The mosquitoes have claimed our yard. As of about 3 or 4 weeks ago, the kids have stopped going outside, and Mom and Dad have become hyperactive about the door being open for more than 5 seconds. “Close the door. Close the door! CLOSE THE DOOR!”
We have a nearby neighbor that does not mow, and has a V8 engine hanging from a tree branch. I image the mosquitoes over there, hanging out poolside in various cans and cylinders planning their next meal at the gourmet restaurant that is our back yard. “Mmmm, three-year-old forehead… tasty!”
There are machines for this problem. They run in the hundreds of dollars price range, but if they can really knock out the mosquito population, they are totally worth it. Two years ago, when I first looked into them, the only one I could find was the Mosquito Magnet, but there was a pretty obvious pattern to the consumer reviews. People who had just bought it loved it. People who had owned one for more than one year hated it. Three hundred dollars is great if I can kill most of the mosquitoes in my yard for 5 to 10 years, but it’s too much for just one year.

From left to right, the Mosquito Sentinel available at Lowes ($199), which is too good looking to possibly work, the Mega Catch ($179) only available online, and the troublesome Mosquito Magnet ($1,250).
The idea of a greedy, evil, devil-mosquito landing on my precious and not-yet-born daughter has pushed me over the edge, so I bought the Mega Catch Premier today.

Misleading title. Actually waiting for the baby is the hardest part. The house has been progressing so swiftly it’s making our heads spin.
Monday. Prep for drywall and dry wall in the downstairs bathroom. We last minute redesigned the master bathroom. Christiane wants to put a piece of furniture where one of the sinks was going to be. I still haven’t made my peace with it.

I had a talk with Ace and he gave the supervisor six weeks to finish the job. That puts the finish date at June 30, two days past the one I picked last summer when we got this project started, and a day after Christiane’s birthday, which I promised to celebrate on the deck. I’ll be starting the kitchen on Thursday this week, unless we have a brand new baby. If that happens on Thursday, then I just don’t know what.
Tuesday. More drywall prep.
Wednesday. They darn near dry walled the whole house. I think they were there from 7:30am to 7:30pm.
Thursday. They finished hanging drywall. Mainly the master suite and the utility closet. Taped and floated most of it. Christiane went into something indistinguishable from labor but not really labor because we still don’t have a baby.
Friday. Finished taping a floating. There is an amazing amount of white powder and mud on the floor. We better pick out some gol-dang paint colors.
Having the drywall in, it’s much easier to see what we designed. The ceiling in the master bedroom is a good bit higher feeling than I thought. The dining room and kitchen has a great, just-complex-enough look. It also became plainly obvious that when they swapped the position of the toilet and sink in the kid’s bathroom, they did not change the position of the light over the sink. So we have a light over the toilet, and I guess, a cabinet over the sink. Hope that’s easy to fix.

We have walls!!!!!

I’m verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves…

Sometimes all I need is a few feet of drywall hung or a key to the construction deadbolts that now seal the entrances to feel like something much bigger has been accomplished. These things don’t really make for fancy pictures, but they sure do tickle MY fancy.
P.S. Rumor has it that we will be moving in within no more than six weeks. David’s unofficial deadline: June 28. (Mine: two weeks ago.)

Monday: Electricians fixed for code, but they mixed up the lights in the kitchen. I caught Ace at the house and got a walk-through. Concrete company built the mold for front and back steps. We had an odd code violation with a doorknob in an upstairs closet aimed right at an upstairs window. Have to put “safety glazing” on it. I have no idea what that means. (Of course, the Safety Glazing Certification Council website is no help at all.)
Tuesday: Installed the upstairs AC and bathroom/laundry exhaust vents. Built the mold for the side door steps. Insulation was delivered. I realized why I was getting nowhere looking for entry door knobs on the web. I already knew what I wanted: the door knobs from the back door at Big Red Sun. I emailed to ask where they got them.
Wednesday: I took photos throughout the house so we would know where all the vents, pipes and wires are. We did the Third Draw (they had me sign it first this time). They installed the insulation. Passed framing inspections. Big Red Sun came through with the door knob specs. It’s the Emtek Mode, available at the old Stripling Blake. I’m still not sure how they are still open with the new Lowes across the street. Maybe it’s just the fantastic selection of door knobs.

News 8 Austin interviewed our neighbors for a boneheaded story about the housing restrictions.
Thursday: Finished up insulation. Electrician came back and fixed the kitchen lights, but again misunderstood the outside soffit light, and now we have a wire hanging out of the wall above the front door. (File under: Plan goof-ups) They added an outlet to the communications closet, but put it right between the ethernet hub and the nexus of speaker wires. After spending 12 hours running the wires around, away and perpendicular to the electrical wire, they all end up next to an outlet. Ugh. Kitchen tile arrived on our front steps.
Friday: Concrete poured for steps and piers around the house. I was tempted to bring everyone by for handprints, but it was not in the cards.
I think I’ve hit a new level of antsiness. It starting to look like the end is in sight. With less time to go, I’m feeling even more impatient. When everyone goes to bed tonight, I think I’ll sneak over there and watch that concrete dry.

Ya’ll really think I can climb stairs at this point?? Don’t be silly–David snapped this shot for me.

Once the framing was inspected and approved (!) we found out that no time would be wasted installing the insulation and floating the drywall. I can’t even imagine how awesome-ly low our energy bills will be. It was a complete and utter shock to me that our home had no insulation whatsoever (okay, not a complete shock given that the house plummetted to 45 degrees in the winter even with a space heater running full throttle in every room).
They pulled off the siding and, voila!, sheetrock. Whaddya know.

They are actually supposed to get cranking on the drywall today, so maybe David will be able to snap a few more pics this weekend of, get this, WALLS!
Next week, more drywall and possibly some flooring. The week after that, presuming that we don’t have a newborn in arms, David will install the IKEA kitchen cabinets.
I feel like I am pregnant with twins, except that they might be born on different days. Hm.

(apologies to Christiane for stealing her line)
The concrete crew finally came by this morning. From the looks of it, they are knocking out our little job on their way to the real one. At 7:45am, (when this photo was taken) they looked to be more than half-way done.

Happiness is trucks in front of the house. This is one of the better moments.