Follow Up

Just to follow up on my post from yesterday...Loser Builder actually handled the situation the best I could hope for, short of apologizing. He said he would replace all the sheetrock that got wet and any insulation, if necessary, at no cost to us. He actually called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that they had completely shingled and flashed the cricket that was built behind the chimney...which should have been done before my house got flooded...but better late than never.

I was exhausted after getting no sleep Tuesday night and I was literally in bed by 7pm last night. Man do I feel better today!!!

The Nightmare Continues

Well, just as I suspected, the house has a leak problem. I don't know why my builder couldn't have foreseen and prevented the problem himself. I laid awake last night listening to what sounded like the Great Flood II and all I could think about was how much water was getting in my nice new house. So, I got up at 5 this morning, after about I'd guess 3 hours of sleep, and went to the house before work. This is what I found:

Apparently, Loser Builder didn't think it was important to flash the chimney. Now, I'm no expert builder, but even I know that if your chimney isn't flashed, you're asking for trouble. Well, Loser Builder and I are going to have words first thing this morning!!!

House Pictures (Again)

Well, the house is moving along on the inside. The mason is still pacing himself on the outside. I think he'll be done by Christmas!! To make matters worse, it's raining this week!! My Loser Builder is still not my favorite person in the world. He never does what he says he's going to do, but I think I've already blogged about my dislike for him before. My main worry this week is the rain. Since the chimney isn't done, we've had water in the house recently with the rain. Loser Builder hasn't done anything to fix this problem yet and it's supposed to rain all week. So, I'll have the pleasure of going by after work every day this week to make sure it's not raining in my house. Here are the latest pics:

Sunday with the Family

Sunday Mom and Dad had everyone over for lunch. As always it was good food and good company.

Mom loves having her picture made...that's another thing we have in common!!

Everyone was just so thrilled to have their picture made for my blog. My husband was especially enthusiastic!! He's sitting on the couch with Reiggin and Kathy, not too long after the picture was taken, Reiggin was put to sleep by our rousing conversation!

Last, but not least, Susan and Joe...more willing picture participants!! Joe was trying to look intellectual by posing with the book. However, I think the dopey look kind of ruined the image he was trying to project.

As author of the blog, I am free from the torture of pictures. I get to inflict torture upon others...they love it!!!

Boring Week

It hasn't been a very blog worthy week. Below are the highlights:

1. I woke up with a stiff neck on Monday morning and am still suffering from it this morning.

2. I had an epiphany yesterday...I have turned into my mother!!!! I worry too much, I have a big tush (sorry Mom!), and I have no rhythm.

3. I tried to poison Foggy yesterday. We are almost out of dry dog food, so I gave him an old can of dog food. Well, canned dog food must have an expiration date. Maybe I should have checked that before I gave it to him. I went to get Yana up this morning and I smelled canned dog food. The reason I smelled it was because Foggy threw every bit of it up in his kennel last night. What better way to start off my Friday than cleaning up throw up out of a dog kennel.

Man, I can't wait to see what the weekend holds!!!

Congratulations!

Just wanted to post a quick congratulations to Susan and Joe. Yesterday was a big day for them, they found out they are having a baby GIRL!!!! I have already generously offered to allow them the privilege of naming their precious baby girl, Melissa!!! They were of course overcome with gratitude!! We just have a mere 4.5 months to wait to meet the newest addition to the family!! I'm sure Kathy is thrilled that Susan is also having a girl...not much longer until Baby Virginia will be here too...changes, changes, changes!!!

Wild and Crazy Weekend

Saturday night my two sisters, both pregnant (don't they look adorable) came by the house and we went out to eat. We don't often spend a lot of time together, just the three of us, so it was nice to get together. We ate at the Prickly Pear in Mooresville. It is located in a renovated church near downtown. I've always wanted to go there so this was my chance. It was delicious!!! It is a fancy Mexican restaurant and it did not disappoint. I may make Mike take me there for our anniversary.

We had a good time just catching up. Kathy is due in about 5 weeks and she had her first Lamaze class on Saturday (I think she's getting nervous). Susan is about 18 weeks along and she finds out what she's having on Wednesday. After dinner we just hung out at the house for a bit. It was a bit of a tame night for Susan, but she is pregnant after all!! They hit the road at about 9pm, I was asleep on the couch by 9:30 and in bed by 10pm!!

It was fun and we should get together more often!

House Pictures

Just wanted to post some updated pictures of the house. Things have finally started to move again. They may actually be done laying brick this week, but it is raining today, so maybe not. However, they have made good progress in the last week and a half. The interior has also started to come along. They have been installing trim for the past week and a half, interior doors have been installed and the ceilings have been painted. So, I'm getting more and more excited about having a nice new home to move into!

I was really excited to see the arches over the garage doors. I thought they came out looking really nice. There was some drama with the builder over the arches and we're still not sure that the height from the ground to the top of the opening will be big enough for the Tahoe. So, there may still be some drama to come. I wish I could get a good picture of the entire front of the house but there is a big construction dumpster right in middle of the front yard!

Home Sweet Home

I went to my parents house after work yesterday. They recently had hardwood floors installed so I went to check them out. They really looked nice! I think it really makes the house look great. Dad is having the installers come back to replace one board. I looked at the board pretty closely and didn't see a dang thing the matter with it. But, it's his money and if he doesn't like it then he should have it replaced.

They also just got back from a trip to Niagara Falls so I got the low down on the trip and checked out the pictures. I'm really glad they took the trip. Now that everyone is out of the house, I hope they continue to take more and more trips. They had some really nice pictures and it seemed like they had a good time.

Talking about the Niagara trip got us talking about other family trips. We couldn't decide if Dad drove the big van to Florida for our Disney trip or if we took the station wagon. Then I was struck by a memory of sitting in traffic in the station wagon in Florida and Susan, my sister, farting and blaming it on the Big Mac she'd just eaten. So, that solved that mystery. Let that serve as a warning...Big Mac's will cause 8 year old girls to fart!!

Mom took pity on me and let me eat a nice home cooked meal. It was much better than the dinner for one I had planned for myself. I left at about 6:30 and traffic was terrible on 77 north. The reason for the delay was my personal favorite...a wreck on the other side of the interstate!!!! UGH!! But because of the delay I did get to hear one of my favorite songs from the 80's, the theme for the TV show Greatest American Hero (look it up)!

It's always good to visit with Mom and Dad...love ya Mom and Dad!!!

My Dogs are Weird!!

I don't know what was up with my dogs this morning, and really starting last night with Foggy. Foggy didn't eat his dinner last night. I only feed him once a day so you'd think he'd be hungry. He was going to sleep in the bedroom with me last night, but he got kicked out. I could hear his tummy growling!! So, I went and brought his food bowl into the bedroom but he didn't touch it. Then he kept putting his front paws up on the bed. So, he got kicked out real quick. But I did put his food outside the bedroom so he could eat.

Well, I got up this morning and he still hadn't eaten. That seemed pretty strange to me. But, whatever. So, I go to get Yana up from her 12 hour sleep. She is acting weird too. She doesn't want to come out of the garage to go out. Instead, she decides to go sit in her dog house (yes, it's still in the garage)! Fine, I just keep the door to the garage open thinking she'll eventually come out into the house. But, nooo. After I make my breakfast, I have to go drag her out and forcefully put her out of the house.

Then I put Foggy out and of course NOW he wants to eat, but he wants to eat Yana's food. I usually try to feed them separately but with Yana's antics this morning, that didn't happen. So, of course, the next thing I notice, Foggy has Yana pinned against the sliding glass door and is trying to do damage. So, I go out there to keep Foggy away from Yana's food. Well, Foggy must be really hungry (you think??) because he starts whining because he wants her food and he kept trying to come at her food from all angles, like I can't see him?? So, I just put the food in the house and let those two crazy dogs go hungry. I bet Foggy will eat tonight when I get home.

They are just weird sometimes!!!

Independence Day

We got up early on Saturday and rode the bike to Independence, VA. A partner at Mike's firm, Doug Ralston, is building a mountain house there. He suggested we come up to check out the deck and railing that he's installed. We are trying to decide what product to use on our deck. The material he used on his mountain house is called Ipa. It is a Brazilian hardwood. We were very impressed by the house!! It had a beautiful view!! It is located on a private mountain. On the ride up the mountain to their house we saw probably 5-6 deer. It would be a wonderful place to retire to.

Mrs. Ralston basically designed the house herself. She did a fabulous job. They have put so much thought into building their dream house and it is definitely a home to be proud of.

"I'm Going to Pump...You Up!"

Yana loves to carry around my hand weights. She's pretty strong. She can even jump up on the couch while carrying a 10 pound weight! Needless to say, I chose to take pictures of Yana with the weights rather than actually use the weights myself yesterday. I wasn't feeling very motivated!!

I had to throw in a picture of Foggy...I didn't want his feelings to get hurt!!

Family, Friends, & Fish

Last weekend, Mike and I spent all of Saturday running errands for the house. We picked out a few lights, paint, and moldings. Then we met Mike's parents (sitting behind Mike) and Ray and Marie Sipe (sitting behind me) out at the new house. Ray Sipe is one of the founding owners of Sipe Lumber Company. Mike's mom has worked there for over 50 years!! Mike worked there during high school and college. Ray is over 80 now and he still goes to work every day!! We have purchased all of our building material for the house from Sipe. Everyone at Sipe is super nice and have been very helpful during the whole process.

Well, Ray had called Mike's parents and said he wanted to go to see the house. So, we met them there and showed them around. Ray and Marie are very sweet people. We then went to a fish camp in Statesville for dinner. Mike always speaks very highly of the Sipe family and he has fond memories of his time at the lumber company. We really enjoyed spending time with everyone on Saturday and we really appreciated Ray and Marie showing interest in our house!!