Week Three of Construction on House #2

Well, this was the week for framing! The week began like this... walls in place and rafters beginning to go up.














This is the start of the shop.














This is how it looks now!! Walls and rafters up and ready for decking and sheet rock!!















This is the back of the house.















This is another look at the slab on the north side of the house. See, I wasn't kidding! Eight feet tall!



















Victor wanted me to include a photo of the eyebrow arch from the living room leading into the kitchen.














Finally, this is what the shop looked like at the end of the week.














Well, that's all for now! Come back next week to see what happens next!!

Also, my boys (the two little ones) would like for you to notice how clean the work site is. Construction workers can leave behind a great deal of garbage. The nice folks that have been toiling away on our home aren't particularly messy. However, every afternoon my boys can't wait to come out to the site a race around picking up as much garbage as possible!!

Works for me!!

Week Two of Construction on House # 2

Week two began w/ bagging. Which basically means filling this black plastic looking material w/ the backfill you saw in those large mounds from last week's pictures. These "bags" holding backfill are stacked as shown and are amazingly level considering they are full of sand.















These "bags" are stacked to create large rectangular sections, topped with more of the black plastic like material, and the then the post tension cables ( all the blue cables) are run in a grid pattern spanning the entire slab.















This picture demonstrates why the slab is called a post tension slab. Each of the blue cables in the picture above is securely fastened to form boards on one side of the slab and then tensioned
(as shown below) on the form boards on the opposite side of the slab.
















Here, the foundation is being poured. Yippee!! A mixer truck empties fresh cement into the pump truck with the boom (shown below.) The wet cement is deposited within the form boards via the boom which a man carefully guides along.














This picture demonstrates the height of the slab on the north side of the house. Tall!!!




















So.....that's it for week two! Now on to the framing!!!!

New house update finally!!!

So for those of you who have been asking, behold the house construction progress!!! Yes, there is progress finally ( after a bunch of crazy paperwork and licensing chaos) there is definitely progress!! :)

On January 13th the construction process officially began. We had the brush (that Victor had pushed over back in July......deep sigh) removed and the began forming up the slab.















Next, came the plumbing and electrical rough in ( that would be all the PVC snaking around.)















We rounded out the week with the delivery of these large piles of backfill (basically sand.)















Thus ended week one of official construction on House #2.
Now, you might be thinking that this doesn't seem like much for one week, but stick w/ me things will speed up from this point on.

Christmas 2008 w/ the Elrods

How do you celebrate the Holiday season in South Texas?
You go dove huntin'. Everybody knows that.




















Don't worry...R's gun is just a toy. It doesn't even make a bang, but he sure does!!




















Sorry, I don't have pictures of B hunting. He sat with Papa on the other side of the tank and that was just way too far for this out-of-breath pregnant lady to walk. We did hear them shooting at dirt clods when they had decided no more doves were flying!















Along w/ Christmas, hunting, fishing, New Years, and hunting we also celebrated Victor's birthday.

Here he is showing off gifts carefully selected by his two best buddies (a box of Magic Tricks from R and a container of bolts and nuts from B.) Not sure if there is some hidden message there, but they just knew he needed both.






























I don't have the pictures of our Christmas celebration w/ Pappaw, Jan, and Nana. Those pics are currently in New Zealand w/Pappaw (my camera was misplaced during their visit) but when he returns I will post a few.

Hey, look at it this way by posting Christmas pics in February I will be doing my part to keep Christmas in our hearts all year. You are welcome. :)

More from Christmas 2008 at the Tipps' Home

This is what we found in those boxes. Costumes for little boys.....yay!! Lots of costumes and lots of fun!!!





















































Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for all of the fun. Everyday is an adventure when you can be Buzz Lightyear, Superman, and Captain Hook all before lunch!!!

Christmas 2008 at the Tipps Home

Well, we officially celebrated Christmas four times. These are some pictures from our celebration in Austin at Jeff and Mindi's house (that is probably a misprint now....I think little Aubrey and all of her toys have taken over the house and her Mom and Dad now live in the garage!)

Brother and sister..............they both look sweet...













and then the truth comes out............














Here is a little boy who loves his Aunt Mindi.














There is a child back there somewhere.

Oh so much to catch up on......

I am so very behind on posting (deep sigh.) So, I plan to spend the next few days gradually catching up on two and a half months of posting. :)

To begin, we joyously celebrated R's third birthday on November. It was a firefighter party and he had fun even though he had been running a fever that morning and when had to warn all of the children away from the party for fear that he might be contagious. Thanks, to all the brave folks who did come (especially Nana all the way from Oklahoma) to make our boy feel special!

















































Then we headed to north Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving at Uncle Stephen and Aunt Heather's house. As you can tell, we enjoyed the fire pit in the back yard!


























































I will post Christmas pictures very soon!