Technology of the Future (Robin is easily impressed)

Today we got a roof and the rest of our windows. Also, some siding. Pretty much all that's left to do on the outside is paint the siding and put on the rock, which I think is happening next week. Everywhere that doesn't have siding on it is going to be rock (both chimneys and the bottom couple of feet of the house).


The front still needs a little siding and some shingles - I forgive them for stopping work because there was some serious lightning this afternoon in Dallas. I would not want to be the guy on top of a house on top of a hill holding a hammer and nails in a lightning storm.

Notice all of these pictures are taken drive-by style from our car? J thought we would freak out the workers if we walked up and took pictures. I think they were more freaked out by the weirdos in the SUV who kept driving by with a paparazzo camera hanging out the window.

We also met with the guy who handles our wiring for security, speakers, internet, cable, etc, etc. I'm very impressed with how fancy our house's wiring will be. The neighborhood gets Verizon Fios, which is apparently some super swanky cable and internet. And somehow I have the ability to choose on a whim if I want our phone jacks to be internet jacks, and vice versa. I don't understand how they can be both and can switch back and forth, but whatever. I am technologically slow, so I'm hoping J caught all the details of this. There's a big master wiring center and I can control which switches do what and what speakers are connected to what TV and whatnot from the box. Again, hoping J caught the details of all that....it seemed very futuristic. OH! And the best part - we can record a show in one room and watch it from any of the other rooms, or pause a show in one room, and pick it up on any other TV. What smart person invented this?

Looks like a real house!

So here's the front of the house. It was exciting to walk through the front door of something that actually bears a resemblance to our final house! Yay!


Here's the back of the house. The four upstairs windows are the gameroom, which will basically be a J's man cave. Many happy hours of Guitar Hero will be played here. Just below the game room is the patio. On the right is the fireplace. This would be an ideal place for cigar smoking, if anyone were so inclined.

Wednesday we meet with the guy who does all the wiring for speakers, internet, security system, etc. This is going so fast!

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:)