Home Construction 101

It's time again for your weekly house post fix!

A few highlights from the past week:

**They finished prepping the trusses and decking (I'm learning all of these great construction words!) for shingles.

**The plumber continued working on rough end plumbing inside.

**We finalized our choices for floor coverings. I'm going to keep those a secret until the final reveal :)

**They poured the concrete for the garage and patio.

**We continued negotiating the cabinet price.

**They installed the windows and doors.

**Bricks were delivered and are ready for mortar!

We hope we are in the home stretch as far as construction goes. Hopefully they are done and we are moved in by the middle of September. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the rest of the way goes smoothly and maybe even quicker than we projected!

Pomp and Circumstance

Well, it's finally happenned...my little sister is all grown up. She is now officially a graduate with a master's degree in Speech Pathology. We went to Muncie today to witness the official handover of the degree she's been working on for six years. I think she is definitely ready to start her life away from BSU-six years is enough! She already has a job she is very excited about. Last week she got hired as a speech language pathologist for Johnson County Special Services. She will work with kiddos at Eastside Elementary in Edinburgh four days a week and at an elementary in Greenwood one day. We are very proud of her!

I don't know how we all coordinated with the black and white outfits-great minds think alike I guess!

Of course graduation marks the end of another semester for me and six more credit hours under my belt. (Only nine hours left-hallelujah!) Now I have a whopping two weeks to start thinking about school starting and all the preparation I have to do for that!

Jacob is next on the graduation list. He only has six months left until he's finished.

Spain: The Grand Finale

We've finally come to the end of our Spanish tour. The last two stops of our trip took us to the southern coast. We visited a white-washed town on a hill side and then stayed on the bus until we made it to the Costa del Sol. Its name pretty much sums it up: The Sunny Coast. Got to spend our last day and a half relaxing on the beaches of the Mediterranean. It was a nice ending to our trip.

The first beach I've been to with mountains in the distance.

Our group plus our tour guide Fiona (in the jeans and tank top) on our last night in Spain.

The trip back was much smoother than the trip there, and we actually made it back to Indianapolis on time. I am so glad we got to go. I learned a tremendous amount about Spanish history and culture, but I was still glad to get home and sleep in my own bed!

The tour continues...

I thought it was about time to continue our Spanish tour. So off we go...

After visiting Sevilla we travelled by bus to Granda, home of the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a massive palace/fortress the Muslims built way on a hilltop back in the 1300s. The Sultan lived there with his many wives. It was voted in 8th place in the "new seven wonders of the world" contest in 2008.

The Alhambra is known for its beautiful fountains and gardens. You could walk through gardens all day if you wanted to.

All of the fountains are caused by natural water pressure underground. No motors here!

Since we visited the Alhambra on our anniversary we had to take a third anniversary self-portrait.

Later that night took a tiny bus up different hill to see the entire palace lit up at night. My photography isn't great, but hopefully you get the idea of the massive size of the complex (there is another palace off to the left that wouldn't fit into the picture).

Until next time!

Another week...Another house post

You couldn't wait for your weekly house construction progress report could ya!

Well, here it is!

This week...

**we bought all of our kitchen appliances

**we did more pricing/negotiating on flooring and cabinets

**we chose countertops

**we chose the shingle color

**they put the trusses on and started with the decking (see pictures below!)

**they started putting in rough-end plumbing

**we took a roadtrip to go furniture/paint/lighting idea shopping with my mom at Ikea in Cincinnati. (if you have never been there-you should go-it is an amazing place!)

After Monday-notice a few trusses on the back

Tuesday: they kept working on trusses. They used an old firetruck to lift the up on the roof. On guy stood on each end and one in the middle. Not a very safe operation if you ask me!

Check it out from inside

After Wednesday: finished trusses

After Thursday: beginning stages of decking. Next stop: shingles!

After Friday: decking is almost finished and started plumbing inside. My mom and Jacob are checking out where the porch is supposed to be.

future home of the washer and dryer

In a country far, far, away...

We'll get to the Star Wars reference in a minute... (I've got to keep you reading!)

Sorry about the delay in posts. I've been trying to finish up an end-of-the-semester project for one of the classes I'm taking, and the blog has taken a back seat.

Without further adeiu...

After the last stop on our tour, we traveled by bus to Sevilla. Jacob was especially looking forward to this visit. It is where he lived while he studied there for a year in college. I especially excited to find out about this "Sevilla" I have been hearing about for years.

Our first stop was the palace, Alcazar. It was originally a Moorish fort, but now is a royal palace. Spain's royal family lives there when they visit Sevilla. Like almost everything else in Spain, it is home to many beautiful gardens and the walls are covered by inscriptions from the Quran.

After the palace we went to the Cathedral de Sevilla. It is the worlds largest Gothic cathedral and the third largest church. It has a huge look-out tower you can climb (at least 40 ramps up to the top) to see a view of the city.

The Cathedral is also the burial place (or one of them) of Christopher Columbus. Many places claim to be his burial place. Our tour guide even told us that he didn't want to be buried in Spain because he has a huge fight with the queen. But a few years ago they did DNA testing and found out that at least part (if only a little part) of him is buried here. This is his tomb, he's on top of the guys' shoulders.

This is a typical lunch. In Spain "tapas" are all the rage. You order lots of plates of these little appetizer-sized meals and share with friends. I will have to admit, that this was not my favorite lunch, thus the sardines on the left (with heads and tails). Yuck!

Jacob was amazed by this high-speed train they had put in since he was there 9 years ago.

And last, but not least, the Plaza de Espana and the connection to Star Wars. The filmed some of the scences for Episode III: Attack of the Clones here when Jacob was here the first time. It was about 100 degrees the day we were there and everyone was melting, so we spent a lot of time taking in the mist in front of the fountain.

May the force be with you!

The Week in Pictures

The house has really changed this week. We love going out there everyday to see what new progress has been made, to walk through, and to talk about what we are going to do with each room. Check it out: the pictures speak for themselves!

After Monday

After Tuesday

After Wednesday and Thursday
After Friday

The pictures especially the ones from the end of the week are a little misleading because they have covered all the windows with plywood. It looks a little like a jail. Maybe a few pictures from the inside will help. This is the view from the backyard. The master bedroom is on the right and garage on the left. There will be a patio in the middle.

The great room

That's all for now. I have about a hundred more pics-but I have to keep you in suspense don't I?!

Next Stop: Cordoba

Sorry this tour of Spain is taking so long, but I'm working at summer vacation speed.

Just a sidenote: Thanks for your interest in my last post about the bullfight. And Missyto answer your question, they say they butcher the bulls after they kill them. They have a native dish that is a version of "bull stew". Jacob tried it one night a dinner, but I wasn't having anything to do with it.

This post is a "mini-tour" of Cordoba, another city we traveled to by bus one day.

One the way to Corboda we had to stop in the town that is said to be the setting of the famous Spanish novel Don Quixote. That's us with Don!

When we finally got to Cordoba we got to visit the famous Mezquita. It is a giant (the world's second largest) mosque with a cathedral right in the middle. It was a working mosque until the Christians (Catholic's) took over the city and they built a beautiful cathedral smack-dab in the middle. Check out one of the ornate doors!

A beautiful example of Islamic architecture, the inside is filled with row after row of these beautiful arches.

This is the only ornate part of the Islamic structure. The beautiful wall (and I tried to get a little of the ceiling too), facing Mecca.

You turn a corner and BAM! a cathedral. (I originally thought that the people would be upset that the Christians took their holy place and completely changed it, but I was totally wrong. Our tour guide said that the cathedral was probably the only reason the structure was left standing. They still have Mass there daily.)


Almost everywhere you go in Spain has a courtyard with many fountains where you can escape from the heat. Originally this courtyard was constructed so the Muslims coming here to pray could cleanse themselves before going into the mosque. Here we are trying to cool off under the lime trees on another 100 degree day.

This might be one of my favorite views from the trip. This is "Flower Steet". You can even see the dome of the Mesquita in the distance.

Summer Snapshot

Check out this cute little visitor that decided to perch on our patio a few mornings ago. He sat extremely still and let Jacob get a few snapshots of him.

Later that morning we found him perched on the chair. Such a cute little guy (or girl?)!

Ole!

Well, since I'm a master procrastinator, I thought I'd take this opportunity to post a few more vacation pics instead of working on my diversity project!

Sunday evening we decided to take in a bullfight. It is such a purely Spanish tradition, we though we had to go for the experience, regardless of the potential for bloody violence. I tried to chose carefully so hopefully the next few pics won't make you sick.

WARNING-the following is not for animal rights activists or squeamish stomachs.

This is the view from inside the Plaza de Toros. The seats there are classified by "sun" or "shade". Luckily we has shade tickets-imagine sitting at a baseball game with the sun in your eyes, that is what the sun tickets were like. There weren't too many people at this fight, since the matadors weren't too well known.

Our seats were actually quiet cool. We sat right on the railing with our legs dangling over the edge. All of the other seats were basically tiered concrete slabs. They aren't too concerned with comfort.We nicknamed these guys the "pep band". The play music at certain parts of the fight. It is actually a carefully choreographed and timed production. The whole spectacle is very interesting. You are not even allowed to get out of your seat once the fight begins. The spectators whistle at the matadors they don't think are doing a good enough job, and of course shout "Ole!" when the like what is going on.

The fight starts out with a parade of all the participants. They all bow to the president of the bull fight who acts as the judge. In this fight there were three matadors, and each fought two bulls, so there were six fights in all.

Before the bull comes out of the pen they injure him by piercing his neck, and as the fight goes on they stick more dagger-like things in his back to weaken him. There are also "matadors-in-training that work to wear him out, leading up to the entrance of the real matador, shown here.

Eventually after they wear the bull down enough, the matador goes in for the kill. Here the matador has brought his sword back ready to strike. The object is to kill the bull as instantly as possible by getting the sword directly through the heart. Some of the matadors we saw did a terrible job. One kept trying the kill the bull, but he kept getting up. I had to eventually shield my eyes. One even got knocked down by a bull and was injured.

I'll spare you the photos of the aftermath of the fight: the dead bull is pulled around the ring by a team of horses.

At the end of the fight the president of the bull ring decides if any of the matadors deserve an award. None of which I personally would want to win. If the matador does a great job and they can win the ears or tail-oh happy day! Unfortunately (I guess) no one won any prizes at our fight.

Overall it was good to experience something from another culture, but I have no desire to see another bullfight, it is way too gruesome for me!

La Casa

Two posts in one day-whoa! I'm on a roll!

Its been about a month since we decided to build the house, so I'd thought I give you another update. Over the past week:

• the plumbing in the foundation was installed
• lumber was delivered
• foundation filled with pea gravel
• concrete slab poured
• we picked out the front door, window style, and vinyl siding color for the back.

All of those pipes for a half-bath and laundry room!

After the installed all of the plumbing, they filled everything in with pea gravel and then covered it with a layer of plastic.

Friday the concrete was poured. It looks wet because of all of the rain we got yesterday.

The lumber for the roof and framing was delivered also. The builder says this part goes really quickly. Hopefully my next pictures will look more like a house!