Things have been moving ahead on the building front, thanks in part to a spell of drier weather. After a lot of preparation, the basement slab has been poured at last. TJ and his crew were very busy all week on site, pouring concrete and stamping (putting a lightly patterned coloured surface onto the concrete so it looks like a fine yorkstone). So busy that we were banned from the site to prevent any delays to concrete trucks moving about. Then comes the wait for the concrete to set fully, and then TJ will apply a temporary sealing coat (to protect the surface whilst building work continues). It looks as if this will be delayed slightly by another bout of wet weather – there was about 4″ (10cm) of rain on Sunday and lots more expected on Monday.
We have also decided on all the windows – one of the most expensive items in the house, there are about 50 of them. We spent Friday afternoon with Joe at the building suppliers to haggle down the costs. We think we have got this cost under control now, as we seem to be achieving so far with all the costs
And now we are all set on that front for the Christmas week. Apart from the concrete slab sealing, work is now suspended until the New Year when the framing crew move in, building the timber framework and walls to make the house. About 4 weeks to get the roof on is the target.
We decided some time ago to go away for Christmas. All our decorations are still packed up in the basement, and we feel that it would be a pretty flat time in the rental home. So we are going to Savannah, down on the Atlantic coast of Georgia. It’s a special place for us – this is where we got engaged, and where we went on honeymoon after our wedding in December 1998. This week was our 15th wedding anniversary – we celebrated with a dinner out at the Oar House Restaurant, just down the road in Dahlonega. On Saturday, we went to a pre-Xmas lunch party at Dieter and Karen’s home in Villa Rica, then on for tea with Lisa’s Aunt Helen and then off on our trip to Savannah.