Silverado - 1; little red car - 0

It's been an interesting couple of weeks working on the house. Lot's of good mixed with a little bad.

I'm continuing to do whatever work I can myself to save money and I'm actually enjoying it. Schedule-wise it's exhausting and stressful...with a 2 year old and another one coming in just a couple of months, time is at a premium right now. Having so much to do is definitely a challenge for the whole family. Carol has really stepped up though, and is doing A LOT to keep things rolling at the apartment since I've not been able to do much (or any) laundry, dishes, cleaning, cooking, etc... I'm quite certain that at 7 months pregnant NONE of those things are high on the list of things she would like to do! Building a house is most definitely a whole-family affair...and being pregnant just makes it that much harder on her. Thanks hon...

Aside from that, the actual work is quite enjoyable. I really like being able to have a hand in the construction of our dream house. Not only will I come away with a more intimate knowledge of how the house is constructed, but it's also really satisfying to do the work. From that stand point it's a lot of fun.

HOWEVER, we suffered a minor (sarcasm) set back Wednesday. I took the day off (since it's the only day this week that I don't go straight from working all day to an orchestra rehearsal) and dad came up to help me run all of our low-voltage wiring and take care of a few other odds & ends. We had done all of our planning and needed some materials, so we took his truck to Lowe's.

When we left the house, his truck DID NOT look like this...


After the car full of teenage girls leaving school for the afternoon pulled out in front of us (I was driving) our schedule for the day got seriously screwed up. Notice the mis-alignment between the hood and passenger fender. Also notice the puddle of transmission fluid on the ground under the front corner. There's no coolant on the ground though...that's because it had already all drained out by the time we got towed. The girls were all fine (thank God...) though a few inches seconds different would very well have caused some serious injuries. Physics... Anyhow, everybody is ok. Her car is most likely totaled. Dad's truck is being fixed. Everybody is a little shaken up. (By the way, it wasn't my fault...she got the ticket).

So, I'm going to have to double time it this weekend. Heat/cooling work is nearly finished. Electrical work began yesterday and will be done Tuesday morning. Insulation, drywall, and driveway are all (hopefully) coming next week. Pedal to the metal!

I'm also going to do a full photo session this weekend and will have a LOT of pictures to post next week. I'm going to catalog where all the wiring, ductwork, plumbing is inside the walls. Dad did this when his house was built and it has been invaluable to him over the last 30 years. I won't bomb you with all of those pictures, but I'll post some...

That's about it for now... look for a big posting next week!