Windows and Paint!

Hello all!

The New Doghouse is really starting to look like a house! Mom has meant to post more pictures but she has been busy with Christmas preparations. Mom and Aunt Bec did something new this year ... they made tamales. Grandpa likes tamales and Aunt Bec volunteered the two of them to make some. Mom wasn't so sure it was a good idea. It took them three days to get everything prepared and the tamales steamed and frozen for Christmas but they are ready. Mom says we don't get to eat them but we will let you know what the rest of the family says about them ... assuming anyone is still healthy enough to talk! No, really, they smelled great and Mom and Aunt Bec tried them and they didn't suffer any ill effects.

Anyway, this is about our new doghouse. When we posted last, we almost had all of our siding. Well, the siding is on and the windows are in. This is the north side. It faces Aunt Bec's house so it is the first part of our doghouse you see when you come down the driveway.



This is the front of the house. Look at all of those windows! We will be able to see every cow and bird and anything else that is outside! Wait a minute! Those double windows on the right are in the dining room and we aren't going to be allowed in there. We guess we will have to settle for the triple windows on the left.



This is the side and front of the doghouse with our special wrap-around porch. We will be able to see just about everything if we are outside even if it is raining. We don't like to get wet so this porch is going to be a great thing for us!



This is the side of the doghouse that is away from Aunt Bec. Our bedroom is on this side.



This is the back of the doghouse. You can see where our personal porch will be off our bedroom.



This is a picture of the inside. They built the half wall between the kitchen and den/living room. (Mom was standing in the den looking toward the kitchen.) There will be a flat surface where you can put stuff but mostly Mom will look over it and into the den to watch TV while she is messing around in the kitchen. They haven't done much on the inside except frame the walls. They need to finish "weathering in" the house so the inside won't get damaged if it rains.



And now! They painted the house! Mom wasn't too sure about this color when she drove up. It is so ... so ... green?




She went out the next morning to take this picture and to see if she liked the color better.



Mom even pulled out the color strip to see if they used the right color. It sure looks like the same color she picked. After a few days of looking at it, she is getting used to it. And it looks better on the front where you don't see a solid wall of color!



And these are the metal sheets for our roof. They have been putting the roof on the last couple of days and they finished tonight but it was too late to get a good picture. Mom will get out there tomorrow and take the pictures and post them. The roof looks really great!

Look What We Had One Week Ago!

We had some of our outside walls a week ago but Mom took the pictures in the morning and then went to work. She kept forgetting to bring the camera into the house. Once she got into the house, she didn't want to go back out to get it because it was cold. Can you hear her whining about that? Does she think we care that she might be a little cold? Do we complain when it is cold and we have to go outside? Wait - don't answer that.

Anyway, the builders started putting the walls on the house last week. The outside looks like wood but it is Hardi-plank (or something like that) which is a cement product formed to look like wood. It is good product to use when you live somewhere with lots of termites. Termites eat wood but they don't eat cement. When it got dark, the builders stopped and said they would be back when the windows came in. So part of the house has walls and part has the wrap that goes around the house. Mom thinks that "wrap" might be to help keep moisture out but she isn't sure.





While Mom was out taking pictures, one of the neighbor ladies came by. Mom took a picture of her. We would have barked.



We made Mom get her camera and make an entry because they started putting in windows today. Mom isn't sure if they are all in or not because she didn't want to walk around there at 8:00 at night, in the dark and in ... are you ready for this ... the cold.

The house looks yellow but that is the color of the of the Hardi-plank. Mom picked out a green color for the house with a creamy white color for the trim. She said there is so much red clay out here that she wanted something that wouldn't immediately look dirty. She refuses to have an orange house which would really hide the clay so she had to pick something else.

As soon as she can get pictures of the new windows ... and brings the camera into the house ... we will show them to you.

It's Almost a House!

We cannot believe how much they have done since our last post! We had a foundation with some pipes sticking up and then they started putting up framing! This is looking toward the front of the house. They started off just framing the house so the part sticking out in front is the porch.



This is the view out through the front windows from the den/living room. We are pretty sure the extra wood crossing in front will be gone. Those boards are to support the frame. Mom is getting diamond polished concrete floors (sort of like acid stained concrete floors only less maintenance), so the support beams are not supposed to be nailed into the concrete. If you look, you can see where the supports are nailed to other pieces of wood.



This is a view from outside of the house looking through where the side windows will be for the den/living room. The doorway just inside the window leads to our bedroom.



This is a picture looking into the doggie bedroom from the side porch window. The door to the right leads to the bathroom. There is a doorway at the back of the bedroom that leads to our enclosed porch.




The next day, they finished framing the porches and put up some boards along the outside!



Mom and Aunt Bec went to Houston to see the family for Thanksgiving. Aunt Bec, the good, kind, considerate and responsible dog owner, came home to feed us. Mom spent the night in Houston so she could watch her college football team play a game. (The game was aired on a channel we don't get out here yet.) When Mom drove up on Friday afternoon, this is what she saw ...



In the picture below, you are looking at the back corner of the house. The part on the right (in the shade) is the back of the house. The first thing is the porch off of the utility room. Then there are two bedrooms (with paper on them) and finally the enclosed (screened in) porch attached to our bedroom. Going to the left from the corner is the porch, the utility room with the little window, the breakfast room with the big window, the dining room (with the paper on it) and the front porch.



This picture shows you the front of the house with the porch. The part closest to you is the dining room and the rest of it is the den/living room. This is pretty much the same shot as the first picture in this post but with a lot more house to see!



This is also the front of the house but from the other side. You can also see how the porch wraps around. The wall where the porch ends is the bedroom. There will be a window there. In fact, that is the window you looked through in a picture earlier in this entry.



This is the work they had finished up on Friday. Mom didn't even make it over there to see what they did yesterday. We are going to tell her to get out there and take more pictures. We want to be able to see all of the things that are getting finished. Since she won't let us go over there to check, we have to depend up on her!

Foundation

It has been a busy week. We have been barking at the guys building our doghouse almost every day! It looks like they stand around a lot so we tell them to get busy or we will get mean. We can tell they are afraid of us because they eventually get back to work.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures where you can see the whole foundation. The first picture starts from the front of the house which is on the left and the second picture shows the back which is on the right.

The low part on the left is the front porch. Next comes the dining room which Mom has already said we are not allowed to enter. Can you believe that? It is our doghouse and she is making part of it off-limits? We know we have mentioned it before but it just really makes us want to pee when she makes rules like that! Anyway, next you can see where there is a part sticking out toward you. That is the breakfast room. You can't really see it but next toward the back is the utility room which will have a special dachshund length sink in it for torturing us with baths. Then there is a little back porch.




Our doghouse will have lots and lots of porch space. Mom took pictures of it so you can see. It is the section that is a couple of inches lower than the rest of the foundation. You can see that it goes all the way across the front of the house. The part closest to you is 8 feet deep (from the front edge to the wall of the house) and the part farther away is 10 feet deep.



This is the porch from the other side. It wraps around the house a little bit. The part of the house with the porch on two sides is the family/living room. This section of the porch is a little over 7 feet deep. In case you are wondering, that is Aunt Bec's house in the background.



This smaller piece of porch is off of our bedroom. It is going to be screened in so Mom can sit on it most of the year and no matter what the weather is like. It will be a little warmer in winter and a little cooler in summer. It is also on the south side of the house so it won't get the cold north wind. This porch is a little over 8 feet deep.



Finally, just so you don't think we are going to live on big block of concrete, here is the first shipment of building supplies. They will use this to build the frame. We don't know if you can see the boards on the top that are green but those are called "green board" and they have a special treatment so they can be used in bathrooms and other areas where there will be exposure to dampness.



Well, that is all so far. Next time we will probably be able to show you the framing. It still won't look like much of a house until they get some walls up.

Plumbing

Hello all,

Things have been progressing on the new doghouse. Mom says it will seem like nothing is happening because they have to do things that go in the ground. This week they did the plumbing. You can see all of the stub ups in this picture. The stub ups are those white post looking things. They are in the kitchen and both bathrooms. Mom and Aunt Bec walked around checking the locations. They both said how small the area looks when there are no walls. When Aunt Bec's house was at this stage, she used a tape measure to make sure everything was big enough ... it was.



Here is another picture of the stub ups. They aren't very exciting but they do indicate progress! If you look at the right side of the picture, you can just see the corner of Aunt Bec's house. The garage and storage building is behind the trees in the middle of the picture. Mom says she is going to have to do something about those trees - or at least something about the scruffy part of those trees.



And, while we are talking about plumbing, the builders brought a lovely addition to the landscape. Mom drove up on Wednesday night and this is what she saw -- well, sort of, it was dark when she drove up and it is daylight in this picture. People are so silly. If the grass is good enough for us ...



Okay, that's all for now. Maybe Mom will get out there and take some super-exciting close up shots of those pipes. We are sure that the possibility has you too excited for words.

Foundation Work and Neighbors

Hey everyone!

The builder finished clearing the area where we are putting the new doghouse. Then he hauled in a lot of dirt. There were piles all over but Mom didn't get any pictures of them. She got home late and the dirt guy was here early the next morning and was spreading everything around before she could get out there with her camera. Here is a picture of the dirt when she got home. This is the side view.



This is the front view. The pile of lumber on the right was for the foundation frame. The yellow building in the back is Mom and Aunt Bec's garage and storage.



This morning we got up and Mom was laughing because the neighbors came over and were using the front porch even before she got to step on it! As you can see, the foundation is framed. The builder called Mom yesterday to ask where she wanted the septic system. (We are out in the country so we don't tie into a city sewer system.) Anyway, Mom is going to see if the system can go on the left side of the house. Mom also needs to settle on a color for the doghouse because the builder wants to paint the siding before he puts the roof on. Mom says there are so many decisions to make!



Mom went out later to take a better picture of the foundation frame. Here it is.

Day One - Site Clearing

It's started! It's started!

Today they started clearing the site. This is about the same view facing the front of the house after the trees have been cleared.



And this is the view from the side.



Not much to see but at least something has happened!

And when Mom got home from work, she found me (Sammy) and Jake checking out the cleared site. She seemed to think we should have stayed inside the fence. Aunt Bec is going to ruin our fun by blocking the escape route.

The Doghouse Site Before Anything

Hey, sorry we didn't post the site pictures last night. Mom didn't realize the card reader was at the other house. Fortunately, Aunt Bec went over there today and picked it up for Mom to use. That just shows you how long it has been since she has posted any pictures!

This is a picture of from the front of where our new doghouse will be. You will be looking at the front of the doghouse after it is built if you stand in the same place where Mom was standing when she took this picture. Yes, those trees are going away. It may seem a shame but those are junk trees and there are lots of other trees to admire.



This is the site of our new doghouse from the left. That smaller tree on the left is about where the front of the porch will be. The big tree in the middle is about where the dining room will be. We have issues about the dining room because we found out Mom is putting up French doors so we can see in but we can't get in. Something about dog pee and her good dining room furniture keeping the good stuff for herself.



This is a picture of our back yard from the back of the doghouse. All of those trees are staying. We should have lots of squirrels to chase. Mom says she likes the trees but she might not be so fond of them when it comes time to cut the grass in the back yard!



Well, that's about it for now. Mom got the paperwork to get water and electricity set up. We know you just can't wait to see the water meter (barking so hard we are going to pee).

And for good measure, here is a picture of some cows - the neighbors.



And here is a pretty picture of Grandma's wisteria vine when it was blooming last Spring.

The Construction Loan is Signed!!

Mom signed the construction loan papers yesterday! They are coming out to clear the pad space on Monday! Mom took a picture of the spot before any work is done. We will add that to this entry tonight. Now Mom has to pick out colors and fixtures and whatever else people think is important to make a doghouse comfy for humans. All we can say is that there better be a place for our kibble.

We have to rest our voices. Since we are staying with Aunt Bec right now and we are building our doghouse next to hers, we will be able to watch everything the builders do. And you know we will have to tell them to hurry up or watch out or any number of things so they do it right!

Something

Well, this was a long road. It took a year to finally get my house on the market and another year to sell it. In the middle I got laid off. Well, now I am gainfully employed, my other house is sold, I have a nice chuck of money in the bank, I have a location on my land, I have a house plan and I have a builder! I have names of four local lenders to talk to about a construction loan. Once I get the financing out of the way, it is time to break ground!

This would be a little more fun without the broken ankle or the wrist brace (long story which you don't really want to hear) but I can still feel the excitement. I'll be posting progress. At first it will be blah and boring but then things will move quickly.

I hope you enjoy following along!