Raise the Roof

This has been an exciting week. Well, as exciting as watching a house being built can be. It's sort of like watching grass grow, only with more nails and Mexican immigrants. I can't wait for the days when we are, quite literally, going to be excited about watching paint dry. That'll mean we are pretty close to moving in.

We even got an offer on our house. It was a laughable offer, but an offer nonetheless. I thought we should counter with a price higher than the list price, but Nancy wouldn't let me. We did make a counter offer, so we'll see how that goes.

We made our daily excursion to the new neighborhood yesterday, and they were working on it again! I mean, like actively working on it. No one was even taking a nap on our slab. That's two days in a row, folks, for those of you keeping count. And they have made quite a bit of headway since I last posted. They finished the roof, put up all the outside covering, installed the AC and all ductwork, the hot water heater, all the hardiplank and all the windows in the past two days.

Our roof is pretty steep, and Nancy was very concerned for the safety of the guys putting on our shingles. She thought they should have safety harnesses or something. I tended to agree with her that it looks pretty dangerous, but that's the reason I am not a roofer. Well, one of the reasons.

On our Friday evening trip to the house I lost my cell phone. I had put it in my pocket before we left, and the first time I got out was at the house. I figure this is where I lost it because I later realized my left shorts pocket has a huge hole in it...plenty big enough for a cell phone to drop out onto the soft dirt and me never notice. In fact, I didn't notice until the next morning as I was getting ready for work. Nancy even went out there to look for it after I went to work. Of course she didn't find it. When she got there, the AC guys were already working, so she asked them if they had seen it. Shockingly they hadn't. But one guy did offer his best guess as to where it might be. He asked who was working when we visited last night. Nancy told him it was the roofers. He nodded, with a knowing look on his face and said, "I bet they took it." Those damn roofers...a shady bunch. So now I have the fun task of retrieving all my phone numbers via mass email and painstakingly entering them into my new phone (which came complete with a shiny new 2 year contract).

We, of course, made our way to the house today as well. Sundays are when we inspect everything and take alot of pictures, since no one is around. It is also when we wander through every other semi-built home in the neighborhood, looking for defects. After all this time, you'll be glad to know The Fitz is still number one. In one house, Nancy was nosing around in one of the bedrooms, no doubt about to tell me how much smaller it is than ours, when I hear a blood-curdling scream. Great, I thought. I had warned her about stepping on nails. Now, I'm sure she had three 4 inch nails completely through her foot. Or maybe a half-built wall had come crashing down on her head. Or maybe she had stepped in a hole and broken her ankle. Whatever it was, with that scream it had to be bad.


So, being the caring husband that I am, I came running from the other end of the house, with no regard for my own safety as I stepped on nails and leaped over huge hunks of sharp metal. I practically run over her as she comes bounding out of the bedroom. A quick assessment told me that she was not horribly disfigured or wounded in any way. Then why the scream, you may ask? "A SNAKE!", she yelled. I cautiously rounded the corner, expecting to be confronted by the dripping fangs of a 10 foot rattlesnake, or even a King Cobra. Nope. A 6" long baby king snake. Hiding under the edge of the wall. So I picked it up and put it down her shirt, just for laughs. Okay, that last part is not true, because I wouldn't be here right now, at least with the ability to type, if I had done that. I did tell her about snakes being trapped in the walls of newly built houses, and climbing out of the toilet while someone sat on it. It may be awhile before she uses our nice, new, non-elongated toilets in our new house.

She did manage to recover from this traumatic incident to take some new pictures. Here ya go:

Isn't she beautiful?

We have a back door!

Our covered back patio

Slowly but Surely

There's not a whole lot to say about our house. Yesterday, we made our daily trek to the new house and everything was exactly the same as the last time we had seen it, 24 hours earlier. The workers' half-eaten lunches were still in the exact same spots as the day before, which means no one even stepped foot into our house on Wednesday, let alone do any work. It was a sunny day, so I guess they just decided to take the day off or work on a different house. Which is fine with me. We haven't even come close to selling our house yet, so we don't want them to finish it too quickly.

However, they must realize that I have a blog to write, and pictures to take. If they don't work on our house, what the hell am I supposed to do after Nancy goes to bed? Something productive? Riiiiiight. I guess I could branch out and bore you to tears with other things besides the construction of The Fitz. But when you've already written paragraph upon paragraph about concrete and shown a hundred pictures of 2x4s, other subjects would just be sooooo boring in comparison. So I will try to stay focused. But if I slip in an occasional story about a large female client showing me her yeast infection in the clinic exam room, just bear with me. It just means they probably took another day off.

Luckily for you all, The Aggies beat Iowa State in the Big 12 Basketball Tourney tonight, or I would probably be using this space for far less positive commentary. And there would be alot of cussing.

We, of course, drove out again tonight. When we got there, we saw the most unusual thing. In all our times to go out there, we had never seen anything like this. I really couldn't believe what we saw: People working on our house. Seriously, every time we have gone out there, whether it be 6 pm or the middle of the day, weekday or Saturday, we have never actually witnessed anyone doing any actual work on our house. Obviously they were working at some point, since our house was growing. Yet we never caught them in the act. One Saturday around 1 pm (see pictures in previous post) all the workers were laying around on our slab listening to Tejano music when we got there. We drove around, walked through 5 or 6 unfinished houses, stopped by the model home to say hi to Mike, and when we went back to our house an hour and a half later, they hadn't moved. That's one heck of a lunch break!

Well today, we were happy to see that most of the rough plumbing and gas, and even some of the siding, has been done, and they are starting to put the protective sheeting on the frame, even still working on it when we arrived at 6:30. They even smiled for our pictures. We took a few, but nothing too exciting today. You can see our shower drain is now in place, and all the windows have been dropped off, and a few are already installed. Hopefully, after this weekend, I'll have some more exciting stories and pictures to share. Since there is even someone in Dubai reading this blog, I wouldn't want to disappoint my international audience.

Our master bedroom window

More windows to install

Master shower drain

Yes, those are workers!

Even got some Hardi-Plank installed today

It's Been a Great Year!

Without going into the detail that I did in my very first post on this here blog...it has been an exciting year for us and our families. Tomorrow is our one year anniversary. Then, the next exciting happening will be Makinley joining our crazy family. Maybe the Bigham side will lend some sanity to the child. Nancy and I have decided that next weekend is a perfect weekend to drive to Austin. This means that Makinley needs to enter this world sometime next week, and mom and daughter need to be home by Saturday afternoon for our visit. See what you can do, Laura.

Great news this past week is that Mom is healthy and doesn't have to go to MD Anderson for another 6 months. She got to stay with us one night last week, and we really enjoyed having her. She even got to go see the Fitzgerald model home and what there was of our house's frame. And as far as I know she did not snoop around in the attic of the model Fitz like Doris. We were a little disappointed that Brynna was sick...so Dad, Lo, and Brynna did not make the trip. But we had a great time nonetheless.

Now about tomorrow. I can't believe that it has already been a year since our wedding. A year since our crazy, fun reception. A year since my drunk wife puked all night in our honeymoon suite while I watched Sportscenter. A year since our "wonderful" flight to Florida. It really does not seem that long ago. I guess with all the excitement of the past year, time has really flown by.

Not to mention marriage has been much better than I ever imagined. It helps when you are married to the most beautiful, selfless, smartest, funniest woman in the world. God has blessed me with a great family, a great career, great friends, my own clinic, you name it...the blessings are too numerous to count...but for Him to bless me with a girl who can put up with ME...now that's really something. And lemme tell ya, it ain't easy. All I know is that, even though I don't deserve a woman half as wonderful as she is, I am happier with her and love her more than I could have ever imagined.

The best thing about our relationship is that we have fun together. I think that is what keeps her from running off screaming into the night. Well, that and I hide her keys every night. She sometimes even laughs at my jokes, and she makes me laugh more times a day than I can count. It's sappy and cheesy and cliche, but I really do feel like the luckiest guy in the world. I know that the next 50 or 60 years (in The Fitzgerald, of course, cuz I ain't moving again) will be just as much fun as this first one.

Tomorrow we get to eat year-old, dried out, probably freezer burnt wedding cake. But you can tell by looking at me that I think even bad cake is still pretty good.

Framing is complete!

Well, the Ol' Fitz is really taking shape. And with these guys working on it at such a frenetic pace, we may be able to move in next week!

Just kidding. Those guys really have gotten an amazing amount done in just one week. A week ago, it was nothing but a slab. Now we can walk up the stairs and wander around the second floor.

I know the construction crews love it when we wander up and get in their way. And I am sure the unsuspecting owners of several houses out there would love the fact that we walk through their house a couple of times every week. We feel like we know these people, based solely on their as yet unfinished house, and never having met most of them. And we have yet to be busted by the owners showing up while we are critizing their choices in flooring, counter tops, and floor plans. I've already prepared myself for the day when we are opening doors in some stranger's house, loudly critiquing their tiny kitchen with the ugly counters, when the new owners walk in and hear everything we are saying. That will be awkward.

And as much as we go out there, I'm sure we will one day run into some people walking through our unfinished house. Or maybe we are the only weirdos that do that. Nancy might just kick them out if she finds anyone in our house uninvited, though.

Here are some up-to-date pictures of the house. Looks like they are just about done with framing, and will start putting up the facing soon. You probably thought I was kidding when I said we would update the pictures daily. Hell, I thought I was kidding.

View of the living room from the upstairs game room

I am sitting on the shower seat in our master bath

Nancy is in the kitchen, looking into the living room. Being able to do this was a big reason she liked this floor plan.

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?