Tropizm Family Website

Its been a couple weeks since my last post, so I figured its time for another.  A lot has been going on but I will keep this brief.

We have pretty much been sticking around the house unpacking and putting stuff away.  It has been overwhelming because as soon as you finish something, there is another stack of boxes to go through.  Faith has been doing most of the work of going through and organizing everything.  I have been helping her out when I get home.  We usually go to bed around 9 or 930, but since we moved in, 1030 is early.  So when the alarm goes off at 4:15, I am not the happiest camper.

The weekends have been somewhat better, but it seems something always gets in the way.  Friends have come over, which is a nice break, but after they leave its back to work.  This last weekend we spent almost entirely in the office.  It seems there is so much going in there it is hard to focus.  It’s finished now.

Enough of that.

Last week Erin turned 4.  We didn’t have a party or anything because we will have one when Dario is here.  Faith’s parents came over and brought her cup cakes, and had dinner with us.  Others have given her gifts when we see them.  Dad and Pat gave her a pool, which is great.  I will get it set up this weekend and I’m sure she will not want to get out.

Like I said, Dario will be here shortly.  It has been so long since I have seen him in person.  Seeing all of the pictures of him when he was last here its hard to believe that in a week I could hug him in person.  We already have a ton of things planned for while he is here.  But you will have to read about them later.

Tropizm

After 6 years of being homeless, we are finally in the new house.

We have been sleeping over here since Wednesday of last week when the air conditioning got turned on.  We have been slowly moving stuff for the last couple weeks, and we did the big move this past Saturday.  We still have little stuff to move, but its mostly pictures and stuff like that.  Most of our clothes we have been wearing are still there, but we have been going through all of our boxes and filtering the clothes we forgot we had, getting rid of some, giving others away.  Slow process.

Erin likes the new house a lot.  She has always called it her castle, and now she has the princess room.  She is sleeping on the futon in her room until we get her a real bed.  The other one was too small but we didn’t have room for anything else.

So for the next couple weeks (hopefully only a couple weeks) we will be going through endless boxes.  There are so many things that we forgot we had, its almost like Christmas.  Then there are other things we are wondering why we kept and took up storage room. 

Oh well, I would rather do that then post another “we’re still waiting” post.

Tropizm

I just received the phone call we have been waiting on for a long, long time.  We just passed our final inspection, and can legally move in.

Though this is definitely a cause for a loud YIPEE!! the work isn’t finished.  As with any new home, custom or track house, there are several minor things that need to be fixed and finished.  The good thing about it is that Faith will be there to make sure everything gets done right the first time.  We won’t have contractors coming back several times to do things they could have done in one trip. 

Also, while I was at the house yesterday checking on things, I found a little trespasser on the front porch.  It was a 2-3 foot rattle snake.  To see the “before” video, click here.  I spared you the “after” video.  It wasn’t pretty.

Tropizm

I was bribed with new pots and pans (thanks David and Cindy) to upload new pictures of the house.  I thought I had some of the kitchen finished but I didn’t.  Faith and I took brand new pictures today, so these are the latest and greatest.

The batteries on the camera died after a few shots, so I took some with my new helicopter.  Now, I need to figure out how to get them out of there so I can post them.

Tropizm

As I write this, we are so close to having the house finally finished I could almost taste it. 

Pretty much everything is finished.  There are a few minor touch up things that will be finished (hopefully) today, and early next week.  The only BIG thing left is the appliances and carpet.  We only found out a couple days ago that installing them was not in the electricians bid, so he never touched them.  Same with the water softener and RO unit.  I had to go back to the original company we bought the WS from 7 years ago in the old house to install it.

Baring any unforeseen issues, we should have our final code inspection in the middle of next week and we will be moving on Memorial Day weekend.  Carpet will go in next week, but the inspector won’t  care about flooring, so that won’t stop us from passing the inspection.

Its been a long time, but we will finally have a home of our own again real soon.  We are counting days now, before it was weeks, months and years. 

One last thing, who wants to come over Memorial Day for a BBQ?  Bring gloves and be ready to move furniture though.

Tropizm

We are only a couple weeks away from the house being finished.  I added a new picture folder called House_2 which I will add new pictures to.  I will be putting all the new stuff in there.  I posted some pictures of the kitchen cabinets which went in last week.  I also added a couple a couple shots of the granite.  It’s not installed yet, but will be by the end of today. 

Another picture gallery I added is one for pictures which won’t necessarily fit into another category, or I only have one or two pictures to put in there.  The ones I added was one from Pastor’s School in February.  It is our friends from Atlanta who have a church who help the homeless in the ghetto of Atlanta.  Check them out at www.atlantaic.organd you can see all the great things God is doing through them in Atlanta.  The other picture is of Dad and his brother and sisters from Grandma Angie’s funeral.  There is also a group picture of most everyone who was there.  The last set is of Ratatootie, Erin’s pet rat we had for a few days after Spot died.  She would carry him around in her shoe.  He was a good little guy.

That’s all for now, check back in a couple weeks and you will see pictures of the house finished.

God is good.

Tropizm

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, so I am going to cram 6 weeks of stuff into a single post. 

First, the house is coming along great.  As of today, the stucco is on the outside, waiting for the final coat.  Inside the house, we have drywall up and finished.  My dad has been over there pretty much everyday since last monday painting the inside walls.  We also have all of the doors up including the garage doors, the only exception is one that we are waiting to have delivered.  

So right now, once the painting is finished, cabinets and counters will go in.  Afterwards, the floor can go in, and then the lights and stuff.  The outside is basically waiting for the final coat of stucco, but we are waiting for the stucco company to get the color right.  Once they are finished the roof tiles go on thats it.  So (cross your fingers) we can be finished in 4-6 weeks.  The only real hold up right now is getting power to the house.  Hopefully they will be finished before that time.

On a personal level, my snake died a couple weeks ago.  Though, most people wont understand it, he was a really cool pet.  Also, he was 17 years old.  So that is a long time for any pet.  And to put it into perspective, I bought him when I was in the Army.  Erin took it pretty bad too.  Spot (his name) stayed in her room, as that was the only place we could keep his cage.  So after he was gone, Erin was sad that her friend wasnt there anymore.  On the lighter side, I tried to feed him when I noticed he was dying.  So we gained a pet in the form of a rat.  Erin loved the little guy, and called him Ratatouille, after the movie.  Only she called him Ratatootie.  Ratatootie has since found a new home in the form of Pet Co.  The were kind enough to take him back after I explained the story.

OK, I guess this wasnt as long as I first feared.  It also shows me that as busy as we always are, not much really happens.  Weird.

Ayways, God Bless, have fun and take care.

Tropizm

Realized today its been a while since I posted anything.  So here goes.

First, I hope everyone had a good Christmas, great New Years, and are having a good 2008 so far.

We had a pretty good New Years.  We opened the year with a vacation.  Real relaxing, a week in Sedona.  Did alot of checking out the area, and even went to play in the snow.  I have some pictures of the vacation posted.  There are pictures of the place we stayed at, some of us playing in the snow, and pictures of “Out of Africa” wildlife park.  Its basically a zoo where they rescue “African” animals and let you see them.  There was a show called Tiger Splash where they get the tigers to chase them and then they jump in the water.  After the show, Erin and I fed a tiger.  Real cool.

We also went to Montezuma’s Castle.  I won a Wii video game console off the radio and there is a picture of Erin playing Wii Boxing.  Lots-O-Fun.

The house is coming along.   The inside walls are finished, two of the bathrooms have their tubs/showers in.  We have A/C and electrical is starting today.  We are almost done with the BIG stuff, then will come the tedious detail stuff that will take a while to do.  I will post new pictures after I get a few more to post.

Anyhoo, thats it for now.

Tropizm

Last weekend Faith and I took some of our friends to the house and started writing scriptures all over the place.  We wanted to make sure His Word was built into the house and is the foundation of everything that goes into it.  We picked some out and our friends picked some out and at least one verse went into each room, and even the garage and storage room.

 If you would like to read them, I added an album specifically for the verses.

I also updated the latest pictures from this past weekend of the house.  Pretty much all of the framing is finished, just a few small things left.  The porch and the driveway have been fixed.  If you are unfamiliar with the issues, the concrete in the garage was wrong.  We made them not only fix the problem, but re-do the middle of the driveway to make it look right.  The porch was changed by the architect from the wood poles and beams to 12 inch stucco columns.  Kind of a noticeable change.  But we had it changed, and it set us back a couple weeks, but its all good.  If you look at the latest pictures in the House photo album you can see how it looks now.  Much gooder.

 Merry Christmas to everyone, God Bless you and your families.

Tropizm

Yesterday, 10/02/07, the ground for the house started to get worked on, getting ready for the foundation.  This marks the first real visible evidence that the house work is started. 

Before, you could see steaks in the ground marking the outside edges, so the grader knows the area to work in.  We also had a water line ran to the property and a water meter installed.  But that is not nearly as exciting as pulling up on the property, seeing a grader sitting there, and an area of semi-level ground where the house is gonna be at.  After a few more days, the foundation work will start.

I hope to get more pictures up once more visible work gets done. But this is what it looked like yesterday.