April Showers

You'd never know it from most of these photos, but we had a big thunderstorm here yesterday morning. Josh and I were a bit nervous about the house, since we still don't have a roof or windows, which makes it a bit leaky. I had to stop by in the morning to return the flooring samples that Rob had given me earlier in the week, so I also brought over some brownies and a couple small gifts for Paul and John, who were celebrating their birthdays. Fortunately, by the time I got there, the clouds were breaking up and the sun came out. It seemed pretty quiet, but I noticed a few new things outside, including the plumber's sign on some very significant signposts.
And my hyacinths are blooming. They smell fantastic!
They also installed this huge post in the front so they can remove the electric meter from the side of the house and attach it here.
The first sign of life was Rob, looking even taller than usual... did I mention he's 6'5"? The roofers were on their way over to start installing whatever goes underneath the roofing material, so they guys were all up there removing the tarps for them.
Inside, I noticed the radiant floor heat tubing had been installed everywhere. I am so excited to have radiant floor heat! As most of you know, I am a California girl, and have a pretty low tolerance for being cold -- but I'm not a big fan of forced-air heat and the radiators took up a lot of space in our small rooms. Now that our house will have a tight, well-insulated envelope, I'm hoping I've suffered through my last DC winter of having to wrap myself in multiple layers of polar fleece when I work from home. (Did I mention I'm allergic to wool?)
Down in the basement, John was working on building the doorway around the bottom of the stairs. (I think he found an excuse to go upstairs so he wouldn't risk shooting me again...)
Upstairs, we now have a bathtub in our front bedroom. I am not going to complain, because I don't think I can handle a third bathtub-related dispute! Actually, this tub will eventually go in the upstairs bathroom after it's been cleaned up and re-glazed, but I think they just moved it here to get it out of the way downstairs.
Another new development: the solatubes have been installed. This one is in our master bathroom.
And this one is in the shower of the master bath.
Looking out the window from the master bedroom, the backyard is now a muddy field covered in straw. You can see evidence of the thunderstorm at the bottom of the back stairs.
Back on the main level of the house, there was plenty of activity. That's Paul trying to hide behind some boards on the left, Jason the plumber measuring out the location of the kitchen island prep sink on the floor, and John cutting something with his new table saw on the right.
Here are the two solatubes in the kitchen. It's going to be very bright in there!
While I was there, a friend of Rob's stopped by to check out the house. After chatted with him briefly and answering a few questions, I realized how fortunate I am that Josh and I have such similar tastes when it comes to architecture and decorating. This guy was the polar opposite. Nearly everything he suggested sounded dreadful to me -- and I'm sure he felt the same way about my tastes. But he was a nice enough guy and we did see eye-to-eye on a few other issues.

Rob's wife also stopped by to see the house and bring some donuts for the guys. (They ate well yesterday!) It was good to meet her -- we had a chance to talk a little while Rob was dealing with the roofers. She is expecting their first baby and they will find out next week whether it is a boy or a girl. I'll keep you posted...

I had to get home to finish a MythBusters quiz, so I gave Paul and John their birthday gifts. Last week, the guys went to a Mediterranean restaurant to pick up lunch, but when John asked for olives, they told him they didn't have any. That inspired him to tell us a story about his visit to Albania -- where they grow a lot of olives -- and how he was foiled at every attempt to sample the local olives. So, I gave John a couple jars of fancy Greek and Italian olives -- apparently Albania doesn't export them. I wasn't sure what to get Paul, so I emailed Rob for guidance. I was a little surprised when he suggested a nice bottle of white wine -- Paul strikes me as more of a beer drinker -- but it turns out Paul's girlfriend was visiting this weekend and I'm guessing she prefers wine. I hope they both enjoyed it. I didn't ask how old either of them were turning, because I'm sure it's a lot younger than me...

On my way back to the car, I noticed there were an awful lot of people up on the roof!
Speaking of the roof, we are supposed to meet with Steve B. at our house tomorrow to look at samples of roofing materials. I hope they found something we can afford that looks like Spanish tile. I think we will ALL be happier when this decision has been made and they can install the roof and windows and seal up the house.