Beginners' Luck

We passed our big inspection! Yaay!
We've never built a house before, but apparently we are doing it right. We now have official permission to finish the house. It is a big relief and we are thrilled to have reached this milestone.

The three parts of today's inspection were:
Framing - passed
Electrical - passed
Mechanical - passed

The next inspection is the Final Inspection!!!

Almost Ready for the Framing Inspection

The long-awaited framing inspection might happen this week. We are just about ready. This inspection is a big deal because after we pass, we can start putting in the drywall, and the cabinetry, and the flooring, and the counter tops, and the appliances, and the electrical and plumbing fixtures, and the interior doors, and do the finish carpentry work, and the painting, and I can't remember what else. I sure hope we pass it so we can get going with all of the really fun stuff. Wish us luck!

And now.....it's picture time!!! Personally I find these pictures to be not that interesting. But that is perfectly in line with what's been going on at our house for the last month.


This is one of the central vacuum outlets. You hook a hose up to it and vacuum the room and all of the dirt and dust goes through pipes in the walls to a giant canister deep in our basement which we only have to empty about 3 times a year, supposedly. Doug thinks this is fantastic. I remain skeptical.


So for about the fifth time after I've once again gotten the grass growing they are digging up my yard again. They are laying down conduit so the electrical wires can come underground from the telephone pole to our house. They are putting in the Fios stuff at the same time.


A Study in Orange and Green, featuring a hard hat, Fios, and very dry grass.


The trench has been dug and the conduit is about halfway installed.


This is what it looks like when you get 3 phase for your house. It's pretty hideous looking, but fortunately it is on the least visible side of the house. Unfortunately it is on the front end of that side. I'm trying not to look at it too much because it does not make me very happy. I think someone might need to build a cute little bump-out on the side of the house to contain all of its ugly bits.


We are starting to figure out the front porch. (That means I'm telling Doug how I want the front porch to look.) He has built the steps and we got a great deal on "Railing in a Box" which was naturally offset by getting way more than we need, because "you never know and it's such a fantastic bargain." But it's going to look really nice when we get the flooring in and put "Wrap and Snap" on the columns.



Also this month our friend Gary came over and he and Doug spent a few days routing all of the telephone, cable TV, and internet wires into various rooms throughout our house. Later we will put in the speaker wires. It's going to be nice and tidy having all of the "media" wiring contained in the walls, instead of being loose everywhere.

Trombonists in Dupont Circle

I have been very lax in posting about our house progress recently. Let me just say that none of the progress has been particularly exciting, even to me. But we finally got our electricity hooked up and now we have a big inspection coming up next week. Or so I've been told. I'll try to post something relevant in the next few days.

In the meantime, here is something to entertain certain of you in particular who might happen to be visiting this here blog. Since there was a bass already there at the theater where I was subbing, I was actually able to take the Metro to my gig tonight for a change. This is, I believe, a fairly typical Friday night at the Dupont Circle metro station in DC. Pretty cool, huh?

Sorry these clips are so short - it still takes forever to upload them.

Also, what is wrong with these people, only one of them uses a DE mouthpiece?

Oh that's right....they couldn't buy one even if they wanted to.