What the cat dragged in

We have a patio door!  It must have hitch-hiked the entire way here from Florida, but it has arrived and is partially installed.  They have to build out a 21" wall to accomodate it and the brick ledge, but that's what keeps it interesting right?  This will make the back living room wall basically bomb-shelter quality.

No lie, that door is hella-heavy.  Granted it doesn't have the big handles on it yet, but I had to put my back into it to get that sucker open.  Thankfully there is a regular back door next to it so we won't have to use it as every day access.

On a less awesome note, we had to take down the dead/dying oak tree out front.  RIP lopsidedly-trimmed oak tree, you lived a long life.  We are looking for a replacement tree, and are leaning towards the Mexican sycamore.

Mexican sycamore 

On the outside, the vertical boards where put up on the second floor.  We also learned that all the front windows on the second floor have to be lowered 3 inches in order to meet code.  Which means they have to be recut, moved, all the siding and trim work redone.  Not a pain at all.  City if Houston inspection department is being pretty finnicky these days.  THANKS COH.

What bothers me most about this is that Gabe's windows are right over the gables below, and he can essentially walk right out onto the roof.  I remember being 11 and more than one of my friends pulled stunts like this, jumping off the roof, and breaking something when they didn't nail the landing.  And seeings as Gabe enjoys taking a running start to use his head as a battering ram these days, I smell trouble.  Someone please turn off my worrying-mom tendency to jump to the worst possible scenario first.

On the inside, some progress has been made.  The beer room/cellar has been wrapped, and now spray-foam insulated in preparation for making itself a big refrigerated closet.  Makes Andrew positively giddy.

The cabinet team is starting on all the built-ins.

You know this guy has worked with us before because he knew without me asking to verify the size of my freaking laundry basket.  Plus 5 points for you,Mr. McCaw.

Several "minor" adjustments are being discovered necessary because that's what happens when the details start coming together - like our toilet room door needing to be resized because the soaker tub is a bit wider than planned.

And last but not least, we finally have an insulated home now that the windows and doors are all in.

The drywall has arrived (even though someone stole the plywood from our site this morning) and word on the street is that once drywall is done, we have 6 more weeks to completion.  I'm not holding my breath, but cautiously optimistic.