Home Construction (Day 17 - August 6)

Today was the first time we didn't go visit our home :'(

Instead of visiting our home, we went to see Kooza (the latest Cirque du Soleil production).

I'm not a huge fan of the circus anyway, but honestly the action at this show was not as good as I had hoped for - I thought they would have more acrobats, at least judging by the prices we paid for our tickets (even considering the company discounts), we thought they were quite expensive. Imagine if we had to pay full price - most likely we would have ended up asking for a refund.

We took this as our once-in-a-lifetime experience of watching the circus.

Once in a lifetime seems to be enough, for us. :^D

Home Construction (Day 16 - August 5)

The progress for today:

Another bedroom on the second floor was framed (the one above the garages.


They removed one of the front pillars - we don't know why and we have to ask our field manager to know more about their reason behind this sabotage.


The pillar was thrown into the pile of sand - now we are a bit concerned about the foundation on the front of the home.


Walls for the second level are done:


From different angles:

(2nd floor: left to right)
My library (loft), smaller size of room (we might use it as our study room) and our master bed-room


(1st floor: left to right)
Great room (our living room), dining room and kitchen (open floor plan)

(ground floor)
unfinished basement


The stairs to nowhere are now the stairs from the main floor to the second floor


Our kitchen has a roof now (not an official one)


First look at the second floor:


Another guest bedroom (above the garages):


The view from our loft to our master bedroom, through the walls (spooky being able to walk through walls, by the way)


Not bad -- they finished the framing of the whole second floor in only one workday, as well as the floor itself and walls.

Biking to work

My Russian has finally gotten himself pumped up to exercise more - he decided to bike to work. He hasn't planned or biked to work before, but suddenly there we were, at Target, buying him a helmet and gloves.

The next morning he got up early and started to prepare a backpack for the trip - I was quite worried since he hadn't tried the new route yet, and according to the map, the distance is 12.5 miles each way. Luckily he has showers at his workplace (heh, lucky for his coworkers, that is)...

So he left around 7:30 AM after pumping his bike's tires and I left at the same time for work (yes - driving my car even though the distance to my work is only 5 miles). Around 8.30 AM, I tried to call him but he didn't pick up his phone - started getting worried at 9.30 AM since I still hadn't received any missed calls. Actually, he had arrived at work at 9AM, couldn't remember the combination to the bike lock, and had been frantically trying to call me to ask about it.

Around 9.45 AM, I finally got a message informing me that he got to work safely, even though he had gotten himself lost in a park and had to bike over grass and woods for a while to get back to a road. So, his route was extra-slow that day.

I was still proud of him for even *trying* to bike to work at all - an ambitious 25 miles round trip - and that he was still committed to do it, even after that first brutal day. The next day he shaved off 30 minutes from the trip, each way, thanks to not getting lost and biking more efficiently on the hills, which were now predictable.

We had a little celebration by going out to Chilis and getting some of the calories back which he had lost this morning ; )







It took us 3 days to finish all of that. I think we got more than enough calories back...

Home Construction (Day 15 - August 4)

Woohooo we have walls for our garage - the front of our home looks really different now:


From the back of our home, you can see that they are starting to place a foundation for a second floor.


The foundation from inside of the home:


Our future kitchen starting to have a roof:


The exciting part is our stair to the second floor - actually a stair to nowhere:


Yes we are pretty excited about the stairs : )

Home Construction (Day 14 - August 3)

First day of August

We noticed today they finished with the main floor walls. Now you can see our main door and the first wall for our second level.

They used both big walls which they built on Friday for the front and the right side of the home (our 2 level foyer):


The back doesn't have any walls yet for second level - not much different from last time shoots.


Inside the home, we have some frames divided each rooms and frames for the garage:


The exciting part, we have a stair to the basement now:


Our future kitchen:


Our future laundry room and half bathroom:


And the view of the pond from our great-room: