Wrong date!

You know some days you are a day late and a dollar short? Friday, we were a day early for the Downtown Jacksonville Light Parade and Fireworks. We did get to see the tree at the Jacksonville Landing light up for the first time and there were some fireworks, but not like the ones on Saturday night. Today (Sunday), we saw the tree up close at the Landing after visiting the Main Library and JMOMA (Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art).



Glynn wrote: Lori, I can't believe you let Brad watch TV in the bathtub! GJ

To relax at the end of a long day, some people enjoy a hobby, such as gardening or cooking. Some people work out their frustration at the gym. Brad has a nice long soak in the bath. Hot water is his elixir. So yes, Dear Glynn, I support any time that Brad spends in the tub. The entire family does because when he gets out, he's much less grumpy.

Thanksgiving

Sorry for the long time between posts. The hectic holidays are here. Even though they are hectic, they are fun and filled with family so I am not complaining!

Today we ate way too much at MeMe and Poppy's house with Granny Ollie and Uncle Bill and his new bride, Gail. The food and the company were great. Then we took MeMe and Poppy to the house to see it for the first time since there has been a house.

Yesterday, all of my students threw a surprise breakfast for me and the other two interns at our school. There were about 325 students and all of the team teachers. Every single one of them knew about the surprise except for me! Either I'm obtuse or they are great at keeping secrets. They even gave me a big basket of gifts. I've been so lucky to have two other interns and many, many supportive teachers at my school. It makes me glad that I am sticking around.

The house looks pretty much the same on the outside, but lots has been going on inside. It was inspected for electricity and the roof. Next, it will get wrapped with a water barrier material and they'll install the windows.

Did I tell you about Brad's bathtub? He happened to visit the lot on the day that the bathtubs were being installed, so he asked the plumbing people to put it in so that the faucets would not interfere with his watching t.v. They said it would be no problem and they installed it the way he wanted.

The Uncles!

I know I neglected to mention the fabulous weekend that we spent with Stephen and Ned when they came the weekend before last.

Stephen got to go upstairs in the new digs before anybody else because he got stuck- er, I mean, got lucky enough to spend the afternoon with Me and Charlie and Olivia. At the Cummer, we walked into some paintings. Look at Stephen in the Van Gogh.

Then we went to see the house and since nobody was there working, we were the first ones to walk around on the second floor. Olivia and Charlie got to stand in their very own rooms. I had a great time all weekend. Just one suggestion for next time... less Japanese food. Oh, and any time you guys need some birth control, you know where to find us.

Hey, have you seen Stephen and Ned's future vacation home?

Making the Neighbors Happy

Now the house has a porch. You can really see the shape of the house. This model doesn't come with the roof line over the garage unless you get an extension upgrade. I think it would look boring without that roof line. The big window upstairs on the left is our bedroom and the other is the game room.

This is the view from the game room up the street toward the front of the development. Parking seems like it will be a problem, but we are lucky that right down the street from us is the street that hooks us up to the next neighborhood. Since it has no houses, people can park there when they come over for parties. When is the first party? Don't know yet...


Here's trouble: Olivia is peeking out of her bedroom window. Notice that the back porch roof is conveniently located right outside the windows of the two children most likely to climb on the roof- Bishop and Olivia. We may have to rethink the room assignments.







This is the almost complete back view. From left to right you see Charlie in Bishop's room, Olivia in her room and Mitchell in Brad's bathroom (the one with the television).






Here, Charlie is peeking out of his room window and so is Mitchell. See, they have no roof on which to climb. In case you are wondering, Bishop is at work today and Brad is at the Jaguar game.







If you look closely, you can see Olivia in the Harry Potter room under the stairs.



We have air ducts, but we are still waiting on the electric and plumbing next week. The neighbors told us that they tend to work in spurts. This week was slow for the house.

Oh, we made the neighbors on our side of the street very happy with our discovery that we have 25 more feet behind our houses that we can use. I think the builders have been cheap and have led the home owners on our street to believe that the environmental buffer starts at the end of the sod line. This would keep the builder from having to sod the whole lot. Since we needed to know whether we could build a pool, Brad talked to the developer who gave us the information that the next 25 feet are available for our use.

Brownie points with the neighbors never hurts, especially when you have four children, two of whom are teenage boys.

We got AIR

The house has grown!

We got FLOOR

One floor, that is. They've begun framing the house. Yippee! Here is the view from the street.

This is the back view.


This is the bottom of the upstairs floor, or the ceiling.


There are a lot of braces holding things together. This is probably an indication that we shouldn't be walking around in here.









This is the only time we will be able to see the sky through the hole where our future stairs will go.

The view out of the living room window. I took the picture from inside of our house. Yes, that is the neighbor's house. We always said we didn't want any yard and that is what we got. Eventually, there will probably be a fence here.

This is the view out of Mitchell's window. Maybe we will put a trellis or something on the future fence.

These are the woods in the back. We were worried that there wouldn't be any room for a pool, but it looks like we have more yard than we thought. The builder didn't clear the whole lot. There is 25 more feet back there that we can clear out.

Halloween

Charlie and Mitchell were the candy hander-outers while Olivia and I walked the neighborhood in search of candy.