We have passed inspection!

After the whole issue with the gas line pressure leaks and such, we have officially passed inspection as of today!  I'm so excited!

 

Sally was a God-send to be there for the inspector today.  I had been getting a crown yesterday when my phone started ringing and it was Butch... I answered told him where I was and that I would talk to him later and then promptly turned the ringer off.  Sigh.  I then proceed to miss four calls - all of them important.  Sigh.  One from the plumbing company telling me that they would be doing the inspection between 9am - 12pm today, one from Sally telling me that she could be there for it (thank heavens), one from Mom and Dad and one from Liz.  Good grief!

 

To my defense, I was numbed to my eyeballs from the crown and didn't come out of my drunk talking numbness until about 7pm that night... so I'm not sure I would have dashed down there regardless... however, this morning at 6am I was sorely tempted to make the run... but then thought better of it as it was pea-soup foggy here and remained so for HOURS after the sun tried to come up.

 

I'm thrilled to say the least - now to get the water turned back on, the gas hooked up and the appliances running (heater and hot water heater)and tested... we'll have HOT water in the house now - what a shock to the system THAT will be!!  I've been washing paint brushes in cold water for the last few months at the house.  It wasn't so bad in October, but let me tell you what, in November with the colder temperatures that cold water is SHOCKING first thing in the morning - even if it is just on your hands :)

 

So... next up is drywall, then flooring... and the list goes on and on and on....but we're moving right along.... slowly, but moving along!

 

And we're outa here...

Let's take a tour, shall we? (Entering from the carport far right middle)


The VERY messy kitchen. This is our staging area, so it's a bit trashed.


The newly painted hallway. You're looking yo the bedrooms.


Entry way looking good. Need to paint the front door, however the rest is nicely painted and holding for a closet door to be prepped and painted. (Looking north from the living room left side door)


Back into the hall and into the main bath. Still holding on some fixtures to be installed on the cabinets.... (I'm standing in the tub)


Onto the darkened master bedroom (we didn't take the paper off this morning. No more work to be done in there for the most part.


The master bath. Note there is a DOOR. it's the little things in life. We spent a few days without potty doors :). Freaked out the Plumbing guy ;)


Doors in place here too however missing a few (all) of the magnetic door latches.


On to bedroom number two. Looking good here too. Note paper on one of the windows :) This is the lower left bedroom.


Bedroom three AKA numbed room. Note that it's a happy room. :) thanks Angela.


On to the living room. Full circle now! Yes that's Butch photo bombing me!


Here's the last shot (taken from where Butch was). And with that we're still short a gas connection. Still need to arrange flooring and electrical. And the list goes on....

Day four (really five, but we took a day off)

I'm gonna cry today. Damn gas line is still leaking!!



Yep that's a confirmed LEAK still. ARG!!! I have NO idea how we are going to remedy this. I called them (guys who "fixed" it) and left a message that there is still a leak.


On a positive note trim is looking GOOD as are walls and ceilings.


Butch doing trim work!!

We worked until we lost light. We managed to get 2 coats of paint in the back side of the house and the ceiling pained on the living room before we were working by lamp light. Not ideal for painting for sure. We called it a night and went to Stewby's for dinner.

Fresh seafood!


Liz has a happy hush puppy. ;)


Angela made a happy french fry - until LiZ bit his head off ;)

We had a nice dinner then home for a rousing game of Push the Dummy. Liz and Angela went to the movies to see Big Hero Six.

Happy thanksgiving.

A day full of electronics.


Do you think they're ready to eat?


Butch and his mom finishing their prep!



Dig in!!


The aftermath!


Lush!! (Really is sparking cider)





And a great Thanksgiving day was had by all. Especially the paint crew who didn't have to work :)

Day three ...

Day three and zero pictures. To my defense nothing has really changed. There is just a bit more paint on the walls and trim, but nothing was really different/different ya know.

The gas line leak has now been fixed for the 2nd time to the tune of $150+ the original "fix" was the gas line move ($400+ chaching!!) yeah ouch.

Oh yeah hardware!! Door hardware, specifically the 1/2 bath door was reinstalled. Why is this important?? Well the plumber dude wanted to use the bathroom however I had to tell him that we had no doors and to use the front potty and we would keep folks out of that room. Ha! That door has been reinstalled and is now able to be shut and locked. Whoohoo! It is indeed a great thing to pee in private again ;)

The trim is now 99% done. The back bedroom still needs first coats of all paints as well as the living room. The small bedroom needs another coat of wall paint and it's pretty well done.

The baths are deemed done but we need to put the doors all back onto the cabinets. Along with its hardware. Then cleaning. Kitchen is a far cry from done. Nothing touched yet. Sigh. So much to do, so little time!! Tomorrow is a holiday and we're not working in the house. (Unless I sneak over and paint something)

Oh, and I painted my seat in my car. Sigh. Gotta get that off tomorrow as well.

Day two.... Shoot me now

Should have taken a picture of the lovely gauge at ZERO. Ugh. We have a leak. }}%*'^%<£¥ what does this mean? $$$ I'm sure. Sigh. So the plumbers were called back and they will go on a leak hunt and we will hemorrhage a bit of money. Sigh.

BUT the rest of the house went very well today. Doors almost all done - well those that were prepped. There is ONE more to pull off the hinges (front hall closet) and one bedroom door that we have to drill out the blasted hardware.

This is a sample of the art work around the house :)


Those are blinds in the floor anyone need some vertical blinds??


My paint crew :)


The beginning.


The hall done. The trim needs a few more coats.


The master again the trim (base boards) need another coat if paint.


The closer doors are looking GREAT in white rather than brown.


The tiny room is happy. Ha! Painted walls, ceilings and walls.


Need to paint the closet.


The crew hard at work...not really, they were painting messages on the door.

The day ended early as it was. Dark and dreary day. Rained all day on and off. In the end we have the master done with the exception of baseboards. The smallest bedroom has two coats on the ceiling and one on the wall. The hall has one on the walls. Mostly cause I want to wait for Butch to see if he wants to take out the whole house fan this weekend.

Tomorrow is hardware day. I need to get hardware for the bathrooms and the interior doors. Start putting SOME things back together.

Day 1 thanksgiving work week

The gas line is moved. Yay. Now pray for no leaks.


So this is right after they left.
Noted one of the bushes out front looks like this:






Pretty camellias. I haven't looked in the back where I know there are more. Maybe tomorrow?

For today we have all the baseboards primed with Kilz. Some of the doorways have the first coat of trim paint. I had started to paint the cabinets in the bath with the sprayer then it decided it didn't want to put out any paint. Damn thing. So back to rollers. Ugh.

I think I have a good head start on the cabinets doors as well. May be ready to put them back on the end of this week?

Doors primed and painted with some trim paint as well. And progress is moving forward. Slowly but forward.

Pictures tomorrow. We were dragging butt out the door and it was getting dark so no pictures on the way out.

Almost forgot!

On the way home from Chattanooga we were hungry for lunch right about Kennesaw. Mom had seen a nice show on the sustainability projects done with the Culinary services there at the university and had wanted to eat there, so we stopped. http://dining.kennesawstateauxiliary.com/ shows you more of their sustainability process. Very interesting to hear about it all, but going to eat there was an experience.

They place was PACKED for lunch (even at 1:30pm) and very loud with the kids in there eating and visiting. It was definitely an experience to say the least. The Pizza dough was really good, then after watching the movie I know why - they are all made fresh every day from scratch. Definitely watch the "Plow to Chow" movie on the right side is very informative.

Linda and I were trying to look up what the attendance of the university is and I found it today - it's big at 24,175. I thought that was HUGE until I looked up Georgia Southern where Liz goes and it's 20,212. Southern Utah University is a tiny 7,750 students... REALLY TINY in comparison!! Eye opening for me!

AGW Day Three

Day three dawned very COLD!!

 This morning was cause for a Camel Macchiato (sp?) on the patio as it was very chilly with a cold front coming down - arctic air on the way.. burrrrr

 I think the overcast day really makes the RED glow  -  don't you???

 I decided to take a nice panorama of the view... to the far left is the baseball field, then the parking garage (I know, pretty, right?) the water, then the aquarium.  This is a WONDERFUL aquarium It is where we used to bring the girls before they got the one in ATL.  It has a river side (first in the line up from left to right, then the ocean side.  just a fun adventure to be had... to the far right of the ocean section is a nice waterway step/splash area that goes all the way to the river and ends with some cool water cannons.  There is also a walk bridge about a block further down that way too.  Just a really fun outdoor place to go and tourist... maybe not in November, but still a fun place!

We then went to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel and vacation complex.  Very tourist trap, but cute in it's own right.

 We do like each other, I was going to (may still) Photoshop us all together into one single shot :)

I went to the desk to see if we could see one of the train cars that is converted to a hotel room.  They gave us a key and sent us on our way.

I don't have the large establishing shot on the outside of the car, but you get the jist, you get up onto the train, turn and there is your room... you use a normal hotel key card to access it.

 This one is a family car - they take 1/2 the car and set it up as a room with a separate bath - the bath is first.

 Queen bed at one end with a daybed and trundle.  Blurry shot... drat not having glasses to see if shots are blurry or not!!  Next week, next week!

 And a sitting room.. I thought this was a flashback from the mirror then discovered it was LINDA once I got it loaded.  she was taking a picture of me, taking a picture of them at the other end.  Funny.

 The baths have a tub/shower combo and a  toilet room to the right what you're seeing by the window is really just a little closet of sorts in there.  But with all the overhead racks in the other room, I would imagine you would just hang stuff out there!

From the Choo Choo we headed back towards the hotel and off to the north part of town to get some souvenirs at a lower cost.  We had sucess at Walgreens of all places!

Our comments on the walk on that side of town was all about the nice crunchy leaves... we don't GET leaves like this around us.. it was nice to crunch and kick through the leaves making our way back to the shuttle buss and back to the hotel to make our way home.

Linda is on her second adventure while staying in ATL for her convention the end of this week.  We dropped her off at her hotel near Georgia Tech and as I had to use the potty before getting stuck in traffic, I went in with her.  Good thing I did!  She was sent to the downtown area hotel as this one had a big issue with water damage in their rooms...   WOW - had we just dumped/hugged/ran she would have had to figure out how to GET to the new hotel to boot!  So we jumped back in the car and headed downtown.  About two blocks from her new hotel there were about 4 fire engines and other assorted emergency vehicles in front of a building.  There were MORE firetrucks still coming in as we were making our way to her place and she texted us a while later and said there were still MORE emergency vehicles going that way!  Wonder what on earth happened  there???  Hope she makes it through the next part of her adventure and enjoys her conference even if she hadn't planned on staying right in the middle of downtown!

And with that Mom and I are home and the blog is updating from a computer and all is well with the world :)

AGW Day Two

I guess third time is the charm, I wrote this review yesterday at the close of the day, went to post it and "poof" it went away and was lost to the network hell that all failed posts apparently go.  So I wrote it all again and then it was stuck on my phone for the whole night and all today and will NOT post - even now that I am home.. so I went to my computer and the photo's won't load in IE... REALLY?  So, now I am on Google Chrome and trying for the third time to post this... so I'm sure a LOT will be lost on the enthusiasm level by writing this again and again and again!

The day was BEAUTIFUL for sure and in hind sight of today's weather the PERFECT day for our outing on the river.  

 I got to put the patio to good use with a coffee and an iPad to sit and while the morning away!  I did do some productive stuff while out there too (setting up a gas account for the little house and such)

 Linda, on the other hand got the BIG prize as she walked the block a few times - or a few blocks AND the five flights of stairs up to the room... so she used her time super well!!

Then we walked the 1/4 mile down to the boat dock to await our lunch cruise.  The "dock" is a VERY old and very large boat that is moored permanently on the shore there.. on the top floor there is a bar/lounge area and I cracked up at the curtains that have seem much worse dart players than need be :)  ha!

 we are overlooking the true boat we are going to go on our cruise of the day.  it's a nice size boat with four levels to the captains level that we're eye to eye with.  it was really a nice size little boat at 140 some odd feet.

 While we were waiting for the cruise to start we were "entertained" by a singer/piano (keyboard) player who was 68 I believe he said.  You can tell how thrilled Mom is with him, her ears are plugged.  To her defense, it was LOUD in there with him hooping it up for sure.

 Here he is.. in the front of the boat... can't see him?

 Here it is zoomed in...

 ALSO while on this trip we got to have the police practice touch and goes on the boat - it's their way of practicing boarding a moving boat and I guess the river boat is a good practice vessel.  It was sort of fun to watch them out of our window.  They would pull up and touch the boat for x amount of time, then peel off and come back and repeat - they did this for MILES of the river.

 Looking up a branch of the river - the land to the left is an island - we ended up going UP this channel on the way back up river.

 at just about the 1/2 way point (turn around) we picked up some passengers ... no one knows why they were picked up here, but it was very interesting to see the captain pull up to the very edge of the river, then swing that boom over to the land to pick these folks up!

 The gal in the car was asking if she should move and the boat was swinging over quickly and she got a bit rattled and put her car in DRIVE instead of reverse.  She didn't splash in, but she really had a bit of a shock for sure!  She was there with a kayak to go into the river at that point.

 Here is the side that the boat was butted up against.. the limbs from these trees were poking into the boat - I mean REALLY poking into the boat... so we were CLOSE to that edge for sure!  I was busy watching the front so I didn't see the limbs coming in except for through the glass wheel house. VERY close!!

 More fun things to see...loved this house at the top of the cliff...

 with the leaves more visible the house practically glowed in the sunshine!

 Happy Veterans day!!

 Lots of pretty leaves and fun things to see along the way - mostly herons and turtles, but still very nice and very relaxing for sure!

When we got back to shore, we made our way up to Ruby Falls to check that out as our last big adventure of the trip.

 The road crews were replacing the guard rails, so I felt safe taking a quick picture as I knew NO one was coming my way :)

 Into the cave!

 Mom and Linda both commented that the cave wasn't nearly as pretty as the ones in Missouri, but the water fall was impressive to say the least.  After the one at Rock City, I now question the validity of the actual water... I'm sure the one there was faked... I wonder if this one is/was too?  Hard to know, but that is a lot of water coming in and not a lot going back out again...  We'll never know, will we??  ha!

Back at the hotel that night we were tempted to have ice cream for dinner, but we did get some proper nutrition before eventually having some Ben&Jerry's for dessert - well worth the stop there!!