House Update

It's time for another house update. Over the past few weeks we've almost finished the framing and the plywood sheeting. It took a little longer than expected because we added four dormers (you can see them sticking out on either side of the new construction in the pic below) to the second story. We figured it made sense to put them in, since it adds a lot of useable space and makes it possible to put windows in on the second floor. Now, of course, the house is going to be even bigger than planned, which was already bigger than we needed. I think we're going to rent out the upstairs. In fact, we may have to rent out the downstairs too with what this is costing us.



The other reason things are taking a little longer than planned is that I get bored with cutting 2x4s and find other fun projects to work on. A while back I decided to put in a circular driveway with some plants in the middle. Simple, right? But then I thought, what would be really cool is to use that old trailer as a planter. And maybe use that old well pump as a fountain. And hook up that old pool pump to make the water flow. And have a series of wine barrels for the water to cascade through. And end up in a little pond, with a nice little fountain. So the circular driveway project turns into this (note that there's still no actual driveway).



Here's another pic of my glorious accomplishment. Sure, it doesn't really serve any useful purpose, but that bubbling sound is so soothing, and it sure looks good. In fact, the same could be said of the fountain. The other interesting thing about this pic is that Climber is hiding in it somewhere. Can you find him?



Here's one of Mrs. Diesel, expressing how she feels about me taking pictures from our roof. Have you ever seen someone express disdain so effectively from a range of 200 yards?



And another one of the fountain. Dammit, how did those loafers get in the pic again? I need to invest in some leg irons.



And finally one of the infamous treehouse. I decided it wasn't quite dangerous enough, so I added a slide.



That's all I've got for now. Remember to vote in the caption contest, if you haven't already. I'll be announcing the winners tomorrow!


Humor-blogs.com is dangerous enough even without a slide.

Did Someone Say "House"?

Recently I've done a treehouse post and a Dr. House post, so I thought it was about time I did a plain old house post. Here's some pics of the addition we're building. "Addition" is kind of a misnomer, since we're adding about 2,000 square feet to a 1,200 square foot house.




Here's a view from another angle. That's the palm tree oasis I just planted in the front. Neat, huh? To the left you can just see the driveway that we just poured that leads to our faux garage door. It's like one of those "drawers" in front of your sink that doesn't actually open. Except that people probably don't sleep in your sink.




This one is just a fabulous shot of the mobile home and above-ground pool next to our house. Also, I thought the sky was kind of cool.




Did I mention that we get some way cool evening skies around these parts in the spring? This was taken facing the opposite direction, toward the orchard behind our house.




And another one of the same cool sky, nicely framed by the opening of a future window. Too bad those troublemakers got in the way again.




I'll be back with more of the usual nonsense on Wednesday. And don't forget, this Friday I'll post the next caption contest pic!