More Thefts

There were more thefts the other night in our neighborhood. Apparently the thieves who stole the copper coil from our furnace realized they couldn't actually sell it anywhere (there is some way to know that anyone selling them are doing so illegally), so they instead stole copper wire from the electrical systems of five homes. My sister in law and another house in our group and three houses from the group who is one month ahead of us fell victim.

Our house was not robbed this time, although a large copper pipe on the outside of our home has been kinked--as though someone tried to snip it but couldn't actually get it to work.

About a week previous, I noticed that EVERY single window and door, including the garage,had hand prints on them, as though someone was trying to get in. I am grateful to have windows and locks installed.

By the way, the night before the burglary, we were working at 11:30pm and I watched a very suspicious car squeel past us and stop on the street next to my house. There is no reason for anyone to be on our street as there are only two houses there (ours). It sat on the side of the road for several minutes, turned its lights off, and turned around and slowly drove away. Too bad I didn't get a license plate number.

Anyway, I was also glad we double checked our locks as someone had left the garage door unsecured right before the theft.

Stucco

Photos of our first two houses. They each have stucco, garage doors, sheetrock and mudding.

My house is the greenish gray one. The whitish one is my sister in-law's.

PS--the field next to my SIL's house is soon to become a major landmark.

We Have Been Busy

We have definitely been busy, but things are moving along pretty well.

We decided that we wanted to hurry and finish all the framing, so four of us have been putting in long hours to accomplish our goal of framing houses #6-7 in three weeks. We started on house #6 last Tuesday and will finish all the interior framing tomorrow. By Thursday, we should start our last home. We feel really great that we have been able to do with four people what usually takes most of the group--and accomplish it even quicker than ever.

There is still much to be done. We only have three roofs totally finished and a lot of small tasks to complete in order to get the houses that are already framed ready for sheetrock.

I anticipate we may be the ones in the group to paint, once we finish framing. I hear it is very tedious to do the paint prep and takes a long time. If you are interested in helping with the painting, it would be appreciated and we can probably use you starting within the next 1-3 weeks.

We are still shooting for early June. I am personally shooting for mid-May. I have a trip to Italy to go on.