I've been busy fretting about the air conditioning and haven't posted any pictures of the house now that it's (mostly) done and we're living here.

First of all, the house is really beautiful, and we're really enjoying it. The front yard has BOB sod, as in the same grass that covers the field at Bank One Ballpark.

Here's the front of the house. We are putting so much water on the grass to keep it alive in the hot weather. The hoses stay in the yard all the time. The painter will be back to paint the front door red, like the trim, and put another coat of gloss enamel on the screen door. Then I can put the screen back in. He's also going to paint the porch. Moon Valley Nursery did the landscape design. And since no photo of the house is complete without a cat in it, I call your attention to the black and white splotch just below and to the right of the TV room window. Grrrrrrrr.

The back of the house hasn't yet been landscaped. In October, we'll get more BOB sod that's been overseeded with winter grass and put that down. The white splotch at the upper right of Brittany's window is where the stucco was repaired. The stucco guys covered an outlet box, so the electrician had to break the stucco to find it. Sloppy subcontractors. You can see the patio set and barbeque island to the right of the house.

Here's a better view of the patch.

Here's a couple of pictures of the island and the grill.

We got a Tuff Shed for the backyard. With the old garage gone, we needed someplace to put the lawnmower and other stuff.

Let's see if anyone's home and go inside.

Here's a low-light photo of the media room. Not only do I have remotes for all of the stereo equipment, that's a remote control unit for the fan next to the light switch. How cool is that.

Speaking of cool, I wonder what the temperature is in the TV room?

It's late at night and still 79 degrees.

Here's something that does work. This is the temperature control for the demand water heating system. We have it set at 120 degrees, and that's the temperature of water it delivers. Neat.

This is our brand new gas dryer. We went round and round with the electrician about this. The plans showed two outlets in this room. One of them had a symbol that noted, "special outlet, verify configuration with equipment." It wasn't a standard 220 outlet symbol, so rather than verify anything, the electrician did nothing. He saw that the plumber ran gas to the room (which wasn't on the plans), so he assumed we had a gas dryer and didn't put 220 in the laundry room. He ended up crediting us $250 toward our $350 purchase of the gas dryer. This is the same guy who fell all over himself to add onto the bill for adding something like a can light, but when he didn't do something, it was harder than heck to get money back.

Next to the laundry room is Brittany's bathroom.

And here's Brittany's bedroom. She considers this to be "cleaned up."

This is the office. Leisa doesn't consider this to be "cleaned up." She hates this clutter and wants most of this stuff to go to the attic.

Here's the thermostat for the 3 ton air conditioner unit, out in the hallway outside the office. That's the swamp control to the left. We haven't checked the functionality of that, yet.

Here the table is set for dinner. Aren't these cute plates? Before we got the shade screens, we had newspaper covering the windows. It really looked classy. A step up from tinfoil. We're still looking for a table for this room. It's a small space, and everything we find is so big, there's no room for people to comfortably sit. I love to shop.

Here, Leisa cooks some chicken to be served on the cute plates. Each of those three pieces of chicken cost $471 to prepare. The island cost $2500, the grill was $800. We've already cooked four hamburgers on the grill, so these three pieces of chicken bring us to a total of seven things prepared on a $3,300 island. $471 per chicken breast. I savored every bite.

In the same manner, here's a thousand dollar loaf of bread!

Here's the stove and microwave. We were originally going to put granite behind the stove, but due to venting requirements, we couldn't. Mark is ordering some stainless steel to go back there. Look at those cute wedding pictures on the counter!

And here's the only cat we allow in the house:

Here's the kitchen faucet and sink.

Here's what happens outside when it rains. Gutters have been ordered.

Let's wander over to the west side of the house.

This is what I see when I walk down this side of the house.
$1,800 for a worthless air conditioner.
$300 to for the phone company to wire up the phone box.
$600 to move the electric service underground.
$900 for a demand water heater.
$250 to upgrade the shingles.
$200 for attic vents.
$2,200 for a Tuff Shed.

Here's the electric meter.

And $600 to move the gas meter.

I will probably post a few more photos, taken with the Canon camera as we continue to get things cleaned up and settle in.