snow. Snow! SNOW!!!

We woke up this morning to SNOW!

Amazing amounts of snow!

All around the house!

Snow!

This is what we saw out the Library window (though I actually stepped outside to take the picture).

Can you believe all that snow?


And the streets! We may never dig out! Where are the snow-plows?


Will the roof end up collapsing?! I hope the builder took into consideration the horrific blizzards when designing the structure.


Massive snow drifts everywhere! I wish we had a sled to use!



Okay, okay. Not so much snow. But the forecast says two to four inches overnight tonight.

By the way. We got telephones installed finally on Wednesday. Our new home number is 760-240-7694. We do still have the cell phone numbers.

As soon as we get internet up and running at the new house we can move the office there and be done with the rental house. Maybe another week?

We're in!

No pictures yet, but we signed off on the house Friday. We have the keys. We have the garage door openers. We have started painting.

Okay, Donna has started painting.

We had some furniture delivered today (Saturday). A new sofa. And a new bedroom set (headboard, footboard, night tables).

Oh... and there's toilet paper in every bathroom! We're in!

The lights are on but...

We have electriciteeee!!!!!!!

We are going to go up to the house tonight... AFTER DARK! heehee!

Final Touches

Here are the pictures from the last couple weeks. The most recent were taken just yeterday (Sunday).

This is a quick shot of the cooktop in place. This is the last built-in appliance to be put in place.


This picture shows the front of the house before the trim paint was completed.


And the front of the house after trim coat has been applied. You can also see the stonework.


This shows the front walk, giving another shot of the stonework.


The front door has been painted.


And the stonework on the front of the garage.


The "great room" with the carpet installed.


This picture is looking from the master bedroom into the master bath, showing a little of the completed shower enclosure.


And from the opposite angle.


And here are some pics of the wall in front of the driveway. Still in progress, it will be finished with the same stonework that is on the front of the house.

Almost there!

Sorry I don't have any pictures ready yet. We've been very busy.

Since the last post, the carpeting is in, the bathrooms are done (most dramatically the shower enclosure in the master). And the stonework on the exterior is done. The last time we were at the house (Wednesday) the footer had been poured for the stone wall in the front.

We have pictures of all that (except the wall) but I haven't downloaded them from the camera yet. I will get to it this weekend.

"According to schedule," we will have our walk-through Monday or Tuesday, but that is not very likely. The county has been dragging it's feet, or maybe it is Edison, but the electric is not yet on at the house. The electric must be on before we can schedule the propane setup and delivery. And our walk-through won't happen until both of those are complete. Hopefully, we will have the keys by the end of next week.

WOOHOO!!!

Electrical is DONE! (mostly)

Well, at least we have a lot of fixtures in. Almost all the faceplates are on the switches and outlets. Light fixtures are done. Appliances are in the kitchen except for the cooktop. Here is a tour of our lighting fixtures:

Dining Room chandelier




Ceiling fan in the Living Room (Library)


One of the light fixtures in the Master Bath


Ceiling fan in the Master Bedroom


Ceiling fans in the Great Room


Fixture over the kitchen island




Here is a picture of the fireplace in the Great Room with the stonework completed. This is the same stone that will adorn the front of the house.


Here we have pictures of the double oven and the range hood.

Christmas Party

The Penmans all got together on the Tuesday after Christmas. Bruce & Maggie and kids came from Arizona. Gary & Ylva and kids came from Orange County. Mom (Adeline) and Andrea and Erin came from Canoga Park. And Rhonda (who is probably very glad she's not a Penman), with Darlene and Steven, came from -- next door.

We were only missing Jennifer who stayed in Wyoming.

We had hot drinks, cold drinks and hors d'oeuvres. And we gave tours of the new house.





My apologies for the lighting in this last pic. I did not realize the flash did not go off until I reviewed the pictures afterwards.

New Completion Estimate!

Great news! The builder finally admitted we will probably be in a month early! End of January instead of the end of February. Now, all of a sudden, there's not enough time to do everything.

These pictures are from early last week. We were up to the house this weekend but did not take any pictures. This weekend the plumber was there installing the water heater and bathroom and kitchen fixtures. Danny, the tile guy, was finishing up all the floor tile (looks good). The outside part of the air conditioning units were installed (the condensor? blower?).

This shows the outside color, all dried and uniform.


This is the kitchen with a good shot of Donna's island. You can see the backsplash going up behind where the cooktop will be. You can also see the floor tile beginning to creep in from the hall. That tile will cover the entire kitchen (in fact it already does, I just haven't taken a newer picture of it yet). You can see the island will easily sleep three small children.


Here is a "work in progress" shot of the tile in the front hall. That is Danny, the tile guy. He's the one with two feet.


That's all until we take more pictures. JUST SIX WEEKS!!!!!!

Countertops...

(A little note: You may notice that pictures are taking longer to load than in the past -- I bought a new digital camera recently which has higher resolution than my old camera. The .jpg files are about three time larger than the older pictures. I apologize if you are on dial-up.)

More progress indoors and the exterior color coat is applied!

Here is the final coat of stucco. It looks a little splotchy because it was still drying when I took this picture. They were also painting indoors which is why you can see paper taped to the windows.

This is a picture of the master bathroom shower being tiled.

The kitchen cabinetry has countertops! This is called Staron, which is like Corian, fake granite.

And this is the tiled part of the guest bathroom.

That's it for now. We understand that the flooring tile is going in this week, which will cover the entire entry, kitchen and part of the great room (in front of the sliding glass door). You will be able to walk in the front door and go all the way out the back door without leaving tile.

Lots of pictures!

Okay! Okay! Here are some of the latest pictures.

Some of the cabinetry is going in (the kitchen is looking like a kitchen). The outside concrete has been poured.

So let's begin...

A few weeks ago we started getting doors. Here is the front door.


This is the "garden door" coming out of the master bedroom. It looks similar to a french door but only one side opens. Apparently it gets too windy up there for french doors and it is almost impossible to keep the french doors from rattling horribly.


And our garage doors. The house is now able to be locked up and we need a key now to get in.


This is one of the interior doors (this is a bedroom door). We picked the trim package that has the arched doorways on all interior doors. I think it looks sharp. And will look even sharper when painted a uniform color.


The Living Room, which we have designated as "the Library" has flanking columns at the entry. This is one of them.


The rest of the pictures were taken just this weekend.

Here is the view from the front that shows the circular driveway (well, most of it). The driveway actually ends at our property line. We will have to extend it to the "street" with gravel (or something).


Here is the shot of the back patio. It extends around the far corner and down the other side. On the left you can see a small concrete pad which will hold one of the two air conditioner condensers.


This shot is the walkway up to the front door.


Inside again. This is the cabinets of the master bathroom. The brown paper that is taped to the wall all around the cabinets is to protect the wall from the varnish which they must have sprayed on.


These two pictures are opposite angles of the walk-in closets in the master suite. The first one will probably be David's closet. And so the second picture will be Donna's closet.




And voila! Here is chef Donna in her kitchen. She is standing behind the island that she personally designed and the builder is custom building. By the way, that's her bottle-washer in the lower right corner.