24-30 August 2025 Huge Progress

 They made huge progress on the house and shop this week. They decked the roof, shingled, put in most of the windows, installed the heavy iron front door, finished most of the framing and got the shop fully built! It’s amazing how fast things have come together this week. We had a few issues we had to work through. A few framing and decking issues David noticed on his nightly walk throughs. We continued to take cold drinks out to the workers as a couple of the days were up around 100F with one day 102F. Those guys are tough! Then we would go out after they quit for the day and pick up trash and more nails. The day before they were supposed to start shingling the roof, David walked through with the framing crew supervisor and identified some deck areas that needed to be fixed, then asked when they, the framing crew, were going to do the chimney for the fireplace. He got blank looks. When he showed them the plans that had the chimney in it, they got hold of the builder and canceled the roofing crew due the next day and ordered more material so they could frame the chimney out for the brick cladding that will be on it. What would have happened if we had not noticed it? They started the shop on Monday and finished putting up the metal structure and exterior metal walls in 6 days. They were even out there working Labor Day. David spent time on “The Ranch” (Yes, we are calling it “The Ranch” now) cleaning out the inside of the house, weed eating the overgrown areas close to the street, and cleaning up more construction debris around the house. The builder kept saying the jobsite was clean but in just two minutes of walking around we picked up four dozen nails and other trash. The guys building the shop were much cleaner and really left things pretty clean when they were done. David managed to get into a Fire Ant nest while weed eating and got four good bites on his ankle. Fortunately, the Fire Ant bite immunity he built up from working in the yard in Benbrook is still good and he did not have an allergic reaction. As David was working, multiple people stopped by to get a tour and discuss neighborhood issues. The HOA put out an email to all property owners that they had to mow their lots. This is causing a lot of concern with the absentee land owners. David provided several folks the name and number of the guy we had mow ours before we started construction. Such is the life in the Texas countryside. While cleaning the inside of the house of dirt and saw dust, David identified some other framing issues (Missing half wall and shower niche in the guest bath, missing niche in the master shower, a beam in the living room out of straight, etc.) to work with the builder. Our real-estate agent even stopped in to check on progress and help pick up nails! On Labor Day we took a picnic dinner out to the house and sat on our new patio to enjoy the quiet and expansive view while the sunset. We will be doing that often once we move in! We will meet with the cabinet contractor this week to lay out the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Probably will meet with the electrician and plumber as well so they can get started with their rough ins. Then David can get in and do some wiring of his own. 

This is just two minutes of picking up!

Shingles going on Windows in

Sunset at the Ranch

Shop structure finished on day three

Roof Deck on. 

17-23 August 2025 Roof Deck Ready to go On

 They finished framing the roof, put on the Zip wall panels and taped the joints. Then put up the soffits all the way around. This week end they will put the roof panels on and tape those. From that point on, we should be protected from most rain. They still had not installed the additional King Jack Joists that David requested, and we noticed some issues with the front cupula. We pointed these out to our build supervisor Friday evening. We will have to watch to make sure they address those issues next week. They should be starting on the shop build on Monday. David asked when he could get in to run wiring for the security system he is installing and was told two weeks. So that is moving pretty quick! We brought cold drinks to the framing team in the afternoons and went back in the evening, after they had quit for the day to pick up the trash and nails strewn everywhere. Hot dirty work, but  if we don’t do it, it will get buried in the future flower beds to be dug up years from now. On Thursday, our friends John and Cheryl arrived in Granbury for a lake weekend with other friends. We met for lunch at Ketzler’s German restaurant on the square before going out to the property to show them our future home. 

10-16 August 2025 The House Takes Shape

 Well, the concrete guys arrived on the property a 1 AM Monday morning, dug out the beam, set the forms and poured the additional 2 feet of concrete on the back of the patio before 6am. So, we had no opportunity to inspect the rebar to see if they had done it right this time. We were out on the property around 10am to meet with our build supervisor to discuss a new problem. Seems the windows on both sides of the house are set too high. They are per the architect plans but there is not enough room at the top of the windows to allow for the soffits to go in and have room for the window trim. After discussing various options with Mario (our framing supervisor), we decided that lowering the windows 3 inches was the best approach. We also discussed moving the attic access away from where it was in the plans to allow room for the water treatment systems in the garage. David also asked them to add an additional King Jack Joist on either side of the front door (it only has 2 joists) to reinforce the structure. The framers were busy getting the roof joists in place. They had to add another valley on the back roof to account for the new roof line due to the extra two feet on the back. David flew out to Albuquerque for business on Tuesday (came back Friday). After dropping David at the airport, Leslie drove over to Dallas and had lunch with her Mom. Cynthia drove to Fort Worth for business on Wednesday and Felix came up Friday. We met them for dinner at Mi Casina and spent hours catching up. Saturday, we went over to Mom and Donny’s house, met up with Cynthia and Felix, and Lauren and the Grand Nieces who had driven up that morning. We all enjoyed lunch and celebrated Cynthia and Laurens birthdays. 

Four Generations 

9 August 2025 Stephenville, TX

 We decided to take a day to run down to Stephenville since David had never been there and Leslie had not been there since she was a little girl when she would visit her great grandmother. We did a quick search for things to do in Stephenville and found out there was not much to see! We drove down (about 30 minutes away) and stopped and Jake and Dorthy’s Café, a local fixture that opened in 1948. We both had the lunch special which was a “short” chicken fried steak and crinkle cut fries (invented there). Yummmm!  We later found out that Leslie’s great grandparents were good friends with Jake and Dorothy! Afterwards we thought there would be some stores around the county square similar to Granbury but were disappointed to find almost no stores! So, we flexed to the other thing we had found to see, another winery of course! Bar Ditch Winery was interesting. The owner was running the tasting room and we had a great time talking with her. She started making wine when she had some spare “Wild Mustang Grapes” that she had picked in bar ditches in the area. She later planted grapes on her property from cuttings of the wild grapes and expanded from there. The wines, including “Mustang” wine was different and interesting. We really enjoyed talking to the owner. On the way back, we drove past Leslie’s Great Grandmothers house in Stephenville that she had visited as a young girl.  Afterwards, we picked up Keirra and went up to the property to see what the concrete guys had accomplished. Unfortunately, it was obvious they had not been there and no work was accomplished. Sigh.  

7 August 2025 Start of Framing

 The framing contractor showed up today and started framing the house. The concrete guys have not showed up to fix the foundation yet. We were told the concrete guys would work through the weekend to get the foundation fixed. It will take a week to two weeks to complete the framing.

First walls

5 August 2025 Big Foundation Issue

 While walking the property with our real-estate agent, we noticed a concern with the back corner of the house. The brick ledge down the south side of the house ended before the place where the brick would turn and go down the west side on the patio. We took a picture and sent it into our build supervisor. The next day he went out to check it out and figured out the problem was much bigger. They had poured the foundation for the rear wall of the house, where it meets the rear patio, two feet further into the patio than they should have. That reduced the depth of our rear patio by two feet and increased the square footage of the living room by 70 feet. They gave us three options, live with it and loose our big patio, cut and chip out the concrete back to the original measurement or add two feet to the patio with a new concrete pour. Leaving it as is was not a consideration for us. Cutting and chipping the concrete back to the original wall location would put the wall and fireplace over a un-reinforced portion of the foundation, or they could pour an additional two feet for the patio and tie it into the existing foundation at no cost to us. We chose option three since it keeps the wall and fireplace where the foundation is reinforced to carry the load and it gives us the patio depth we wanted. We also gain 70Sqft of living space but loose a window along the back door (which we get a rebate for). It will cost the contractors around $10K to fix it. But it will slow down the framing process since they need the new concrete poured to finish out the patio roof. It will not cost us any additional money. We do not have a lot of confidence in the concrete sub- contractor!

First indication

The problem

The fix

30 July 2025 Foundation Pour

 The concrete crew showed up around 1:30am to finish prepping (including fixing the pad for the storm shelter). They started pouring concrete at 3am this morning. They are pouring early due to the heat (going to be over 100F today) and not wanting the concrete to cure too fast. David has been working 12 hour days all week but managed to stop around 5:30am on his way to work to see how they were doing. The last truck of concrete rolled up just after he got there. They had around 25 folks working the concrete. They worked on it until 3 in the afternoon. We now have a foundation!! We went back out later in the afternoon to see our beautiful new foundation. It will need to cure about a week before they can start framing the house and the shop.