August

We took a quick trip up to Dallas around the 1st of August and couldn't believe all the progress over 3 days worth of working by the framing crew. Now comes the tougher part in detailing out the inside.

Cindy is contemplating what colors to paint these rooms, or maybe she's inspecting to see if the roof is going to stay up.

The guy on the left is our builder ... Larry Muske. We love working with him because he's been honest and up front on everything and is always asking questions or giving us options.

View of the house from across the canyon. This is the east side of the house. Looks like we're kind of tucked in but when winter comes and leaves go, I think we'll be a little more exposed.

The framers have finished up on the deck and trim work. Stone will go around the columns and on the floor.

Matt the electrician starting on laying out wire and boxes.

So over the past week, we've had AC guys, plumbers, the low voltage guys (speakers, security, etc.) and electricians working over and around each other. Another phase almost done.

Still running wires but getting close. We finally got slowed down due to spotty rain showers that limited painting the trim. The push is on to finish the "inside the wall" stuff so the roof can go on and the insulation can get put in.

Samples of stone to choose from. We're going with the lighter color on the left with some of the gray stone mixed in. Also note the on-demand water heater above the stone. Every time I see something come in I'm thinking about the money angle.

Back porch stained. It lightens up after sealed and the stone goes up.

The painters come back to stain the beams and upper wood on the front porch, back deck, and breezeway.

Inside .... the actual fireplace. Cindy still has to burn her trees!

The stone is going up. They use a little Bobcat to move it around and have a mixer to take care of the mortar.

While all this is going on the stone guys start their thing. This is some of the messiest work there is. This is one of about 5 loads we have had delivered.

While the stone guys are doing their thing, the roofers have come back to begin putting the metal roof on. We were getting anxious about this because the rain chances started increasing and the weather guys were talking about a couple of the Gulf hurricanes coming in over Central Texas.

It's going faster than we thought but there are 10 or so masons working on it so it should go faster. It's very detail work.

It's the end of August and the stone guys have finished the front, west side, and the back porch. They should be done within one more week.