Nothing Nothing Nothing

Nothing. That is exactly what happened to the lot last week. We are the next house to be started in the neighborhood. There are actually two lots behind us, and every other house is already started. As usual, our sales agent was vague, vague, vague. Of course we know that he knows just exactly WHEN they are supposed to start, but he will only say, "two or three weeks."

Actually it would be better if they didn't start for two or three weeks. Then we'd have more time after the first of the year to sell this house. The when-to-sell question is complicated by December. The holidays make it a less than opportune time to list a house, so do we do it early or wait until January? And what about the bubble? Will it burst? OY.

But at least we aren't in Louisiana tonight. Those folks are in for a rough time.

A SIGN

We have a sign- both literally and figuratively. They put up the sign that will hold all of the papers about the house, which is a sign that our foundation should be framed up in the next week or so! We've driven around the neighborhood so often that we are familar with all of the homes being built by Mercedes. Right now they have four houses that have just had the foundation framed, three houses with the pipes in the framing, and two lots (ours included) that are just about to be started.





We are becoming home improvers. Before we went to visit the dirt today, we cut quarter round molding to replace what we removed when we redid the floor in the old house. Brad has a new workbench that came in very handy.It is nice to have this house to practice on before we get to the new house, and we have a lot of practice ahead of us. Once the new house begins to go up we should be in full panic mode, getting this house ready to sell.

Bishop's Birthday Blowout

Bishop is 17! Unbelievable. He requested a steak dinner for his birthday meal along with the traditional Lafer family ice box cake.

Happy Birthday, Bishop!
















He combined all his birthday money into one present- a 20 gig Ipod so that he can put all of his music on one device- not surprising, since he has always been a huge music fan.

Belated Birthday Blowout

Since Olivia was too sick to eat cake on her actual birthday, she made a crumb cake today.



She chose the candles that relight after you blow them out. We sang "Happy Birthday," she made a wish, and blew out her candles. And then she blew them out again, and again, and again...

Buying under pressure

Thank goodness we spent so much time obsessing over cabinet and flooring choices before we went to the design center. We spent two, packed hours making expensive choices. If we hadn't been so prepared, there is no way we would have been able to get it all done in our alloted time.

Here are the highlights: The back/pool side of the house, including the family room and kitchen will all be tiled. This is to prevent my spontaneous combustion when a wet, screaming child enters the back of the house, dripping all over my beautiful hardwood floors.

The hardwood floors have been reserved for the living and dining room, including the foyer. The stair rails will be stained to match the floor. Although you may open the front door into an empty room, at least the view will be nice.

Speaking of the front door, we picked a simple, glass door that should let in a lot of light.

The kitchen took half of the budget. We picked a dark, maple cabinet (Heritage/Cordovan) and added several upgrades including 42" of height, corner cabinet with a lazy susan, drawers, shelves, molding and a cabinet that will be almost flush with the fridge. The appliances will be stainless steel and the stove is a flat top.

Oh, I nearly forgot the most important upgrade. We went for the Corian counter in black- called Anthracite. It has a bit of a sparkle that should go with the stainless steel appliances. We also got the drop in seamless sink.

The master bathroom is getting high vanities and tile on the floor, on the walls around the garden tub and in the showers. We also upgraded the padding, but not the carpet for all of upstairs and Mitchell's downstairs bedroom.

I'm sure that there is more, but I can't remember everything. Luckily, the design center is sending a samples of our choices.

Sofa anyone?

Anybody need a sofa? Ugh. This is what we found on our lot the other day. The house next door has a huge dumpster. It looks like somebody missed when they threw this out. OY!

Hopefully in a few weeks our lot will be smoothed out, trash free, and readied for the foundation.

The Design Center Called

The design center called. The design center called. The design center called.

On Tuesday at 3:30 we get to pick out our cabinets and flooring.

Yipee!

Poor Olivia was home from school on her birthday because she was sick. She couldn’t even eat the birthday sushi that Brad made. the birthday plate may say "eat cake," but she wasn't having any. On Saturday, she was feeling a little bit better so we had a neighborhood pool party for her.

Mitchell jumped into the pool and entertained all of the party guests by allowing them to splash him and climb all over him. That is his black head just going under the water with his grinning sister pushing him down.

Bishop blew huge bubbles for everybody using his hands.

On Saturday night, Brad took Charlie and Olivia with him to his very first Jaguar game with his very own season tickets. He was happy to find that the people in the nose-bleed section are all very nice. He said that the view was great- they could see the whole field and possibly the whole city.

You can tell that the party and the game wore our girl out.
She bounced back on Sunday just in time for the new school week.

A little something

Last week, Brad stopped by the dirt one day when he had to go to the airport office. We’ve been feeling abandoned lately because all of the deadlines they told us about in the beginning have come and gone with no action- no design center, no builder meeting, nothing! So, Brad just stuck his head into the sales center to make sure that they hadn’t forgotten us.
Luckily, the builder and assistant builder were in the office, too. The builder said that we are on his list to begin at the end of August. YEAH! I think that we are more excited to learn that we are on the list than we are to find out the tentative start date.

Wow, we might just freak out when this becomes more concrete (literally and figuratively) since it has been so abstract for so long.

School!

School starts tomorrow for the kids. Here is how it stacks up:

Bishop: Looking forward to his senior year and seeing his friends again.

Mitchell: Doesn’t want to go back to school, but planning on doing good in his classes anyway. Mostly, he’s looking forward to seeing his friends.

Charlie: He can’t hardly WAIT for school to begin. He has been anticipating the beginning of school all week long.

Olivia: Could use a little bit more summer, but basically okay with school beginning.

4 kids. 4 schools. No problem.

What NOT to wear...

I've been working at a middle school for three days now. I've learned so much that I am overwhelmed. Standards, discipline, how to walk on slippery floors, at least 50 names, school politics, bulletin boards, laminating... the list goes on and on.

BUT, one lesson I am just not getting is how to dress for working in a school. Last year I went to visit my directing teacher during the last week of school. Of course I agonized over what to wear. I showed up in a nice skirt and blouse. Almost immediately I ended up crawling around on the floor cutting, gluing and glittering. I discovered that there is no use in dressing up.

Yesterday I wore a nice white shirt with a new jean skirt. I thought that it was the perfect balance between casual and functional. After spending several hours cleaning out the classroom closet, I looked down to discover that my shirt was covered in dirt. Oy. Now I can understand the ubiquitous denim jumpers that teachers wear. At least they are durable and functional.

Ironically, I have more confidence about the big parts of teaching- planning, delivery, classroom management- but the little things, like dressing myself and packing lunch, are causing me the most difficulty. Thank goodness for student teaching so I can make lots of mistakes and ask a gazillion questions.

By the way, I have taken a solemn vow never to wear a denim, teacher jumper. And, Brad has also made me promise never to wear any clothing that is decorated for a specific season.