And now for floor #2

They are really truckin' along on the framing. As you can see, they've already started the second floor:

It's amazing how fast they get things done. I mean, they just started framing yesterday, and they have already finished the master bathroom:

...and the coat closet:

...and installed the refrigerator and microwave:

It's going to be a very classy house. With these upper class amenities, we may not be able to associate with you little people anymore.

If you're wondering why we finally have some decent pictures (as in ones not taken at night), well Nancy and Marci went out there after school today and checked up on things. That was before I got home and we went again. So Nancy is now going twice daily on some days.

There are two other houses that got their slabs poured on the same day as us, and started framing on the same day as us. One of which is a Fitzgerald down the street. When we drove over there tonight, the other Fitgerald had slightly more done than ours. Nancy was upset by this, and she considered taking donuts and coffee to our crew in the morning to make them work a little harder, so we can win. And I thought I was competitive.

We didn't really think it would be that obvious that we are wearing our pajamas in some of our night pictures, as several of you have pointed out. Listen, I have to wear a tie every day to work, so I get out of those clothes as quickly as possible when I get home. Even before our nightly trip to see our house. I don't know what Nancy's excuse is. Good thing she's cute.

Sportin' Wood

It's amazing how much they framed in just one day. Everyone says this is the fast part, then once it is framed out, the whole process starts dragging. Until then, we will have almost daily updates, I'm sure.

Our house is finally listed and officially for sale. Check out the listing at http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cfm?mlnum=1479320&backButton=Y

We got our yard mowed in the nick of time. Last week, when we realized we were close to listing the house, and noticed our yard looked like a jungle, we called our trusty yard man. He has always been very reliable and does a good job. I called him last week, and he says he cannot do it, because he is going to Mexico for a week, and won't be back until Sunday March 2. Well, we thought the house would be listed by the middle of last week, so that was not an option. No problem, I told him. We will find someone else to do it. This neighborhood is crawling with people who want to mow our lawn. I hang up and he calls back 5 minutes later. He obviously doesn't want to lose our business, so he has talked one of his buddies into doing it for him. He will have it done by Tuesday, he says. I agree to this plan and all is well.

Tuesday comes along, and now our yard resembles an Amazon rain forest. Wednesday. Thursday. Still a jungle out there. I called and left several messages, but he never called back. Realizing that his friend flaked out on him, I decide, despite the fact that it is dark when I get home, that I can do it. Or at the very least, do it the following weekend. Oops. Evidently my wife gave away our lawn mower to my father-in-law. So unless I want to get on my hands and knees with a pair of scissors or go drop a couple Benjamins on a new mower I will hardly ever use, I can't do it myself. I told him on one of the messages that I would give him until Monday, or call someone else. Nancy won't let me call anyone else until then, despite his not calling me back. Monday rolls around (the day the Real Estate Agent is coming out to take pictures and finalize the listing). So I start calling other places, but evidently the landscaping industry stops answering phones at 3 pm. Monday night, he called me from San Antonio, apologizing profusely for his loser friend, and said he would have it done by 9 am Tuesday. He came today and our yard finally resembles a yard again. But that is why there are no exterior pictures on our listing yet. They are going to come tomorrow and take those. Evidently having a jungle for a front yard is not a big selling point (not unlike toothpaste on the mirror).

Here are some pictures of everything that was done today:

That's Some Fine Concrete

It's nice to finally see our house actually being built. It seems like it has been such a long process to get to this point, but in reality it has only been about 6 weeks. I'm much more into the whole building process than I thought I would be, and I look forward to driving over to The Fitz on an almost daily basis to see what progress has been made since we last checked. I have a sneaking suspicion that our construction manager will be sick and tired of us by the time this is all over. But you can bet that we will be scrutinizing every detail to make sure they do things right.

Since our house is but a lonely slab as of now, most of our fun consists of going to (and in some cases breaking into) other houses that are further along in the building process. There are a couple of other Fitgeralds being built right now in the neighborhood, so we check them out at least weekly. Nancy's favorite new game is critiquing the unsuspecting future owner of the home's (whose window Nancy probably just crawled through to get us in) choice in counter tops, flooring, or carpet. Of course, our choices are the correct ones, and any choice these people made that differs from ours is horribly wrong, lacking in good taste, and/or downright ugly. One thing I am really glad we decided to upgrade to is granite counter tops. In the houses we have seen with formica, you definitely can tell a difference.

It's also great fun for us to go into other Meritage houses that are similar in size and two-story, but are a different floor plan. We have thoroughly checked out at least 5 different floor plans, and have come to the obvious conclusion that there is no match for The Fitzgerald. I am glad that we are still happy with our choice in floor plans, even after comparing to other similar ones--since we essentially picked our floor plan based on a few pictures online.

Then there is the less-often-played, but just as fun game of going into homes under construction from other builders. There are three builders scattered in our neighborhood, so we can compare the quality of ours versus the other builders...and of course, there is no comparison. Meritage is definitely the best builder in our neighborhood, if not all the world. Why anyone would even consider purchasing a cut-rate, low quality shack from one of these other lesser builders is beyond us. But in all seriousness, I think we did make the right choice. I'll get back to you after we've lived in it a while.

With all the fun and excitement of our house being built, our focus has now shifted to selling our home we live in now. All the clutter is in storage. The driveway is power washed. Shelby's toys are put away. Nothing left to do but show this sucker off. I'll be taking Shelby to work with me every day, so that no one has to deal with her when they are looking at the house.

This all has to work out perfectly, you see. We can't sell it too quickly, or we will have to find another place to live until the ol' Fitz is ready. Yet, we obviously want to sell it before we close on the new house, to avoid the nightmare of paying two mortgages. The chances of things working out perfectly are probably about zero, so be sure to either come visit us in our third-floor ghetto apartment in a month, or start gathering your recipes for that fundraising bake sale. Either way, this oughtta be fun.

In case you were wondering, yes we did take some pictures of our lovely slab, both with the forms still up, and after they were torn off on Saturday. Word is they are going to start framing on Tuesday. A mighty fine lookin' slab, don't ya think?

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.