The Meetings are over, and the real fun begins

Today was our last official meeting before our house is officially under construction. It was a meeting with the construction manager who is actually overseeing the whole construction process. Of course, I couldn't go because a brotha has to work, so Nancy went by herself. I'm really glad she is a teacher and gets off by 4, or I don't know when we would have these little meetings. Of course, I am not at all sad that I have a good excuse to miss most of them. I just get the highlights from her, which is the way I like it. That said, she could be telling him to paint the walls pink and I would never know.

It sounded like this meeting wasn't all that exciting anyway. Just kinda finalizing all the things in our Fitz that are not standard. And we do get running water at no extra charge, which is a big relief. It helps that my wife is pretty hot, because she just bats her eyelashes at the construction dude, and all of the sudden we've got an extra closet under the stairs, an extra light in the kitchen, a different door on our master bath, and a few other free "extras". Maybe I'll just keep missing these meetings so that he might throw in a pool or something.

As you saw in the last pictures I posted, the beginning stages are now underway. The forms for the slab are built, and now all the Re-bar and plastic barriers, along with all the plumbing, are in place. They are supposed to be pouring our slab at 5 am tomorrow morning. And no, I am not getting up that early to drive out there and supervise. Although it is the most important part of the house. They better not screw it up, that's all I've got to say. I've seen Nancy mad.

Tonight was the first night that we haven't driven out there to take a look after I got home from work, because a) Nancy already went out there today for the meeting and took pictures, and b) she said nothing is different from last night when we went. You can bet that we'll go out there tomorrow night though. I can guarantee it will be the most excited I have ever been about a slab of concrete. They estimate 90 days from tomorrow before we close. Know anybody that wants to buy a house?, because we are motivated sellers.

Actually, our house looks entirely different now that we have put all the "clutter" in storage and had our carpet shampooed. And Shelby-stains cost us an extra $200. You gotta love when they tell you $150-200 over the phone and it ends up costing $400. I think Shelby needs to get a job.

Anyway, on to the pictures. The night pictures are from our nightly trip on Tuesday night to the new neighborhood with a flashlight and a camera. The other pictures are from today. Looks like everything is ready for the concrete truck tomorrow bright and early. Check back in tomorrow for some exciting pictures of cement. Woohoo!

The future shower and bathtub drains in the master bath

All ready for some 5 am Concrete!

Vegas, Baby...and the Fitzgerald is officially started

Well, it's back to the real world now, after a fun trip to Vegas.

The trip was actually for my continuing education. I have to have 17 hours per year to keep my license. I usually go to the Southwest Veterinary Symposium in exciting Ft. Worth, but this time, we decided to make a vacation out of it and head to the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas. Nothing against Ft. Worth, but Las Vegas has a little more in the way of "leisure activities". Last time we went to Vegas two years ago, Nancy decided she wanted to stay at New York-New York the next time we went, so that is where we stayed. While we were downtown, one of our friends sent a picture from his camera of Flava Flav shooting craps right next to him in another casino. Nancy was very sad that she was not there to embarrass herself. If you've never been around when she sees a celebrity, count yourself lucky.

We played alot of Blackjack and Roulette, and I played in a few poker tournaments. We had some winning sessions, and I even made the money in one of the poker tourneys, but overall we lost money, of course. All those huge hotels were not built by the house losing money. Suckers like me, by the thousands, throw wads of cash away every day. But damn it sure is fun. We also saw a comedy hypnotist show. Our friend Roxanne got hypnotized and made a fool of herself. It was hilarious! Nancy tried to get hypnotized, but she got kicked off stage when she didn't go "under". The guy's name is Anthony Cools, and if you are ever at the Paris casino, I would recommend checking him out.

I'm sorry to report that there was no huge woman sitting next to us on either flight. In fact, both flights were fairly uneventful. Which is the way I like it.

Today we drove out to the new neighborhood and FINALLY, they have put up the forms to pour our foundation. Nancy said that Mike told her, weather permitting, the slab should be poured on Wednesday. Don't worry, there will be pictures. I know you can't wait.

Speaking of pictures...Of course we took some pics today of our wooden forms from every angle possible. It's not much, but it's kind of exciting. We also went today and rented a storage unit for all our "clutter"...so that we can show our house and hopefully sell it sooner rather than later. Nancy is packing as I type this (Hey, I've gotta rest up for all the heavy lifting). She is now concerned that we may need a bigger unit. Tomorrow is gonna be so much fun, I can hardly wait.

Now, on to the pictures:

Some hot chick next to where our garage will be.














That's our future covered patio
















Me standing on our future patio
















Sold!











From the front yard.












Looking towards the street.












From the Street

Wow, another productive weekend.

Another exciting weekend around here. We actually got quite a bit done in our preparations to (attempt to) sell our house. Nancy's parents came into town, and we put them to work. I had to work Saturday morning, and by the time I got home, the rotten board under our roof awning was replaced and caulked, just waiting to be painted. Nancy's dad is a really good carpenter, and I was impressed at how well it turned out. Of course, I am easily impressed, since I couldn't even build a birdhouse. I inherited my carpentry style from my dad. It involves alot of crooked saw cuts, unsquare angles, and cussing. And usually someone else to come along and finish it after I throw the hammer across the yard and go inside.

We also borrowed our friend's pressure washer to power wash our bricks, sidewalk, and driveway, at the urging of our realtor. Evidently black gunk, mold, and mildew is not a big selling point, much like pee on the toilet rim (or floor) and toothpaste in the sink, as I learned last week. I think I'm ready to take my real estate license exam.

I have got to get me one of these pressure washers. The one we used was something like 1750 psi. I'm pretty sure I want one that is about 5000 psi. Although 1750 psi will tear the skin off your toe pretty well, as I learned on Sunday. It's amazing the difference a little pressure washing makes to the looks of the house. I hadn't realized how much gunk was built up until we started cleaning it. Of course, I didn't know what color our kitchen walls were the other day when Nancy asked me, and she would probably have to shave her head before I noticed her haircut.

We celebrated our now cement-colored driveway and non-rotten board with some steaks on the grill. 12 oz, 1.5" thick Prime Ribeyes. Enough said. Also grilled some vegetables for the rabbit-food lovers. I catch alot of grief for not eating peppers, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, asparagus and other assorted veggies. What can I say, I am a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. I actually do eat ALOT of vegetables. I just eat them after the cow has pulled them from the ground, digested them and turned them into highly-marbled red meat.

Also got the opportunity to check up on my newest patient, Mr. Whiskers. He is Nancy's parents' very spunky and cute Yorkie mix. A week ago I surgically removed his manhood (literally, not like Kristy did to Chad). Nancy and her mom watched the procedure, which they enjoyed, without even passing out. Mr Whiskers, a 7 lb dog, required an elizabethan collar (i.e. funnel, lampshade) made for a 40 lb dog, because he contorted himself like a pretzel, in spite of the normal e-collar, so that he could obsessively lick his incision. No matter what we tried, he just kept trying to lick it. By the time I saw him this past weekend, he had finally stopped, and it is healing very well.

We are getting ready to go to Las Vegas for "continuing education". I have a hard time going to these lectures when they are in Ft Worth, so what do you think my attendance rate will be in Vegas? Ought to be fun, and all on the company dime...well, except for the gambling.

When we get back from Vegas, we have our "pre-construction" meeting, where we finalize every detail with the actual construction supervisor. Soon after that they should start building the damn thing finally. Then you'll get more pictures than you ever wanted to see.

The Design Center & More Pictures

Sorry it has been so long since I've written in this here blog. All of you (and by "all of you", I mean Nancy, since I'm pretty sure she is the only one that reads it. And she has been nagging...errr, encouraging me to write again) can exhale. The anticipation is finally over.

Since that last literary masterpiece, alot has happened. Unfortunately, none of it the least bit exciting. I missed all the fun of going to the Studio M design center (aka the bend-you-over and charge you $1000 for an elongated toilet center). Is the elongated toilet really an "upgrade"? I mean, the only difference is it's oval-shaped instead of round, right? Am I missing something? Does it also come with a built-in bidet, or is it made of some kind of more expensive porcelin? Does it require special plumbing? No, it's just a different freaking shape. Evidently oval costs twice as much as round in the toilet world. And Nancy actually considered paying for this "upgrade". Something about my aim not being so good, or something. Speaking of which, since we are showing our house to prospective buyers soon, evidently I need to "work on" leaving toothpaste in the sink, water all over the bathroom counter, and the previously mentioned aim. I stated my case that a buyer wants a house that looks 'homey' and has been lived-in, not a museum. I lost that argument.

Anyway, what was I talking about again? Oh yeah...design center. Nancy went by herself since I don't get off work until 6. I was so proud of her for not checking the All of the Above box at the end of the ten page list of "upgrades" at the design center. I even talked her into not paying them for the window blinds she wanted, since we can easily (and much cheaper!!) buy and install those ourselves. In the end (no pun intended) we got quite a few upgrades, but nothing too outrageous...and we managed to only go just a little over our allotted amount of free upgrades.

We also had to meet with our buddy, Mike, our sales rep with Meritage. We had to finalize our contract, and for some reason sign the exact same 532 pages we signed two weeks ago. Evidently, the 1435 signatures from last time were not good enough.

Nancy's mom finally got to see the model home. She really liked it, and she took alot of pictures, some of which you'll see in just a minute. While we were in our meeting in the little model home office/ future garage, she came in and asked Mike if there was any way for her to get up in the attic to check it out. He said no. But that didn't stop her. Actually, when she had asked him, "Mike, is there any way for me to get up in the attic and look around?", what she really meant was, "Mike, I am going to go climb in the attic now and snoop around. Do I have your permission, or do I have to sneak up there?" .So she went and got one of the chairs from the dining room, stood up on it, and climbed up in the attic. We heard a strange noise coming from the back of the house while we were signing the contract, somewhere around page 47. Nancy immediately whispered to me, "My mom's up to something". Luckily, Mike didn't go check it out. And we never heard her above us in the attic. She might have gotten in trouble from Mike over that one.

My parents haven't seen it yet, but knowing my mom, Doris won't be the last person snooping around without Mike's permission.

We also had to pick out our brick. From a 3' x 3' board with about 6 bricks arranged on it. That's like trying to pick out your clothes by only looking at a button. There's no way you can know what it will look like on your house based on six bricks on a board. So it's very possible that one day in a few months, when they finally start laying the bricks, that we will hate the bricks we picked and have to skip the country.

Anyway, they should start laying the forms for the foundation in a couple of weeks, so after that, you'll get updates a little more often. Until then, here a few pictures Doris took (none of the attic...guess she didn't want Mike to see the evidence):
Back of Model Fitzgerald



Nancy and me, and the back of Mike's head. Nancy is looking at me like I just farted, but I didn't. That was much later.

Our lot is officially off the market. And we are officially in alot of debt.