Rod & Tiffany

Lust

2009-07-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

I have been lusting over this bedroom ever since I found it on another blog a couple weeks ago. It's completely unlike me to like something like this, but I think it's just gorgeous. I love that it's so light and fresh looking. I've been trying to talk Rod into repainting some rooms, but he's not going for it :\

I'm not sure why anyone would need or want a love seat and chair in their bedroom because it would just collect dust and dirty clothes at my house! Oh well... I still love it!

First Ride

2009-07-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

We finally took the quads out for a good ride yesterday. I found out last week that atv's can go on any snowmobile trail in the off season, so I went downtown and found a map of all the trails. We went up towards Mt Bachelor and staged at the Edison Snow Park. We got off to a rough start.... literally! The first trail we took might have been ok on a dirtbike or maybe quads with 4 wheel drive. There were so many rocks we turned around after only a few minutes. I was nervous we wouldn't find a good trail to go on, but we crossed the highway and found the perfect trails to break the quads (and us!) in on.

And here's how we looked at the end of the day

Loving the helmet hair and dirt mustaches! What you can't see is my awesome sunburn - mid upper arm to my wrists only! Some sunscreen might have been helpful, huh?!

New quad!

2009-06-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

Well.... it didn't take us too long to figure out that we weren't going to get much use out of our Warrior unless we bought another quad. Riding by yourself just isn't any fun! We'd been looking all over the state on Craigslist for another quad and just couldn't find anything we really liked. So we went to LOOK at a few dealerships in town and ended up coming home with a 2008 Raptor 350! It's basically the same bike as our Warrior... just newer. We are SO excited to take our bikes with us to the coast next weekend!

I forgot.....

2009-06-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

.... to post about our awesome 3rd anniversary! Rod surprised me with a helicopter tour of Central Oregon. Ok, so I figured it out beforehand, but it was still a surprise! We left the Bend airport, flew over our house and Tumalo Falls heading towards Mt. Bachelor. We flew alongside the mountains for a while (lots of fun little lakes up there) and came back over Tumalo/North Bend. We were up there for about 45 minutes or so. I highly recommend this for everyone - it was SO much fun!

Tumalo Falls

Mt Bachelor
3 Creeks Reservoir (I think)

3 Sisters. Too bad the clouds were starting to roll in!

Here's what's new

2009-05-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Rod got a job at a landscape supply company after being laid off for 5/6 months. Whoo hoo!

We got another dog:

They're brother and sister. I don't think they like each other at all ;)

Emma graduated obedience school:

She hated that cap, but we made her wear it anyway! Remy laughed at her from the sidelines.

We did some landscaping and fenced in our back and side yards (thanks for the help mom & dad!):

That's going to be my vegetable garden whenever it's warm enough to plant - dang Central Oregon weather!

We bought a trailer and a 4 wheeler:

And that's about it!

2008-09-14T16:33:00.000-07:00

So.... we really haven't had much to post since May because we really haven't been making significant progress with anything in the house. We did finally decide to do something with the yard though! I was sooo sick of looking at topsoil all summer!

First, we decided to install in ground sprinklers. What a time saver so far! Then for the grass we were going to do hydro seeding because we didn't see a need to spend a bunch of money on sod when we didn't have any pets to really tear it up. It could just sit there and grow without any interruptions. Well... then we got a dog. Meet Emma!

She's about 7 weeks in this picture. She's Fox Terrier, Pomeranian and Chihuahua.
I took her to the beach last weekend and we had a blast. Everyone thought she was so cute retrieving her little tennis ball.

So, back to the house. We thought we'd still go ahead and try the hydro seeding because Emma is so small she wouldn't hurt anything. So I call about it and apparently it was a little too late in the year to do seed. We were told it is best to seed in the spring or the fall so I guess Central Oregon's fall is August or something. Whatever....

6 pallets of sod, 2 friends and we're (almost) done! Of course we managed to run short, but we'll get another pallet of sod after we pour the concrete for our back patio when Jayson has some time off. We also moved a few of our boulders to send a lovely message to the idiots who decided it would be ok to drive all over our yard this winter. Yeah… we could CLEARLY see all of the tracks in the snow. It was ridiculous! We’ll eventually space them out more so we can plant shrubs or trees or something in between each rock.

And I have to add these pictures of Emma "helping"

New exterior pics

2008-05-11T15:01:00.001-07:00

Wow! It's been a long time since we've had anything to post! I went to Utah last weekend and came home to all this! He finished up the trim today. I can't take credit for the retaining wall either. He's been busting his bootay outside! I'm pretty sure my husband is a keeper ;)

More concrete pictures

2008-03-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

We found out the hard way that you can't seal your concrete too early. We thought we were following the guidelines correctly, but evidently that was for another sealer. So... the white spots you see on the concrete are there to stay for now. We're going to have to wait until it fades out. The color underneath is fine, it's just going to look ugly for awhile. Overall we're extremely happy with everything! We love the color, the pattern, and, most importantly, I don't feel like I'm going to slip and break my neck!

This is the worst of it (it really doesn't look this bad in person):

Concrete!

2008-03-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

Yay! No more concrete blankets! Well, at least in the front. We've still got them down in the back and we'll have to wait until Jayson has a break in between jobs to get that done (it might be awhile - he works all over the state). At least the front is done and it looks fab so far. We poured on Monday and Rod swept all the excess release (the black powder so the stamps don't stick) off today. We will pressure wash and seal it tomorrow.

Some of these pics are horrible! Sorry :\ Oh, and this stuff is MESSY!!! It's a good thing we haven't painted the house yet because there are some hand prints that may not wash off! I'll take some more pictures after we seal everything.

We chose Westwood Brown for the color of the concrete, a black release, and an ashler stamp.

New lamps and stuff

2008-02-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

When Rod and I bought our dining table, we signed up for a Pier 1 credit card because they knock off another 10% or something. A couple of weeks later they sent us $40 in gift certificates! As I was digging through our bills and junk mail the other day I realized that our gift certificate was about to expire! Oh no! So I planned to head down to Pier 1 the next day. Ya know... it never works out when you HAVE to spend money on something or you are searching for something in particular. Never does. You always find that something when you don't need it or you can't afford it. I hung around that stinkin' store for about an hour trying to decide on what to buy because I can't let a perfectly good gift certificate expire. So I found this vase and threw some curly willow in it:

.

I'm still not 100% sold on it, but I'm liking it more and more every day. Oh, I forgot that I added those pillows to the couch. Love 'em!

I also love, love, love my new bedside lamps!

I'm sure you'll get over the fact that our pillow cases don't match our bedding. I already have.

Bedroom set is here!!

2008-01-28T16:43:00.000-08:00

The movers just left and we're so thrilled with our new furniture! We're going to change out the bedding and possibly move the tall dresser to the corner. Or maybe leave it where it is, but we need to figure out something else for the tv. As always... my photography isn't the best.

My bedroom inspiration picture

2008-01-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

A few pictures

2008-01-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

I don't dare post any pictures of the rest of the house! Here's a sneak peak of the living room and dining room. We also had our blinds installed Monday. What a difference blinds make! We're not living in a fish bowl anymore!

Boxes? What boxes?!

We added blinds to the french doors as well.

An addendum to my previous post

2008-01-01T19:51:00.000-08:00

I wanted to clarify something. Rod and I have a beautiful home now and we're more than happy with our builder. The subcontractors on the other hand... well, lets just say that there is one in particular that needs to work on their communication skills. It was the subcontractor that gave me the timeline(s) and the installer who told me that they didn't have the door and he would "steal" it from another order. Our builder has been awesome in keeping us up to date throughout all of this.

On a happy note... WE'RE IN OUR HOUSE!!! We started moving on the 21st and then had to wait until after Christmas to get someone to help Rod out with the heavy items. I've even managed to unpack a few things ;) I'll get some pictures up soon!

You gotta love it when....

2007-12-18T08:11:00.000-08:00

contractors guarantee you'll have something installled on a specific date when they don't even have the material (in our case a shower door) to install. Love it.

We were supposed to have our closet shelving and shower door installed last Thursday or Friday. When that didn't happen, I called our contractor and he GUARANTEED that it would be done by the end of the weekend. What he failed to mention was that he had just ordered our shower door on Thursday.

Long story short, I talked to the installer and he's at least going to install our closet shevling today and he's going to try and steal a shower door off of someone else's order and hopefully he can install that today as well. I apologize in advance if that someone without a shower door this week is reading our blog. I'm really, really sorry. Ok, maybe not.

Other than that little fiasco, we had our final walk through with our builder last night. Our punch list really isn't that bad and hopefully they can start fixing those issues right away. We can technically start moving our stuff into the house now, but not all of the windows lock and we don't have a garage door opener yet (so we can't lock the garage either - that is supposed to be installed today) so we're a little nervous about moving all of our belongings into a house that is not 100% secure right before the holiday. Our builder is going to try and get the window guy out this week. We'll see how that goes....

Oh, and you know how I said that I hope we never, ever have to build another set of steps? Yeah... that didn't last long. I guess our city requires the entire landing to be made out of pressure treated wood and not just the part that touches the ground (like the first inspector said...), so we had to build another set of steps for the front door. We're step makin' pros at this point.

Hmm.... I guess that's it. Other than touch up painting and cleaning up the place there's not much else new. Oh, yeah, I called on our bedroom set. It just shipped from overseas so it's not going to come in for another 4-5 more weeks. Bummer :(

Let there be light!!

2007-12-11T18:43:00.000-08:00

So... things didn't go as planned today. What's new?! Our down draft vent was sort of installed. Lets just say they have some adjustments to make before I loose my temper again. And boy did I loose it today. And, for some reason, we didn't have our electrical inspection today. Like I said before.. I'm giving up on giving anything a date.

Whoo hoo!! A garbage disposal!!

This light is going ASAP. Our light is on backorder until the end of December.

Hall bathroom light

Builder standard hall and guest bedroom lights

Master bedroom ceiling fan

Living room ceiling fan

I hope we can lower this light. It looks a little goofy, huh?

Island pendants.

Microwave and convection oven

The 1 thing Rod insisted on when we were picking out our fridge... water & ice on the door

Island with cooktop and down draft vent (not installed in this pic)

These steps about killed us! It looks sooo easy, but I hope we never have to build another set of steps. Ever.

It's been awhile....

2007-12-11T11:53:00.000-08:00

since I've posted an update! Not too much excitement in the last month. We still haven't moved in :( Basically, everything is ready now. Our carpet is in, lights are installed, appliances are installed, etc. We're supposed to have a final electrical inspection today and a final inspection tomorrow. I've learned not to say we'll be in by x date and this will happen on x date because it just hasn't worked out for us lately.

Once we have passed all of our inspections, we have to have a final walk thru with our builder and then I can scruitinize every little thing (which I will - I already have a list). We can move in after that is done and they have received final payment from our lender (already submitted).

Man I hope we're in before Christmas :/

Pictures!

2007-11-13T17:54:00.001-08:00

These are just a few random pictures from the past week or so. Things are a little dirty too so please don't mind the mess!

All of the shelves in the pantry pull out. The drawers they delivered were too long so we're waiting on those to come in.

Hallway bathroom.

Master bathroom.

My ginormous ass in my even more ginormous tub!! It doesn't it look like it, but it's filthy!

Tile pictures...

2007-11-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

Well... I don't have them just yet, but I'll post some tonight. We got home from visiting my parents last night at 10 pm so we just took a quick peek at the house and then went to bed. Both bathrooms look fantastic!

They started installing the interior doors and trim on Friday, but we were short a door. And our cooktop is supposed to be delivered this afternoon :) Hopefully this week we will have the cabinet guys back in to finish, appliances installed, trim completed, plumbing top out and possibly HVAC top out.

An eventful week!

2007-11-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

Things have been a little crazy around here lately. Not much progress to report this week, but boy have there been a lot of phone calls that end up with me calling Rod and swearing a lot :)

Cabinets - that big hole next to the fridge that is supposed to be cut out to size for a wall oven and microwave? Yeah, it's still a big ugly hole because...

Appliances - apparently our builder thought that we were responsible for our appliances. Uh, no. We picked those out 6 months ago WITH EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE HOUSE!! So our builder calls the appliance place and sure enough they have a quote, but no order. They have everything in stock except for the cooktop and vent. UGH. Who knows how long that's going to take now. I guess everything else is supposed to be delivered tomorrow.

Oh, and our fridge has been discontinued. At least we get the newer model for the same price. ::twirls finger in the air::

Tile - Here is where most of my frustration and foul language comes from.

So, our tile guy. He's a nice guy and I've known him for a couple of years through my work in the paving biz. He's been telling me for the past month "just call me when they start the cabinets and I'll be in right after". Sweet! And every once in awhile I'd call him with an update. I call him when they start the cabinets and I call and call and call. 4 days and 5 calls later he tells me he's 2 weeks out, blah, blah, blah. WTH?!?! I'm fuming at this point. He asks what my schedule looks like and I say (this is my favorite part by the way) "I'm living in a f*&^%%$ trailer and I want out of it! That's my schedule!!" I never do that to anyone (well, Rod may beg to differ...). Anyway... he says he'll see what he can do and call me later that day (Friday).

Saturday - Of course he didn't call back so I called him the next day (Saturday) and practically beg him just to do the countertops in the bathrooms so that at least the plumber can come back and finish. He doesn't even need to grout it. So, what? 2 hours tops? No problem he says. He can squeeze us in. We'll pick out tile on Monday or Tuesday and he'll have a solid date by then but he should be able to do it sometime that week. Great!

Monday rolls around and our good buddy calls saying he just can't make it work. WTH?!?! He did find someone else that can do it for the same price and can also get it done next week. I'm just flabbergasted at this point. I mean... I suppose I probably should have seen this coming from a mile away, but because I knew him I guess I thought he wouldn't bail out on us. I told him to go ahead and give this guy our number and we'll meet up with him and see how we like him and go from there. For all I know he could be sending us some random guy who does really crappy work!

Monday afternoon the new tile guy calls. As I'm giving him directions to our house he asks if I'm Rod's wife. I say yeah....? Apparently, this is Rod's friend Ben from high school that stopped by our house just a couple of weeks ago! And he does really great tile work. Yay!! He didn't send us some whack job junkie!!! So our lifesaver Ben is going to bring some tile over for us to look at tonight and lay the tile on Saturday and Sunday. I'm really excited and I think it will turn out great. Finally, something good has happened!

Our builder is still trying to have the house done by the end of November, but we're not really holding our breath! We'll be happy if we make it in my December 10th.

We also bought a new bedroom set this weekend! I didn't take the pictures and they're really kind of crappy, but you can kind of get an idea. They're really more solid black with a little bit of distress in person.

I really, really love the whole set! Our whole house would have black furniture if Rod would let me :) I'll take some better pictures when they come in and get set up. They should be in mid December.

Cabinets!

2007-10-31T17:48:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone!!

10.29.07

2007-10-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

I tried to take some better pictures of our red wall, but rain outside + no lights inside + me trying to get a decent picture w/ flash = not so great pictures, but whatever. Our cabinets were delivered last week and they did the underfloor for the vinyl today. Hopefully that means we get vinyl installed tomorrow and cabinets installed this week as well! *crossing fingers*
Our garage full of cabinets! Oh, and our noninsulated garage door that they need to fix (supposed to be insulated).

Painting pictures

2007-10-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since we've uploaded some pictures. I know... I'm a slacker. So Dad, Mom, Ron and Becky came up yesterday to paint the interior. We have just a few areas to touch up, but we're pretty much done! I need to get another picture of the red wall. The one I'm putting on here is just the first coat of the red.
All paint is from Sherwin Williams.
The brown (Mexican Sand) is on 3 walls in the great room, the hallway, and the 2 guest bedrooms.
The red is called Salute.
The green is a color match of Devine Paints Devine Moss. It's in the laundry room and the hallway bathroom.
The blue in the master bedroom is called Drizzle.
We didn't paint the master bathroom this weekend. We want to get the tile in there and then decide on what color paint to use.

Check hanging drywall off!!

2007-10-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

The guys finished it up yesterday! They hung the drywall for the whole house up in basically 1 day. It looks so good now and all of the rooms feel even bigger.

They blew in all the insulation for the attic today and hopefully they'll start finishing the sheetrock tomorrow.

After a failed electrical inspection on Monday....

2007-09-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

We passed today!!!!!!!!!! Whoo hooo!!!! We're so excited that we can finally get going again!!

Next up:
Insulation
Insulation inspection
Drywall (12 day process)

Well....

2007-09-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

We have to take out all the insulation and have the electrical re-inspected :( I guess at the first inspection he saw that the permit wasn't signed and didn't finish his inspection. So.... they'll remove the insulation tomorrow, re-inspect Thursday, re-do insulation Friday & hopefully inspect the insulation either Friday or Monday. We're hoping they'll start the drywall on Monday. *crossing fingers*

Insulation inspection

2007-09-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

Well... we failed inspection. So now we're waiting for the inspector to get back on Monday and hopefully we get this whole mess straightend out (without having to take out all of the insulation).

Pictures!

2007-09-11T19:28:00.001-07:00

In no particular order....

Living room from Kitchen
Garage. The door to the left goes into the laundry room. The door to the right goes to the back yard.
This is what $950 and 3 hours at the paint store will get ya. Man door off of garage
French doors off of dining room to back yard.
New tub in master bath. I'm so excited!!
Front door.
French door to back yard. The framework in the middle is for the island.
Front porch framing completed. The paint colors are hard to see, but they're there! The 2 colors on the left is what we're going to use to paint the house. The darker one will go on the eves and the lighter one will be the main body color. The trim color will be one shade lighter than the paint between the window to the right and the front door.

8.11.07

2007-09-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

We're stuck on our house right now. Our electrical passed so they went ahead with the insulation, but our electrician forgot to sign the permit. Well, they went to inspect the insulation and are saying that they can't prove we passed our electrical. And, go figure, the inspector is on vacation until Monday. They think they got everything fixed now so they called for inspection again for tomorrow, but we might fail again. GRRRRR!!! So, for now, we are putting the painting on hold.

Insulation

2007-09-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

They finished the insulation yesterday. It's looking pretty good! They're supposed to have an inspection and stock the drywall soon (probably on Monday). We also bought all of our paint (inside and out) on Labor Day. Even though we already had all of our colors picked out, we were at Sherwin Williams for over 2 hours! I've got more pictures, but haven't had a chance to put them up here yet. I'll get to it someday :)

Stamped concrete ideas

2007-08-22T13:24:00.001-07:00

Wouldn't this be sweet?!

8.17.07 Electricity!

2007-08-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

We had our electrical walk through on Wednesday 8/15. It's so hard to figure out where you want everything when there's barely anything there to help you figure it out! I think we did ok though and we only went over budget a little bit :) They started running wire yesterday and will finish all of that up on Saturday. Then we'll have 2 inspections (electrical and mechanical, framing & plumbing), insulation, insulation inspection, and then we're ready for drywall!!!!!!

Couple of changes

2007-08-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

We have to change a few things in our master bathroom. Basically, the builder designed a bathroom w/ a soaker tub that they can't use. So, the framer has to build a frame for a drop in tub and we have to tile around it. Not a big deal. However, this new framework isn't going to work with our double sinks, so we'll get rid of one of the sinks and have a larger countertop. I don't think that's a big deal either. In fact, it might look better anyway. The roof was finished yesterday! I think they've got to finish some stuff with the HVAC and then we're supposed to have our electrical walk through sometime this week as well.

8.3.07

2007-08-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

Hallway/ Kitchen
Me in hallway bathroom
Garage through living room wall
Exterior of garage

Front porch

Vaulted ceiling in great room
Nook in master bedroom
Doorway to back yard and laundry room

7.24.07

2007-07-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

They're getting some walls up!!

a>

Pluming & heating/cooling started!

2007-07-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

So not only did they finish the I-beams the other day, they started plumbing on the 3rd and the heating & cooling on the 4th. I felt really bad for the guy working on the 4th. It was so flipping hot yesterday and it was the 4th of July! He should have had the day off :( I told him he could come in the trailer where it was cool if he got a break. He didn't, so we just kept feeding him cold water all day. I just left a message for Tony (Adaptive's supervisor) b/c I think we're ready for another inspection. Whoo hoo! They still haven't poured the footings for the front porch or the garage slab so maybe we're not quite ready yet. I dunno...

Update

2007-07-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've updated. We've had a lot of work done in the past couple of weeks!

Pouring the stem walls.
See that old meter box? It's in the way.
Our concrete guy will take care of that!

Looking at the front of the house.

Rod's excited.
I-beams for subfloor.

We have power & some concrete!!

2007-06-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

Whoo hoo!! Finally! We got our power hooked up Tuesday and they started pouring the footings Tuesday as well. They put up most of the forms for the stem walls yesterday and who knows what we'll come home to today. :D <<--- BIG grin! I need to take some more pictures though... I'll try to do that tonight.

Power today???

2007-06-19T11:02:00.001-07:00

Our excavator is meeting up with the power company at 1:00 today. I know our excavator has to do some trenching so they can disconnect our old permanent pole and they were supposed to hook up the temporary at the same time. So maybe we'll get power today! And they might be pouring the house footings today and the stem walls tomorrow!

Bustin' out the happy dance!!

2007-06-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

Ooooh yeah!! The survey went our way today!! And they're going to start forming for concrete tomorrow!!

Neighbors suck!

2007-06-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor to the west is a total witch (with a capital B). So last week she complained to our excavator that he was piling dirt on her property. What? You can't even see her freaking property because of all of the CRAP she's got piled everywhere. And we're 99% sure of our property lines anyway. So I get out my handy drawings from our appraisal and fought with her for 30 minutes last Friday. I finally gave up and called for a survey yesterday. They're at our house today!!! Turns out one of our guys from work had to cancel a job so they went to our house instead! Whoo hoo! I can't wait to prove that idiot lady wrong and build a big 'ol fence right in front of her face.

On top of that, our excavator is all finished (for now). Our temporary power is supposed to be inspected by the city today (cross your fingers it passes!) and then hopefully everything will be hooked up on the 19th or sooner. Concrete guys are supposed to start soon as well. Maybe even this week? This is all taking off WAY too fast!!

Power update!

2007-06-05T11:20:00.001-07:00

Begging *kind of* works! The power company is sending out someone to meet with our electrician & excavator on Thursday. Whoo hooo!!

I'm about ready to cry!

2007-06-04T14:06:00.001-07:00

Quick update - power company doesn't want to come out until 6/19 to put a little X on the ground so our electrician can come out and put our temporary power pole in. And they haven't disconnected our power so our excavator can finish. No power = crappy situation for us & our builder.

Power company came out today to meet with our excavator to *hopefully* disconnect our power. Apparently, we can't just kill the power to our house. If they do, a few of our neighbors would loose power as well and that can't happen. So we're still in our crappy, no power, excavation not finished b/c of the power, me ready to throw a rock at a transformer situation. Someone send us some good vibes please!!!

Rod's a tree trimmer extraordinaire

2007-05-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

Man my husband is awesome! He cut down 3 trees today (with a little help from my old roomate DJ) and I didn't have to do a thing!
Can you find Rod?

Our neighbor kid Eric was so scared!!

Mobile is GONE!!!

2007-05-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

Whoo hooo!! They pulled it out today! It was kind of sad, but oh well. Here's some pictures. We had a couple of close calls with the trees!

Bye Bye house :(

New blog!

2007-05-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

We copied Ron & Jill and decided to make a home building blog of our own!

As of today, we're completely moved out of our mobile and they *should* be getting it ready to move right this second (at least they were *supposed* to start this afternoon... but I heard that yesterday too) and it should be gone by the end of this weekend. Our excavator is supposed to start on Tuesday. Adaptive Homes (our builder) found out that our permits were issued Monday and as long as our excavation is done before their concrete guy is ready we will not have a price increase.

I promise to take LOTS of pictures of our travel trailer (currently VERY filthy and full of boxes... I keep having to tell myself "it's free, it's free, it's free...") , Rod cutting down ~70' tall trees, the excavation, and all the exciting things that are going to happen over the next 4-6 months!