Driveway

Exciting events this week . . . The siding is practically finished. They will finish the last little bit in about 10 days when the special order arrives. The sheetrockers started and will work some more today. David, David, Brad, and Jason installed 5.1 surround sound in the living room, and speakers in the kitchen and screened porch (I pitched in a little on that project, too). The most exciting thing to me is the yard and driveway. Vernon built our yard up, spread some topsoil, and built our driveway. We decided to do a circle drive (and are currently taking donations for concrete--we will honor you with a nameplate in the driveway!). It looks a little more like a real house now!

Cypress

Here's a first look at the siding being installed this morning. We should have the outside done (except accents like shutters) this week!

Of Men and Mortar

So much has happened with our house in the last month. Plumbing and wiring were roughed in, the brick finished, then the wiring was ruined by some thieves.

We were the victims of copper theft. Some one or ones cut all of our wires at the circuit box. As a result, our entire house needs to be re-wired. For about $30 of copper, they did about $1000 damage. The electrician had not billed us yet, so it will be at his expense. But, he is an old friend of David's, so it makes it difficult to see him bear the weight of this vandalism on his own. They also took 3 boxes of tile that we purchased at a very discounted rate, which we replaced at the not-discounted rate. Must have been 3 of them!

So the last bit of work done on our house was the trim guys putting in locks and Ronnie's crew boarding up our garage. It's secure now! It's really amazing at the things people will do for $30. That's about $10 each. The officer who took our report commented that they could have made more with one shift at McDonald's and gotten a free lunch out of the deal.

Tomorrow, Jerome starts with the siding. We're very nervous about seeing our colors up on the house. I'm hopeful that we picked the right ones! We've been second-guessing ourselves since we placed our (no-return) order. I'll try to post pictures of that soon. We're also in the process of picking out interior details. We have all of our lights, most of our tile. We are planning a hardwood/carpet trip in the next week or two. And I have the wall colors in my head, I just have to find the right chip to match.

Keep us in your prayers!