work and spend an hour and a half walking up and down the aisle of the lighting section staring at the ceiling and not liking anything I see. I got some of them, but not all. It's very frustrating.

They put the windows in yesterday and put siding on the front of the house. They will continue with that this week. I think they are going to finish the porch today if the storm doesn't hit.


This is the front door. I really like it. It will look a lot better once it's painted. Now I have to figure out a color.The water department put our meter in today. They had a lot of trouble because of so much sandstone, but they got it finally.

This is our heating and cooling man hard at work, trying to beat the plumbers so they don't block his returns.

Starting Shingles

They are moving right along. The contractor finished the roof decking and putting the sides on the gables. The roofers started the shingles. They got the middle, raised section finished today. It was really hot. I felt sorry for them. (the house is not pink, it's my camera doing that for some reason)

The contractor installed the french door today. The front and 3' garage door will probably get put in tommorow. He wanted to put the windows in, but they won't be here until Monday.

I got my cabinets ordered finally. It has been a very stressful 24 hours trying to find the right door style, color, and most of all, counter top. I've changed my mind 100 times on the counter top. I finally had some divine inspirtation, and went to Lowe's and bought my backsplash tile. Then I was able to choose the counter color from that. I hope we like it. I got Aristokraft cabinets in saddle color, maple wood, and Radford door style. I really like the tile. Jo bought it a few years ago and I loved it. She decided not to use it so took it back. I look at it everytime I go down the aisle at Lowe's. I went with white cabinets in my utility room and the office. I chose a charcoal gray soapstone color for my counter top.

6 1/2 Days!!!!

It's been a very fast 6 1/2 days since our contractor started and we have a partial roof. They set the trusses this morning.
When I went to work they had just began and when I came back they had decking on it. He called and said I had to order my cabinets immediately so I had to rush to do that right after work. My head is spinning from everything going so fast.


He said we should be in it by the middle of August if the weather holds out. WOW!!!!!!!

We have a porch

They finished the OSB siding today. It looks so much more like a house now. They put the frame for the porch up. They are going to set the trusses tommorow. I'm so excited.

The Walls Are Up

They got so much done last week. By Friday afternoon, they had all the walls up, inside and out, except for the garage because they wanted to pour the floor first.

They poured the garage and front porch floor today and finished framing the garage. They will finish putting the OSB sheets on the side tommorow, get the trusses set on top of the house, and put the porch posts on. They plan to attach all the trusses Wednesday.

AJ and I spent half our shopping day Saturday looking for faucets for the house. I found some really good deals at Home Depot and Menards. I've been trying to find my whirlpool tub but am having trouble finding what I want for the price I want to spend. I'll just keep looking.

The Home Inspection Crew!!