So, one year later, it’s amazing to think about what has changed through small projects, gifts, and super sales deals that we had our eyes out for:

• our screened-in lanai
• a more size-appropriate entertainment center and coffee table
• wall to wall shelving in the garage
• a guest bed in our 3rd bedroom
• a new bedroom suite from an overstock warehouse
• beautifully re-painted the downstairs
• a new grill for my 30th birthday

All of those little (and big) things made things feel more like home and less like a dream vacation that we were pinching ourselves to be sure things were actually this way. I never thought we’d have that much to do to our brand new place, but I guess the “make it your home” bug bites everyone pretty hard. Life is good, and so is our home, no longer a house.

Last night’s complaint was no different as far as the noise goes. Beauty just said that we don’t stay up all night and turn everything off when we go to bed. We thought that it was perhaps my coughing, so she said that I have cystic fibrosis and that wasn’t going to change any time soon. “No, no. I hear it ALL day,” she said. She’s called to file a police report for disturbing the peace, but they said to come over and talk it over first.

So after calling me to talk about it, we decided to turn on all the fans and go over and see if that’s what she hears, because we run our bedroom fan on all night. That wasn’t it, but she took her over to her living room wall, adjacent to our entertainment system, and asked if she heard that. It was pretty much like, “hear what!?” She hears a noise, and says it’s louder at night.

I came home. It was dead quiet. We watched the baseball game, turned off the TV, and it was… dead quiet.

Wait! Do you hear that? Really? Do you hear that? [thump, thump] I can hear it. It [is] A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND — MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON. hark! louder! louder! louder! LOUDER!

I was ready for my own nightmare in preparing for approval for screening in our porch opening. I hemmed and hawed for weeks until our contractor was ready to come over, and I still wasn’t ready. I got on the ball yesterday and filled out the form, described the screening, gave them the insurance and contractor license #, and took a photo of our neighbor’s screen and our open porch, saying, “we want it to look like that.” I scanned our form, attached the photos from my iPhone, and e-mailed it last night from campus, knowing that they said approval takes a minimum of two weeks.

Whaddya know? Approved. I guess e-mail approvals are faster, especially when you use photos. I’m brilliant, I know, but who knew it would be that smooth? You can’t question a photo – materials, placement, and general appearance are all right there.

She said that I didn’t include the $500 deposit, but when I asked her to read the previous e-mail in the thread and see that we were already told that the deposit wasn’t necessary, she said that would be fine.

So much for a plan when you hit the isles at Lowes or Home Depot, right? That is when you realize what you have to work with and how much it’s going to cost. At least we had the measurements for the boxes, so we could figure out the linear feet we had to accommodate. After about 90 minutes of hemming and hawing and going back and forth between opposite ends of the store and picking up about 20 different types of screws and drill bits, we had our loot.

• 2 6′ x 16″ boards
• 1 6′ x 20″ board
• 3 20″ heavy duty braces
• 8 15″ heavy duty braces
• 1 box of 75 masonry/lumber anchors
• 1 box of 75 3/4″ wood screws
• 1 masonry drill bit

Today’s project started off well enough, as I measured along the back wall by the water heater and started marking up the drilling spots. I tapped and knocked around to find the studs and was happy with the spacing of the braces based on the weight of the boxes for that shelf. Time to drill the first hole; nothing but drywall. Crap! I started knocking around some more and guessed that the stud was about 2 1/2″ to the left of my first attempt, but the others still checked out by ear.

“Do we drill again, or do you go get a studfinder (other than you)?” I asked, since she already knows how to find a stud. /grin

So, off she goes to borrow Dad’s studfinder and I started on the side wall with the masonry to avoid any need for such silliness. Who needs studs anyway? I marked off where I wanted the 4 braces to land on the 6′ board and put up the marks on the wall and started drilling. Dang! That is hard work without a hammer drill. Christmas gift hint, hint. All but one hole went in. There was something about an inch into one hole that was impenetrable and stripped the whole rather than the screw boring through it.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen My Precious so happy with my skillz before. I will admit it looks pretty good. So I decided to get back to the back wall and confirmed that my second guess for the stud was correct and my other two braces were marked spot on. That shelf went up much faster because going through wood was like going through butter compared to the cinder block.

We’ve got both shelves loaded up, but I ran out of steam to do the third shelf today. I think I can get it done tomorrow after work, but I do need to make sure I get my homework done for Tuesday. I already wrote about it (see Waiting Room Humor: I’m Here for a Hearing Aid), so the observation paper should flow easily. Oh, and here’s my “new” iBook sitting on the spare side of our desk.

Thursday

I took a half-day on Thursday to pick up My Precious and head to Home Depot for an immediate dining room light replacement. We ended up getting another ceiling light/fan for the master bedroom while we were there. The bank took forever to do our closing cashier’s check. It should have only taken 3 minutes to do, but our teller managed to stretch it out to a round 20, just enough to stress me out about getting to closing on time.

Closing went amazingly good. They had our names spelled correctly everywhere and we had already been over a few of the FHA forms before, so it wasn’t as much reading as I thought it would be. The great news is that the closing costs ended up being significantly lower than estimated at contract, and our mortgage payment came out to be a mere $26 more than our rent for a 2BR/2BA apartment! That was a huge blessing for our first home.

We went straight to the house and did a quick walkthrough, headed to my in-law’s to pick up their minivan, loaded it up, and took all of the kitchen boxes to the house. They joined us later on with my sister-in-law, since she had never been there through construction, and I hung the dining room light and killed Dad’s arms from holding it in place in the process. I didn’t blow any fuses or electrocute anyone, either. I put in three 17W florescent bulbs in and it looks mah-velous!

Friday

We moved all of the food, extra bridal shower appliances, and clothes Friday morning and put up 2 fans with my brother-in-law. We had to run to Home Depot for a fan extension and a few manly things. The Verizon guy put in our FiOS system and was gone a little after noon. Mom and Dad came over after work and we worked on raising and adding another level of shelving in the master closet. I don’t know what time they left, but I woke up on the floor at 10:45 and got a ride home while I kept sleeping. That ended my day that began at 5am. Whew!

Saturday

Our good buddy arrived at the house at 8:30am with his food service truck and we started loading boxes before anyone else arrived, since I said we’d start by 9:00. Well, we did. We’d already loaded up the minivan with delicates and electronics when we had to move it to let the truck back in. Everyone arrived in short order, and we pulled out at 9:10, just as the last person arrived, so we “made” him be a carpool chief for the people who loaded up.

It took about 40 minutes to get home and then we unloaded super-fast and headed back for the rest of the big furniture, including the piano. All in all, the piano is really easy to lift with 7 dudes. Getting it off was a lot more precarious than loading, but it came through alright. Dad picked up pizza for everyone on our way back and we scarfed down 5 pizzas in no time and unloaded the second truckload and everyone headed home.

But family was not so lucky. We still had more work to do. The days are such a blur now, I can’t remember what we did which day now, but we added shelving to the laundry closet, bought and hung a fan in the office, and started on the guest room fan when I stripped the screws for the baseplate and called it a day. I think that was Monday.

The place is really coming together and Beautiful is doing a great job putting things in their place and decorating already. I think it’s time to start thinking about painting downstairs. We’ll see if we survive the color-picking process. I’ll post photos soon in their own gallery post.

I hope to get them up tonight after class, if not before.

There was a lot to be impressed with and a lot to shake our heads at and wonder what kind of stuff would go on if we didn’t check up on things. The photos will be evident enough, but there’s more than what I am putting up because I didn’t want this to all be about what is wrong, but to also celebrate how stinking cool this is! We’ve only been married for 18 months and we’re getting a brand-spanking new house! Yeah, the Dude is pumped. Don’t bring the Monk down. I’ll be working for the Man for a while now… when will these silly sayings end?

Let’s get a couple of construction complaints out of the way so you know what to keep an eye on when your house is being built. My first concern is the wet carpet upstairs. Apparently, the carpet-layers decided it would look good to bring the carpet into the HVAC closet all the way up to the drip pan. Hello? Can you say “sponge?” I can; so can the carpet and padding. When I told the sales office about the carpet when we returned the key, she asked if the carpet went to the drip pan. It was like it’s happened before… hmmmm.

For some reason, they couldn’t align the doorbell right. It would be really nice if they replace it with one a little bigger now so we don’t have a visible hole next to it. It’s a cheap plastic one, anyway, and will probably be one of our few personal touches that we want to do ourselves.

The rest of the photos are just plain cool or nice updates to the interior. We went to Lowe’s today to look at dining room lights and found a couple of nice options, just so we have some idea of how much they cost, because we really don’t want the stock model. Look at that light below to see why. We haven’t even begun thinking about paint… well one of us has, you’ll have to leave a comment to get me to tell who is thinking about it and who isn’t. It will cost you 5 comments for the answer.

I already have the Verizon guy coming on the morning after closing for the phone, TV, and Internet. I think I’ll round up more people to come do their stuff before we move in all kinds of furniture and boxes for that same time slot and get it all done at once.

Enjoy the photos.

I’ll take Friday and Monday off and we’ll do our best to get situated. If anyone wants to come help, we’ll take care of the food and refreshments.