So here are some new pictures of the house as of Sunday. We hope to be in over the Thanksgiving holiday, so keep your fingers crossed. It still has a way to go, but Monty and I (ok so more Monty) have been working a lot on getting it to the finish line. I will try to put more up as soon as we get the bathrooms and flooring all squared away. Other than the house, not much is going on in our little world. Once someone shows me how to rotate and change color, I will have many more to add.

Now that the rain has gone....

You'll have to read and find out...

This is Monty's favorite part of the house- his garage!
This is the entry hall and dining room. Kind of hard to really tell anything.
This is looking from one bedroom to the next with the bathroom in between the arches.

This last week has been a bit crazy. We go straight from work to either the house or to buy something for the house or talk about the house. This must be how people with children feel; the house has become my new little life :) On Sunday we went to Church and out to lunch with some friends and decided that we would just relax, do laundry, and of the fun stuff that life throws your way each week. Monty also offered to make some of his delicious ribs, and you know me how could I turn that down. As he was doing all of the work with the grilling, I thought the least I could do was help him take them off of the grill and bring them inside to bake. He grabbed one pan and specifically told me to wait and he would be back to get the next one. I, because I am so helpful, ignored his advice and removed the pan from the. The moment I grabbed the, pan I must have discarded my brain because I attempted to prop it on my hip to open the door to the porch. In the process, the juices ran down my arm and leg. It didn't really hurt much at all, but here is what it looks like tonight (Thursday) since my unfortunate incident on Sunday. Like I said, it was not a big deal at all until someone started talking about scaring. Start praying now that does not happen! I am way too shallow to have a big scar on the top my arm, but enough of my drama.

This has been a productive week since Hurricane Ike's rain showers moved out. They finished the sheet rock earlier this week and the texture portion today. Monty and I will spend all weekend painting in order to be ready for the cabinets and floors. The masons have been working this week to get all of our rock and brick up, and I think they should be done within the next few days. Here are some pictures of the house to give you an idea. We still have a really long way to go, but we are making pretty significant progress. I will have some pictures from our painting party this weekend sometime next week.

We now look like a house!

This is the fire place with a ton of pipe, wiring, etc. Not a good pic, but you get the idea.

So I know it has been roughly a month since my last post, but things have been a bit hectic to say the least. Now that we are back around our families, it seems that there are constantly people to go eat with, people to drop in for a visit with, not to mention activities at church and in the community. We are really enjoying it here, but I never would have guessed our life in the small town would be this crazy. It is a different kind of pace than San Antonio and one that we both love.





As far as the house goes, a lot has happened since my last post. We now have a frame (which is covered here in Tyvek- which is like the 'skin' pre-brick), windows, a roof, and painted exterior, and all of our plumbing, security, cable, electric, etc. that has to be put in before the walls are insulated and sheet rocked. We will begin the insulation process tomorrow and sheet rock will start on Friday. The masons will arrive next week so the house will really start to take shape. It was extremely overcast today, so by the time I arrived at the house, you couldn't see a lot from the inside, so this is exclusively an outside picture post. I am going to ask Monty to take some pictures of the insulation process because it has the best of my curiosity. I will try to be much better with my posts, especially when it comes to the selection of tile/wood, paint, etc. We are thrilled with the progress and can't wait to share more with you. Sorry!

No More Dirt

Trenches for Plumbing
Steel Re-Bar Before the Pour
The Day of the Pour!

I knew that building this house would be a learning experience, but I had no idea how much I would learn. In my simple, simple mind I never contemplated how foundations are constructed, specifically how the pipes are placed, the cement formed to the exact shape of your house, etc. First, the slab people came and placed the forms for the house, which gave us a rough estimate of how big the house is, but nothing more than that. Next, the plumber came and placed the pipes in the ground in the various ditches they dug, which was followed by an inspection. Then the slab guys came back, dug the beams, tied the steel, covered the dirt with plastic, and poured the slab. Our first 'incident' happened when the slab crew sliced one our pipes down the middle! Monty took care of it, and the pipe was quickly fixed and the process continued without incident. Just another example of how much more calm and collected Monty is. I immediately wanted to know who was going to pay for the repair. We definitely balance one another. That is an extremely simplified version of the week's events, but the important part is that we now can really see what the house looks like. They will start framing next week; I can hardly wait to see the rooms!

Brick?!?

I never would have guessed that picking an exterior could have been so difficult. When we moved from San Antonio I had a vision in my head of rock and stucco, a San Antonio staple. When we arrived our plans took a new turn to match the entire town; we switched to brick. I had a very hard time with this because I had the other house pictured in my head (and on our plans)- with rock! The best thing about this decision is that Monty and I have identical taste in brick. We were able to narrow down a color without too much effort, and crazy enough both Acme and Hanson manufacture brick in Mineral Wells. After living in Mineral Wells from 7th-12th grade embarrassingly I had no idea! Here is a picture of the brick we chose. It is a bit hard to get a good feel for it in picture, but until you visit in person....

Life in Mineral Wells

OK, so it looks like a big pile of dirt, but picture a house.....
Monty's dad in the tractor moving the dirt pile around

Wow! We left Mineral Wells about 8 years ago, and my how much has changed in such a short period. They have upgraded from Wal-Mart to Super Wal-Mart, added a Chili's and other various fast food establishments, and raised the price of a movie ticket to rival that of other towns (it previously cost $3). This being said, we are really enjoying our life here. The pace is much different, but a really good kind of different.

Living with my parents has been wonderful! We eat real meals (at the table!), swim after dinner, play games, and all types of other fun stuff. They have been more than gracious to allow us to live with them; I don't know how we will ever repay them. Monty has been fishing with his grandfather (Pappy) on Thursday nights, and absolutely loves it (he won tonight!).

Work could not be better. I like all of the people that I work with, but I do miss working almost entirely with people in my own age group. I get off work between 5 and 6, but the real selling point is that I don't have to leave the house until 7:50 to arrive at 8:00 and even allow for a little wiggle room. Monty is currently waiting for our appraisal to be completed so we can begin construction. While he has been waiting he has been able to work with his dad (he is a huge help!) to get the lot leveled so that the minute all of our paperwork is complete we can begin building. I have included some pictures so you can get a feel for where we are building, and hopefully the next pictures will have a bit of cement included.