Drum Roll Please!

In a short 5 minutes, all the anticipation of the last year came to fruition. Joe the inspector seemed just plain tired of us on Monday morning. The short list of minor changes he left on Friday took just a quick view to make sure they were done and without even a pause for effect, his pen whipped out his signature and the date, December 15th, 2008. Utilities will take a week or so which gives Kristen time to move stuff in and gives us a minute to take a breath and take in all that has happened in these last few months. Last year my goal for 2008 was to do something every month that I have never done before. When we said let's build a house, I don't think I really believed it would happen. Isn't that wierd. We have watched concrete being poured and pounded nails and scheduled the electrical, plumbing, heating and roofing. We have hung gutters, installed flooring, hung doors, installed hardware, assembled cabinets and picked out fixtures, cut and nailed trim, filled holes, installed closet organizers, and hung blinds. I know about hardy panels, cricket roofs, set screws, pipe insulation, plumbing vents, the difference between rafters and joists; recessed lighting, flourescent lighting and wall washing lighting. I have used a power sprayer, skill saw, chop saw, table saw and jig saw, drill, phillips head, flat head and my own dumb head. We have shed blood, sweat and now tears, but it is still unbelievable to me. We have raised our voices in praise, and bent our needs needing strength & stamina. We have worked to the best worship CD's in the world or something the guys like called "Led Zepplin", drywalled to country music and listened to the electrician & plumbing sing for themselves. We have had help from two neighbors, two sons, plus Owen & Evan, practically sons, two long time friends and lots of encouragement from a new neighbor. We have been foremanned by, entertained by and reminded "why" in our grandson, Micah. We have made new friends at Home Depot, HD and Lowes. If you have stock in these companies, sell now, our auto pilot will be reset and their profits should see a drop. It will take time to reflect on all that the year has taught us, and all the family time we spent planning, working, calculating, encouraging and running for the Advil has paid off big. It will also take lots of concentration when leaving Harper Drive. My car just naturally finds its way to the grooves we have worn in the road between our house and Alameda Ave. How many times will I find myself pulling up in front of that property and wondering where I was really headed. Old habits...good memories...new beginnings! Stay tuned for the details of an open house, we'd love to have you over to warm the new place up!

December 11th, 2008

Not this time...but there are just a few small things that need to be fixed. We should get to that by Monday and be ready again for the final inspection. In the meantime, Kristen spent most of the day cleaning from top to bottom. We might just see her move a few things into the kitchen by the end of the weekend. There are still things to be done for the sake of convenience, like closet rods and shelves, putting up the shower rods, interior door handles etc...But there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. Praise God our 9 months of labor delivers!

December 10th, 2008

No pics today...whatever! But stay tuned, Dann called and left a message for the inspector to come out tomorrow for our final inspection. Well, that may be a misnomer. I mean we would love for it to be the final inspection, but that all depends on our ability to anticipate every little thing that he wants done. (So far we are batting like a pitcher on that one!) So we are hoping but not expecting to be graced with a permit for occupancy tomorrow. You will know if it happens by all the hooping and hollaring that will be blasting from Alameda Avenue! I do promise to post a photo of inspector Joe signing that last line of the card though. Set aside some time for an open/house warming day coming soon. We'd love to celebrate with you all.

December 9th, 2008

Details, details, details...

Yep we are down to a bunch of little things. Gutters have to be in...check. I'm pretty sure Ryan is listening to an instructional tape about installation on his headphones. The fridge was delivered on Saturday and Micah was sure the inspector would appreciate a cold one, so he loaded it with the waters near by. Dirt removed from the foundation so there's no flooding during a heavy rain...check. Touch up on the trim and paint the interior doors...check. Remove the excess trash...check. Thank goodness Micah was around to help so that we got everything done and had much more fun than working alone. There's just something about the under 3 crowd that makes work look like fun!

Dec 6th, 2008

Carport building day! I met Dann at the lumber yard at 7:15ish with the PLD truck, both were loaded with all the right parts and pieces for the carport structure. We got to the house and Owen, Jason and Ryan met us about 8:30 to unload. By 9am, the plans had been studied, donuts and coffee were onboard and the four posts were put in. I went inside to sand some of the spackle on the trim and came out about 45 minutes later and the beams were in and the rafters/joists were about half done. Roger came by to supervise and help and did the lunch run. By about 12:30pm we were eating subway under the shade of the new structure. A couple more nails, supports, and trims and ta da! We have said all along that as soon as we got our final occupancy permit, we would take it down, but it's kind of nice, so we'll let the the residents of that property make the final decision on that.

December 4th, 2009

Cement truck..FORWARD HO! Forms in place and steel ready, the carport is poured. I'm sure that the best part of the morning was watching Micah watch and cheer on the huge cement trucks. He called in sick to the nursery at Bible study, but Joey and his crew don't mind a little runny nose. Joey is our next door neighbor and landscape contractor extraordinare! (CRI Landscape). Oil your nail gun and skill saw boys...Carport cover here we come!

December 3rd, 2008

Regarding the ongoing carport/patio saga...Concrete trucks cancelled because all inspectors and bosses were in a meeting this morning and so no one could come by to OK the pouring of concrete until 11am. Too late for today...concrete trucks tomorrow. So it looks like there will be a carport building party on Saturday. It will be a "Triple Plum" event (Dann, Ryan & Jason). Quatro (Roger) is scheduled to show up about noon with lunch. Other than the fact that us Plums love to do anything together, it seems like a total waste of time and money. No doubt there will be stories to tell. If someone ends up falling off the roof, I won't be surprised. Today we finished installing the interior doors, and all the moulding that goes around each door. I ran back and forth to the saw, cutting pieces to size and Dann handled the nail gun. An angel in a tool belt showed up mid morning to help with the baseboards. Tom Barnes to the rescue! What a friend. We went from weary to way happy in a matter of hours. He is a perfectionist and happy to do the trickiest parts of the job. Well, happy might be more what we feel when he agrees to tackle it. Tomorrow, the concrete. Thinking of letting Micah walk barefoot all the way across it!

December 2nd, 2008.

Today started out so much better. The frustrating inspector came by with a great attitude today. Everything passed without a problem. So the concrete guys filled the corners of perfectly good yard area with concrete to support the posts that will sit at the corners of the "to code, yet fleeting,carport cover". The flooring was finished by early afternoon, thanks to Cristin and John Harrell. They brought their two little blessings along, so I am sure they were working double time, under the pressure of naptime. Dann and I worked together getting in more interior doors, and he put the door trim and baseboards in the bathrooms so that the vanities could be set and hooked up by plumber, Jeff. Of course, I cracked a tooth on Sunday and instead of helping at the house, spent 2 hours in the dentist chair. Looks like tomorrow we'll be ready to start some of the baseboards and door moldings. Everything was finally moving along, until we got home and listened to a message from inspector joe. After going back to the office, he is concerned with the placement of the carport. "Hold off on the concrete, my boss and I need to come out tomorrow and look at the distance between it and the other structures". Hold off? On your approval, we already have 4 cubes (18x18x24) poured and hardening. Now I know there are rules. 5' from the neighbor, 6' from other buildings, and the pad has to be 18' x 20'. I took the plan to the county two weeks ago when inspector boss said we had to build it. Back and forth between zoning and building & safety offices trying to get a straight answer. There is just not room to satisfy all of those rules in the space we have. "Who approved these plans?" asked the zoning guy. "Building and Safety" came my answer. "Go talk to them about it". Finally the main guy, really helpful supervisor from the week before, said my sketch and locations were fine. So now here we are, spending and pouring and building something we don't want, where there is no room anyway. If you could see the hard 90 degree turn that it would take to park there, and then the long backing out down a single car driveway from required carport, you would know as we do, that NOT NOBODY , NOT NO HOW would ever chance parking there. I am pretty sure they know that too, but somehow this rule is supposed to keep people from parking their cars on the street. UGH...enough ranting! Anyway, tune in tomorrow for this continuing saga. Can you tell I'm getting a little weary? Deck the halls? I'm ready to deck some ...oh never mind!

December 1st, 2008

Yesterday was frustrating. Flooring taking longer than we thought, doors need to be hung, baseboard and moulding around the doors, paint the doors and casings, finish the gutters, and the worst...show CRI landscaping (amazing next door neighbor) where the carport/patio has to go. We had so hoped that the County inspector would miss that small detail. Every house built now has to have two covered parking spaces. Since there are two houses and only one garage, we have to create two more covered parking spaces. The only place possible for an 18x20 concrete pad is in the front yard area of Kristen's house, which is the back yard area of Jason's. We all thought it would be much better to have a large area of green grass, but alas when we called in supervisors for our inspector trouble a couple of weeks ago, he caught it and ask when we would be building it. Blacht! I am tempted to tell you right now that as soon as we get our final approvals, down comes the carport wood structure leaving only the floor. It makes no sense to take out that much concrete, so they will have large patio area instead. But in case any of the Zoning department happens upon this blog, I will withhold that secret for now. So they dug and Dann spent the day trying to fix the area in the master bath where the toilet drain had to be moved over 3 inches. See previous entry. I got the front door hardware on and the rest of the kitchen knobs on. We had hoped for so much more today. Hopefully tomorrow goes better.

November 28th, 2009

The neighbor cleans his driveway after our plumber left a little mud on or near his concrete. I decided to take a minute to let him know that we are nearly finished with the mess and noise and we really appreciate his patience and understanding. The patience and understanding thing could have been a guess on my part, but I think we might want to acknowledge their inconvenience in a more tangible way. Note to self...something to show our appreciation to our tolerant neighbors.

November 28th, 2008

So while Dann and John work on the floor, I tried to make myself useful by installing the kitchen knobs and the exterior door handles and deadbolts. Some times you just have to try something to find out if you can do it. Who knew tools, directions and an artificial blonde could combine for security? In the meantime, the plumber had to move the toilet drain in the master bathroom, 3 inches to the left. I guess there is a rule in the building code that says walls must be at least 15 inches on each side of the toilet drain. I guess that provides anyone with shoulders up to 30", across equal "squatting rights"! Good idea, but I wish we had known that a bit earlier preventing the jackhammer at this late stage. But, bottom line is at Micah's house...all things bottom are in line!

November 28th, 2008

Well its been two weeks since I last posted updates. Not that our hands have been idle, but we started the flooring. You know the "easy kind" of wood flooring tha just snaps together? Well, snapping maybe easy, but down on the concrete on your knees for hours, relieved only by the repeated visits to the table saw to cut pieces so that the pattern looks random...that's the hard part and the slow part. Our wonderful friend John Harrell is helping and he bring the experience and instruction. Dann has a new respect for his dad and the years of carpet laying he did. I think we are about 70% done, only parts of the bedrooms and closets are left. I think the most tricky cuts are done and we are sure hoping to finish it early this week.

November 13th, 2008

I hate to complain, really everything has gone so well. But we had a little inspector issue on Wednesday. Not that anything is wrong with the house, but something was very wrong in the way the discussion went. I admit to being ignorant about building and needing help knowing all the details of what yet needs to be completed. Some things are obvious: plumbing, heating vents, outlets, light fixtures, flooring. And I am even happy to say I realize we need to grade the yard for proper drainage and install gutters. Everything is in the process or on the schedule. But Mr. Inspector really threw me for a loop! Completely uncooperative. He was just having a downright rude morning. Wouldn't look at anything beyond the first question he had for the plumber. Started questioning what piping was in the ground, (which has been covered for months at his ok). Talking like he was suspicious that we were trying to hide something or not build to code. In discussing the electrical with Ventura's best electrician, there was no discussion allowed. Hmmm... we were his first stop and nothing was in his way when he got there. So what's a Plum to do? Its one thing to be rude to me, I take it quite differently when he is rude to people that are working hard for us. Looking back I wish I had just ended the meeting right away and stood up for respect and decency on our own property. So...off to the county to ask for help. #1 How should I best deal with this inspector who holds our house in his hands? #2 How can I find out all the things that are less obvious, but need to be done to get our final approval? Can I just say that Joe Martinez at Ventura County Building and Safety was so VERY helpful and is going to work with us to resolve everything. Boy we can get caught up in criticizing our government offices, so let me just balance the scale a bit and say everyone was wonderfully helpful. So we are back on track, discouragement overpowered by help and hope! And as "Bob the Builder" would say..."can we build it? YES WE CAN!"

November 12th, 2008

"Oh my goodness!" As we speak my grandson is repeating this over and over just because is sounds so cute and he gets such a great reaction. But is also describes the day. More details to follow, but just know that there is lots going on at Micah's house. Light fixtures are in, thanks to Bill owner of Liberty Electric. He really is the best electrician in town and all the little lighting extras like above the cabinets and below the cabinets and above the floating wall.....delicious! More pics to follow, but here is a quick electrical update.

November 8th, 2009

Faithful electrician calls and shows up early on Saturday morning (before 7am which is technically yesterday on my body's clock). He really is a consciencious guy and attended another customer that had an emergency short and small fire. Though we got an little anxious, if I was the customer with the short and fire, I'd sure be glad he was available in the emergency. Plus he is working all day Saturday and Sunday to catch up. Got to love that kind of dedication and follow through. We have had the BEST contractors all the way through. People warned us that is the most frustrating part of the process. God is good and has to understand construction, after all his son was a carpenter!

November 7th, 2009

Check, Check, Check...It seems like we are quickly checking off the last projects before the final inspection. Paulino and his crew (brother & uncle) install the beautiful granite counter tops. Jeff drops off the perfect sink, Dann installed all the blinds today, did some painting & shopped for the gutters. Kristen's bedroom is wallpapered, transforming it into a beautiful backdrop for the furniture and bedding. The exterior doors were painted inside and out. We are feeling a little nervous about the electrician though. He was supposed to come Wed, then Thursday, then today (friday) to install the fire bell, outlets, and light fixtures. He didn't show up or call. Dann talked to him this morning and he was gathering everything he needed and was headed over to get started...but didn't and didn't call. He has been great all along and very quick to respond and has done a great job, so I really want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he lost his cell phone with all his numbers in it and spent the day looking for it? Family emergency, car accident? We are praying he turns up both for our own peace of mind that he is ok and the financial effects of having to pay someone else to do what he has left. It's our first contractor problem, so we have been very fortunate. Paulino on the other hand...what a really nice guy and what a great job they did!

October 29th 2008

Cabinets are hung and fit perfectly. Crown moulding next. Kristen got busy installing shelves in the pantry and Micah found a perfect place to relax! A couple of days ago Mom and Micah made chocolate chip cookies for Uncle Jason. Every once in a while he would turn up missing and we would hear him yelling from the back porch about going into Jason's house to get a "tootie". Good idea!!

October 24th, 2009

Its list making time. Lists of what to do next, what to measure, what to buy, what to paint, what bulbs go where, what needs to be flat and what needs semi gloss, how many drawer pulls and how many knobs, how many shelves in the pantry and how many in the linen closet, what size are the mirrors and how wide are the windows...but oh what fun! We are to the pretty stage. Listing and picking out the things that are colorful, shiny, curly, and add warmth. This trip to Lowe's will be henceforth referred to as the "Lowe's event". I think anything over 3 hours should be reclassified. You know you've been there too long when the same lighting guy has asked 3 different times if you need any help yet. (HD & Lowe's shopping hint: Bring lovely young blond daughter along for extra attention from helpful male employees:)

October 21st, 2008

What a great day and great friends! We met at 5pm and except that we ran a little short of paint, everything was painted by 6:15pm. Pizza from Dominoes and salad from Nana Niecy finished off the party perfectly! Thanks gang! Cristin, you missed a spot...see you at sunrise! :)

October 16th

Of all the painting, I love walls the best! It takes more time with a brush and roller, but the color turns a generic place into a personal creation of warmth and vision. Not my vision or creation this time, which makes it all the more fun to see it appear. Three walls in Micah's room...color perfect! Second color on the 4th wall yet to be seen. Three grey-blue walls cut in and ready in the master bedroom and so far very lovely! The great room is a little dark, but that is the beauty of paint...color adjustment- needs to be a little lighter and we are ready for a rolling party Tuesday. All you need to get past the bouncer at the door is a 9" roller frame & tray! And if you show up without, the hostess will probably make an acception! Dinner included so RSVP

October 14th, 2008

On Sunday the 12th, Dann sprayed primer on every single wall surface in the house. I was hidden away in the mountains trying to get a feel for relaxation so I am ready when the house is done and the wedding is over. What a great season for the Plum family, so much excitement in the air! Anyway, Tuesday the 14th, celebrated my brother's birthday by painting the ceilings. Three hours, two coats, 8 gallons, minus the gallon I accidently spilled on the floor.

Got to love a sprayer! I mean its the only way to go if you don't have to worry about over spray. So the ceilings are done and we move on to brushing and rolling wall color. To borrow a line from a very courageous man "Let's Roll!"

October 9th, 2008

Whew! A hot week has come and gone and bless those dry wall guys they didn't miss a beat even in the heat. Texture went on today and will be dry by Sunday for primer. Ahhh, Sunday, the day of rest or painting? We'll see. All of the interior paint was picked out and purchased. 14 gallons of primer, 4 gallons of ceiling white for...you guessed it, ceilings and closets, 3 gallons for the kitchen/great room and possibly bedroom #3, 2 gallons and two colors for Micah's room and 3 rolls of wallpaper and 1 gallon for the master bedroom. Probably not enough, but we have way extra of the exterior base color and trim so I am shy about buying too much until we see. Bathrooms yet to be determined. We finished all the exterior trim Wednesday and have started assembling the kitchen cabinets. Lots of heavy flat boxes turn into lovely white cabinets following pages of instructions and our little foreman to show us how its done! It is so handy to be 36" tall when you need to get inside a 36" wide cabinet to work on it. All of you who offered to help paint back when we were just talking about this project...we're calling your bluff! Dig out your roller frame and pan and meet us on Alameda next weekend!

PS. Ventura's most eligible bachelor is still single. The opportunity to casually cross paths with Danny Strong at our house as come and gone. Guess you could punch a whole in your own wall and give him a call:)