Can you say snake???

Ok....so where to start....
most recent is that Tom was able to start the rock work on the front of the house. We picked some ledgestone styled rock called "Chardonay" with hues of gray, black, plum. The front of the house mostly done, with a column to do and the rock underneath the entry patio on the concrete wall.. it's a neat look which they started on the back patio as well. Putting rock on the wall of the cement patio underneath a cantilevered (sp?) edge. The rock looks so neat. Very excited to paint the exterior to see what it looks like all put together! Ryan has helped Tom all this past week getting that rock up, and for that we are extremely grateful!!

We thought final excavation was done, but the septic tank is too high I guess and the excavators who did it are going to give us some dirt to make it right instead of digging the thing back up to dig deeper. So hopefully sod will grow on top of that! We'll see!

Over 4th of July weekend, we were at the house all day on Friday and Saturday! We rented a trencher to trench the ditches for underground sprinklers. Boy was that a doozy to get the hang of...maneuvering that trencher! Tom was a pro by the end of the two hours it took to trench! Although we wet ground way too much in on spot, so it got stuck in the mud and I did my best to help get it out! Very hard for this weakling!

We got all the things for the underground sprinklers and we got the design for free since we purchased at the irrigation store!

We ordered some bamboo flooring from an online supplier called Build Direct and boy was it a great deal...and that bamboo is some strong stuff! Pretty eco friendly as well. Not that we have been making that a goal, but it's nice to add that element.

The bamboo will be dropped off on Tuesday, and the appliances we ordered through Sears are in as well.

So we need to get the exterior paint picked out, some floor put down to install appliances, and toilets at least. We are needing to put in the underground sprinklers in, so that will be an all day thing probably!

Oh yeah...we have rattlesnakes up there folks!! Lots of rattlesnakes!! How exciting for this Mama...(not!) Tom killed one the other day with a shovel..it took him by surprise as he opened the water box to turn on the water! EEEEKKK!!

So now everywhere I walk...every little thing I see or feel is a snake, I'm always asking about the latest snake sightings, etc. I've even let out quite a few screams these last couple of weeks since I thought I saw a snake!! Ughhh!

I'm a little more freaked out about it, because I actually saw the snake that Tom killed, because we were there that day and I made him show it to us as half of the body was still slithering and had it's rattles still up in the air!! Ryan found the rattles a few days later and took them home!!!

Ok everyone...thanks for reading my monthly posts...maybe the next time I post the house will be done!! LOL!!! Hopefully not that long in between posts.

The house may not be done for awhile...maybe at the end of August. We'll see!

Love you all!! mel

Time Flies!!!

Hi all....long time, no blog!!!

I can't believe it's the end of June already!! Time sure flies! We have a lot of stuff that has happened at the house so hopefully I can remember it all!

We've had plenty of visitors to our place...our good friends Larry and Patty, Krisanna, Mitzi, Aunt Jen and Uncle Jerm with Mady & Logan came to see it!

So the siding is officially done as of last week...the last bit of shake was put up top, and the guys have worked on caulking, building up the posts that are on the back patio as well as the one on the front porch.

The sidewalk was poured! So nice, with a flaired end up to the driveway! Good job Flatline!

We just got done with the interior paint! Our friend Larry has his own painting business and has nice equipment to make painting easier! Those fancy spraying machines!! He helped Tom starting last weekend with a full day on Saturday the 20th and then again the next Thurs. and this past Friday! It is done other than a bit of touch up work!

We had quite the time trying to figure out paint colors, but thankfully Grandma Forrest came up for a few days in a row to help us think it all out! She is the Master Interior Designer! She knows her stuff and has great taste as well..it's the taste I love! So it's been a blessing to have her help us! Thanks G'Ma Forrest for all your help!! I haven't even seen it yet! Tom went today to take off the plastic from the windows so he could see it in the light and it is quite dark he said. We picked Barnwood which is a sort of brown...and a green color for a few rooms, and a yellow color called Hubbard Squash for the extra bathroom and the laundry room!

Now comes tile choice! Wow...what a chore. Costco is currently carrying some great floor tile for way cheap and it looks great too! We are getting it!! Costco is a great place to get stuff if it fits the theme of the house!

Bye for now...it's way past my bedtime!

Latest updates!

Hi all!!

It's a very windy day today and the guys: Richard, Ryan, and Tom are out beginning to side the house today! Wow!

The sheetrock has been put up and the tape and texturing is complete as well!!

I've been trying to upload pictures to my Picasa program and I'm not able to upload what I want so I have to try to be a techy and figure out what to do! Bummer!

Now we get to start picking out colors for painting the inside and outside! Fun!

It looks so different now!

Oh yeah...the back patio has been poured! It looks great and it's so neat to stand on it and look at the back yard!

It's coming along! We'll see how long it takes to side the house! The garage doors should be in on Friday and installed on Monday!

Well no pictures to post but will put some up soon hopefully!

Take care all!
mel

Hello all....

I suppose we can count on me blogging about every few weeks....lol!
I won't condemn myself too much, there just hasn't been much activity out there and I'm always very busy! I also go on computer strikes quite often, to where I just dont want to put up with the busy-ness of being on the computer and spending time posting, emailing, etc.!! Sorry everyone!! I usually will make it out of those frumpy moments and I'll get in some correspondence with my neat friends! Again....sorry!
Today Mel went out there to see the insulation...as it was put in yesterday and finished up today!
Richard was out there today doing some nice work on the rock we've got out there!! He's making it so we can make good use out of what's already out there so we can order less when it comes time to landscape! It looks good already and he's not done yet!
Sheetrock gets hung starting on Thursday!! WOW!! That will be a huge change!
Electrical rough in is completely done! I will have pics of the electrical stuff up tonight!!
Tom was out there this past weekend on Saturday with Richard to finish up little tidbits of things. Tom finished the roof and returned materials to Home Depot!
Richard did odds and ends framing fix ups...he changed the door framing for us, since we FINALLY picked a door system. It's simple but what I had wanted from the beginning and it just took a while to get there!
We picked a simple two panel fiberglass door with the top panel having an arch and we will have rainglass windows from Millgard installed into the two sidelite panels that are full 6 ft. panels. I'm excited to have the rainglass for privacy purposes. It's real popular to have the open window sidelites, but it just bugs me that people could look into your house at any moment. If I want to walk around in undies or something...I don't want to feel like I can't because of the darn open windows on the side of my door! TMI...sorry! But just trying to get my logic across!!
I went in today to order our garage doors, and it was easy!! I was so proud to have made a quick decision on that one!! It's easy to figure out what you like if you drive around the different neighborhoods to see what's out there and what you like and dislike!! It's a great way to figure things out!
Now with the cabinets that a different story....I was wishing it was the parade of homes time around here so I can just look at different cabinet layouts! I'm dragging my feet at figuring out what I want! We are closer...I met with him two weeks ago and expected to order cabinets by last week but we didn't! So hopefully we'll get on that! It took way too long to pick out the doors and I don't want to do that with the cabinets, since they take awhile to get here! Mike at M.L. Cabinets is who we are working with he is doing a great job coming up with something we will like! I'm just so excited to have my bench seat in the laundry/utility room!!
I found a great deal at a yard sale for some pendant lights. They were $15 a piece brand new! We need 3 pendants and they can be pretty spendy I hear! Haven't even looked yet!
So we are not sure if they will tie in with what we are doing with the cabinets, arched doorways, etc...we'll see! I'll just sell 'em on craigslist if I need to!
Okee dokee...got to go to bed and need to upload some electrical pics!!
Good night all!

Hi all!!
March 29th was my last post!! Wow, time sure flies.
So where I left off was saying that Jeremy was maybe going to come and help Tom with the roof! Their horse Bonnie did not have a baby by that time and Jeremy was able to come help Tom all day on Monday March 30th! Tom was ever so grateful for his help that day! The day was pretty breezy but so nice and sunny! They got a lot done.

Tom ended up starting to work with a friend on a job that is supposed to last 4 weeks. They started on Wed. April 1st.! So that will be wrapping up pretty quick!
Tues. was a violently windy day! So no roof work that day! In fact the black tar sheets they had rolled out all blew off and Tom had to buy more to lay out!

Tom starts the other job and Richard helped Tom finish the roof work at the Clark house here and there throughout that week. Tom went on Friday after work to try finishing up the roof and on Saturday the April 4th Grandma Rodriguez came to watch the kids so Tom could work all day on the roof to finish it up! The electricians were gearing up to start in on the Clark house!

We met with Brad of Silverline Electric on Monday April 6th for an hour or so to talk about every detail of outlets, lights, etc. All's I can say is 'WOW'...so many things to think out!
Brad is an easy going fellow and didn't mind the endless calls from Melissa asking tons of questions! Thanks Brad! I was wanting to take pictures of them doing the work and I think they all thought I was nuts. (They don't know I'm a pictur-a-holic, even though I tried to tell 'em) So I got a few shots in but man, it was like pulling teeth so to speak!! Thanks for letting me try anyways guys! I'm posting your pics on the blog here and I told them they would be the 'boys on the blog'!! Ha!

The week of April 6-10 there was no activity at the Clark house. On Sat April 11th our windows were delivered by Albrecht Glass and Tom and Mel's brother, Will set the windows in a few hours that morning before Melissa had to go to work!

So comes Monday the 13th...electrical work begins! Melissa drives out to the site on Tuesday and Wednesday to see progress and talk to the guys about all the notes I wrote down. Tom Clark and family drove out Tuesday night to take a look at progress!

Friday we took our dear friend Mitzi, (Melissa used to live with Mitz for a couple of years) to see the Clark house. It is neat to see it in the stage it's in! We are excited to see how it will progress!

Well I think that's all for now...I'll post again quickly if I remember something. Got to go get the dishes in the dishwasher and fold some laundry!! Good night!!

First day of work on our house!!