I can see a roof line...

Okay, so Dave and I made our way to the lot last night (as you can probably tell now, we make at least 2 visits a week - but as you can see, if we skipped much more than that, we'd miss many photo ops of the progress!). So, as you'll see in the pics, they started to put our roof line up, there are still two missing on the house as of last night. They had about 1/3 of the roof boards up that go down to attach the shingles to. They also had poured the cement footings for our future deck (NO WHERE near the nice deck Dave bulit us, but all in good time). I'd say that's pretty good progress considering we had a fairly rainy day on Thursday.

Of course, we checked out the progress on the neighbors houses too, there was another neighbor with shingles delivered, garage doors were on and the windows were in. And, the neighbor that had the shingles delivered as of last Tuesday had their shingles completed and the plumbing piping was started.

So, I've taken a guess as to where I think we'll be as of next Friday and we'll see if next week's blogs prove me right. I've taken a guess that we'll have our roof completely finished (w/shingles), the deck will be done, garage doors on and windows in. A hefty list, but I have faith! This is a little game Dave and I play to make our life exciting...guess what progress will be made. Call it lame or just 2 people that want to get out of our tiny apartment asap! Until next week....

The roof is started...

Just as we had expected, the roof was started this week!! We drove by last night and took pictures of the progress. Here is a picture of the front of the house as well as the pultrim being added to parts of the roofline before they put them on the house. If you look closely in the garage you can see our stairs are sitting there, waiting to be put in. Also, sitting just outside the house is the trim that's used around the bay windows and on the inside of the entry way and various other places. It's fun to see the delivery of different things so we can guess when each step will be completed.

Other progress we saw in our neighbors' houses...the house that was started two weeks before ours had the windows and garage doors in, the plumbing and mechanical supplies in the house and bundles of shingles on the roof to be put on! Another neighbor had their deck put on in the back as well as their brick pallets sitting in front of the house. It's so exciting to watch our little court blossom. :)

2 days later & look at the progress!

Dave and I drove back to the site last night to check out the progress and our second floor was done, along with some work on the garage!! I can't believe how fast they can work on these houses, but I guess they become pros after building them for so long! Judging by our neighbors that were started before us, we should have a the roof boards up and the pultrim (decorative trim they use on the roof line) done by the end of next week. We're hoping for a pre-drywall meeting in about a month, but I guess we'll see. It's kind of nice that our neighbors were started 1-2 weeks before us because we can kind of gauge where our house will be by what has been done to theirs.

Lumber arrives and framing begins!

Because Dave was out of town last week and we were so busy last weekend, we didn't drive by the house at all. But, on Monday we decided to take a trip over there just to see progress and we found that our lumber had been delivered earlier that day!! Then, Dave got a call yesterday from our sales lady that they started framing our house, so of course we drove out there again...lots of progress - very exciting!!

Super Chevy Show

Well, Dave got home around 7pm on Friday night from training...BOY, was I so excited to see him! Sasha went along for the ride to go pick him up and I think she was super excited too. But, poor Dave was home for no longer than 20 minutes and we were already on the go, busy getting ready for the Super Chevy Show in Joliet.

We packed a bag and spent the night at Dave's parents Friday night because they were 'sasha-sitters' for the weekend and it was easier to stay there Friday night and then we got up bright and early at 5:30am to head out to Joliet. We were at the track from about 7:30am - 10pm on Saturday. We met up with some of Dave's friends with their cars (Aaron and Bob - who also raced!). Dave raced his car twice on Saturday, gradually getting faster from 13.7 to 13.5 in the 1/4 mile. On Sunday, we got up and did the same thing and were at the track from 8:30am - 3pm; Dave got one race on Sunday with his best time of 12.9! Overall, it was a fun time at the track - although it was quite hot being outside all day. Poor Dave's nose got blistered from the sun.

Here are some pics of the weekend...Dave and Tim working on his car after the first race and Dave and Bob heading up to the start line at Sunday's race. I was part of the "pit crew" on Sunday, so I got to be right down on the track with Dave!! Maybe next year I'll have a pitgirl shirt made up with "Hickman's HotRod Pit Crew" or something... :)

Never underestimate the power of a spare key!!

So, you and your significant other get married and you proceed to merge bank accounts, credit cards, change names, and of course - exchange spare keys to each others cars, right? You now can use either car, depending on your purpose for driving. Well yes, except if you can't drive the other person's car...you don't really need that fiftieth key on your key chain taking up room, right? This rule is NO LONGER true in my book - even if you can't drive the other's car, it might be best that you have a spare handy........

I just had to get the word out about the latest issue I've come up against! So, Dave has been gone from the apartment since Monday morning in Rock Island for training and gets back Friday evening. So, you'd think leaving his car in the parking lot for the week would be fine, right? NO!! Wednesday evening, the complex decides to put fliers on our doors about blacktop paving they're doing on our driveways showing which buildings are affected which days. Turns out, our building is going to be done Friday during the day and if you're car is left in the lot between 7a.m.-7p.m., you're towed and have to pay $100!! So, tell me why...when I told Dave he didn't really need to bring keys with him (since I was dropping him off and picking him up from the office to ride with someone) he still brought them? AND the spare key went with him to - by default- because it resides in his bookbag!!!! So, call me multi-tasking Jamie this morning...I've called Dave, the local Ford dealership, our apartment complex, my aunt (she's a paralegal to see if we could do anything), and friends to see what I could work out. My options were to have Dave same day send his keys from Rock Island via FedEx, get a key made by the Ford dealership that could open the door, but not start the car, so I'd need a bunch of "gym buddies" to help me push the dang Mustang a couple building lengths down to the next open lot, and last BUT NOT LEAST....our saving grace....there happens to be a guy interviewing in Rock Island today that is driving back to Naperville today - so I will be stopping by the local KJWW branch to pick up Dave's key tonight. (THANK YOU, Mr. Interviewee!!) But, it doesn't stop there, because as most of you know, I don't know how to drive stick, so I still have to have a very good friend come over and physically move the car for me!!!! Anyway, I feel better now that I've vented to the whole reading community of 'The Hickman Blog'. But, let this be a lesson to you all - never underestimate the power of SPARE KEYS!!!

Camaro Filled Weekend.....

This weekend was busy with Dave trying to get his car ready for the Super Chevy Show, which will be held in Joliet next weekend. There was a lot accomplished in the 15+ hours he (along with help from our friend Mark - who is so graciously housing the Camaro while we're in between homes) spent from Friday-Sunday. I'd try to list out all the parts he fixed and put on, but I'd probably make a fool of myself trying to remember the exact names and I'm sure half the readers probably know as much about cars as I do. So, we'll see how the car does next weekend during the show.

On a family note, Dave and I went and visited my brother Adam, who's leaving for his first year at U of I next weekend!! I can't believe I have a brother in college now! I'm excited for him to be at a college that's close so we can visit, and it's also convenient for us because Dave's grandparents live in Urbana as well. Good luck, Adam!!

And last but not lease, the house progress...Dave and I did our regular drive by on Friday after our workout and were excited that all our cement had been poured (garage floor, basement, front stoop and sidewalk). Sounds like they will start framing at the end of next week, so this is probably all the progress we'll notice in the next two weeks until we see lumber.