Gratuitous Grandson & Train Photography

These are eventful days around the Styffe household with house construction, weddings, birthdays, etc. The temptation, of course is just keep throwing up pictures of the construction, since that project has most of our attention these days. But I can resist temptation. Usually.

Still, life goes on. Quite nicely. We had a lovely dinner with friends, the Strapacs and Lustigs, hosted by Ted and Liz Benson in Newport Beach recently. It had been a number of years since the two older Styffe daughters had been with the young Benson ladies. Having bonded at an early age over their fathers' unusual shared avocation, they have each blossomed into lovely young women. Dads and Moms couldn't be prouder.

A week later came grandson Finn's first birthday and the ceremonial smooshing of the birthday cake. Finn did not disappoint in this endeavor. More Photos

Finally, just to keep myself centered, I brought my camera trackside this past weekend even though nothing particularly unusual was going on. But as often happens under such circumstances a nice image resulted, this one of commuters going off to work early on a Monday morning. More Photos

By the way, the house is still coming along well. The outside lath is nearly complete, the rough plumbing and electrical are signed off, and the drywall will start going up soon. 

Even from our lofty perch these days, things are looking up.

Extreme Makeover -- Sane Edition!

With the upstairs portion of the house in place, Amy and I can really envision how it's going to look. Needless to say, we are stoked!

Considering how badly this project started, things are now progressing at an amazing pace these days. As I write this, Mario and his framing crew are nearly finished with that phase of the construction. A framing inspection has been requested for this coming Monday or Tuesday. The rough electrical is well along, and the plumbers will be out to get started this Monday too.

Talking with our contractor this morning, I got news that the project won't be done in early November like I had expected. He's aiming for a final inspection at the end of August! That's going to mean some hustle and heavy lifting on my part, since the kitchen cabinet work and interior painting were left out of the contract and are my responsibility.

The TV show referenced in the title of this post features insane people building insane projects at an insane pace! If we'd the good fortune to experience a tragedy so profound as to qualify for one of those TV home makeovers, they have made it twice this big in the course of one week's time. No thanks.

So "Move That Bus!"

New Slide Show and New Photo Album