Saturday, June 30, 2007

Max's New Friend

Max was busy running around when this guy announced his presence.



He sure made a lot of noise with pretty loud hissing. Mean guy, not like our friendly ones in the backyard here. It's a bullsnake, and was about 2.5-3 feet long. Max seemed smart enough or scared enough to stay away and leave him alone.
There are lots of mice around, and the snakes should help keep that under control! Lori says as long as they do it from outside!

June update

Lots of stuff going on, just not a lot of pictures. Check out flickr for the house and more.

Since the last post, Mom and Dad visited and really were active in the house preparation and repair category. We got lots of stuff done to get the house ready for sale.I don't think they liked our dinner schedule though. Most times we ate after 8:30, and it was either out or delivery. We had a great birthday dinner(for me) at the Fresh Fish Co, where they discount your meal, taking off your age as a percentage. Almost half price, what a deal!
Since then, we've had the wood floors redone, and have been "decluttering". So far we've loaded up a 16x8x8' Pod, boxes bottom to top and front to back. It's delivered in the drive, we fill it up, and they come and get it. When we're ready, they drop it off at the new house for us to unload.

We've been working on the exterior of the house as well, lawn and garden, sprinkler, trimming and planting etc. I relaid the brick on the front sidewalk. The brick is set in sand, and it had settled and leaked out so some of the bricks were off kilter. The rubber mallet came in handy.



Notice the neat brickwork on the walkway.



At the new house, the stucco is finished. Some touch up will be required as things get added or removed, such as light boxes. The stone is mostly done. The tops of the columns were left to to after the rail is put in. Lots of options there, and Lori and I met with the iron crafter. We choose the top of railing, and he buys all the separate pieces and welds them together to fit on the deck. Speaking of, we also picked the decking material. We went with a composite product, so it has no upkeep. There was quite a variety, and some options included tongue in groove configuration to keep some water from dripping underneath, but the colors were bad and the deck wasn't slanted enough for drainage.




The electrician has been working for the past 4 weeks. Wires are running everywhere, with most of the light boxes, switches, outlets, appliance wiring etc all done.

In back, a lot got dug up as the septic tank and drainage field are put in. It's much bigger than we anticipated, but is will make a nice field for the flowers to grow on. The evaporator tubes are about 1.5-2 feet in diameter and about 60 feet long, with six rows in all.


This week, the roof maybe will be finished. The metal to cover the barrel entry was delivered yesterday. It's dark to match the framing of the windows, and had to be fit to curve over the entry. I expect the rest of the tiles will be finished once that's completed. In back, a retaining wall is being built for the walkout outside the nook patio. We met with the landscaper to go over the design. It should look nice.
Also in the near future, ventilation ducts for the AC, working towards insulation and drywall. Then comes the tubing for the upper level radiant heat, pouring gypcrete, then the floors.