You Know it's Not Good When.....

Your plumber calls and starts humming the theme song from the Twilight Zone. We have had an issue with the plumbing/septic since we moved in. The pipes in the master bathroom, kitchen and powder bath all rattle at various times of the day. The powder bath specializes in gurgling in the middle of the night. The bathroom and kitchen pipes generally rattle after large volumes of water go through them, such as after a shower or dishwasher cycle. It is interesting because the powder bath already existed although the pipes were redone, and the kitchen and bathroom pipes are brand new.

The septic guy and the plumber have been out numerous times to fix what they think the problem is and nothing has worked. On Monday, the plumber installed some larger relief valves and said it would either make the problem stop or get worse. Guess which it was? Now they have to get together and collectively solve this issue - why didn't they do that before, you ask? "It's construction" is my only answer.

We have only three things that remain before we can say we are finally finished - this, the floors and landscaping. More to come. Stay tuned.......

New Addition

No, it's not the additional two car garage with the apartment above that we really want, but an addition of the four legged kind. Meet Brix. He is a 6 1/2 month old Vizsla we rescued from a family in Jacksonville who could not handle him. He is from our Illinois breeder and has the same bloodlines as Escrow and Equity. He is totally out of control - so his "addition" to the family is still a probationary one. We have a personal trainer for him, so are going to give him as much as we can to succeed, but if he doesn't stop biting me, he's going back to Illinois!

The Osprey are Back Already!

I was sitting in the back yard last weekend and heard an Osprey call. Not terribly unusual as there are some who do not migrate. I looked up to see one soar over the lake and land on the limb beside the nest next door. I was stunned and wondered if this was one of the local birds just stopping for a minute. Nooooooo! In another minute or so the other one flew up and landed in the nest. We grabbed the binoculars to get a better look. They were pretty scruffy, so we surmised they had just flown in. How cool is that - to actually see them arrive? It is about a month early from previous years, but they left early as well. Perhaps, the previous years were the exception and this is the normal timing. Only future years will tell. Regardless, we are thrilled to see them back!

Sorry for the terrible photo - early in the morning pointing into the sun, but the silhouette doesn't look that bad!

It's Official - New Floor on the Way

I finally put my foot down and let Bob-the-Builder know I was through with de-humidifiers that really are not doing a thing to help the floors go down. There is no discernible difference from when we moved in and my patience has run it's course. Bob couldn't be better about it and is fine with this decision. The floor guy is now looking for the exact same manufacturing lot of the wood. If we can't find it (and are certain it does not have too much moisture in it) then we have to pull up the entire floor as well as the baseboards. No one wants to have to pull the baseboards off - I just don't think it will ever look good if we have to do that. Perhaps I am wrong - we had to pull off many of the door frames and replace them and they are fine; however, I don't want to find out.

I think we are going to have one large section in the middle of the den replaced first so we can make sure that it stays down and does not warp. If that works, then we will go with the rest of the rooms and hallways. Yuck. I don't look forward to this process, but it should be the LAST thing we have done.

Then - PARTY ON - we can finally have our open house. A friend predicted in early August that the party would take place in January. Noooooooooo!! I said. It won't be that far away. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think he is right. We are getting into Halloween, then the holidays. January is generally a slow party month, so that might be it. 6 months after moving in. Wow (not a good wow).

Manatee

Before we were sidelined by the Halloween Spook House plastic door, we started hanging art - which is the last major thing to be done. All of the big pieces are hung with the exception of the den. I don't want to hang anything in there with the low humidity. It's not working on the floors, but I don't want it to ruin anything else. :)

When I told our designer what color we wanted on the walls, she noted that she was not surprised, given that the same color could be found in almost every single piece of artwork we own. I truly had not noticed - but it is really evident now! I was most surprised when we hung the Wyland Manatee Port Hole. The frame actually matched the walls - who knew?? It looks right at home!

Floored

What we hope is a last ditch effort to determine if the floors are ever going to go down is in progress. We have an industrial grade de-humidifier at work in the den with a really nifty drain hose that runs the length of the master suite into the shower drain. How much fun can you have? We cordoned off the room for two reasons - first, a piano consultant said that the piano should not be subjected to such low humidity and two, it will be easier to tell if the floors go down if we limit it to only one room. The plastic barrier looks like the entrance to a halloween haunted house - hummmmm is that prophetic? The vortex created by the machine working contrary to our HVAC system caused the plastic to come off the first day and now, after two days, it is coming loose again. Aggggghhhhhh. Not to mention, the machine puts out so much heat, it is almost unbearable to stay in that room for any length of time.

Oh, and we're having our first dinner party this coming weekend! Thankfully, they are all very good friends and the disarray will not matter to them (not if we have enough wine - which, thankfully, we do!).

Now, That's Entertainment!

After all the drama, time, two different groups to build it and two different painters to paint it, the entertainment center is finally ready! Whew! It is worth it, though, as it looks spectacular! Photos are difficult as we put mirrors on the back, which reflect the images from the window on the other side of the room. Anyway, you can get a good idea of the finished product. Whohoo - more boxes can be unpacked!