We’re starting to see a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel – but there’s still a lot to do before we get there!
One of those is to finish up all the selections that need to be made. For now we are concentrating on tile selections for the Bathrooms and Fireplace and Kitchen Backsplash, as well as paint and stain colors for the walls, ceilings, floors, trim; the list goes on and on.
For months we had collected images of rooms that we liked from books or magazines or online (Houzz.com) and now it was time to put all that together and decide what we are going to do for 637. As architects, we have amassed a great library of books which illustrate how Craftsman houses were designed and decorated 100 years ago. These serve as a wonderful resource as we select materials and finishes.
We’ve been to tile stores, and have selected the art tile that will be used at the fireplace, so we are almost through with the tile selections. Now we are looking at which surfaces will be painted and which stained, and selecting colors for each. We are also trying to tie the colors into some of the fabrics we already have so everything will be coordinated once we move back in.
In the meantime, work continues at the house. The HVAC sub came back by this week and got the new compressor hooked up and wired into the panel – so now we have air conditioning on the second floor! There was something complicated about hooking up the old compressor for the main floor, so someone else is going to have to come back and do that later.
So we have a cool upper level – and the coolness makes its way down the stairs and the whole house is starting to feel a little more livable. We’ve got it set at 73 degrees to keep it running enough to pull the humidity down.
On the other hand, outside it is in the mid 90’s, and the humidity is about 200 percent! A quick check of our handiwork with the new silt fence shows that it is working as designed and holding back the dirt in the front yard.
Not only that, but Tom got a new tire for the loader and we are back in business again with the heavy equipment. 
Just in time, as we have some dirt to move around in order to start cleaning up the area down by the Garage a bit more. Soon we are going to take out all the cross ties that Dale put in 30ish years ago and then Tom is going to take the Crepe Myrtles to his new spread over in Tallapoosa. So the first step for that is to clean out the excess dirt and debris in that area.
The Yucca plants were the first to go! We planted them long long ago, and when the boys were young they had grown so large that we were worried about their (the boys) safety from the spikes on the leaves, so we dug deep and pulled out everything we could find. We thought that they were history, however several years later, here they came again – first as small baby plants and every year they have grown a little bigger until now they are quite large again. Hopefully we can get the whole thing this time and they won’t come back.
We also need to lower the grade some more in the back to get the footings in for the piers for the back deck. It looks like we’re going to have to haul away some of the excess dirt that was generated from digging the new foundation. We could spread it out some in the back yard, but don’t want to disturb the tree roots of those big oaks.
We’re getting a little closer to the end and starting to be concerned about the schedule from here on out. Next week we’ll get a bit more focused on what is yet to be done and try to set a date for getting the Certificate of Occupancy.
