Billy

We received a surprise dusting of snow last night, leaving some beautiful winter scenery.

Shutters are being stained to match the front door.  This is the final step from the builder’s responsibility.

This is actually a “built-in capable” KitchenAid Microwave with a trim kit that I installed myself.  It was less than $600 total, and the new one from Buddy’s would have been over $1,000.  This is the last of the appliances to be installed.

The final ‘construction element’ of our home was the addition of shutters.  They will be stained red mahogany to match the front door.

Our builder was taking some pictures of his house next door from a drone as a marketing tool to sell that home.  They were kind enough to “wander over” into our area to take a couple pictures of our house, as well.

We had lots of problems getting gas appliances to work – hot water, gas stove, gas log starter in fireplace.  Since we’re the very first residents of this brand new subdivision, we had to purge the air out of the gas lines, apparently, all the way back to Brenham.  It took about 9 hours of continuously burning the gas log lighter in the fireplace for the flame to turn from yellow to that good “natural gas blue flame”, and the range and hot water finally began to operate!

SpongeBob plays with the remote controlled submarine that can actually take pictures and video under water.  Great concept, but the infrared control only works about a foot deep or so – better for bathtubs and fish tanks.

A few friends from Church stopped by to check out “Morgan Beach”.  That’s what we call the sun shelf of the pool, where the water is only a few inches deep.  Morgan had told us during construction “make sure you don’t fill the pool more than this much” (indicating a few inches).

Vent hood and Range have been installed – these were the final items (besides the built-in microwave) from the appliances list.

Refrigerator, Dish Washer, Range and Trash Compactor are being installed.  The house is becoming more complete and ready to be lived in!

SpongeBob taking a night swim.  It turned out to be a Whataburger Water Burger party!

It’s really helpful to be able to control your home thermostat from anywhere in the world.  On vacation, and forgot to check your thermostat?  No problem!  You can even use this just to check to make sure you have electricity and connectivity at home!

This is gonna be cool.  We can operate our sprinklers from anywhere in the world from our iPhones – yes, there’s an app for that!

If you’ve ever wondered if you left your garage door open when you left the house, here’s an app that lets you check immediately.  Or, if you have workers coming to your house, you can open the garage door from anywhere in the world from your app to let them in without giving them a key or door code.

Working on neatening up the wiring closet.  Fiber comes to the closet, and is distributed both wirelessly and cat5, along with TV, HDMI, coax, etc…

No Sutherland Home is complete without a CleanCut No Touch Paper Towel Dispenser – you just wave your hand in the right bay to dispense as much or as little paper towel as you’d like, then wave your hand in the left bay to cut it.  Any paper towel roll works.  So, if your hands are goopy, or just washed, you can get a towel without touching the roll.

This is the first picture of the front of the house without the Porta-Potty in front.  Totally reliant now on “indoor plumbing”.

Internet is ALIVE, and flowing at 1000 mbps — upload speeds are super fast also.  All TVs are wired for internet, along with several outlets around the office/study.  U-verse TV can be distributed either wirelessly, or by HDMI cable, coax or ethernet.

OK, just when things were coming to a close, we got Hurricane Harvey – tons of rain – and things kinda slowed down a bit.  They will pick up again, but let’s get through this Hurricane first!

It’s a coating that adds texture, improves appearance, and makes the cement not feel as hot.  They did an EXCELLENT professional job, and it even carries up onto the porch.  It actually makes the porch look bigger.