Are You Following Me?

As of this writing, only one person has admitted to following my blog.... Rob, our project manager. So, would the rest of my family and friends be sure to sign up, so I know that you're out there paying attention to all of the jewels that I so diligently summon forth each week? By the way, that's a photo of Rob with Jay in our new storage area. They've become quite close.

It was a fun week, personally, as I got to visit with my childhood buddy, li'l sis Elyse, who I've known for *gasp* 50 years! We have both come far since the days when I performed surgery on her with a butter knife when she was only an infant. Anyway, she came to town for a few days visit with her husband and brought along her niece, too, and we had great fun exploring the house. I also want to wish her mom, Claryne, a speedy recovery from a nasty fall this week, and is nursing a punctured lung and several broken ribs in the hospital in the 'burgh. My week was capped off by a very fun boxercise routine, led by my friend and masseuse, Jean, in our backyard. As always, she kicked my butt and had fun doing it, too.

Framing work continues at a speedy clip, and each day brings new delights - and surprises. Looks like we need to make a change or two, like shifting the guest bath mirror up, so people like my cousin Elizabeth at 6 feet tall won't have to squat to put on her makeup (although not a bad way to tone those glutes), or can avoid scraping knuckles on the nightstand to open the bedroom window. Little things like that.

Photos from this week include some images from the new master bedroom - the ceiling will have a couple of tiers, with some cool uplighting; and Jay standing in front of the wall 'o windows. There's a good shot of the open floorplan downstairs, quite a change from the dreary cave in the original design. Obviously, the floorplan is more open now than it will be once the drywall goes up, but you catch my drift.

Not much more to report tonight, but keep checking us out. As you can see, there's loads more to come in the days - and months - to come!

You're Gonna LOVE This One!

Last week, Jay was chatting with the concrete guy at Durango, who was relating a story about the concrete inspector - apparently a man who has no sense of humor. While inspecting the concrete work on our house, the inspector heard a racket coming from next door, where our neighbors were doing some tile work. He raced over to the neighbor's house... and discovered that they never got a permit for their work. So he shut their job down! Not only are we irritating everyone with our noise and dust, but we are getting them in trouble with the law. Kind of amusing.

I couldn't get my blog updated til now; I was in wine country (near the Russian River Valley) at a nutrition conference. Met some great new associates, and learned a TON about diet and disease prevention. Also unraveled part of the mystery of my curious GI distress last month. My biz associate, JJ Virgin (http://www.jjvirgin.com/) did some testing and interpreted my lab results for me. I have developed an allergy to eggs and dairy - and have now exorcised them from my diet. Very hard for me, because cheese is life to me, and eggs are in nearly everything. But I'll do anything to stop the pain in my gut. The good news? Coffee and wine are still IN the diet. The conference left no time for winery touring, however, but seeing the Fall colors made my heart soar like an eagle (a la Little Big Man)! Pumpkin patches lined the highways, and the leaves on the grapevines are turning gold. Gave me some wonderful memories of the (few) years back in PA. Nothing prettier than Fall.

Oh, yeah. The house! We continue to press on, and you can now begin to envision our jacuzzi/hot tub in the back yard. Framing continues; an outline of my new office can be seen - the room with the angled wall (well, boards on the concrete that appear to be angled). We continue to stay on schedule - perhaps a bit still ahead of it.

I've also added a photo of the great spider hunter, Jay-Z, who usually cases the perimeter of the rental home each morning, knocking down the webs built by the fat-bottomed arachnids that are literally EVERYWHERE in this neighborhood. It's nuts. By late afternoon, they have re-built their webs, often across the pathway to our front door - and we have come too close too often to smacking face first into their dangling bodies. We have a rule with the spiders: "stay on your side of the walkway and we leave you alone. Otherwise, better make a run for it."

Working at a Hare's Pace

Yes, it's true! We've been advised that, so far, things have been moving along so well that we're ahead of schedule. Well, we're gonna bank that comment, because it may come in handy down the road somewhere.

With all the ups and downs (mostly downs) in the market these days, we are most amused by comments from folks like, "Gee, do you really think this was a good time to remodel a home?" Well, no of course it isn't, but, hey, have you seen the house lately? What do you suggest we do at this point?????? But I digress.

This week's photos reveal some new cool things, like the steel framing of our pool/jacuzzi, the removal of the upstairs deck - to make way for the bigger one to come! and a view of the house a couple houses away from us ALSO doing major renovation on their landscape. The neighbor next to us is fixing something that requires tile cutting, so between our 3 homes, there are enough workers, trucks and noise to disrupt entire colonies of lizards, rattlesnakes and Argentinian ants occupying the amazingly beautiful canyon across the street (also a photo of that, too). Would be cool if the mosquitos would take a hike, too.

Mostly, we are very excited about what's going on at Durango, and as master framer, Doug, slowly reveals what should be real rooms some day, we are envisioning what life will be like in the not-so-distant future. Eight months sounds like a long time... until you start thinking of things like, wow, we've been married 18 years? Or, no way I've got my 35th high school reunion coming up. And everyone's favorite, when did that start to sag so low?

Above is a video of workers at our home this morning, hacking away at a new "discovery" as our contractor called it (for your information, "discovery" = "more expense"). Something about a wall not having a footer to attach to, and needing to pour a new footer something or other. Anyway, they are fixing the "discovery" which is good news, and have also been able to uncover the reason behind the strange mildewy smell that used to come from my office. Seems that the gutter/flashing from the roof deck was corroded, so the water was draining into my office WALL, for God's sake. Thanks BeBe for pulling me aside and solving the mystery. Glad that'll be fixed, too.

It was awesome getting comments from cousins in exotic places like Italy (no, Daniela, I'm not wearing a skirt - are you kidding?) and Pittsburgh (Dara, I miss you too!), and I really look forward to visits from all when things are complete.

Remember, you can click on any photo, and it will enlarge - so if you want a real good look at what's happening, click it and blow it up.

Keep your comments coming!

She's Come Undone

As I thought, the neighbors are very happy with the progress we made on our home this past week. As workers saw cut and jackhammered through the concrete slab to make room for new plumbing, and to pound through the sandstone bluffs to set up the pool, the noise was (from what we were told) unbelievable!

We ran into Shelly, our neighbor and also our supplier of all things plumbing, as we were making final selections on our sinks and tub and faucets at her company, El Cajon Plumbing & Heating. Got an earful from her (but in a loving way :-) Guess the noise was pretty unbearable for her and her family this past week... but she has a hell of a showroom of plumbing supplies, and her staff are knowledgable and friendly. So get yourself down to El Cajon today and shop for your new kitchen sink (OK, Shelly, are we good?).

As you can see, the home is now stripped down to its bones - for those of you who have had the privilege of spending the night with us, you should enjoy the new view from the guest room where I'm standing in the above photo. Downstairs, the floors are cratered with deep trenches, making way for new plumbing, and upstairs Jay is admiring the new framing leading into our bedroom.

Meanwhile, back in our temp home, the carpeting has been replaced, and holes in the wall are awaiting final repair and paint, following the aftermath of our plumbing problems HERE. Aside from this mess, we remain content in our holding cell while the Durango work continues. We even had our first dinner party last night with local pals Christine and Greg, and Jane and Ray. We enjoyed the wild caught salmon and halibut that Jay and his pal, Dennis, snagged in Alaska in August (see the 200 pound brute that Dennis caught above!). Tasty stuff. We shot some pool, talked (briefly) about the economy, and overall had a swell time just laughing, talking, and ignoring the fact that only a couple blocks away our beloved home has been completely destroyed.

Be sure to tune in to next week's episode of "Roof? What Roof? We don't need no stinkin' roof."