Saturday, January 22, 2011

If At First You Don't Succeed...

The Inspector came out Tuesday and decided he wanted to torture us just a bit longer. FAIL.

So Matthew and Jay scrambled around for a couple of days - removing a door here, building a porch railing there. He came back on Friday and we got a big fat PASS.

Maybe he was just tired of driving out here.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Days Away

We are now just days away from a final inspection. Everyone is working to get last minute things done that are required to pass.

Matthew and Jay have been working on getting the shower door and wall installed in the spa.


The guys got the upstairs painted (Ice Blue walls, Liberty Blue trim).


Jay and his guys finished the stair railing...flippin awesome!



The sink in the man bathroom is finished - and works. In fact, all plumbing has been completed.


The kitchen counter tops are in and just need a few finishing touches...


So while we have plenty more to do before we can actually move in, i.e., finish painting, sand/finish the downstairs floors, we're just seconds away from THE MAN telling us we can do so.

Fingers crossed.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

While some kick back...


Others are hard at work holding down paintbrushes.


The rest of us rung in the New Year at the Shmerlers with a bunch of bacon-wrapped foods. After applying the appropriate amount of gloss, we posed and considered which of the tiny Jack Daniels bottles to open, altho ultimately, we never got around to that, what with all the other beverages that were consumed.


Deb passed around a bowl of grapes and at the top of every hour we ate a grape, which she said was a Spanish tradition for good luck. No one there was Spanish so we decided it was just a ploy to get rid of the grapes...

Vick brought a King Cake from Louisiana which is traditionally eaten during Mardi Gras.


If you find the baby in your piece, you either have to buy the next cake, or you have good luck for the rest of your life or you have to do the dishes at the end of the night - I can't remember which. We made up our own thing for the King Cake by having everyone toss $5 into a pot and whoever found the baby won the pot. Sadly, since the baby is a choking hazard, it was initially pretty easy to find.


After consuming wine, choco-tinis, beer, root beer, and the bacon-wrapped foods (steak and bay-, sea-, or diving-scallops - we're not sure which they were), we gathered 'round to watch the bad rap singers kick off the ball-drop and we toasted the New Year with great champagne and another grape.




We successfully rung in 2011 and had an awesome time.

The King Cake baby, however, didn't fare so well...


To all of our friends and family, we wish you a Merry and Bright 2011!!!