Wasting No Time Drywalling!

Drywall started on Friday afternoon abut 3:30pm and is almost done being hung and taped on Tuesday at 8pm. They are flying! We figured it would be at least a week or two on drywall but it has been more like 3 or 4 days. Here are some pictures of the rooms. It really looks like a house on the inside now.

Arched half wall in the basement.

View of the great room from the seond floor.

Ceiling in the office.

Hearth room off of the kitchen.

What can you say?

Well the Alveys are excited to see the NFL season start but it didn't exactly start the way we wanted. We had a great tailgate party prior to the game with about 25 people which was an awesome way to start the season but the game was horrible. Good thing we had some beverages prior to numb the pain. Above is the view from our seats. We are at the top row of our section so that means there is no one behind us to spill beer on us. Now Scott just has to make sure I don't spill beer on him. We are slowly making friends in our section. We had such a great group around us the last couple years and this year everyone is much more reserved, less willing to talk to the drunk girl, and slow to chant cheater, cheater, cheater!

Bubba is back for another season!

Mom and Dad relaxing in the sun with a ice cold beverage!

Kristen and Scott playing corn hole. Kristen is off crutches but not completely off the DL.

These guys obviously are enjoying the perfect combination of beverages and direct sun light.

Now for the Inside!

The Brickers finished the outside and the drywall guys wasted no time at all. They had the truck pulled up yesterday after calling Jeff 5 times wanting to know when the drywall was going to be delivered, pulling the drywall off the truck, and throwing it on the walls I think directly from the truck.

After 1 day of work, the basement is drywalled, most of the second floor and the master suite is done. They don't waste any time and they work long days. B couldn't even believe how much they had done. She had to check it out herself and she could figure out why she couldn't walk directly through the walls anymore.

Jen is now getting nervous because there is no longer, "well they still have to drywall before you have to decide that." All of the decisions are now and we are starting to have to make final decisions on what we want for a lot of things. So many decisions and so little time.

Pittsburgh

PNC Park is probably the neatest park I have been to and I am a huge fan of the new Busch. I think whoever designed Busch could have got a few pointers from Pittsburgh. Everything is open and it has a very small ballpark feel to it. It sits right on the rivers and looks directly into downtown. There concession stands have more options than I think I have ever seen at a stadium. I couldn't decide what to eat or drink (Beer of course but what kind).


We walk up to the stadium and there are restaurants attached to the outside of the stadium, bars all around the stadium and wonderful statues of Pittsburgh greats (yes there are a few) to take pictures with. The restaurants are something I have never seen before in a ballpark.

Then we walk into the stadium and they are so gracious to give us Willie Stargell comemorative plates that Jen so proudly displays. As we get to the bleachers, the Brewers were such gracious guests and wanted us to feel welcomed, that they almost hit us with a homerun in batting practice. Unfortunately we were too distracted figuring out where we were going that we missed it. Pittsburgh were such good hosts that they let the Brewers beat them 11-3. I would love to watch baseball in PNC Park every night but not Pirates baseball.

Overall Pittsburgh was a neat city. We didn't know what to expect but most of the people were very nice, except Fred, and they tolerated drunk Ben. We ate some great food on "The Strip", saw all of the street markets, and had a siting of "Buffalo Ben"

We had fun and as much as it pains me to say it, I would recommend visiting Pittsburgh to anyone. It's funny when you have your favorite sports teams you hate cities because of their sports teams and Pittsburgh was one of those for me. I no longer hate the city just the teams and their obnoxious fans. I will definitely go back but next time I will go to watch someone I care about.

Brick, Stone, and Insulation!

Lots is happening at the Alvey house this week. The stone is almost all the away across the front of the house. The brick is finished on the back of the house except for on under the hearth room and it well on its way on the sides of the house. The insulation started today and our new front door framed was installed (the last one was wrong-arched at the top instead of square). Hoepfully by the end of the week the brick and stone will be finished. It is really starting to come together and looking like a house.

Back of the house and back of the inspector.

Insulation in the kitchen and hearth room.

Our much needed dumpster! Our neighbors will be happy.

Side of the garage with stone and brick complete!

Congratulations Eders and Elsburys!

We would like to congratulate our friends Tracy and Jason Eder on the birth of their daughter Lucy Marie Eder born on August 19th AND Megan and Shane Elsbury on the birth of their son Owen William Elsbury born on August 22nd. Wow that was a lot of babies in one week! Check out these cute first family pictures!

Tracy, Jason, and Lucy Eder

Shane, Megan, and Owen Elsbury

Let the Bricking Begin!

They started bricking the house Tuesday and they are flying. The to picture is today and the bottom picture is from yesterday. You can tell how fast they're moving. There wasn't any brick on the side of the house yesterday and now it's almost done. They have been staying out each night until about 8:00. Tomorrow they are suppose to start putting the stone on the front. Inspection for the inside is suppose to be Friday and then they are suppose to start insulation on Monday. By the end of next week our house should be completely bricked and insulated!

The Framers are back!

The roof was finished on Monday. The only thing that needs to be done is put the copper on the porch. The plumbing, electric and HVAC are near completion and should be finished up by this weekend. Brick and stone should be arriving any day and the back porch under the hearth room is going to be poured at some point this week. It was suppose to happen yesterday but the rain scared the concrete guys away.

Pepe and his crew found their way back today to finish up some odds and ends. The most noticeable is the framing of the fireplace and the master bath. Berkley is trying to figure out which tub is hers. I don't think she can figure out the master bathWe are now framing the bulkhead in the basement along with setting up the home audio and intercom systems. This is much easier for the constructionally challenged. We hope to finish that up Sunday but we are waiting on the cables to arrive in the mail.

Congratulations Kristen!

I would like to say "CHEERS" to my sister Kristen. Today, she found she is officially a licensed pharmacist in Indiana.

Scott and I proud of her for accomplishing her goals and getting her license. Now if we could just get her back to walking. If you haven't heard my poor sister broke her heel two weeks ago. We are the road to recovery and hopefully back to driving and working.

CONGRATULATIONS KRISTEN!

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

Well as you can see the bath tubs have moved from the garage to new locations. The upstairs tubs are in place and I decided to test one out. The basement bathroom tub has moved out of the garage and into the middle of the basement but a least it is moving in the right direction.

The indoor fireplaces are in and hanging out. These and the tubs are the first things that make realize we are making progress on the inside of the house.

Hearth Room Fireplace.

This is the Great Room fireplace. It is just waiting for a lift and will be ready to be set in place.

Here is the daily look of the front of the house. They started caulking today and should be painting trim on Thursday and Friday. Roof should start on Monday.

This is unique view of the back of the house that we haven't taken before tonight. We spent sometime inspecting the back of our lot with our wonderful neighbors. Especially the handsome fellow below. This is from the Northwest corner of our lot.

Jack trying to keep the sun out of his eyes.

Jack trimming the "Albey's" lawn on "Jack's Tractor" as he would say.

Cardinals Party Suite 2008

The annual cardinal party suite game was this past weekend. I know, I said I wasn't going this year but, I gave in and went one last time. The good news is Scott and I made it two consecutive years without getting in a fight which means we are maturing or we are drinking less, either way it makes the trip home a lot easier. We saw a good game with lots of runs. We always hope for lots of runs ( or a rain delay which we have never gotten) because the more runs the more time we get to drink before they cut us off in the eigth inning. We also found a new place to go before the game. J. Buck's was a new downtown resturant that really treated us well.

Here are some of the cleaner pictures from the evening. For those of you that attended, I did delete the butt or no butt pictures so you won't be getting copies of those in your christmas cards.

Brotherly Love.Scott with his brothers Tim and Jeff.

Berkly Update!

Hanging out at Casa de Rental.

I know most of you reading our blog don't really care what is going on with Scott and I, you just look at it to see what Berkley is up too. Well we are in the dog days of summer, which for Berkley means lots of indoor time. It is too hot for this furry animal to go on errands in the car, house inspections, or walks. She does occasionally kick back and enjoy a tasty beverage though. Most of her time is spent napping, hanging out, chasing a ball in the house, or chewing/licking her favorite toy.

Loving her one eared bunny.

House Update!

The house is progressing but most of the progress has been in the inside. The above picture shows the current outside of the house. The trim work is all in place and the front porch is built. They are supposed to start painting the trim early this week and starting on the roof by the end of the week. Our shingles have been delivered so all that is delaying the roof is the trim painting. The brick and stone will be started as soon as the roof is finished.



As for the inside, the electrician, plumber, and HVAC man have all paid us visit. We did the walk through with the electrician on Saturday to mark outlets, cable jacks, phone lines, and light fixtures. The plumber has started putting in all of the pipes and drains. The furnace is in place and the duct work is about half way finished. Since the duct work is almost all in place, this brings us to the point were we will need to finish our framing project in basement and running of network cables for the speaker system and intercoms. Good Luck Scott! When we were working on the framing in the earlier stages the house was nice and cool, but I am afraid the second half of our project is going to me much sweater!



My major stress right now is deciding on cabinets. There are so many choices and they are so expensive. The kitchen design is such a big decision and everyone we meet with has their own opinion. Scott really doesn't want much involvement with this step. This leaves me with a lot of responsibility. Wish me luck!

Trim above the garage.

Furnace in the basement.

Duct work in progress.

Plumbing in the laundry room.

Bathtubs waiting patiently in the garage for instillation.