Mike and Karen Online

Cleared Lot Starting fill

Mike — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:18:35 +0000

I want to thank the construction guys for the nice placement of the porta-potty. They managed to just get it in the frame I was going to use for all the progress pictures. May have to shift to the right a bit ….

Agave plant from Bruce

Mike — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:48:45 +0000

I got some agave plants from Bruce when his flowered. The came from the same plant but ended up a little different. One of them has spines all over the leaves and most of the others only have a spine on the tip.

Most of them look like this:

This is the spiky one:

Maybe it caught something from the pineapples?

Lot clearing has starting

Mike — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:03:13 +0000

Permits have been approved and they started clearing the lot Monday. There is a preserve at the back of the lot that is marked by a fence. They had the fence placed short so somebody from the city (?) has to come out and resurvey the back of the lot to figure out where the fence should go. There is an oak tree out there that will be in the way big time so we are hoping the fence goes behind the tree so we can have it removed. Otherwise it is going to cramp the pool the construction.

We have cabinets pretty much picked out and also granite. Just finalizing with those vendors. Karen is going to try to sign with the plumbing this week. I have a major paper to write and then will have to get started on my final group presentation. My apathy is very high right now and it’s like pulling teeth to get going on this stupid paper.

Before Pictures

Mike — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:59:17 +0000

This is where our new house will be (click to see full size image):

Future Residence of Mike and Karen Ward

Mike — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:24:31 +0000

DiPrima has sent the plans to the city and applied for permits. We are still working with vendors. Granite is coming in way high still. 10k is our current best quote and our allotment is 5.5k. We are hoping that whoever we go with can lower the price with remnants for some of the bathrooms and maybe the summer kitchen.

Mutant Pinapples

Mike — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:37:52 +0000

Two of my pineapples this year have multiple tops.

They look ordinary otherwise. Mmmmmmm, mutant pineapples.

How hot is it?

Mike — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:23:49 +0000

From a forwarded email. Not sure of the source.

New House is go

Mike — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:15:03 +0000

After much wrangling and wringing of hands, we are go with the new house. We gave DiPrima Construction a massive check representing 10% down so they will now begin construction of our new house. The new house will be on Pascoli Place, a little more towards the middle of Melbourne. Karen is going to be about five minutes from work and I’ll save about 10 or 15 minutes off my drive in.

Karen has been working with vendors choose floors, plumbing fixtures, etc. Our biggest headache right now is counter tops. We had been working with Artisan Granite since they were recommended by our builder. We never could get hard prices out of the salesman but he knew what our allotment for counter tops was and assured us it would be plenty. Now we find out that he is either just a straight up liar or completely incompetent. We selected some slabs and got a quote from him that was three times our allotment. His labor amount just to cut the granite was above our allotment, never mind what granite we picked. So now we are shopping for a new kitchen counter contractor.

I’ll try to upload some floor plans and drawings later.

Time flies when you are having fun

Mike — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:00:53 +0000

The final project and deliverables for my Leadership class was a little bit more involved than I thought. Didn’t get anything done except schoolwork. I did a couple of sets of push-ups Tuesday and am major sore today. I’ve been doing the hip and back stretches from AIS to get ready for some quality squats and I’m actually sore from that. So out of shape it’s just sad. I need to finish this stupid masters (July 30!) so I can fire my yard service and start doing that again. At least mowing the yard once a month kept me in a little bit of shape instead of just round.

Push ups start delayed

Mike — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:36:38 +0000

Holy crap I am out of shape. I did 17 push-ups yesterday and today I am sore. Per my regular DOMS schedule, tomorrow will be worse. I’m thinking Monday is a good day to get started on the pushing.