We hired Stull Inspections to do 3rd party inspections during the building process. They went out on January 23rd to do the first inspection before the slab is poured. They did find a few issues that needed to be taken care of before the pouring.

All tendons within three inches to supply or DWV piping should be relocated or the pipes should
be protected with a method approved by the engineer.
The vapor barrier has some defects that should be repaired. All rips, tears, holes and seams
should be repaired with an approved tape. Permeation of water vapor through concrete slabs can
cause failure of moisture-sensitive adhesives and may cause delamination, distortion or
discoloration of flooring products. Fill dirt is needed in multiple area before pouring the concrete

Hopefully, these things will get corrected today and the slab can be poured.

Lori went out to the neighborhood the other day and took some pictures for us. It looks like the foundation is ready to poured. I messaged Zach and he said it would’ve been Monday, but this arctic blast that is coming in will delay it until next week. Not the update we were looking for but glad they won’t be pouring in the freezing weather. He said he is planning on Friday or Monday of next week.

Today was one for the books. It hasn’t snowed in our area for several years and the weather forecast was a BLIZZARD warning, lol. This is unheard of in Southeast Texas. However, some areas reached as much as 6 inches of snow. Unbelievable! At our house, we didn’t have quite that much. I wasn’t there to see it in person. I had to be at work. The city was officially closed Tuesday(today) and Wednesday and I was on call both days, lucky me. They up staffed for fear of what would happen in town with all the people bound and determined to be out in this mess. I had packed my bag before coming to work on Monday, so I’ve been staying here since I came to work Monday morning. The first night I abided by the rules and slept on the provided cot, barely wide enough for my fat ass. When I got up Tuesday morning my right hip was hurting something awful. Ricky was kind enough to brave the roads and bring me my air mattress for Tuesday night. This morning it’s not quite as bad, but still in pain. Guess I will have to make an appointment to see the Dr. soon. There weren’t any more calls than normal all day so I really wasn’t needed. However, I want to make as much overtime as possible before I retire in March, so it wasn’t too bad. This morning the temperature was 13 when I got up, which is crazy! Greg Bostwick said in the China are they set a new record of only 8 degrees. 2025 has had a crazy start, it can only go up from here. It was nice seeing all the photos on facebook of everyone enjoying the snow. Looked so pretty, but the mess afterwards isn’t pretty. I’m back at work now and hoping for an uneventful day. I wonder how much snow fell at our new homesite in Magnolia. I don’t think that area had as much as here. Hopefully they get back to work on the house soon. First picture is from Traci’s house early in the day and second is Sara throwing a snowball at Ryan.

Ricky and I drove over to see if there was any progress on the homesite Saturday morning. The fame of the house with plumbing sticking up was there! This is so exciting. The house appears much smaller than we know it is. All the tensioning rods were off to the side and not installed yet. We’re expecting an arctic blast on the 19th which will delay the pouring of the foundation. I don’t know if the 5-6 month estimation allows for any weather days, but if it doesn’t it’s looking like the house probably won’t be ready until May or June. That’s kind of a bummer but we want everything to be done properly so it’ll be okay if it’s later.

I emailed Kristi letting her know we would like to have 3rd party inspections during the build process. She’s been out of the office and finally responded on January 9th. She advised the inspections wouldn’t be a problem and that our foundation was scheduled to be poured on January 20th, weather permitting! This is so unreal, lol. We will try to make a trip over there one day this week. Ricky says they should have some framing and plumbing stuff in place before pouring the slab so we should finally be able to SEE some progress.

December 18, 2024

We drove to Magnolia today and the fog was horrendous. We drove to our new street and there were already 8 houses that had been started. We were there just two weeks ago and there was only 1 started at that time. These people move very fast.

We had our pre-construction meeting with the project manager, Zach Chilton, and Kristi Wells. Zach was a really nice, energetic guy. He listened to anything we brought up and answered all our questions. We decided against putting the LVP in the master bedroom for now. We added an outlet outside that will be controlled by a switch inside for Christmas lights, a flood light on the back corner of the house that will be able to point to the back yard and the side of the house where the generator will be, 3-drawer cabinets on both sides of the stove, blocking for hanging the tv in the living room, and blinds throughout the house. I decided we really need the blinds to be done by them because it will be a while before we hang curtains. We finished the meeting with paying 25% of all the options we put on the house. They can now start on building the house. This all seems so unreal, lol. I’m so excited to get the ball rolling!

Today was the last day of my vacation. Back to work tomorrow for 4 days. I tried to open my sunroof on my car yesterday afternoon and it wouldn’t budge. I kept messing with the switch and it finally opened and I heard a pop. I tried to close it and it wouldn’t work. I finally managed to get it almost closed and took it to Philpott. They ended up having to order a part because it was locked up. They offered to give me a loaner but it wouldn’t be ready till today. I went back this morning when they texted the loaner was ready. Brentlie had a vet appointment so I had the dogs with me. They were working on the paperwork and came and told me they charge $200 for pets to be in the car. I told them I would come back later without the dogs. I got back about 1015 and they gave me a 2024 Tucson. It was quite different from my Palisade. I’m very spoiled with all the extras on my car. They had no idea how long they were going to have my car for. I was only home for a little over an hour when they called to say my car was ready, lol. Got my car back and everything was good. Went and got my teeth cleaned, stopped at HEB, then came home. It’s gonna be hard going back to work tomorrow morning. The countdown is on. Four more months!