Grass! It was like magic.

Sod is awesome. I should have thought of it earlier... It is like magic front yard. Just keep watering it. Sprinklers are done and working. Getting the control wires from the garage was a bit a challenge as I had to feed them through the old part of the house and then the new part of the house. I had to go under the house 3 times and drill through the sub-floor. Thank god for cordless drill motors.

Now comes landscaping and stuff...

So the house is done! Well, less painting the doors, door casings, and baseboards. Oh, and the landscaping. Ok, so the house isn't 'done'. So at the behest of my wife, I started on the landscaping. The old tree we had chopped down is still angry with me. I have had to dig up all the old roots in order to get the trenches dug for the sprinklers. So I have to trench in the sprinklers run the control wire, sweat a valve onto the cold stub-out, yadda, yadda, viola! All Finished.

We'll be in Las Vegas for Turkey Day. Hope everyone has a good holiday.

Sean's Seventh Birthday!

So Sean is seven years old. I can hardly believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were taking him to Teriyaki Hut for the first time. Well, Sean had a great time at the jumper place. He had about 20 friends show and they ran, yelled, slid, and jumped for 3 straight hours. Thanks to all the parents for their generosity and for helping to make Sean's day so great.

Sean's Soccer Picture

Halloween

Happy Halloween! The evening was a balmy 70 degrees and the trick-'r-treaters were out in force. We lit the candles in our slightly shriveled little pumpkins and then suited up to beg for gratuitous candy from houses with the illuminated porch lights. Shouts of "I got a Tootsieroll!" fill the evening, but the little ingrates rarely remember to say thank you. All in good fun. Then we went to the Halloween festival at the park where they had games and attractions. No gold fish this time. The last one lived for 2 years. It was time to go home when their sugar saturated blood was announced by aberrant behavior. Until next year...

Bathroom Tile

It took a week, but the tile is done. I did the demolition, floor prep, and grout. We had a highly recommended tile guy do the tile setting.






.

Brown Coat...

So the brown coat is done on the outside. It was supposed to get inspected but the inspector refused to sign off b/c of the trash pile in front. Dork. So the demo guys will be out tomorrow to pickup the pile tomorrow and then reschedule the inspection.

Kids painting video...

New Floor...

So the floors are done. Now come the doors and baseboards. Then tile and bathroom fixtures next week. The electrician will be here Thursday. There will be few people here as the Yermack clan is visiting Wed - Sun. I need to go pick out tile, prep the floors, remove fixtures and demo the existing bathroom tile, and finish the low-voltage data/coax connections. The last 20% of the project takes 80% of the effort.

More pics by request...

So the wife and I flew to Florida over the weekend to be the godparents of my sister's three children - Madison, Joey, and Johnny. They are great kids and we had a great time.




Before we left for Florida, we had to put together the snack bags for Sean's AYSO soccer team. Silvia had to do it 2x because they were left on the counter and Wilson ate them - 10 bags of Doritos, 10 Rice Crispy Treats, 10 Fruit Roll-ups. He is sooo proud of himself for scoring this delicious treat. But he'll pay on the back end.

Here are the pics of the insultation of the inside of the house. I added several additional panels to insulate the garage better from the living room because the washer/dryer is against it. 1300 RPM spin cycle can get a bit noisy.

After the drywall was finished, I had to primer and paint the inside of the house before the floors could be done. Drywall soaks up lots of paint. I had some helpers. They did more arguing than helping.

House Pics to date...

Here are some late pictures of the inside progress of the addition. The drywall was up, inspected, taped, and textured. I painted it last weekend. There was considerable floor demolition of old tile and building up the sub-floor to the level of the original hardwood. Cost me 2 days work but saved us $1200.

Sean eats his peas...

So in order to get the main course of Spaghettios, Sean had to eat his peas. Properly camouflaged with catsup and shredded cheese, Sean has developed the ability to eat nearly anything.

House Interior

So they tore down the front of the house and opened it up. Things are moving right along... Here are the pictures.

House ready for stucco...

Well, the house is still coming along... Termites were swarming last week and of course swarmed to my house. The house is skinned. So we are going to take down the old front of the house next week, finish the rough electrical, insulate, primer the pop-out and then paint.