Racing winter

I am often in political discussions online and when someone uses the term, "framers" we all think of Washington, Jefferson, and so on.   But out here on our little five acres of desert, we know them as Aaron and Clinton, AKA the Badger Boys as I have dubbed them since they mentioned they both grew up on a nearby street called Badger.  They are our framers.  And they have been a-framin'.....

Front:

Back:  (Covered patio.)

View from the street.

We have also ordered our wood stove, about which our builder is incredulous.

"You don't want a gas fireplace??"

"No."  (We had a lovely fireplace in our last house and prefer a wood stove.  We cannot wait for that first cozy, bone-warming fire that stoves are so good at. )

We have also picked out exterior colors which took little imagination since just about everyone goes with taupe and/or gray and we are tagging along with the crowd.  (I heard it said on a podcast -- "We tell our friends, our's is the 4th taupe house on the left.")

Plus we've selected our exterior rock.  And our flooring.  And .... cabinet finishes, tile, pavers, lights, appliances, doors, and just about everything else we can think of, wearing a path through the aisles of Lowes, Home Depot, and every other building supply business.  It has kept us happily occupied the last few weeks, in spite of the rude awakening that EVERYTHING is crazy expensive and our original budget is now almost laughable.

And ..... how on earth did people DO this before Pinterest??    It categorizes every idea, keeping them instantly accessible as long as my phone is within reach.  If I find something I like -- a click or two files it in Pinterest.  Then if I need to show what I'm trying to explain to the Husband or to a salesperson, I just pop out my phone and open up Pinterest.  It's all there, literally at my fingertips.

We're in a race against winter that we may not win.  Our conversation yesterday with the paint-store-guy taught us that since we'll probably be painting the outside of the house in November or early December, we'll have to pick our paint days carefully.

"Don't start painting till after the frost melts off in the morning," he said, "and stop early enough in the day so it can dry before everything freezes again that night."  Fortunately deserts are supposed to be relatively dry, so there's that.

So come the holidays, we will be hopping busy as we take over the finishing part.  We've been contemplating buying a hot tub which may become essential and possibly prevent the need for a few physical therapy sessions after we lay the flooring and pavers.

In the meantime, we're camped out of the way, just off our driveway, where we are being the model home-owners by not pestering the workers or making daily changes to the plans ...... of course.  'Cause you know we're not those people.