Tuesday, December 16, 2008

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!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

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!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

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.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

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!






Sunday, December 7, 2008

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!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

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!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

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.