23-28 December 2025 Christmas in the Woodlands.

 After stopping at the house to check on the septic tank, we drove down to the Woodlands for Christmas with Cynthia and Felix. We spent Christmas Eve at Laurens house and got to see the grand nieces, meet Laurens new boyfriend and his kids. Our other two neices, Sydney and Emilly, were there as well. We had not seen them in several years and it was great to catch up with them. As usual, the the gift exchange was crazy fun chaos! The little girls each got a karaoke box from Cynthia with sound effects. The noise from those was enough to drive everyone home! Christmas morning we went back to Laurens for breakfast and to see what the grandnieces had gotten from Santa Claus. They both received a huge Barby Doll House that included a pool, elevator, bathroom (with sound effects) and a kitchen! Even the teenage girls were having fun playing with them! Later that day we had wonderful Christmas Dinner back at Cynthia’s and Felix’s. 

Cynthia with Lauren, Emilly and Sydney

Chaos of gift opening.

15-23 December 2025 Trim Carpenters Start

 The tile and floor contractor continued to work on their installation. They completed the EVP install and tile floor install except for the grouting. The trim carpenters started their work. On Davids Suggestion, we met at the house with the trim carpenters and walked through how we wanted the closets and pantry configured. If we had not suggested it, who knows what we would have gotten installed. They are also installing the doors and attic access stairs. We also provided they pictures of how we wanted the trim around the front and back doors. We picked up a couple of night stands from an online seller. They needed some work. On Wednesday, Leslie sanded the tops down and stained them while David repaired the ethernet cables, finished installing the conduit and filled in the trench. The Trim carpenters are making quick work of trimming out the house and appear to be doing an excellent job at it. They showed up Monday (22 Dec) to install the septic system. David met with Kelby and the Septic contractor to work out where he wanted the sprinklers installed and to check they knew where the wire conduits were so they did not cut them. As he pulled up, he could hear they were jack hammering rock. Sure enough, they only dug down a couple of feet before hitting solid rock. They had to jack hammer through 10 feet of limestone to dig a hole deep enough to put the tank. David had expected some rock layers, but not ten feet of solid limestone. We went out on Tuesday as we were leaving town to see how they had done and the tank was installed (although they still had some connections to complete). We haven’t heard how much extra it is going to cost for the effort to cut through the rock yet. There is a “rock clause” in the contract to give them relief. There is a large pile of rock that will have to be disposed of as well. David asked if they could put it in the low corner in the southwest corner of the lot rather than pay to haul it away, but has not heard back yet. We are going to have to do something different with the propane tank rather than have to dig another whole in the rock. The good news is that house sits on top of this rock shelf, so the foundation is pretty solid. 

Our septic tank

Chipping away at the rock

Tank in the ground

Big pile of rock!

7-14 December We Have Floors (mostly)!

 This week, David was in Albuquerque for work most of the week. While he was gone, they finished the tile work in the guest bath but apparently ran out of material to finish the master bath and powder room. They laid the Engineered Vinyl Plank (EVP)down in most of the house but ran out of planks and underlayment before they finished and stopped work. But they did finally cut those two bolts sticking out of the concrete off before they laid the EVP over them! Leslie met our realtor, Laurie, at the house and they went over all the paint colors that have to be selected. For all the cabinets, walls, trim, doors, etc. On Friday, David went out to the house and met the installer for the mantle. We selected a 135 year old hand hewn barn beam from a local barn with some hand cut mortises. The beam is white oak and extremely dry and hard. They sent one small guy, Evan, to do the install. There was no way he was going to lift that beam by himself. So, David spent 6 hours helping Evan cut, fit and mount the mantle in place. The wood was extremely hard and the cuts had to be done with multiple shallow passes or the saw would bog down and stop. Evan spent quite a bit of time trimming the side pieces so they would fit very tightly. Imagine taking a hard old bent and twisted beam and try to mount it square and level with an unlevel stone ledge and unsquared walls. But Evan is a pro. It turned out beautiful! On Saturday, we picked up some electrical conduit and ran the data cable from the house to the shop through them. Unfortunately, David realized the last straight pipe was too long to make the corner after he had already glued it in place. He tried to cut it with the circular saw while holding the wires out of the way. But caught three of the four cables with the saw and cut them. Now he will need to spend a few hours splicing tiny Ethernet cables together before we can finish the job and fill in the trench. We were sooo close to finishing! 

Cutting the mantle on the back patio

Finished Mantle. You can also see the EVP

Hand cut mortice

Tight corner joints

1-7 December Burrr

 Monday night was our first below freezing night since last winter. In preparation, we turned on the propane heaters to check they were working. Normally, when the thermostat turns on one of the two heaters, there is a click followed by the exhaust blower turning on. We noticed that the upstairs heater did not start the exhaust fan when the thermostat clicked on. The downstairs furnace clicked on and ran fine. David checked the fuse for the upstairs furnace and it was blown. He put in a new one. Same response. David checked the new fuse and it too was blown. We got through the night with the one heater and the electric fireplace heater. The next day, David disassembled the upstairs furnace and found this huge mud-dauber wasp nest was jamming the exhaust fan! He cleaned it out, got it all back together (with no spare parts!), put in a new fuse and all works now. We won’t need it for a couple of weeks, but knowing it is fixed and ready to go for the next freeze is a comfort. On Wednesday we headed over to Burleson to view the cleaned up version of our future mantle and to check its color against the stone it will be above and the wood floor planking. It’s going to be awesome. We then headed down to Midlothian to pick up a kitchen table Leslie had discovered on Facebook Marketplace. Carrying the 5 foot in diameter glass top and getting it back to Cresson was a challenge but we were successful without hurting ourselves or breaking anything. They continued working on the tile and flooring in the house. It’s going slower than they said it would, but it's looking great. We went up to Fort Worth to pick out the counter tops. We picked one slab of granite with a leathered finish that we had to have for the island. We then picked out quartz counter tops for the rest of the kitchen, bathrooms, utility room, coffee nook and pantry. They are putting portable heaters in the house to keep it from freezing during the cold nights. Everything is waiting for them to finish the tile and flooring. On Saturday, we dropped some stuff off at the shop and went inside the house to check on progress. Most of the tile work is completed and they are laying the underlayment for the flooring. David saw they had run the underlayment into the guest bedroom so he went to check on the two bolts sticking out of the foundation from their mistake back in August. David has been on them to cut those bolts off since August because they were a safety hazard. They kept telling him they would be taken care of, then that the flooring guys would take care of them. We have reminded each new build supervisor about them and even the flooring guys before they started. But sure enough, there they were sticking up through holes in the underlayment! On Saturday they also dug a trench from the house to the shop and ran a 2 inch pipe to carry the power line from the house to the shop. But they put it right next to the wire routing pipe that David has been trying to get them to fix since they bricked the house. Now it is going to be even harder for them to fix it since there is less room. Sigh. 

Mud-dauber Nest pulled from the furnace

Bolts sticking out of the foundation

Master Bath Tile

Floor of the utility room

Guest Bath

Wire Routing Pipe back in the corner embedded in the wall.

23-30 November Tile Work

 They have started the tile work in the bathrooms. They only have one guy working it at the moment, so progress is slow. But he is doing a great job. They also delivered the wood flooring for the rest of the house. We grabbed one plank to take with us so Leslie could make final paint color decisions. The truck was in the repair shop Monday through Wednesday morning, leaving us stranded at the RV. We picked the truck up Wednesday Morning but have to take it back Monday so they can finish some of the work. We picked up a couple of pieces of furniture on Black Friday at an antique mall in Benbrook and put them in the shop for now. We went over to Diane and Donny’s (Leslie’s Mom) for Thanksgiving and enjoyed catching up with them and Donny’s son’s family. 

10-22 November 2025 Slower Progress

 As we get into the detail work on the interior, things are slowing down. They fixed the wall in the kitchen by the oven enclosure so it fits now. They built the vent hood over the cook top. That finished up the cabinet rough ins and the builder immediately sent us an invoice for the fifth installment. We also had to pay for the change request for the additional 220 outlets in the shop and the amount we were over the allowance for the flooring and tile. They got the insulation sprayed in the shop. We did not make it down to the Second Chance Sawmill in Stephenville since they had something come up and put us off. But we did go over to the Buy Barnwood shop over in Burlison to checkout what barn wood they might have available. We were blown away by their business. Not only did they have barnwood available at prices better than Amazon, but they also had old beam from dismantled barns available for mantles. We saw some display mantles in the front office and asked if they had anything over 90 inches long. So, they took us out into their extensive wood working shop and wood storage area. Turns out they make beautiful custom wood and epoxy tables with huge slabs of wood from a variety of local trees. David was drooling! We looked at several old barn beams but they were either too short or badly warped. He took us out into the outdoor storage yard and they had a beam from a 1890’s barn that Leslie fell in love with. Plenty long with hand hewn marks and hand cut mortices. There was no denying it would look magnificent as our mantle. We discussed the process of cleaning it up and getting it ready to install in the house. They will clean it, seal it and bring it to the house and install it just after Thanksgiving. After negotiating, we settled on a price of $1515. The washer and dryer were delivered to the builder’s warehouse with no issues. We also met with the tile and floor installers at the house and confirmed the tile going in each location and decided how it would be oriented (Never knew there were so many choices of how the tile will be installed) in each of the bathrooms and the kitchen. A clean up crew came out and cleaned up the remains of brick and stone out of the yard. Then we went out and cleaned up after the cleanup crew. We got over 2 inches of rain on the 20^th. Of course, that was the day they decided to start the tile install! The property was a mud hole when they went to bring in their equipment. We noticed the truck was starting to make a noise we had not heard before and figured out it was the power steering system. David found the fluid level was low and added power steering fluid thinking that would fix it. We drove up to the Rustic Furniture Depot in Denton with our friends Mona and Wade and it became clear there was a leak in the power steering system. Wade pointed out where it might be coming from and we added more fluid so we could get home. We have an appointment to get the truck in to have it repaired on Monday. Unfortunately, we did not find any furniture at the Rustic Furniture store to our liking this time (We had bought furniture there for the apartment back in 2012). We are watching the black Friday sales so we can pick up items we will need when we move into the house. We locked up the shop this week, so we can start using it for storage. More rain is due this coming week. After months of dry weather and having access to the house and shop, the mud is deterring us from getting in to check on progress. 

Our 1890's Barn Beam Mantle.

1-10 November 2025 Surprised!

 

They Finished up the exterior brick and mason work on the house and shop. The masons still have to fix the conduit and replace a couple of cracked bricks, but they did a nice job on putting in the accents. They finally corrected the electrical issues in the shop after a bit of an argument over the next progress payment. To everyone’s surprise, the cabinets showed up on Tuesday with no warning. Of course they were not completely correct, so some adjustments had to be made. But Ronnies team were fantastic and had everything corrected in a couple of days. The plumber finally went in and correct the plumbing connections in the master bath so the cabinet would fit right. That issue had been known for weeks. We did find one issue with the framing where the short wall where the ovens are mounted in the cabinets was not deep enough. They will have to fix that issue since the cabinet cannot be any shorter due to the clearances required from flammable material for the ovens. They still need to build the vent hood frame that will be covered in weathered barn wood later. So, this week they will get the shop insulated, frame the vent hood installed, fix the short wall and measure for the countertops. Next week they are trying to schedule the start of the flooring install. 

 

Watching for sales, we ordered a clothes washer and dryer on an early Black Friday sale at Lowes. We will store it at the builder’s warehouse. Later this week we will go back down to Second Chance Sawmill and pick out a live edge mantle now that we have measurements. We may swing by Burleson to a shop that specializes in barnwood to check out colors. We may need to go pick out the countertops if they get the measurements competed early. We also are engaging a water specialist to get our well water checked out to see what, if any, additional conditioning we may need.