Road to Oracle

We have Moved In!!!

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 20:00:47 -0700

We moved into our new home on Friday, 26 June 2009. This blog update will bring everything up-to-date. We turned off our cable modem Internet access at our rental home on Wednesday, 24 June. That’s why updates have been delayed. This update is via a temporary Internet connection. Qwest DSL is not scheduled to be installed until 7 July. Hopefully, we’ll be back online permanently (albeit, slowly, due to having only 1.5 mbps in Oracle) after that.

The last few days before the moving trucks arrived was hectic, both at our old home (packing) and at the new home (finishing last minute jobs). The following photos were taken on Thursday, 25 June:

Installed the last of the wood flooring:

The door and seat had been installed in the master bathroom shower:

Blinds had been installed on most windows (some remain to be done). Hat racks had been installed, along with a mirror.

Utility shelves were being installed in the storage room (garden shed shelves not yet installed):

Paint touchups and cleaning was being done:

The built-in refrigerator had been installed:

The columns had been painted. Here is the one on the back patio:

And our house number had been mounted. The number is a hand-made and made of metal and cracked glass. It is very nice. Thanks Enrique!

The moving trucks (yes, two) arrived at our old home on Friday about 9 am and the loading began.

We arrived at the new home about 2pm and the unloading commenced.

We had to use two trucks; as the street that passes our driveway is a one-lane dirt road (so a large truck could not park there) and our driveway, while rather large, could only accommodate a smaller truck. Unloading was finished at 6:30 pm. Our home and garage is now full of boxes and some furniture. Here are just a few of the boxes:

The move went pretty well. Two items were damaged; a pole lamp and a hat/coat rack. Both are relatively inexpensive and easily replaced. The moving company will pay for the replacements.

On Saturday and Sunday, we spent all day cleaning our old rental home. We had the move-out inspection on Monday and turned in the keys.

We then began unpacking and getting organized. We also discovered some items that will need to be fixed by the appropriate subcontractors. A couple of minor leaks were discovered beneath some sinks. The plumber came out on Tuesday, 30 June, and fixed them. A new one surfaced after he left; he will be back! We noticed that the water pressure is pretty low (which was not a surprise), so we will have a pressure booster installed soon. One section of the wood flooring will have to be re-installed. All the slats run north-south. But one hallway runs east-west and is not quite wide enough, so the slats have bowed up. Walking on them is like walking on a trampoline! There are some items that remain to be installed in some of the rooms. There are still some minor paint touchups and cleaning to be done. The electrician came on Tuesday to make some tweaks requested by the county building inspector. He also installed the power cable for one of the garbage disposal units that had been overlooked. Unfortunately, he made a major “oops”. A live exposed wire was allowed to touch the metal door on our high-end dishwasher. There was a bright electrical arc and a section of the door was blackened. We checked out the dishwasher and it worked (on one of its many modes), but we were concerned about damage that could have been done to the circuitry which might not show up for some time or that might create a short circuit and cause a fire. The electrician said he would replace the dishwasher. That was a $1200 accident. Ouch. But we really appreciate his willingness to do that without any hassle. The electrician will be back to fix some non-working phone wall jacks.

But even with the (mostly) minor problems (to be expected in a new home), it is great to finally be living in our new home. It has been a long road to Oracle, but we made it! Many thanks to Gerald Tuggle, our consultant and site manager, and to all the subcontractors and suppliers.

We do have an update on the baby birds that we have reported on in previous blog updates. Shortly after we moved in, we noticed that two of the three babies were no longer in the nest. Whether they fell out or were pushed out by the other baby bird, we don’t know. But the two always huddled close together on the patio:

Momma bird continued to feed all three of her babies. Unfortunately, early one morning there was a heavy thunderstorm. When we looked out the window later that morning, the two babies were dead. We don’t know for sure what killed them, but there was no evidence that it was some animal. Momma continues to feed the baby in the nest.

Thanks for reading our “Road to Oracle” blog. We will post further updates as appropriate.

Laurraine & Mike

Closets, Bookcases, Final Cleanup

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:27:02 -0700

Making progress in the race to the end. The mirrored closet doors have all been installed. Above are the dual closets in the front entryway. Below are the closets in Mike’s room, Laurraine’s room, and the guest room.

The shelves have been placed in all the bookcases. Here is what the bookcases look like in the library, media room, Mike’s room, Laurraine’s room, and the east hallway:

One of the columns has been partially installed:

The final cleaning and touchups have begun:

The wood flooring is still not completed. Waiting for additional material.

For those who may be new to this blog and missed a lot of the early construction photos, here is a two minute slideshow showing the progress from the beginning:

As of today, more than 2000 photographs have been taken on our “Road to Oracle” adventure. Nearly 1000 of these have been posted on the 197 blog entries.

This will be the last blog update for awhile. We’ll be going offline tomorrow and won’t be back online until after 7 July. Mike will be posting updates on Twitter from his iPhone. You can follow his updates at mweasner. You do not need to join Twitter to read the “tweets”. We’ll post another blog update sometime in July.

Feed Me!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:19:42 -0700

The baby birds are growing! There were three visible today, although only two appear in these photos from this afternoon. Momma bird was flying around the back of the house. The photos were taken from inside the house.

As to the status of house work, we think some of the contractors will be working nights to complete the remaining jobs in time for the final inspection (no later than this Thursday). The floor installers were still working today. They had installed some of the door transitions. Some of the wood flooring still remains to be installed. David was installing some of the baseboards and other pieces of trim.

Wood Flooring Install Finishing Up

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:32:54 -0700

We went to the site this afternoon. Flooring installers were working. They had most rooms and some of the closets done. They had covered some of the floors to protect them during the remaining interior work.

They were working in the east hallway while we were there:

Mike asked if they would finish today (the plan); they said “maybe”.

David was working on some of his remaining tasks. He installed the second mirror in the master bathroom:

Driveway Done!

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:09:32 -0700

Mike arrived at the site this morning at 0445. He was right behind the first concrete truck! The moon was a nice waning crescent. It was appropriate since the time available to complete all the remaining work is also waning!! Concrete pouring for the second half of the driveway started before sunrise. Here are some photos of the process:

A second truck arrived (in the background):

And more pouring and finishing:

Pouring completed at 0615. Finishing of the surface was then the main task.

The driveway is done!

Flooring installation continued today. They have to complete it this weekend!

The columns for the patios have been delivered:

The clock continues to tick!