Work is Beginning

I'll need to do a longer, post about the construction process, but here's a quick update. Carrie hired an electrician Kyle referred to wire up the barn with power, lights, and fans. He started work today. 

He need to rent the equipment to trench and run power lines over to the barn.

Kyle is starting the tamping process with throwing in poles. Carrie has been keeping in constant communication with everyone.

We're starting to see progress again after a couple of weeks of quiet (Contractors needed to complete current jobs, etc). Carrie's spirits are higher than they have been for months.

First Weekend on the Farm

Carrie went to visit Nibs Saturday morning and left me in charge. We were supposed to get some visitors to attend to some missed spots around the house. They showed up right as I started to exercise and out of breath.

They did a less than stellar job patching. I did a less than stellar job supervising. 

They missed spots and did a rough job and no clean-up. I was too trusting. I spotted a spot or two for them to fix, but then started to notice other things they missed as I walked around afterward.

If I spotted it, you know that Carrie noticed it. We'll have to have them back in August after our trip. The microwave fan sounds like it's DOA and there are other issues here and there the builders need to iron the wrinkles out of it.

Another issue has been creeping up on Carrie's radar: Foxtail.

Foxtail is dangerous to horses. Carrie described to me as, "It has microscopic barbs and gets stuck in mucous membranes where it lodges and creates irritation/ulcers." It is in a ring around the house and barn. It was not there originally, so our best guess is that when the land was churned up for construction the foxtail was somewhere in the soil or introduced. Thankfully, it's not in the pastures.

Our past bush-hog guy put us off for a few weeks and Carrie called in a new guy. He was an older gentleman who's son is taking over the business. He squeezed us in Sunday morning and was careful to avoid our well even though it was camouflaged amongst Shane high foliage.

Carrie was pleased!

The hope is the shorter grass will look better and assist with the fence construction (assuming the barn crew gets to it before it grows again).

The construction delays have cost us. We need to get the horses on property so that they can help eat the grass down (What are horses other than large, expensive, yard roombas?). As is, we're paying for them to be somewhere else and to get the land mowed.

And whatever stray shoot gets missed, Carrie rips out by hand! (Not usually).

I took a picture from the back of the property. It's getting closer to being finished.

We had a bunch of ominous clouds roll through Sunday.

The wind howled and couldn't decide upon a direction. We had the makings for a sizable storm, but thankfully we were only clipped.

The wind threw some construction material into my car. It looked like I crashed right into it! No damage was done, but I had to pick up various materials blown all over the yard I didn't think would ever be blown all over the yard!

Monday, Carrie and I are going on a work/business trip. We celebrated our first week in the house with some pie.

Here's what we look like from the front.

There are still things to do, but we're here!

Surprise

Have you ever had a contractor knock on your door bleeding from their crotch? We have.

We spotted Scott walking up the hill. Carrie ran out to see if he needed anything, but he was just going to outhouse. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and blood in the garage. "Mike! Get a towel!"

Scott had no idea what was going on. We offered to help out, but he shuffled down the hill and got one of the guys to drive him to the rescue station. The rescue station didn't know what was going on either, so they took him to the ER.

Scott was at the ER for hours and hours. The other guys came back, did a full days work, and then went home. 

Carrie went to check in with Allen and make sure she had his contact information just in case. They got to talking and it was clear that Scott hadn't been communicating everything with the crew (as we suspected). Allen hadn't realized they were already long past the initial deadline, etc. Carrie provided Allen with a copy of the contract and had a frank discussion about what was left to do.

We would find out much later that the blood came from kidney stones. It made for an interesting morning.

On a more mundane note, we said goodbye to the dumpster and the blue outhouse today. The dumpster will be missed at least. We've got to figure out what we're going to do for trash.

Carrie and I went on an errand to check out The Outlet Store and pick up some bleach. We came back with a carpet.

Moving is expensive.

We heard back about the truck earlier in the week. Both rear wheel bearings were failing to the tune of $1900. The shop wanted to pull apart the 'pumpkin' and see if anything else was going wrong.

Carrie was done. We've had the truck for a couple of years and it has found new and creative ways to break down. Sonya's husband, Jeff, used to run the car pool at Quantico and when Carrie asked his opinion he said, "It's a lemon. Ditch it and go diesel."

It's been a decision in the making for a while now, but the truck is going to go up for sale as a "mechanic's special." We'll post the wheel bearings are bad, mark down the price, and hope for a buyer.

Of course, this means Carrie needs a replacement truck to haul the horses. That's going to cost us. We need the truck to bring Sam and Nibs back so that we'll stop paying board for them. The barn is behind schedule so we're stuck paying at least an extra month's board as is.

Having a barn was supposed to make owning horses less expensive, but we're certainly paying up front for it.

Despite all that, we had a celebration. Carrie cooked our first homemade meal in the new house (excluding deli meats and peanut butter!). She made a stir fry and rice.

We're still working on the kinks, though. The microwave fan wasn't installed right. That's not on us to fix, thankfully. We'll have to call it in and schedule people to fix it.

The adventure continues. A few more wrinkles ironed out; A few more hiccups added to the mix.

Progress Update

Work continues unabated. We don't work all day, but we certainly stay busy.

To my delight, Carrie wanted to finish assembling the desk with me. The goal was to have the backsplash done and part of the desk done to surprise Grandma and Grandpa when they arrived for lunch.

The desk doesn't just match the floor, it blends in. Where did it go?

We kept unpacking and putting stuff away throughout the morning.

I took these status update pictures during a lull.

Carrie made sure to stay out of any and all pictures.

Note: We need a trash can.

Carrie added some touch lights under the cabinets.

We won't need the coats in the closet anytime soon. There are heat advisories in effect.

We have focused our efforts on the main living area, office, and master bedroom.

We need to decorate the walls at some point. There are still blue painter's tape stubs all over, because the people who were supposed to come on Monday didn't come. The house needs shutters to go up on the outside and there's still a laundry list of little things to do, but we'll get there.

Note to self: Need to buy hooks to hang the shower curtain. Little things everywhere.

Some of the remaining furniture deliveries won't come until August. There were delays of this and that and then there will be times when we weren't available, etc, etc.

Still, I could live like this for a while.

Carrie won't want to, but I could do it no problem. This house/property is already much larger than my needs/inclinations.

True story: I put all of the clothes in the wrong closet. "I think you're going to need the larger closet, honey."

I got the "No duh. Weren't we on the same page?" look and then started shifting things.

So far all the big things work right. Toilets flush, AC runs, sockets have power, and the water is potable.

Shane's room is a pile of stuff. His bed hasn't arrived. 

Carrie's pulling a redesign on him, but he doesn't know it yet.

The guest bedroom has a bed so that we could put someone up for the night. It also has a bunch of pillows and blankets in trash bags we've yet to go through.

I'm thinking of saving a bunch of boxes for a box fort. It won't be as epic as in my childhood, but it could be a fun memory!

Carrie picked up a welcome mat when we were at Lowe's yesterday.

Which I find slightly ironic, because everyone seems to knock on our garage door. I guess it's a country thing? If you leave the garage door open everyone walks in and knocks there?

Grandma and Grandpa came through the garage themselves!

Carrie refused to let Grandma out of the laundry room until Grandpa came back from the car. She wanted them to take the tour together!

They liked what they saw and Carrie got to pop her two big surprises. The desk....

....and the backsplash! Grandma had been trying to give Carrie ideas and suggestions and Carrie kept stonewalling her with, "You'll see what I've got in mind..."

The surprises were a hit. I was happy for Carrie. She was giddy and bouncing last night when she finished it and hoping it would go over well. Grandpa, Grandma, and Carrie started talking about needing to replace the outlet covers with and I chipped in that I liked it as is. They all looked at me and then went right back to discussing other options (I'm not known for my sense of aesthetics, ha!).

Not that everything was perfect. Carrie wanted to show off the extending table and found the setup guys had left styrofoam in crucial places! We threw it up on the to-do list and moved on! 

Carrie had waited to contact Mitchell homes for a few days to give them the benefit of the doubt. When we didn't hear from them, she called saying, "What about my shutters, the porta-potty, and the dumpster?"

The very same day a pump truck pulled up as we were all heading out to the barn.

Which brings up the final stop of our tour: The barn.

It's still a work in progress, but looking better every day.

I started to try and get a little creative with the camera to keep myself occupied.

I roamed around in stalls to find good angles,...

...or stepped outside to try and shoot through a door.

I didn't delve into all the options my phone could do, but I did play with the brightness.

Not that it made for the best pics.

I would have liked to have gotten a shot of Carrie on one side of the wall and Grandma on the other, but I wasn't going to ask anyone to pose.

Plus, it was hot. I didn't want to stay in the heat any longer than I had to and everyone else was in unspoken agreement!

We went into town to grab lunch after the tour. We came back to the house afterward, but Grandma and Grandpa scooted off quickly to escape a wave of thunder bumpers that were rolling in.