Wednesday, August 26

Yesterday Kara felt a cold coming on, but I was sure hoping it was just allergies.  Nope, she woke up this morning not well at all.  Fortunately, it seems to just be a cold - no fever or appetite loss - so hopefully it's gone in a week, when we travel to Maryland.

She did have a headache and stomachache though, so I didn't make her do school.  We watched movies, I continued my eye drops, and poor Michael fought with the internet all day.  I guess there was a widespread outage today, but Michael thought it was just us, so he was running to the store exchanging modems and routers, and he spent a lot of time on the phone with the company.  All of that because he can't work without the internet!  Ugh.

While poor Michael was doing all of that, I caught up on laundry, made a nice lunch, and a nice dinner.  Lunch started out like this:

Crimini Mushrooms

Caramelized Onions

If my mom were here, she would say she didn't care what came next, she is in!  It just so happens Michael loves caramelized onions too.  Anyway, they led to this:

Mushroom Swiss Burgers

I had leftover burgers, leftover onions, and leftover mushrooms.  So, when it came time to eat dinner, I decided to use the chicken fried steak, onions, and mushrooms and make a kind of beef stroganoff.  I made egg noodles and my own pan gravy with a splash of Worcestershire sauce.  Yeah, I thought it was delicious.  Michael ate it in 2 milliseconds, so I'll take that as a compliment.

After dinner he seemed disappointed with the desserts I had available, so I made a pan of brownies.  Yum!  While they cooled, we went to the new house together.  Kara needed to move around a bit and get some fresh air, and Michael hadn't gone in about a week.  I was starting to feel disappointed about a few things, so I was making a list for Bert.  But I didn't know when I'd have time to meet with him next and I was starting to stress that by the time I met with him and they did the changes, it would start pushing the schedule back.

Then Bert drove up!  I was wishing I wasn't in my around the house clothes and had makeup on, but no biggie!  I wanted desperately to talk with him about my list, but I knew he had a long day and probably needed to get home (it was already about 7pm).  He said he had already been home and was hoping to run into us.  I don't know if that's true, but I took the time to talk to him about my list!  Yay!

Here's the list:

 - garbage disposal needs electrical (he said it's already planned for - check)

 - I wanted to know where the A/C units were going to be because they are SO LOUD here at the rental house and I can't enjoy peace and quiet on the back porch - all I hear are those loud units.  (he said they go under the house and on the side of the house where I won't hear them - they already thought of that - check)

 - I told him I didn't like the height of the beams - I want 9 feet ceilings and I'm disappointed that the beams around the edge of the open great room are only 7.5 feet (he told me all kinds of ways they use pretty molding to draw your eye up and it looks like you did that on purpose - I feel much better)

 - I told him I didn't like the shower doors being only 25 inches wide.  We wanted them wider.  The rental house has a 29 inch wide shower door and that feels much better.  (He said how about 32 inches!  I said, let's do it!)

 - I asked about a few floor vents (he explained why some were in places and why some weren't and said we can always move in and get settled and a few months later say we want more)

 - I said Kara's room needs another TV hookup on another wall - I want flexibility in furniture placement in all the rooms

 - I asked about a cable that looked like ethernet that ran outside the office to the foyer - I don't want ugly stuff like internet hookups out there.

 - We talked about cabinetry/mirros in Michael's bathroom (he wants several so he can shave his head easier)

 - We talked about the brick pattern vs herringbone pattern in the fireplace

 - We talked about having two doorbells - one on front porch, one on door by garage

 - We talked about moving the light switch to the mudroom from one side of the master bedroom door to the other

 - I need to decide on a lighting/fan plan for the screened in porch - it wasn't done according to the plans and I can't remember why.

 - We talked about the fireplace, the front steps, the porch, the stone on the outside of the house, the roof, the attached garage, the detached garage, the ventilation intakes, bush hogging the land one more time, etc.

Poor guy!  I tried to zip through that list to I didn't take too much time from him, but I was so relieved to talk it out!  He says he plans to insulate and sheet rock in September.  Yay!  He was nice as can be and acted like he had all evening to talk with us.  He answered every question throughly and I appreciate that so much.  He revealed a little of what was going on behind the scenes, the stuff we don't have to deal with, and I'm so glad we hired him!  He's worth every penny of that we are paying him!  (He was talking about how much work it was back in the spring when they were getting the land ready for building, and how he had to fight to get the roofers there - then he climbed up on that roof and made sure they were doing it right, sending one guy home because he didn't have appropriate shoes on.)

Well, I feel a thousand times better and am even more excited about the house.  :-)  Now, I need to decide how the lights and fans will go on the screened in porch.  :-)

By the way, they did a more roof today:

I heart this view: