What a muddy mess

I got home last Wednesday and arrived at the house to find Sal and Lee having a lovely time playing in the mud. They had started doing the grading on Monday and then it poured all day Tuesday so by Wednesday it was a pretty sloppy mess out there, but they were loving it.

They dug a trench for the pipes for the HVAC well, and they also buried the basins for the drainage system. On Wednesday they were filling in to prepare for Vinnie's guys to start building the next wall.

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Here is where the pipes come into the building from the outside.

And here is where they'll be connected to the boiler inside.

Speaking of walls, the 1st one by the tennis court is done and looking fine. Now we don't want cover the wall so we have to redesign the court net.

Bill was being very daring and high-flying outside where he replaced one of the roof rafter tails.

He did make it down safe and sound.

Meanwhile, inside:

Ken and Rich are still working on the casings, crowns and baseboards

And Katelyn is measuring twice and (hopefully) cutting once to get the built-ins done on the 3rd floor.

And Bob and Matt have finished up the tiling of the guest baths.

I was a little disappointed in the blahness of the floor tile I had picked for the 2nd floor guest room. When I mentioned it to Bob, he said he could do a color enhancement. He showed me what it will look like, and it's so much better. Plus it allows you to better see the glass accent tiles he so laboriously put in the floor. So we will definitely do the enhancement after the grouting is done.

Yesterday, Peter and I went back to the nursery to meet with Anthony and see our trees. We are happy with the choices, and hopefully Laura and Vinnie will get to make the final plan and we can get them planted soon. Lee said he'll be ready with the grading this week and little Vinnie has to build a small retaining wall. We are racing against the the weather, but hopefully we'll win.