Plumbing!

I was really surprised to find out the plumbers came today. After 3+ inches of rain yesterday our back yard is a complete muddy disaster.

The show must go on though, so the tilers/flagstoners came out and finished up the trim work on the pool, spa, and weeping rocks.  My mom has found a few things she would like changed/tweaked/modified, and since she will probably be spending the most time in the pool this summer with the kids, we will probably oblige her OCD tendancies and ask them to fix these minor details when we give them our final "punch list."  Wouldn't want Grandma Chebs going looney toons this summer.

I thought the yard was a wreck before - but man, the plumbers did a number today!  All the pipes are still exposed, I'm assuming because there will be an inspection within the next few days.  I know they'll close all the trenches, but it looks like a complete war zone back there now!

Here's the pool equipment - the pumps, heater, and a bunch of other crap.  Jimmy knows what it all is, it just looks like a bunch of blah, blah, blah to me.

trenches

back of the spa

the finished spa (at least finished as far as tile and stone is concerned)

Having a little fun in the war zone.

The dogs have been staying at Jack & Connie's while construction is under way - mainly because the fence is down, but also because there is a constant stream of workers in and out of the yard.  The other day we decided to bring them home for a bit - big disaster.  The cleaning ladies had just come, but the backyard is so muddy we now have millions of dog paw prints all over the house.  Also, Mocha quickly realized he could bust right through the mesh net they have where our gate used to be & decided to meet Corry & me at the bus stop Wednesday morning.  Wednesday night they headed back to Grandma Connie & Grandpa Jack's house & will probably stay there until construction is finished.  Drew made Reese her own couch out of every blanket in the house he could find, and she was very appreciative.

The electricians come tomorrow (Friday) so a big decision has to be made on where we want the pool control panel for the house located.  This control panel will control the lighting in the pool, the pumps, and the heating of the pool and spa.  There will be a 2nd control panel at the spa, but we are thinking since we're converting our master bedroom windows into doors for easier access to the spa in the winter time, we'll probably put the control panel there.  

Our patio/fireplace is supposed to be submitted to The Woodlands for approval early next week, so hopefully they'll be starting that project soon as well.  It's been fun & exciting watching the construction process, but I'm ready for the mess to be gone!

Bust a Move

Here's the video of Corry at her halftime performance - for some reason it plays twice - so after the hand jive, it's just a repeat...watch again if you'd like :)

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Flagstone, Tiles, and Water Features - a fall down the stairs, Corry's report card

They began cutting the flagstone for the coping around the pool on Saturday.  Today they began installing the flagstone, tile, and building our water features which include weeping rocks that will trickle water into the pool, and a cascading spillover from the spa into the pool.  They got quite a bit done today, but there's still a lot to do.  I think they are hoping to finish up tomorrow.  Pictures are below.

As far as a tumble down the stairs - every morning Corry has to get up at 6:30 to get ready for school.  Every morning Corry does not want to get out of bed.  Every morning, I end up carrying her downstairs and placing her on the couch so she can slowly come into consciousness while I'm packing her lunch and fixing her breakfast.  This morning Mr. Drew was up and at 'em before the chickens and went up to help me wake Corry.  I was carrying her down the stairs as normal but trying to be careful not to bump Drew & make him fall down.  I ended up missing the bottom two steps before the landing.  I heard a loud "snap" a bunch of crackles, but managed to not drop Corry.  I set her down and immediately laid down trying determine what had snapped.  I was pretty sure it was my ankle since it was hurting the most.

Corry decided she thought she'd walk the rest of the way down the stairs, and Drew said he would stay right there with me - he laid down next to me, sucked his thumb, and pulled my hair in typical Drew fashion.  After a few moments of assessing the pain, I decided to get up and see if I could walk on it.  I quickly realized the right ankle was not broken, but very sore.  My left foot was hurting, but I was mostly relieved that the ankle wasn't broken.  Fast forward through the day and I am now convinced that I either have broken toes in my left foot, or the foot itself might actually be broken.  Many years ago I took a tumble down my parents stairs when Meghan was rushing to meet someone at the door and broke my big toe.  Fortunately I kept the boot they gave me to wear, so that seems to really help stabilize it, and it hurts much less to walk.  We'll see how the pain level is throughout tonight and in the morning.  If it still hurts I may try to get into the doctor and see about getting x-rays.  Just what I need!

Oh yes, we got Corry's 2nd report card today.  I'm happy to report she still has perfect attendance, no tardies, received all Es in conduct, notes saying she stays on task and takes pride in her work, and she got a  96% in Language Arts, 97% in Math, 99% in Social Studies, and 98% in Science.  Not too shabby!

Onto the pictures....remember to click on the picture to enlarge!

Flagstone Coping

Corry playing in the gunite dust.

Weeping rocks, tile, flagstone installation

Starting the spillway from the spa to pool

Corry's Halftime Performance

The 1st graders at Powell Elementary had the opportunity to perform at halftime of the Lady Highlander's basketball game last night.  They have been working on their dance routines for a couple of weeks during PE.  I got a few action shots of the performance, but Deachi has the whole thing on video.  Hopefully she will share - my pictures aren't great.  It's hard to get good ones when the kiddos are dancing all around.  She did the Twist, Chicken Dance, Macarana, and Hand Jive.  There may have been another one in there, but I can't remembe for sure.  Here are the pictures!

Calyn kicking off the festivities with her new party trick

Max Max showing me his Batman

The Twist - and man, can that girl Twist!

The Macarana (the little boy standing behind her is Merek)

The chicken dance

The Hand Jive

My sweetie pie

Some of her admiring fans

Drew had had enough of the halftime festivities & basektball game

Consoling a punk

Gunite

The gunite trucks showed up before daylight this morning.  I'm sure our neighbors HATE us.  There were 4 trucks and they are anything but quiet.  Yikes.  They covered the whole back of the house with plastic sheeting while they sprayed the gunite which hampered viewing of the work.  I'm thankful for my mom staying at the house today & going outside to take pictures of the progress throughout the day. 

Tonight Jimmy & I went to the office to choose flagstone for the coping & the tile trim for the edge of the pool.  It took us about 5 minutes to make our selections.  She thought we were weird.  The flagstone is Oklahoma Wister & the tile blends with the flagstone.  We had already shown her the stone we have chosen for the fireplace & outdoor patio, so she had pulled samples that would look good with our selection.  That probably helped speed up the process.  She will be faxing our choices to the tilers tomorrow and said she figured they would probably be tiling Friday, maybe Saturday.

After the tile the next step will be plumbing which will take a day, then electrical which will take two days.  Then I believe they'll do the decking around the pool and the area for the covered patio.

I can't believe how fast the process is going!  As long as the weather stays dry we should be in good shape.  This is everyone's slow season as far as pool building goes, so that's been a huge benefit for us!

Here are the pictures from today:

The trucks arrive

Pumping the gunite

Starting to spray

Progress

Jimmy supervising at lunchtime

Dad doing a little supervision

The gunited spa - the spa has a standing well with jets in addition to the bend seating all around.  She suggested doing this with the large spa - that way if people get tired of sitting they can stand for awhile

The deep end all gunited

The shallow end entry steps & bench

Pool Construction!

They started our pool yesterday, 1/16/2012.  The kids were out of school for MLK, so they were able to have front row seats to the construction.  I think the boys stayed pretty entertained with the project throughout the day.  Drew told Grandma Chebs that is was so neat having our very own construction site in our backyard!

The first dig!

After an hour of digging

At lunchtime

All finished digging

The kids and me in the hottub

And this morning - 1/17/2012 the steel layers were there before the sun came up!  I heard them banging around and went out to find their truck in the driveway.  I felt sorry for them - we had a light drizzle so that mud was slicker than snot....hence the pieces of cardboard laying all in the pool.

I believe they are supposed to come in with the gunite trucks tomorrow.  We will also be making a trek to the office to choose the tile for the pool tomorrow evening.  So exciting!