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.