Lots of Progress

Not only do we have concrete but they have started framing.  We think we are still behind schedule probably at least a month.  Here are some of the latest photos.

Here is a before and after photo of the large oak in front of where our house will be.  Rob has been clearing out all the cedar from under the tree and now it looks beautiful.

This is the garage and the start of the framing for the utility room (on the right), pantry and spare bedroom closet (on the left).

Framing for the exercise room.

We hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and are looking to 2013 as much as we are!

Close to concrete

Is it possible to be this excited about concrete?  Well yes it is.  We visited the property yesterday and they are close to pouring the concrete.  There is another Jimmy Jacobs home under construction down the road from us and they are about a week or two ahead of us.  So we are going to start stopping by there to see how that progress is going and that will give us a good idea what will be coming up for us.  Last week when we stopped by they were at the same point we were yesterday so we are hoping they will pour concrete this week.  Concrete takes time to cure so more than likely after it's poured nothing else will happen till the new year.

Here are a couple of  photos.

This is going to be the garage.

This is a view from the back left corner of the house.  This will be the exercise room.

This picture is taken from the back side of the house also looking into the exercise room.  We have a few floor electric boxes being installed in the exercise room, great room and office.  So this picture just shows where one of those floor will be.

This is going to be the master shower.

The black heavy plastic is the water barrier they put down before pouring the concrete.  The black plastic is covering packed down rock and sand mixture, that make up the base, all the paths/tunnels are where the concrete footings are going to be, which distribute the weight of the house.  The white tubes that are sticking up are the water drainage pipes.  Construction is very different when there is no basement.

Hopefully the weather will continue to hold up so they can continue to make progress.

Otherwise life in Texas finds us doing well.  I'm coming up on 2 months with NewTek.  We attended the company holiday party last week which was held at Howl at the Moon on the Riverwalk and was a great time.  Rob has been spending spare time cutting down trees on the property.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Texans for 3 months

Yesterday marked 3 months since we moved to Texas, some days it still feels surreal that we are finally here.  Of course as always we miss our friends and family back in Maryland but that is what email, Facebook, Google chat, telephone and vacation is for.

It's a bit weird trying to get into the holiday spirit with the weather being so nice.  It's still in the 70's and we still have the air conditioner on and are wearing t-shirts and shorts but everyone keeps saying it will start to get cooler soon.  I'm not too upset, personally I don't miss the cold weather.

Work continues to go well and tomorrow will mark 6 weeks.  The company holiday party is next Saturday and thankfully I don't have to go out and spend a bunch of money on a fancy dress, shoes, purse, getting my hair done, hotel, etc.  The party will be at a local piano bar and I have at least 4 dresses that  I can pick from!

Construction on the new house is moving along, although slow.  They are hoping to do the concrete slab in the next couple of weeks.  We are waiting for some revisions to the drawings as we may be able to change the elevation to reduce the cost of the slab.

Rob got his early Christmas present last week with a new chainsaw.  He went out to the house on Friday and started cutting down some of the dead trees and cedars that are suffocating our oaks.  We also met the neighbor yesterday, very sweet lady.  We are excited to meet her husband and sons and looking forward to developing a friendship with them.