Disappointment....Frustration.......Life????

Looks pretty much the same, doesn't it? Well, that's what I thought. I'm disappointed...Honestly, I don't know how else to say it. After 14 weeks, I had hoped and expected that we'd be done by now. Yeah, I know, we've run into some unforseen problems that needed to be fixed, but 14 weeks????? Come on already.........

For the record.....these pictures, except for the red colored stucco work, is where the contractor finished. Also, for the record, David and I built the porch, put up the ceiling joists, rafters, dragged too many to count pieces of 3/4" plywood on the roof by ourselves, and shingled it. And,....put the two windows in the garage and reframed the wall. And....hung the OSB board on both the front of the garage and above the garage door.

When I came home from work today, I had expected the front of the house to be completed. Disappointed doesn't even begin to grasp my emotions when I drove up and didn't see shake siding on the front wall of my house.

So.....where do we go from here???? David and I will finish it out...as of 5pm tonight, the contractor is done. Honestly, our budget for the house is busted and I refuse to tap into my emergency money OR my travel money to Africa. So, the only other option we were left with is to finish it ourselves.....with a race against time to complete before May 21st (our court date). Theoretically, we probably have until the end of May to finish, but hey, I'd like to have some fun on our boat before we travel.......


































Yes...that's my beautiful daughter and highly educated husband in his alter-ego: Wanna-be contractor!!!















We ran out of stucco dye, so I had to run to Lowe's and get another bottle to finish up the wall to match the brick around the front of the house.

So, tomorrow, we assess our siding supplies, knowing we need to order the rest of the material for the ceiling of the porch, and then get to work siding the rest of the front of the garage, and hopefully, the front of the house too. When that's done, we'll (notice I say "we????") cut up a 12" wide piece of the garage floor with a diamond blade and pour a footer. Then, our fabulous mason will come back and block up the garage and put the steps in the front off the porch. Then...(are you tired yet????) we'll rough out where the windows and door will go; fix the roof on the third garage, and then finish up the siding. Next year, when we receive our hefty tax refund, courtesy of a nice adoption tax credit, we'll finish the den, aka former garage, in order to have a bigger family room/den. But....that's next year's project.....I think we've taken on more than enough for one year.....

Til tomorrow........