A Bad Housing Market Makes for Quick Construction

So with the housing market being all weird, there are bunches of guys ready and willing to work. In the span of 48 hours, our house went from concrete slab to this:

Still a lot of framing to do, but the first floor is basically done and the upstairs is underway. Oh, and somebody took the time to pour us a ghetto little sidewalk. I'm impressed.

Here's the house from a little further away. Obviously, big chunks of roof are missing. Still, great progress for two days.

Did I mention that T.D. Jake's mega-church is near the neighborhood? And is somehow involved in the development? And apparently choose all the street names? We live on Patience Boulevard. There's also Kingdom Drive, Prayer Way, Truth Drive, Samaritan Road, you get the idea. I think we lucked out with Patience. Doesn't scream "I am affiliated with a televangelist."

Our view from the second floor. As a small town girl, I appreciate the open space:

Foundation!

So this is what the inside of a foundation looks like. Lots of trash bag covered piles of dirt and cables. Not too pretty, but it apparently gets the job done.

Then, big trucks full of concrete show up....
You end up with this! How exciting. We have a foundation. This makes my commitment to our mortgage lender seem much more real. And kind of scary.

Obligatory carving into the concrete...

And obligatory cutesy photo of obligatory carving into concrete:)

Apparently we are very into earth tones...

We're building a house! More details to the right in the handy links, and I'm sure you'll be seeing many, many pictures over the next few months.


Mom, as promised, here are pictures of the materials we're using:
The first picture is kitchen stuff...white cabinets, granite, small tiles and accent pieces for the backsplash...

Same story, second verse, but you can also see the wood floors.

Obligatory pic of our empty lot. Can you tell which half of my family is a sharp dresser? Can you tell which half is still wearing a sweatshirt from college?

Finally, bathroom stuff. The big tile goes pretty much everywhere in the master bath, and the little accent strip goes in the shower. There's also a coordinating floor tile thing (technical term) that you can see here: http://www.daltileproducts.com/large_items.cfm?itemID=1939&itemtype=1

We have a date!!! (Maybe)

Last weekend JW and I went to Galveston to look for reception places. The only place that kind of worked was a resort hotel, the Galvez. Beautiful property, nice people, and apparently we came just in time to witness the aftermath of The Bachelor's wedding. Which Bachelor? We're not sure. I don't know if the concierge was trying to be discrete, or seriously didn't know the guy's name (likely the later), but you heard it here first, folks....one of the Bachelor's got married to a girl he met on a blind date Saturday night at the Galvez with 220 guests and an ocean view. And apparently some privacy. Take that Trista!!!

So, after much thinking, we've decided to have the wedding in Dallas, hopefully on August 25th. Everyone mark your calendars!!! This will be set in stone by tax day (and one lucky reader's birthday!).

Here's the info, as we know it:

CHURCH: Highland Park United Methodist Church. Hopefully, there is a picture of the chapel somewhere on here.

RECEPTION: Aldredge House (www.aldredgehouse.net). This place is cool because they basically hand over the keys to the house for the night. Tucker, I have some audiovisual assignments for you.

And that is all. G'night!