We won't take The Fitz for granite

I think Nancy did a great job picking out our granite counter tops. It's a good thing because there are lots of granite counter tops I see that I hate. As if her saying yes to my marriage proposal wasn't enough, this proves she has excellent taste.

I'm not going to write much tonight because a) I wrote a bunch last night, and b) a brutha has to work in the a.m. bright and early, curing puppies and kittens all over Houston of what ails them. Here are some pictures of our kitchen:

A Sod Day at The Fitz

They laid down the sod in the front yard today, so from the outside, The Fitz looks finished. There is obviously still quite a bit to do on the inside. Among the assorted things we got today: door knobs, bathroom counter tops, and a shower. It is so strange that we still get excited to go visit our soon-to-be new house almost every day. At the outset of our new home search, we were dead-set against building...not wanting to deal with all the headaches that we heard go along with it. We were content to buy a finished home and move right in. Looking back, we are glad that we decided to build, because it has been alot of fun to see it grow on a day-to-day basis. And so far we have avoided having to deal with too many headaches. Of course, that could all change tomorrow, cuz it ain't done yet.

Nancy is very excited that, through random luck of the draw, we got a palm tree/plant of some sort in our front flower bed. Evidently we did not get to pick the types of trees or plants in our yard. Of course, I didn't know that since I was, um, busy during the meetings where things like that were discussed. Anyway, Nancy was so excited that we have a palm tree that she had to call her mom right away. I have no idea why a palm tree is exciting, and I am happy to continue to not know why. All I know is, that as we drove around the neighborhood today, she pointed out everyone else's landscaping, none of which have palm trees, and celebrated our good luck. However, since no one else has a palm tree, it makes me think she secretly paid like a thousand dollars for it and isn't telling me. Maybe I should have gone to those meetings after all.

Palm Tree/ Plant

It's okay, she can have her girly palm trees. I've got something much cooler...nipple lights. These lights are all the rage now, evidently...as I see them in almost every new home I go into. Maybe I have the gutter-mind of a pubescent 13 year old boy, but to me these lights more than slightly resemble a certain part of the female chest. So I thought, what better way to spice up my office than to have a couple of these lights specially installed. See what you think:

We also were not thrilled with the generic landscaping that was done in our front yard, so we decided to spice it up a little with some landscaping of our own:

The little old man home inspector for our buyers came to the house today while Nancy was home, so she spent an hour or so laughing at all his jokes, offering him drinks, and generally making friends with him in hopes of him not condemning our house and causing yet another offer to fall through. From the feedback she got, I think her plan worked. At least our realtor has not called yet to tell us they have backed out. I guess there's always tomorrow.

Study

Upstairs bath

Master bath. I get that tiny corner with the sink, Nancy gets the rest.

Trees and Lights, and it Ain't even Christmas!

Today they put up all the light fixtures, switch plates, front door, electrical outlets, and trees. Yep, trees. We've got no yard, but we've got trees. And these are monster trees, too, lemme tell ya. I can't wait to sit under the shade of this tree, on a hot summer day, once it is big enough to provide shade. In 2041.

And I can see it now, our future kids climbing this tree...maybe even a tree house. Of course they'll be in their 30's by the time it is big enough. And that would just be weird.

Random Thoughts:

Our front yard is really small. Less mowing is okay with me. Oh wait, my wife gave away our lawn mower. Oh well, I could probably cut it with scissors in about ten minutes.

The more decor-type stuff that gets put in, the more I realize I had NO part in picking it out. Literally the first time I saw our tile, light fixtures, and cabinets was after they were installed. Good thing my wife has good taste and I like her choices so far. Of course, I think the tile would have to be pink with polka-dots for me to care enough to not like it.

We have a crazy dog that barks at any person or motorized machinery within sight of her house and yard. Neither house next to us has even been started yet. I can't wait until 20 people with power saws, a bulldozer, and a concrete truck spend dawn to dusk 5 feet from our house for three months. I might have to perform a "de-barking" surgery in the near future. I'm just sayin'.

How in the world am I supposed to change this light bulb?:

It's 25 feet up. I think I will have to call the fire department if it ever goes out. If you come to our house at night, and our porch is really dark, you'll know why.

This one might be an adventure, too:

The front door, sans glass:

The entry way tile and new front door:

The dining room light:

A Monkey drinking a beer:

Third Time's The Charm??

Somehow, a potential buyer has looked past the fact that our house does indeed have electricity, and thus power lines, and put in an offer. Forgive me if I am not jumping up and down with joy just yet. After the flaky folks we have been dealing with in the past month, we are not going to be excited until the ink is dry on the closing paperwork. With this buyer, the date happens to be May 15th. We’ll see if we make it that far.

Nancy is still hobbling around on crutches, but she is doing well. Well, except for the fact that they will not let her go to work on crutches. Seriously. They kicked her off of campus and are forcing her to use her paid days off, just because she is on crutches. Evidently it is a new Katy ISD rule. When did common sense become extinct in the pencil pushers who make these rules?

The biopsy showed this to be just a benign cyst, but she will have to have a bone graft to prevent the cyst from causing a fracture in the bone in her ankle. She is really looking forward to that. Then she will be on crutches for three months. Alot of help she’s gonna be when we move. Looks like I better start calling the moving companies.

I got an email last week with a bunch of motivational posters. Here are a few of them. They crack me up.

The latest construction news on The Fitz: They put up our fence, laid our tile, finished our cabinets, and put down dirt for our yard. So really the only major things they have left are laying carpet, installing appliances and countertops, landscaping, and putting in all the fixtures. It’s getting close!

Surgery Fun

Nancy's surgery (biopsy of her bone cyst in her ankle...see previous blog 'cause I don't feel like explaining it) went really well today. She was home by 3pm. Her mom came into town to help her out, which I know she really appreciated. Doris was really impressed by her surgeon, so she snapped a photo of him after her procedure.

I did, as promised, take some pictures of her incision and her foot after the biopsy. I was really trying to get her to go back in first thing in the morning, because, although my area of expertise is the four-legged variety, I think it looks infected.

We decided not to wait, and I used some of my mad vet doctorin' skillz, a bottle of tequila, a ball-peen hammer, and her mom to hold her down...and I got her fixed up. Here's a picture from just a few minutes ago:

Seriously, she is doing fine, and we should find out some results next Tuesday. Convincing her to stay off of it and to use her crutches is gonna be the hard part.

Update

Nancy is going in Monday for a biopsy of the cyst in her ankle. She should be finished by noon or so. I'll let you know how it goes. She has to stay off of it and keep it elevated afterwards for 24 hours, so I will get to be her personal butler for the next week or so. I have temporarily adopted the name Jeeves and a British accent to more accurately portray the role. Luckily, her mom is here for the part where she can't move at all!

We had a blast in College Station this weekend for the Maroon and White game. We got to hang with Jeff, Celeste, and Shafer and act like college students for a night. Things got pretty interesting, but no one got arrested, so that's a plus.

They literally did nothing to our house this entire week. Which is okay, I guess, since we still don't have any prospects in the home selling department. But that is my excuse for the lack of blogging.

Check back tomorrow for photos of Nancy's biopsy incision.

It's like Seinfeld buying a house

You’ll have to forgive my lack of blogging lately. I have been a little frustrated with the lack of progress in selling our house. That, coupled with very little progress on The Fitz, has left me with very little to blog about and not much motivation to come up with something.

We continue to have people looking at our house, which is a good thing. However, everyone seems to come up with one thing that is a deal-breaker for them, and we never hear from them again. Like Jerry Seinfeld would always find some minute detail he didn't like about a woman, and he would dump her. For example, the feedback left on our showing website from the people who the house was shown to today said, “My clients loved it until they went into the backyard. Yep, the powerlines! Not much you can do about that. Good luck!”

I know our 25 year-old house is not perfect by any means, but I never even knew we had a problem with powerlines, and that is the first anyone has ever said about it. I had to go outside a while ago to see if I could figure out what they were talking about. Indeed, there are some powerlines that are above our back fence. There is even a telephone pole in the corner of our back yard. Maybe they know something I don’t, but I can’t figure out why you wouldn’t buy a house you ‘love’ because of that. It’s not like the powerlines are dangling loose, sparking all over the ground, or three feet off the ground, or even touching a tree in our back yard. They are 20 feet in the air, connected to wooden poles, just like every other power line in the world. Don’t all homes with electricity have powerlines connected to them? I guess I am missing something.

I wish I could call these people, along with the clown who put in an offer last week, then decided he wasn’t ready to buy a house, and ask them what the hell they are thinking.

Anyway, we still have 6 weeks until our house is finished, so hopefully someone will like it enough to put in an offer between now and then. But I can see the feedback now from the next prospective buyer: “My client loved the house. It is everything they have been looking for and more. They were ready to make an offer until they went out the back door. Yep, there’s grass in the back yard! Not much you can do about that. Good luck!”

On to some pictures of The Fitz: