Quick update while the guys are on their lunch break and I can get to the computer with less noise.  They finished siding the master bedroom/closet side of the house yesterday.  The framing crew wrapped up.  The door to the porch from the master bedroom was installed.  The dumpster was also successfully picked up in the afternoon.


Siding – they have filled in the missing piece.  That was where the “scaffolding” was attached.  (It was a 2 x 6 suspended in a somewhat scary manner).

View of the front after framing was finished and siding was removed:

Things are looking up!

Sights you generally don’t want to see from inside your master bedroom:

Supervising Dad while he runs electricity to the porch:

New door into master bedroom:

New door #1:

This morning, they put the other door in and started putting foam board up across the front of the house.  Hopefully they will finish siding today.


Our contractor, John, on the ladder while he checks in:

Hole is cut for the second door (on the right):

There isn’t much to report from the framing crew.  The house looks essentially (exactly) the same as it did in the last photos.  They are working on all of the tedious odds’n’ends that seem to take forever.  They should be done this week, though.  The exciting changes are on the back of the house.  They finished the vast majority of the siding along the back yesterday.  They, too, are working on some of the minor finishing touches across the house this morning before moving on to the sides of the house.  They are also trying to level out the roof over the back porch some.  It’s about 3 inches low at the edge.  The same crew should also be installing the doors onto the porch today.

The trailer that was *supposed* to remove the dumpster yesterday.  The frame on the trailer broke.  Maybe the wood was wet from the rain?  Maybe the old siding weighed a lot?  I don’t know, but the dumpster is still here.  LOL

The mommies and our boys met at the park again yesterday.  The boys ran all over the place and we attempted to get a few pictures of them together.  As Stephanie pointed out, this was much easier when none of them could roll over or crawl.  🙂  Actually, it wasn’t all THAT easy before, but we like to pretend.


Cash, Isaac, and Henry on the purple dinosaur:

Isaac and Henry waiting for Cash to come back and play:

Isaac Walter – Tree Hugger:

Last night, Isaac had some black beans for dinner.  He had to have a bath immediately afterward.  But he really enjoyed his food!

Well, after almost nothing was done yesterday, we got off to a much better start this morning.  THANK GOODNESS!  I was up from 2:00-4:00 this morning fretting over our exposed attic.  Todd left a voice message for John last night that we were concerned, but it was pretty late and John didn’t return the call.  This morning, Todd went out to talk to Bob directly about the work and how long it was taking.  Apparently, Bob hurt his back yesterday, and he wasn’t able to directly supervise his crew.  They obviously need constant supervision.  Bob was concerned about our exposed attic, as well.  This morning, he shifted the priorities so that they sealed up the attic some before doing anything else.  I am so relieved!!!  🙂  He also brought in another foreman to help while he’s gone (to the hospital?  to Lowe’s?  I am not sure where).  This guy is supposed to be the person who trained Bob.  He’s GREAT.  There is no way he’s going to let 5 drops of rain slow down the progress!  He has the guys working together and they are moving so fast it’s unbelievable!  If he’d been here the whole time, our framing job would already be finished (I think). They have easily gotten more done this morning in just a few hours than they have on any other single day of work.  I am thrilled.  I am now optimistic that they might really finish this job.


You may or may not be able to tell that this is far more plywood than was up yesterday.  Trust me, though, it is.

Looking up from inside the office.

Men at work

Looking down the porch from the office window

Street-level view

On the back of the house, we had an issue.  I ran out to do some errands.  When I got home 45 minutes later, the water to the house was turned off.  Oops!  The foreman for the siding crew took me out and showed me where they had punctured the hot water line coning out of the old water heater and running up the laundry room wall.  He is now gone to Home Depot to get something to fix it.  While I am obviously less than thrilled that the pipe has been broken and I don’t have running water in my house, I am ecstatic at the way the situation was handled.  The foreman showed me the puncture, apologized, and explained how they were going to fix it, and when.  HOLY COW!!!  If the people in my corporate job had worked that way, I might never have quit to stay home with Isaac!!!  I seriously almost hugged the man.  LOL

With all of the construction going on outside, Isaac got busy with the Legos and did some building of his own this afternoon.


Concentrating on building on top of a piece with wheels:

Proud of his creations:

Todd and Isaac explored the deck of the new porch this evening.  I love this picture because it sort of looks like they are in a tree house.  🙂

Today, the framing crew left at 2:00 because they said it started to sprinkle.  I beg to differ, since I was standing outside at the time.  I was somewhat perturbed; Todd is downright annoyed.  Todd is probably going to talk to Bob, the framing leader, in the morning.  If he doesn’t have a chance to do it, I certainly will.  I also think we should talk to John, the general contractor, as well.  They literally placed 4 pieces of plywood today.  I think they are still going to finish this week, if they actually buckle down and try to do that.  Bob told John they’ll be done before the weekend.  I’m not holding my breath that they’ll be done tomorrow, though.  On the bright side, the nice thing about plywood (and drywall, for that matter) is that it comes in big enough sheets that you see progress pretty quickly.  They REALLY need to finish, though, because every forecast is predicting rain this weekend.


This was 1/4 of the work that got completed on the framing today…

The other side:

 Street-level view:

Looking up:

That’s the news for the front of the house.  On the *back* side of the house, a new crew arrived today to rip off the old siding.  These guys are fast.  I was impressed by how quickly the concrete team did their jobs and I think the siding guys will be the same way.  It’s amazing what a difference it makes when a crew really WANTS to work.  There is no slacking off in our backyard; I can tell you that for sure.  They arrived, got marching orders, and started in right away.  They’ve already removed half of the siding from the back of the house!  The other good news on this crew is that they will be the ones to put the roofing on, so once Bob’s group finally finishes, the roof should go on in no time flat.

Tomorrow, there should be someone arriving to frame out doors onto the porch and also to frame out the new window going into the laundry room.  I am UBER-excited about this!  How freakin’ cool to have new doors!!!  They will have blinds between the glass since they are going to be in the master bedroom and (soon-to-be) guest room.  🙂  I can’t wait to see them!


On to the “snips & snails” part of the blog:  I am apparently the non-cooking mother of our mommy group.  LOL  Yesterday, we took the boys to a park, which was great.  The boys had fun, the mommies sort-of got to chat, and Isaac slept well last night.  While we were there, one of the other mothers asked me what I feed Isaac as “quick” food.  I didn’t think anything of it until I was telling Todd about it last night.  He was laughing that people think I don’t cook…  🙂  I had to laugh because I really don’t cook (at least for Isaac) – I had some suggestions.  Isaac loves those little Dole fruit cups, the ones packed in “real juice.”  


Peaches!

Pears!

I had an amusing exchange with John, our contractor, yesterday.  I have been asking him for a schedule since last week.  A written schedule.  He hasn’t responded to me, but has talked to Todd and given him some of our scheduling plans.  Tuesday night, I messaged him and said I’d like to have the details by the end of this week.  Here’s the response I got yesterday:

The guys will be out tomorrow to tear off the siding and install the foam board.  On Friday they will install the two doors upstairs and begin the siding installation. On Monday or Tuesday they will install the trim around the columns.  The windows won’t be here for another week and a half or so but they will be the last to install.

I have been in contact with Todd so he knows the schedule. Let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks,
John

What do you suppose the odds are that construction will be finished (except for the windows) by next Tuesday?  LOL  I really did have to laugh.

According to the web site for Texas Storm Chasers, this weekend is the best chance we’ll have of getting real rain for the first time this year.  This makes perfect sense because they ripped the roof off of our house yesterday.  Not just the roof, either, but also the plywood that the roof was attached to.  Our attic is completely exposed to the elements.  I would say our chances of rain have never been better!  LOL  We’ll just have to see what actually happens and cross that bridge if/when we come to it.  I doubt I can stop it from raining just by stressing myself out, so I won’t bother to do that!

New arrival today.  There is *no way* this thing is going to hold all of the scrap accumulating in our yard…

Our roof.  Inside the dumpster:

Street-level view:

Closer view from the ground:

New rafters!

VERY shallow pitch on the new roof:

 Looking the other way down the house:

Looking up into the rafters.  There is white plastic sheeting over the top, exposed portion of the attic.  It blew like crazy in the wind last night.  At the bottom of the photo, you can see our attic insulation, the roofing that did not have to be removed, and then the new rafters on top.

Now that is a shallow roof pitch!!

In other news, I have hopefully found a new pediatrician for Isaac.  I interviewed Dr. Kangos on Monday.  While he isn’t exactly warm & fuzzy, he respects that the parents are the primary caregivers…  This is comforting because I got a lot of lectures on how to properly parent from our previous pediatrician.  We have been unhappy with the previous doctor for some time, but I was reluctant to try to find a new doctor because it is such a hassle.  She really upset me several months ago, however, when I asked her not to do something and she said, “well, I’m going to do it anyway” and proceeded to do so.  That should have been when I left, but I am a chicken…  Anyway, his 18-month appointment is scheduled for Monday, so we’ll see how Dr. Kangos does with Isaac.

Isaac also successfully ate yogurt with no noticeable negative reactions.  This is good news because it means he is, hopefully, learning to process dairy properly.

Todd and Bob (the framing lead):

#1 reason to keep the windows closed.  For the grandmothers who are now worrying, NO, I did not let him out onto the deck unless he was in my arms or Todd’s:

Looking across the “upper deck”:

Todd and Isaac checking out the new view:

View from below:

Street-level view (note that Jackson is in the same place as he is in the Google Sketchup drawing my sister created):

Jackson checking out Dad and Isaac, who are checking out Jackson:

I had to laugh at everyone hanging out the window.  I inadvertently got myself on film in the process: