Building our new house - Ha felépül egyszer a házunk...

Hopefully soon I can take a bath -remélhetőleg hamarosan már vehetek egy jó fürdőt:) Glass block windows in the guest bathroom - üvegtégla ablak a vendég fürdőszobában We're making progress...slowly, but surely.  Lassan, de biztosan haladunk előre..:)

I hope that from now on I can upload more posts, more pictures and more often:) Fingers crossed:) We have a tentative date for rough inspection for November 14th, which means that all the framing that left and rough electrical (mainly in the kitchen and bathrooms) have to be finished. Also, the bath tubs are going to be installed, and main AC unit connected and tested. We had several guys  working on different tasks today. It was so good to see all of them around the house:) The garage door has finally arrived and got installed, as well as the AC unit on the roof. So, we are making progress. Remélem, hogy mostantól kezdve több posztot, több képet és gyakrabban tölthetek fel:) Drukkolok. November 14-re van egy (még nem végleges) időpontunk, ennek a fázisnak az ellenőrzésére. Ez annyit jelent, hogy addigra be kell fejezni a még hátralevő ácsmunkákat, az elektromos vezetékeket (főleg a konyhávan és a fürdőszobákban). Emellett a fürdőkádakat és a lékondicionáló berendezést is be kel...

So we've waiting for a few things to be finished (bath tubs to be installed, and kitchen electrical to be finished for example) so we can pass the rough inspection. In the meantime, we're shopping for kitchen appliances. We've chosen GE appliances. I like the modern look and functionality of them. This is the list we have:  1. GE Built-in gas cooktop (I got convinced to buy cooktop instead of a regular stove:-) Actually, it looks nice. http://www.us-appliance.com/pgp986setss.html?gclid=CL370ePrjKwCFeYZQgodxTOZng   2. Built-in single wall oven and microwave:   http://www.homeeverything.com/web/sitefiles/product-11583/JX2027SMSS.html 3.  GE vent: http://www.ajmadison.com/phpdocs/ajtest/item_image_browser.php?sku=PV976NSS&AutoNumber=167416 3. Refrigerator: http://www.ajmadison.com/phpdocs/ajtest/item_image_browser.php?sku=PSCS3RGXSS&AutoNumber=13388 Amig várunk egy pár dologra, amit be kell fejezni a második fázis ellenőrzés előtt (kádak beszere...

Sorry for my silence for such a long time. Finally, we're back on track (again:-) We've had some ups and downs lately...I'm not only talking about the emotional roller coaster of trying to be patient until this entire project is finished, but a few technical difficulties we've had to overcome. For example it turned out that the custom made front door that we planned to install, can't be made according to our plans (the arch window on top of the door, the glass type that we chose for this particular type of door), so after weeks of painstaking drawings, calculations, measurements, Dave, our contractor, decided to go to the distributor and talk to him in person. Finally, decision has been made, and the front door framing and arch has been rebuilt. I could understand the workers' frustration -it's not fun to take everything apart, and do it all over again...I shared their frustration...It's already October, and the light at the end of the tunnel seems to b...

So beside all those bad things, there are good things happening too! God is good:) We have more windows in, and we're expecting to get the loan by the end of this week. Szóval a sok rossz dolog mellett jó dolgok is történnek...Isten jó! Újabb ablakok kerültek a helyükre, és remélhetőleg e hét végére a kölcsönhöz is hozzáférünk.   Living room with the arched windows - Nappali az ives ablakokkal

Sometimes it seems to me that our life is nothing else but running here, running there, trying to squeeze as many things in a day as we can...Well, I guess God wants us to realize that life is more than that...and that we should slow down...and if we can't do that ourselves, He will orchestrate things so that we'll have no choice but slow down...That's what happened now...Two tragic events, that happened within 3 weeks made us just realize how much we need to cherish the time we have here on this earth...At the end of May my dad lost his battle with cancer. Even if we had known that he didn't have much time left, his death seemed unexpected...But God's timing is always perfect. I think it was easier for me and the kids to keep him in our memories as we had known him: an energetic, young at heart man and not seeing him getting weaker and weaker. We could only fly home for the funeral...but in retrospect, I think that's what was best for all of us.  Dad, you'...

So finally our windows are here, yay! The workers started with the windows on the second floor, so far they've installed the windows and the balcony door, the bathroom window on the second floor, and will be continuing with the rest of the windows there and then put in the windows on the first floor...Here are a few pictures...to be continued :) Végre megérkeztek az ablakok, hurrá! A munkások az emeleten kezdték el berakni az ablakokat, eddig sikerült a szülői hálóban levő ablakot, erkélyajtót, valamint a fürdőszobában levő ablakot berakni, jövő héten pedig folytatják a földszinten...Itt van néhány kép...folyt. köv.:) Artwork by our contractor:-) Vállalkozónk művészi alkotása:) Arch windows and balcony door on second floor - Ives ablakok és erkélyajtó az emeleten Same from inside - Ugyanaz belülről :) Bathroom windows - Fürdőszobai ablakok

My apologies...3 weeks have gone again without any post. As I mentioned earlier, things have slowed down, and- I'm being honest - it's getting mentally harder to see weeks go by without any progress...Well, that's not really true:) There is some progress:) But I owe you guys the explanation of this delay:) So, first, and foremost, we had to figure out how to get another loan to finish our project. Thank God and the generosity of Wayne's parents, we're on the way to get an HELOC (Home equity line of credit), so if everything goes smoothly and without any delay, we should be able to have access to that money in about 2-3 weeks. Another "sort-of-delay" is that my hubby is the most meticulous engineer I've ever met:) You won't believe this, but he's been working on the arch windows for at least 6 weeks. (The radius of the arch windows were not specified on the original plan). I understand that he wants to design the nicest possible custom made arc...

It seems to me that things have kinda slowed down recently, but it doesn't mean there is no progress at all :) We finally decided on the roof color, which is terracotta, and now we can enjoy our nice new roof. It was put up in a day, yay! The plumbers and electrician are still working inside, and if we can order the 2 bath tubs for the kids bathroom and for the master bath in a couple of days, then Lee, our plumber can install them this weekend. Fingers crossed:) By the way, I've learned something new again: about bath tub materials. Now I know what are the pros and cons of cast iron and acrylic/fiberglass bath tubs. Haha, I'm getting a DIY expert - sort of (since it's not really a DIY project:)) Úgy tűnik nekem, hogy a dolgok kicsit lelassultak mostanában, de ez nem azt jelenti, hogy egyáltalán nincs haladás. Végre eldöntöttök a tető szinét, terrakotta, és most már élvezhetjük a szép új tetőnket:) Egy nap alatt felrakták, hurrá! A vizvezeték- és villanyszerelők még...

So rough plumbing and electrical started inside the house. I would've never thought that plumbing and electrical is such a complex job to do...It requires a professional, that's for sure:) It's fascinating to learn new things or just see how they differ from what I remember seeing as a child growing up in Europe. I'm sure things have changed there since then (I was about 6 when we built our house back in Hungary). So what I can see here now is black plastic vent pipes and nice copper pipes...By the way, seems that someone else also liked our copper pipes and wanted to take some with them. Just a day after they had been shipped, about a 7 feet piece was clipped off and stolen. Good thing they couldn't steal more...Since then we make sure the gates around the property are always locked:) Back to the house...Thanks to Richard 's hard work ( our electrician) not only pipes but electrical wires are running along the walls like a giant spider web. We had to put on ...

Yep...all those little details....so many decisions. As the construction is approaching the next phase, we need to make all those decisions about exterior color and roofing, flooring, tiles and fixtures in the bathrooms, lights inside and outside the house, kitchen cabinets and appliances and who knows what else...:) I actually like shopping online for all those things, learning more about materials, pros and cons, cost, local distributors etc. We had a little celebration today, Shawn, one of the workers had his birthday today. Dave has a good team with nice guys, they're almost like a family, sharing not only job responsibilities but their personal problems as well. And as we're spending more and more time with them (so to speak, since we are here on the property, so talk to them on a daily basis) we're becoming part of their "family" too...Today I took a few photos of the crew, just to make memories...:) Bizony, az a sok apró részlet...az a sok döntés. Ahogy a...

Southern California has a mild climate and abundant sunshine...well, almost  all year long, except for about a week or two in winter, usually in mid January, when it rains so hard that we often have mudslides and flash floods. We were hoping to be lucky (and fast enough) to finish the roof before the heavy rainy season arrives, but seems that Weatherman had other plans for us:) The rains had started about a week before Christmas and even though the workers put up huge plastic sheets on top of the trusses, it wasn't enough protection against the wind and heavy rain. I've never seen monsoon rains, but now I can imagine what it likes...Running water on the streets,2-5 inches of rain in about a few days...including our first and second floor...:( Even if we tried to sweep/vacuum the floor, after a few days we gave up. Wayne was concerned about the framing getting wet, but our engineer assured him that it wouldn't be a problem. However, the wet flooring could be, so they have be...