Thursday, October 04, 2007

July 2007 Final Stairs, Painting,Septic,Guttering

Things really got crazy the last two months of construction that I didn't have time to update this blog or take alot of pictures. In July we were in our final countdown of getting all the last of the interior done and finally getting our septic system installed. God was faithful, all those last things fell into place. We finished before our building permit expired (8-6-07) and before our 12 month construction loan would have ended in August, also.

Since, my last posting on June 24,2007 , getting our stairs finished was the next step. This picture shows our stairs completed with carpet. Our trim carpenter, Bill Hunt, did the caps and side wall trim out of mdf and used the iron balusters and oak posts and railings we had picked up from Latham Stairs in Sanger, TX. He was an excellent carpenter and we were very pleased with his work. We found out there's not too many trim carpenters who like to tackle these kinds of stair parts. But, the beautiful end result was well worth the effort and cost ($$).

Here's some more pictures of our stairs and the walkway above the entry.




These next series of pictures is when Carla Milligan, an art teacher from Kingston, came and painted murals on Dillon and Danae's room. We had been having trouble figuring out the final colors of the kids' rooms, when I came upon her ad in the classifieds. It was perfect timing. God did it again! We were so pleased with the results!






Danae and Dillon are sitting in the windowsills (they make great seats since our windowsills are almost a foot wide) after Carla had painted Danae's room. She has horses on every wall of her room. Danae had told me several months ago she wanted a horse scene in her room. Her prayers were answered.



Here's Dillon's room. Since Dillon's room was already painted a turquoise color, an underwater scene worked out well. Dillon had her paint sea dragons and ocean coral, but he asked her to also incorporate his favorite bird, the bald eagle. Not pictured are also a golden retriever and a cheetah , which also wanted painted. Carla was great at incorporating all the ideas the kids had and make it all blend. It was so hot the days she painted, too, which didn't bother her. I would highly recommend her. We'd like to have her come back in a few months and do the other two bedrooms.



While all this inside work was going on, we had work going on on the outside, too. Our septic system was installed by Chickasaw Nation free of charge. I started the application process with the Chickasaw Nation Office of Environmental Health a year ago July, just so we could get on the waiting list for the septic system. In October 2006 we made it on the approved list. Then they said the installer would come when we were within about a month from being finished with the house. Back in October of 2006, I don't think we ever imagined that we wouldn't be ready until the next July. I, also, found out once they were here installing that they could have dug and installed our water line from the street, but I would have had to request it with my original application. Oh well, hindsight is always clearer. Anyway, we are very thankful for the work they did and for the septic system. It was a great savings on our construction budget.




Here's the contractor smoothing out the site after they installed the septic tank and lines. We got a nice sprinkler system out of the deal, too. Look closely and you'll see Deanna standing next to one of the workers. Here she is making friends again.



We had our guttering on our house completed in July, also. One of the days they came, we had a terrible thunderstorm come through. The day it came through, not only were the guttering workers there, but also, the electrician, the HVAC workers, and the bricklayers. We all stood on the front porch or watched out the windows as it downpoured outside. Here's a picture of the aftermath of that storm. A truck of one of the workers got stuck in the mud near our newly installed septic tank. Fortunately they didn't damage anything, just made big ruts in the ground.

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