Let the Story Telling Begin

It has been about a week since the last update, and trust me it has been a busy week.  We will begin last Friday with the details.

With the holiday weekend among us, I was in no mood to stay around the office late on a Friday.  The main office was closing early, the job was shutting down and most everyone else in the office was gone. I think the boss man Will was the only one who stayed all day.  Cassie was in San Angelo with her Mom and we decided to meet in San Antonio so she could get back to Houston without the hassle of flying.  We debated on what to do, but ended up deciding to stay in San Antonio with our friends Mike and Kim since we had both had long days of driving.  We went to eat at Zios, an italian food restaurant that has really good bread, and their Calzone isn't half bad either.  After dinner Mike informed us he had a Church league softball game around 10:00 that night and we had the option of going or not.  We were up for an exciting game of 45 year olds and a few 20 year olds playing a friendly game of softball.  We had a good time, especially watching Mike get real upset with himself for not playing well, the poor guy can't just go out and have some fun, he takes the event way too seriously.  Mike played baseball in college so he is competitive by heart.

After a good evening out we headed back to their newly renovated home.  They purchased a home in January and have been slaving away with repairs and renovations every night and weekend since.  Mike is one of the handiest guys I know and can pretty much accomplish any task he sets out to perform.  I hope I can get him to spend a weekend in Houston helping me with a few projects I have in mind for the house.  Buying a new house has it's perks, but one of the downsides is not being able to do those projects to put your stamp on the deal.  It just means I will have to use my energy and creativity to add value to the home with more custom features.

After staying up way too late and enjoying the company we took what seemed like a short nap and awoke early to travel home.

Now some of you may know this, but most of you don't.  Early in the week Mom got the idea of having someone come look at sealing the grout and tile in our Den and kitchen.  She made a few calls, and ended up calling one of her school children's parents to see if he knew anyone since he was in the flooring business.  Well as luck would have it, the salesman made a sale.  He talked numbers and square footage and they decided that for not much more than the cost to clean up and seal the floors he could put in a brand new floor all together.  We had talked about all of the pros and cons up until Thursday and decided that the best way would be to demolish the old tile to put down the new, and keep the elevation the same as opposed to putting the new floor on top.  Here lies the dilemma . . . he wanted a few thousand dollars more to rip out the old and that just wasn't in the budget.  So after talking it out, we decided to tackle the job ourselves.  We could rent a "Tile Scrapper" for about 40 bucks for the weekend, we would get some rubber maid tubs to make small loads for the dump and we would have it all knocked out in the two days alloted.  

Back to the weekend for a sec.

We got on the road around 8:30 and decided to make a stop at the outlet shops in San Marcos.  We have found some pretty good deals there in the past and we had some things in mind for the new house that we wanted to do some price checking on.  You never know with these places if the deals are really good, so we needed to get some info.  Cassie has been saving her "Lee Bucks" for a new table and she has been on a serious hunt for a deal.  We did not get lucky with the table, but we found a few small things that were good deals and we couldn't pass up.  I think we got out for about a hundred bucks with 2 new chairs and a brightly colored duvet for one of the guest rooms/cassie's new craft room.

Back on the road and we were in Houston by around 3:00.  We stopped by the Apartment to unload a few things and then got back on the road for Texas City.

When we arrived we immediately got to work.  Mom, Kimber and Ginny had been killing themselves the past two days cleaning out the rooms in preparation and it was down to putting up plastic and moving out the appliances.  Well it took a few trips to Lowes to get the appropriate plastic. . . . my mother is very stubborn and even though I was very specific about what mill plastic to buy she opted for something else, the plastic that was much heavier and more difficult to tape to the ceiling because it kept wanting to fall.  She was fooling herself into thinking that the thicker plastic was going to protect her millwork from the flying pieces of tile, but  had that covered with a plan to use cardboard in the areas we were working.

After checking out the "Tile Scrapper" she had picked up earlier in the day, I realized we were in trouble.  The machine was designed for scrapping linoleum tiles, not ceramic and it was not making a dent in the 30 year old ceramic tile.  Of course it was a holiday weekend and the store closed early, but we lucked out and our next door neighbors happen to be related to the owner of the rental company.  We were able to get ahold of their son and he quickly brought out the correct chipping hammer that I had set out to get in the first place, but the "man" on the phone told me this was much better . . . I will go with my experience the next time.

After chipping away for a few hours, I managed to tick off my sister and wear myself and Cassie out so we decided to call it quits around 10.  We got about half of the kitchen knocked out, but there was plenty more to go.  

Sunday morning we awoke, sore and very slowly . . . boy those muscles get sore when you don't use them very often.  After a few more hours of chipping it was near 12:00 and we needed to make our first trip to the biosphere.  Cassie and I loaded up and we dumped the 10 tubs while Kimber went for lunch and Mom cleaned off some surfaces to eat.  

After lunch we got going and after about 10 minutes we hit another road block.  It appears the machine and extension cord were getting overheated and we began a small smoke storm which melted the extension cord and freaked my beautiful bride out.  She thought the house was going to burn down within minutes but I tried to calm her down.  After showing her it was a small predicament we decided to let it cool off for an hour while we dumped a few more tubs and went for an ice cream break.  Keep in mind that while we were waiting for the appropriate tools we were using sledge hammers to break the tile out and that wears you out very very quickly.  

When we got back we still could not get the chipping hammer to work so we called the guy back and he wouldn't be able to get us a new one till late that night.  We decided to get back to the sledge hammers till then and see how much we could get done.

Around 9:00 that night he showed up with a new one, but we were too tired to even pull the thing out of the box so we called it quits and decided to save the fun for Monday. 

After a few hours of chipping the next morning we had completed the kitchen, and decided to leave the Den and entry way for the professionals.  We'd had enough and there was no way you could convince us any amount of money was too expensive for the exhaustive physical labor removing a tile floor.

After cleaning up and relaxing a little, we grilled some burgers and hot dogs, had a few smores for dessert and then headed out to the new house for a tour with the Parkinson Grandparents.

I will have to update you on the progress of the house in the next post.  I will go ahead and put up all of the new pic's though.  

Pic's of the tile are in two places, we finally got mom trained in taking and uploading pictures to the internet.  We got her a digital camera for mother's day and she has loved using it.  When the guys were laying the new tile throughout the week she couldn't stand not being able to share the photos so I walked her through uploading and she has it down (for the most part)

I also have some pic's up on my site.

Enjoy!

Moving Right Along

The house is moving right along.  Since I last posted there have been a few changes.  The cabinet guys came to trim out the rest of the cabinets, and it looks really good.  The tile guys have been working on the Master shower for what seems like a week, but they are getting close.  Yesterday I went out to the house and Matt (the builder) happened to be closing up the place and we walked through the house to check out the progress and I let him know I wasn't very impressed with the tile job in the master so far.  The area where the tile meets the surrounding surfaces, wall . . . etc.  were not looking very good and he agreed with me.  We came up with a solution, but they are going to have to tear out quite a bit of tile to make it look right unfortunately.  The sprinkler system will go in at the beginning of next week and the landscaping will follow.

Other fronts . . . Cassie and I are still ironing out the details for the wedding.  I ran into a hick-up with the programs and we are not going to be able to go with out original idea because it would have to be run on the large printing press and that would be out of budget ( man i have some great ideas . . . ).  Cassie is in wedding bliss . . . or it could be a nightmare, but she has been in San Angelo since Monday making decision after decision.  She has met with the caterer, wedding planner, florist and the list goes on I'm sure.  Can't believe it's only 1 month away.

Enjoy the picture update.

The Party's Over

Well we made it through our last pre-wedding celebration.  Today we met at the Bergvall's house for a party with everyone from the Church.  It was a great time, all the ladies went to a ton of trouble and made it great or Cassie and I, we had a great time.  Cassie was a little nervous about meeting all of these new people, but she acted like a pro meeting everyone and remembering more names than I can even remember.  I do have to admit I had to ask Mom to remind me a of a few names, but it was great seeing them all.  

The house is moving a long nicely, this was Cassie's mom's first time in town since we have been building so we took her by the house before heading down to Texas City.  She was really pleased with the progress, and enjoyed getting to see the new place.  

I am tired as usual and can't wait to start a new week of work (can you hear the sarcasm??)  but it looks like I will get a lot done with Cassie out of town, and I will definitely be looking forward to a three day weekend.

Check out the new Pictures.

What's goin On?

Well as usual it has been a busy, hectic, stressful and event filled week thus far.  The house is coming along nicely, They began laying tile in the Kitchen and entry way yesterday and they were finishing up the laundry room, secondary bath and master this afternoon when Cassie stopped by to see how it was coming along.  Today Cassie drove around to all of the school in the Kingwood area and Humble area that she is interested in working with.  It took a lot of encouragement and persuasion, but she did it and I think she was pleasantly surprised with the response from the secretaries.  She was able to meet one principle, but asked to set up interviews with the rest of them, who knows if they will call her back or not, but she dropped off 12, so hopefully a few will get back with her.  The economy is tough right now, even for teachers and that is not helping Cassie worry any less.  I was talking to Mom and Dad last night about how much is going on and how stressful life has been the last few month's but we are nearing the end and we are ready for the much needed break.

This weekend Cassie's Mom will be coming to town for a wedding shower at the church and we are looking forward to her visit.  This will be the first time we have taken her out to the house and since so much has been done on it, she is in for a surprise.  

I am still working on getting in better shape for the wedding, I always seem to do good throughout the week, but as soon as the weekend roles around, all bets are off and I spend the next week getting back to the same point I was a week earlier.  I am going to force myself to work-out and eat right this weekend so I can stop the trend.  Cassie is cracking me up because she is trying to loose weight right a long with me (she in no way  needs to loose a pound), but she will go up a pound one day, down the next . . . she's not really loosing any weight but it's driving her crazy to see me loose weight.  It really is much easier for guys to loose weight in my opinion, I know exactly what to eat and how much I need to exercise to make it happen and it works every time.  

This week we are trying to finish up the design for the programs, get the invitations to the rehearsal dinner put together, print some pictures for the rehearsal dinner and knock a few other items off the list.  We have tons to do in my opinion, but I'm sure it will all get done.  I regret opening my mouth and volunteering to do any part of it, but they will look good (at least to the untrained eye).

We are going out to the house tomorrow and we will take pictures, there are a few new ones up from the painting, but it's difficult to notice much of a difference in my opinion, white it white.  The window did finally come in and the cabinets should be installed on Friday.  Fence might go up this weekend.  Stay tuned . . .

Austin Wedding

Well the Weekend was enjoyable, but too short.  Saturday I got up around 9:00 and threw on the gym clothes for a quick work-out.  I lifted some weights, and used the elliptical machine for about 45 minutes to start the day.  I then decided a quick dip in the pool would help cool me off, so I ran back and changed and then hung by the pool for about 45 minutes as well.  It's a great pool and it's a shame we have not been able to enjoy it more in the year we have lived here.  After taking a shower and getting ready, I had to iron a shirt for the wedding and then I was on the road to Austin.  

I made a few tops, one to get something for breakfast because my beautiful darling despises waking up and not being able to eat immediately, and since we were staying in a nicer hotel they did not have a free breakfast, and her second biggest pet peeve is having to pay for breakfast at a hotel.  So I took some time to make sure Sunday got off to a good start, I also forgot my belt in Houston so I had to stop at a Dillards and get a new belt.  

When I arrived at the wedding location I was hoping there would be a bathroom to change in, but I was sorely disappointed . . . so I stripped down in the parking lot and began to get dressed.  Now I was fortunate that I was a little early and there were only a few cars already there, but luck would have it as soon as I was pulling up my suit pants the bus from the hotel where most of the guests were staying pulled up for an early show.  It was a great deal of fun getting dressed to the tee, tie and jacket in the middle of a caliche parking lot, but I made it happen.  

The wedding was really a great event, the view was unbelievable and the company was par to none.  Of course we had our favorite photographer along for the ride so it was good to see Lacy and enjoy getting treated like celebrities as usual.  Lacy loves taking out photo's because we are such beautiful people . . . right Lacy!

After a long night of I do's, wedding cake, caramel apples, an ice cream bar, and plenty of boozers, we headed to the hotel for some much needed rest and relaxation.

The sheraton downtown was a great location, I asked for a downtown view if possible and we got upgraded for free so that was a huge plus, the view was great and the floor was a "preferred floor" so it was nice and quiet . . . after a little SNL, we were out like a light.

Today we met Mom, David and Ginny at the house to check up on the progress and show them some of the cool things that have ben happening.  We also took a few measurements to start preparing for the furniture and ideas of built-ins we have.  We ate dinner at a mexican food restaurant by the house that was really good.

Cassie has Bridals tomorrow, Lacy will be utilizing the Woodlands shopping area and Kimber will be helping Cassie with the hair and Make-up.

I will let you know how the week ahead is coming, more updates on the house to come.  Check out the Pic's.

Quick Update

Today was a short day, had a quick meeting with the 1500 team about helping them with some new work, then to lunch.  I had training at 1:30 which was boring, but I suppose necessary.  After training I picked up our new ladder for my boss Will to borrow and headed out to the house.  Will recently moved out to Fall Creek and speaks very highly of the community, he has a leaking window and no extension ladder.  Moving on, the trim was installed and the stone is still in the garage.  The mantel was installed and the garage doors put on.  Progress is being made and everything is still looking good.  Check out the pictures.  I am headed out to Austin tomorrow morning, but it's time to clean up the house before the honey get's back. 

The Progress is Visible

For those of you who are keeping up with the progress of the house, you are behind, and not because you missed a post, but because they are moving too fast for me to keep you up to date. I must admit I was somewhat amused by Cassie's amazement at the speed in which they were building the home, I have watched homes go together pretty fast . . . need I remind you I built a 3600 sq ft home is 58 days? (Yes, I enjoy tooting my own horn every now and then  . . . okay often)  That being said they are flying through some of the phases that should take more time than they really are.  Now my first concern is obviously quality, I want to make sure the job is being done right, not just fast, and there are a few things I have pointed out to Matt but overall they are doing a great job.

Sunday I drove out to check the progress and see where they were with the home and I noticed the brick and stone had been delivered.  Monday I got a call from the sales rep to let me know that the stone had showed up and they were beginning to install it.  I decided I wanted to check it out and make sure they were doing a good job, I have seen entire walls of brick ripped off and redone when they were done sloppy and I wanted to nip it in the butt if they were not doing a good job.  So Monday evening I drove out to check the progress and discovered my sales rep was a lier, they had not laid  single brick, but they had done a few things inside which perked my interest so the trip was not a complete waste.  

Tuesday I decided to stroll back out with the same intent I had Monday, but I was sorely disappointed.  As I turned the corner to head towards the house, it appeared the front and right side were complete . . . As I got closer I realized the entire house was complete with brick and they were only missing a few pieces of stone.  I was astonished that they had bricked, and installed the majority of the stone in one day!  This should typically take 3-4 days with 5 guys working from 7-3:30.  I have no clue how many guys were working on the house, but it was done none the less.  After a thorough review there were a few flaws but I am extremely hard to please, but overall it looked great.

When I was out last night I realized there was going to be a lot of stone left over and I wanted to get my hands on it.  So today while I was bored at work and falling asleep, I decided to take a little break and run out to the house, in hopes of running into the builder and finding out his intent from the remainder of the stone.  Sure enough he was in the neighborhood and I was able to ask in a smooth way, he said no problem, but I would need to move it.  He was going to throw it out, but assumed the neighbors would carry off most of it after a few days.  So I immediately called my buddy Ty and asked him what his plan were for the evening.  He obliged and I promised to treat him to dinner if he would give me a hand.  

You will have to check out the pictures, but we cleaned up a full pallets worth of stone, my wheels are spinning and I assure you I will come up with some cool things to do with it.  That is if it's still there by the time they get the garage doors on.  Things have a very strange way of disappearing in neighborhoods under construction.  The neighbor across the street informed me this evening that the door next to him had been stolen 4 times.  Now don't be alarmed, this is very typical for the Houston area, and there is not really a crime problem.  These are usually inside jobs and once the construction is done the thieves move on to the next new development.  

Not much else is going on.  Cassie and I have a wedding in Austin this weekend for one of her friends from college.  She is a bridesmaid so she will be up there early to hang with the girls, but I am driving up Saturday morning.  I am looking forward to finishing out the work week which includes an Astros game tomorrow night.  I will keep you up to date with the house if I can stay caught up myself.

Sheetrock

Yesterday May 1st, was Cassie's Birthday.  I am a complete JERK and woke up, got ready for lunch, kissed her goodbye and forgot to tell her happy birthday!  It wasn't till I got to work and started filling out dates on forms and realized I was in deep shit!  So I called and started off with I'm sorry and of course she knew and said it was okay . . . so I've decided she has to take the good with the bad, I am good at planning and making memorable moments i.e. the engagement, but I have some work to do on remembering the little things.  She said she would forgive me and never think twice about it . . . I heard about it later that night incase you were wondering.  I decided to make it up to her I would take her to lunch and let her pick.  After being at work for about 2 hours I left for the day and ran over to Kroger for some last minute gift giving supplies.  I picked out a singing card, and some naturally planted Gerber Daisies (her favorite flower of all time).  She always complains that she does not like receiving flowers because they die, and are a waste of money, but there are small ones planted in dirt, so hopefully they will last a little longer.  At lunch Cassie ordered her favorite greek salad and I got the special.  The special was a kobe beef burger with caramelized onions and mozzarella cheese, it was delicious (I decided I could eat whatever I wanted because it was Cassie's birthday).  After lunch, I sent her on her way with a kiss and I was off to my Friday training.  Each Friday all of the Harvey newbies get together at the main office for a few hours or war stories and tips for certain parts of the job.  They are usually pretty good and we hopefully learn from the owner's mistakes so we don't have to make them ourselves.  After training I ran by the house and picked up Cassie for dinner.  We planned on meeting Mom and Kimber at Cheddars and we were a little early, but I wanted to beat the traffic on the Gulf Freeway.  As we were heading down we passed Harold Reese Jewlers and Cassie reminded me we still needed to pick out our rings and I so without blinking an eye I took the next exit and said sounds like a plan, let's take care of it.  I think I caught her off guard and she wasn't in the right mid-set to make this decision, but we would at least take a gander at what they had to offer.  Well if you don't know how Cassie is, let me tell you . . . she can be very stubborn.  At first she didn't like anything she saw and had her mind made up with a ring she saw in San Angelo.  Well after a little coaxing and some encouragement she decided to start looking around at the other rings and we found a very good match for her ring.  I tried to talk her into getting taking her stone out and putting it in a matching set but she shut me down.  After talking with Mr. Reese for a few minutes he tried to talk her into it aswell, but she's holding strong.  I picked out a simple gold band, no frills, no diamonds, just plain and simple.  I think it's very similar to my Dad's first wedding ring . . . I say first because I think he has gone through 3 of them to date.  After doing a little damage to the credit cards, we headed down to Cheddars and enjoyed a very good dinner with Mom and Kimber.  Mom got Cass some shopping money for the honeymoon, and Kimber got her a very nice charm bracelet from James Avery, which she absolutely loves.  

This morning I slept in late . . . till 10:30, it has been a very long time since I have slept in past 10:00.  After some much needed sleep we got ready and went out to tackle some errands we needed to get done.  First we ran over to the Best Buy to pick up a few things.  Cassie is also seriously looking for a dinning room table for the house so we went by a few stores before Panera Bread for lunch.  After a decent salad and some very good bread we checked out eh table options at the IKEA, typically a more modern design than either of us care for, but there was one contender.  After IKEA we stopped by the house and picked up the camera for a ride out to the new house.  After walking with Matt ast week he told me that sheetrock would start Saturday and that the brick should be delivered by Friday afternoon and they might start laying brick on Saturday.  When we got out to the house about 2:30 all the sheetrock had been hung, and they were 75% done with the 1st coat of mud.  They flew through that house, but it's possible they put up the sheetrock yesterday.  

After checking out the house I came back and sat by the pool for a while and Cassie squeezed in a nap.  I am starting to look pretty white compared to Cassie who has been spending some time in the tanning beds so I soaked in some rays.  

Go check out all of the new pic's it's easier to see the division with the sheetrock for you novice visionaries.