Framing, framing, framing

We cannot believe how much framing has been completed in only two days! We love our framer, Ernesto!

God bless Ernesto!

Our framer, Ernesto, rocks! He began work this morning and has already framed out all the outside (and some of the inside) walls! He built our neighbor's house in 8 days. So we will moving right along! I had parent-teacher conferences until 8:00 tonight so I only got to see it in the dark. That didn't stop me from going up there and walking around, though. I've always said that once I have actual wood on the lot, that I would do a happy dance. And that is exactly what I did! Right up there in my new living room! It's amazing what a difference having a frame makes! you can see the rooms so much better than just with the foundation! I am so excited now! This is definitely the fun part of building a house. Here is a really crappy picture of the framing. I haven't quite figured out how to take a good picture with my camera. The night mode doesn't even really work. (Anyone have any suggestions?) And here is another pic of our "organized chaos" that we are living in right now. We've got two (yes, two) storage buildings full of stuff. This is the spare room at our apartment. We've got it jam packed as well. We're living in organized chaos right now!

So cute!

On a brighter note...how cute is Maggie? She never takes a good picture!

Un-freakin-believable!!!

Okay, yesterday was a great day. We got our foundation poured, closed on our house, etc. Today was the exact opposite! When I went out to look at the foundation I realized very quickly that it was not in any shape to be stained. It was splotchy and had these horrible swirl spots all over it. I knew something was wrong. Since we were planning all along to stain the concrete as our flooring throughout the entire house (except the bedrooms) we hired the "best" concrete guys and were told that the floors would be "so smooth you can shave on them". The guys who actually do the work are a group of Mexicans and the "translator" is this white guy who supposedly tells them what to do. We've had a horrible time with the crew not showing up, etc. And this one took the cake. Upon seeing the horrible job they did, we called the main guy to come and meet us. He was "shocked" to find out that we were staining the floors. He said that he "never knew" that we were planning on staining them...he said that he thought we were putting carpet throughout the house. Apparently they use a whole different process for floors that are going to be stained. I don't know if it never dawned on them that we had laid piping all throughout the floors to heat it and that carpet is usually not heated. (DUH!!!) So basically, there is nothing we can do to fix it and we are screwed. We're losing the money and time that we put into heating the floors. And now we have to find extra money in the budget to buy hardwood. Travis is just sick about the whole situation...he had his heart set on those stained concrete floors. I ended up blowing up and the guy and storming off the lot. Travis was much more calm and ended up working it out that we wouldn't pay for the work they did on the concrete. I'm just so sick of the whole thing! I cannot wait to get this house done! The only good news we recieved today was that our framer wants to start on Thursday. So our ugly concrete may be holding up a frame by this weekend!

Yes, we moved the rock.

As I have blogged before, Tucker is the type of dog who only gets attached to a few items. One is the elephant that I blogged about before. Another is this big, round rock that he manage to dig up from the backyard several years ago. He brought this rock into the house and loved to push it around with his nose. He rolls around on it, carries it in his mouth, hides it. etc. No matter how many times we threw it back out into the backyard, he always manages to bring it back in. He'll play with it for a few hours, then it manages to get shoved under the couch or bed. It'll be forgotten for several months. Then he'll discover it all over again and he gets so excited! While we were moving the couch, we found the rock again. Each time we uncover it, it makes us smile. We discussed what we should do with it...leave it or move it. Without any thought we brought it to the new apartment. He found it today and then, of course was so excited to play with it all over again.

Done deal, rabbit!

Well...it's a done deal rabbit! That's a quote from one of my favorite children's books "Tops and Bottoms". We closed on our house today...we don't have to be out until this weekend. They are already tearing out the carpet and putting in hardwood floors, however! We also got our foundation poured today!!! Yes...finally! I didn't get a picture of it today because they were still working on it when I went by. I will post one tomorrow. Next we have to finish the safe room and then begin framing next week. I cannot wait to have actual wood on it!

Happy Easter

We really didn't celebrate Easter much this year...it pretty much crept up on us. We've been so busy with all 3 of our houses (moving out of one, moving into one, and building another). As Haley put it the other day "why do you need three houses?" Besides that I'm still really sick. At least Maggie and Tucker got to wear their Easter clothes. Travis has been working at the lot trying to get it ready to be poured. I've been making a few trips to the old house to get the last few things. We close on the old house tomorrow. We're about 95% moved out...we still have a bunch of stuff in the attic and Travis' tools. I still have to clean it and Trav has to make a few repairs. We are hoping to have a yard sale next weekend and then be out of it for good!!!

STRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I don't think I've ever been under so much stress in my life! I've spent all of spring break packing and moving. While Travis has been at work I've been packing and moving pretty much all day and then we work until midnight once he gets home. I'm sick with a sinus/ear infection on top of that. Then today our concrete guys were supposed to come and prep our house so that the foundation can be poured. They were supposed to be there yesterday...didn't get to it....then supposed to be there first thing this morning. Of course they weren't. Travis and I tried all day to get a hold of them. The foundation has to be prepped so that it can be poured on Monday. We have about $5000 worth of concrete coming first thing Monday morning and we have to pay for it regardless if we use it or not. So we were pretty much panicked about it all day. Finally the guy calls me back all non-chalant around 5:00 this evening and promises to be there first thing tomorrow morning. I'll believe it when I see it. My parents came up today to help us get most of our stuff out of our house. We worked for hours and hours and are not even close to being finished. But we decided to quit for the day and go have a relaxing dinner. So we headed off to dinner at Chili's. An hour and a half later we finally left after having it out with the hostess, waitress, and 2 managers. We had to wait for over an hour for our food even though they claimed it was only 20 minutes. I won't go into anymore details other than that I will NEVER go back there! I am just very exhausted and disappointed in people in general today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better...I think it has to be.

House Update

There's not much going with the house lately. The weather has not been kind to us and we pretty much were screwed over by the last group of guys we hired. They didn't do the job right and stole some of our tools. Right now we have the foundation almost ready to be poured. We still have to have the termite guys come and spray before the foundation gets poured. This picture shows the initial plumbing that we had done last week.

Jumping Rope

We gave Haley her Easter basket early and one of the items in it was this pink jump rope that plays music while you jump. The ironic thing is that the handles are filled with candy. I guess the idea is to be active and eat sugar at the same time! She can't really jump it...she swings it and then hops over it. She went home today since Batesville had recieved so much rain that we were afraid she might be stranded here the more the river rose! It's always so wierd right after she leaves. My world revolves around her when she's here and once she leaves I kinda feel lost for a little bit. But I do look forward to a little bit more sleep! The dogs feel the same way...they are both conked out on the back of the couch right now!