More about Lady

Here are a few more photos of Lady. She is adjusting well so far. But today was a rocky day. I was in the computer room when I heard my cell phone ringing in the bedroom. Without thinking I took off, scared Lady out of her wits and she was scrambling around trying to get her feet under her on the slick floor. Not long after that, digging nearby caused some kind of explosion that frightened her even more. It took all day & lots of lovin' to get her back to her previous comfort level.


This is the long-awaited tail wag.







Here is a stretch after a nap. The mat in front of the sink has become her favorite place to hang out when I'm cooking.














She doesn't like the camera so we have to encourage her to pose. She turns her face away. Tom was trying to get her to look at me.












This one came out well. And her tail is curling up and not down between her legs. She doesn't like anyone walking toward her, loud noises - even those she knows, or surprises. She doesn't know how to play but we hope to change that when she trusts us better. Maybe Echo can teach her when we go visit next week.







She is a good dog and has been trained somewhat. She heels wonderfully, doesn't chew at all, and so far has only had 2 accidents inside, both our fault for not paying attention. She likes being inside and will cuddle up in your lap and take a nap.

Lady

Today, Tom and I went to pick up our new family member. Her name is Lady. We got her from the animal shelter here in Hattiesburg. We actually picked her out on Wednesday but had to leave her to be spayed and microchipped. They phoned this morning and said she was ready to go home. All of these photos were taken on the screened porch just after we got home. She seemed to really like watching the golfers. She would pace around and then, when she heard a cart coming toward the green, she would go to the back and watch them intently.








Here she is taking a break from watching golfers and watching Tom through the bottom of the coffee table. She was spayed yesterday and is a little puny today. She's been skittish this evening a bit. Of course that was after I scared her silly by letting the screen door slam. Tom had her on the back steps when it happened. She took off, got out of her harness (obviously not snug enough) and headed out toward the woods to the north of us. Tom followed her and was able to call her back to us. Then we had to clean her up. Smelled like they'd been feeding her Mighty Dog... I hope she didn't do any damage to her surgery by running like that. We're keeping a close eye on her this evening and being very quiet...



She loves the porch. We hope she'll like the inside of the house, too. I'm sure once she is over the surgery pain she'll be more exploratory. She seems very alert and intelligent.















They think she is about 7 months or so in age. We'll see what the vet thinks once we go visit her next Monday.

A Few Photos

Finally, I have some photos to post. I decided if I waited until the house was all cleaned up and magazine-picture perfect, it would never happen. As it is, we just returned home from a trip to St. Louis to see Dave and Jen so it looks lived in. Which it is.

This is the kitchen looking toward the back of the house. I'm standing in the doorway of the computer room.

Another view of the kitchen looking from the living room. You can see the computer room door to the left.

Here is the living area looking toward the dining room.

The living room again. This time looking from the computer room.

One of my favorite spots - the screened in porch. Tom has started cleaning out the underbrush bordering the golf course property. It looks much better, but there is a lot to do yet. We've had sod put down and are shopping for the plants and trees we will use in the landscape plan. My Uncle Jack has drawn us a beautiful plan that we are looking forward to creating.

This is one side of our master closet. Tom worked very hard getting the Easy Closets installed the week we moved in. He thinks they should change their name...They are great and I love them being above the floor. Makes it much easier to clean.

This is the infamous glass brick shower wall. Our builder told us he would never put in another one. He would build a client the space for one, but he would not be responsible to install it. The installer told us NOT to call him if one of the bricks broke or we need to take it apart for any reason. I am very pleased with it and I love the huge shower area. It feels like one of the spas or outdoor showers many of the hotels in SE Asia have.

Semi-connected anyway

Well, we got our phones installed after speaking with the Operations Manager almost daily, and with that service, we got DSL as well. So we are online again with at least one computer. Right now we are in the middle of getting the wireless network things sorted out. Our modem and router are not communicating yet. We hope to have that resolved this afternoon... Ever the optimist...

The house is beginning to feel like home. Most of the boxes are unpacked. Tom is working very hard on the room upstairs, the yard, the garage, under the house, etc. Anything that needs doing he is right on it. I've not done a real good clean yet inside the house. You know, the one you do once or twice a year. Then the rest of the time you can clean as you go. With workers still coming through doing the finishing touches it seems useless to do it yet. Kind of like shoveling the walk while it is still snowing. We've located almost everything. There are some items still missing from the move - sofa pillows, step stool, papers - that we'll claim when we file on the damages to the furniture. This was the worst move we've ever had with regard to damages. Our theory is that the container was dropped at some point along its journey.

Now that we are connected again, I'll have some photos soon, I hope.

Still cut off

We head into another week with no phone service - or internet. X-fone is not giving anyone who works for a competing phone company anything to worry about. I'm thinking Telefonica would be a better bet...

Passed the final inspection so we are in the house legally and can stay there. Good thing, cause I don't plan on leaving any time soon.

More when we are better able. (This was done at my mom's on her internet connection.)

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Still no phone or internet

Just a short update. I am at the Oak Grove Library checking emails and thought I'd post a quick update. Still no phone service and therefore no internet. Aaaaarrrggghhh!

The house is slowly coming together. We have had rain every afternoon for the past few weeks so the yard is more lakelike than we would like. But once it gets dry, we can work on it again. We have all the boxes from our shipment, from our storage here in Hattiesburg, and from mom's house under our roof again! Some are not unpacked but progress is being made.

Sorry for the lack of photos recently, but we hope to get back online as soon as we can. We have everything ready - just need a line...

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Moving

A short post to let you know the status of our saga for the moment. There are no photos, sorry about that, but there will be again soon. Once we get phone and internet service. Another saga. Anybody heard of xfone? That is the provider in our neighborhood due to contracts the developer made. Result: no idea when we get a pedestal run to our house. The 7-14 day window is now in week 4, going on 5 by Monday. We are physically in the house. The shipment arrived on the 17th in the middle of the heat wave. Those poor guys moving all that heavy Indonesian furniture in that heat. We had lots of water and powerade for them so we wouldn't have to call 911. There are so many things to do but every day the stack of boxes and things to put away gets a bit smaller. Patricia has come twice to help and to take away some of the packing materials because she is packing to move (again!) this month. Mom and Dad came over yesterday and cleared out a few more boxes. Thanks so much for that!

Anyway, we will post again, with photos, once we are able to concentrate on something more than unpacking. And we have access to internet again. Right now, we come to Steele internet cafe for our online needs.

Oh, we also set fire to my computer trying to set it up again. Tom took it into a shop here to see if anything was recoverable. The power pack was multi-voltage so we aren't sure what went wrong. The guy thinks maybe it grounded itself...

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Here's the latest

Sorry it has been so long with the updates. We have been traveling to Hattiesburg daily to keep up with the progress. We welcomed a new member to the Brown's auto family. We traded the pickup for this minivan. The truck was really great and we hated to trade it, but we felt the van would provide the same hauling capacity and better flexibility in traveling.
The insulation in the attic space was sprayed about 10 days ago. It looked like it was snowing when I went to the bonus room to get a look. I built a walkway from one end of the house to the other. The city requires an access to any equipment located in the attic. With the house split into two different areas, we had the air conditioning and hot water on the other side of the house from the main system. Because of the city requirements, the builder was going to cut an access hole in the closet of the front bedroom. I said I would rather have a walkway. He really did not want to build one, so I did. It came in handy when the plumber was looking at a problem with the hot water heater.

Here are couple of pictures of our laminate flooring in the family room and kitchen. Since these pictures have been taken, I have installed the refrigerator. We will now have ice available to us.

And of course, we finally had the weather to pour the driveway and the sidewalk. The summer rains here have a tendency of stopping all outside work. But three days of sunshine to dry up the water puddles and the work can be done.

We have our first delivery of furniture arriving today at the house. The city has not yet given final approval, but we are hoping for that to happen in the next day or so. The plumbers need to bury the water line and fix a plumbing problem under the sinks and we should be able to get approval. We plan on staying at the house Thursday night.

Need to leave for Hattiesburg once again, so will post some more later.

The Home Stretch - We Hope

There are a lot of problems: finding people to work, getting people to show up to work, getting the work done satisfactorily, days lost with nothing done. We do have a deadline and now must push everyone harder to meet it. The problems are reasonable as well as sometimes sad. Nevertheless, time is still lost and we have very little time left. There is a moving truck coming from Houston sometime around the 15th.

For instance, the sheetrock repairers, a husband and wife team, have a daughter who was going into the hospital for a C-section the next day as well as a gall bladder surgery. The husband's kidneys quit working earlier in the year and he is on dialysis so has good days and bad days. Their work lacks one morning of being done. Until they are done the painters can't finish theirs.

The plumbers can't finish their installation until the sump pump is installed. It has been hard to get hold of the man who does this so the builder has been unable to talk with him. And there has been a shortage of supplies due to the large amount of construction going on in Hattiesburg right now. We hope he shows up Monday install it. But many of the contractors are not working on Monday because of the holiday on Tuesday. So there is another week almost gone.

Our builder's partner, who has been helping us get on track again, had a kidney stone this week so he has been unwell.

One of the bright spots has been the quartet of Tim, Keith, Matt, and Louis. They are young men who work for our builder doing the finish work and a LOT of the grunt work involved in construction. They work very hard and long and in the hot Mississippi sun. They have been willing to do whatever is asked of them and with a smile. They are pleasant to be around and have had a big part of getting our house going again.

We have been going to the house early every morning and staying until the last worker leaves. Consequently, there have been no posts lately. Until now.

The framework for the driveway. It can't be poured until the sump pump line and tank are buried.
And here is the sidewalk. These are the work of the quartet.

Floors, faucets, and sinks

Here is the crew installing the floor in our bedroom. They finished the 3 bedrooms and our closet. They were supposed to be back today to do the hallways. But we didn't see them. Neither did we see the cultured marble guys doing our shower. They lack two pieces of trim and were supposed to run by our house and finish up before they went to the other job today. And the shower fixture will be installed when they are finished.....

The front bedroom floor finished. Except for the quarter round that is going around the edges. That bright glare is because I spent the day cleaning the windows. They sure do look good. The ones I cleaned, that is. We plan to go back on Monday to finish the other ones. I'm only doing the inside. The cleaning crew can do the outside. They will have to be cleaned again anyway after all the construction is finished.

Dishwasher, kitchen sink, faucets, and newly installed tile backsplash (not yet grouted).

And the bathroom sinks and faucets. The lights are down until the sheetrock is repaired and repainted.

New Hairstyle

In response to overwhelming requests, here is the photo of the new, summer haircut, a joint effort by T&B.

Railings, Tile, Lights

Today, more progress yet. The lights are almost all in. The deck railing is finished. All that is lacking there are the handrails on the steps down into the yard. The front door looks good with the lights installed. The tile is done in all the bathrooms and laundry room. Next up, is the plumber to install sinks and toilets. Hopefully all will continue to go smoothly.

This is the tile in the guest bath. It was the one with the best light to see the color.

This is the screened porch and the fans out there.
And the front door with the lights installed. It will look very good once the painters clean up the glass. You look all the way through the house to the porch and deck outside.
These next two shots are of the back. I am so excited about this part of the house. I think it will be the most used and one I will enjoy very much.


We are looking at a late June - early July move-in date. Things are happening faster now and we are excited about soon having all our things under one roof. It has been over 8 years now since we had that. And to finish living out of a bedroom at Mom and Dad's, much as we appreciate their hospitality. We have enjoyed the time to have a relaxing visit again and not be rushing to run errands or to catch a plane. But, it is time for this household to become two separate ones again.

Fans, Lights, & Locks

Well, after visiting with the builders on Thursday and conveying our displeasure with the way things have been going, today all the crews from all their other houses were present at our house and working. We will be driving to Hattiesburg every day from now on to monitor progress and be sure they continue working on OUR house. And Tom says 'to play golf'. At the bottom of this photo is the footer for the steps. The brick mason should be there tomorrow to do the steps.
This is in the master bedroom. Every bedroom will have a ceiling fan with a light fixture.
This is the guest bathroom. The holes will be filled and painted over when the painters return. The white papers are where the mirrors will be.
And finally, locks on the doors. This is the only way it was safe to install fixtures. We heard that the cabinets were stolen from some houses being built at the entrance to the area. So far, thank God, we've had no problem with theft or vandalism.

Timberrrr!

Our front door. It looks better when you can see the color of the brick, which the paint color picks up. Things are not moving very fast indoors so this is the only new thing there.
We had a landscape guy come and take out some trees and clean out the brush on the sides and back of the house. Here are photos of some of the trees he took out. This was the largest tree but the easiest to get out. There was more room for it to fall and not injure anything else.

This one was dead - thanks to Katrina. As it was falling over, because of the bend in the tree, it fell...
...very close to the house. It did not hit it although it came close. Being as rotten as it was, even had it hit the house it wouldn't have done much damage.
This was the last one. He was so worried about hitting the concrete bricks that we moved them. (Compare the two photos. They are moved from the yard to the edge of the sawhorses as you can see in the bottom righthand corner of the lower photo.) But he never came close and almost missed and went into the neighbor's yard! And those blocks are heavy to carry - especially under the Mississippi summer sun.
Hopefully, there will be lots more to see in the coming days. We are counting down and pushing the contractors to finish so we can move in before we have to pay another month of storage fees.

Paint

The inside is painted. There are some minor corrections that need to be done, but for the most part, it is complete. The painters are now working on the outside. There is a lot of caulking to be done so it is taking a bit longer. This is a view of the kitchen. You can see the pantry door through to doorway.

This is another view of the kitchen looking toward the front.

Here is the master bath. There is a sink on the other side of the tall cabinet.

This is a truer representation of the actual color. This is part of the master closet.

Cabinets

We spent the last week and a half in St. Louis to attend the ceremony for our daughter-in-law's graduation from University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. Yes, we now have a doctor in the family! We picked up our daughter in Knoxville and her sidekick Echo-dog. Both are excellent travelers with no whining or getting sick. We had traveled 2895 miles by the time we pulled into the drive in McComb MS. All this to explain why no posts have been made in quite a while. We did stop by the house on the way through Hattiesburg and found - cabinets! yeah! Below is one view of the kitchen looking into the living room.

And this is looking through the kitchen to the computer room.

Here is the guest bath.
Tom is there today and reports the painters hard at work. Also, that it will take about 10 days to finish. So 2 weeks to paint. Our estimate of moving in around mid-June seems to be good. We hope to have our things out of storage in Houston and Hattiesburg before we have to pay rent for another month.

Here is the screened-in porch all trimmed out.