This rock definitely does not rock... designed by a guy for sure.

So this week we had to dig a well for irrigation. We had to go 200' to get pretty decent flow. Of course, the flow numbers meant nothing to me. But, since we plan to keep this 2 acre little plot a "field of dreams," aka, grassy baseball field, not woodsy, we will need to water this grass. Our builder explained it like gambling. Every foot we go deeper costs x dollars. People often go another 100' hoping to hit the big one. Once they hit 100 more feet, they go with the, "well, we've already gone this far, let's go 10 more feet." It is a slippery slope, and I did some quick research and learned that our gallons per minute rate at 200' is OK, it is not tremendous. Our neighbors pull 4 gallons per minute, so I feel OK that we'll be able to make this work. However, after telling them to stop at 200', I went out to the house to see this....

That is the sorriest looking "rock" I have ever seen. Who could be fooled that Mother Nature created such a thing? This is the work of a guy, a guy who needs to hurry up engineering the fake rock cover to get back to his game of Angry Birds. "It looks pretty good, don't you think?" Not. This will require an entire landscaping plan just to hide this design atrocity!

Oh well, on to other progress for the week.
This has been one week. I will not call it a good week because it has not been a good week. My beautiful girl, Lanie the dog, my first and definitely best behaved child, had her 12th birthday on Saturday, and on Sunday, she was hit by a car. After lots and lots of tears, care and surgery, she is on the mend, but she is now a patient, and not always an easy one! Of course, since this is a tough time for her, I will do anything for her, but that has meant being a no-sleep parent, worrying and doting on her, and not getting lots done. This is all fine and dandy, except, this week was the last week of school and that means LOTS happens. I did briefly leave my patient to see Alex win the 4th grade Math bee, and then I left. I missed watching him beat the 5th graders.... darn! That would have been fun. I have only been to the house in brief little periods, and always in a hurry since my time is very limited! Last week we decided to have Bronco and Geronimo build the basement bar. It won't be fancy, but it will be finished. Since the basement is the barfy yellow color (oops, I mean gold), we were trying to decide how to handle the bar. Nick had a moment of design clarity (who the heck is that guy?) and came up with the Boston College plan. Since the walls are gold, and the stuff going in the basement is our red and gold tuscany/ roostery stuff, let's make it a Boston College bar --- go Eagles. So, I have been on a red paint mission to find one that will satisfy the maroon and gold of my BC guy, while working with my red and gold stuff for the basement. What I came up with is super hot, I mean Caliente, Benjamin Moore Caliente that is. I have to say, it looks good, other than the murder scene look when they painted it. It looks like somebody was dismembered out there...

Seriously, why be such a mess painting, or does a different guy go back and fix it? I could do a neater job than that!

So, Nick gets his BC bar. I got the job of picking out a coordinating granite. I briefly considered Verde Butterfly since it was green, Dartmouth green. But, since nobody cares about my school anyway, I decided not to pursue it. It wasn't that great with the red and gold combo. But....granites in the family of Santa Cecilia or Venetian gold are gold with red cranberries, they look great together. Not as manly as Nick had in mind I suppose, but when I pressed him on a definition of "manly" he was stumped, so we agreed the Santa Cecilia would look good. Not that he's not manly, but how do you define a "manly granite," which is what he told me he wanted in choosing the granite! I think it will look great with my existing fabrics....

My mom is thinking this is great because Caliente Red looks like the Crimson of Indiana, and she is partial being a Hoosier and all. I haven't mentioned to Nick that Exeter is this exact red as well because it might sour him on the deal, but it is... I suppose if I wanted to win him over to the red concept, I could tell him it is Angry Bird red? :)

They also installed the master bath chandelier. I heart it. The bronzy color looks very pretty with the questionable baby poop paint walls. They all just work together. Who knew crystals and baby diarrhea could be a winning combo?

In the kitchen, they installed the crema marfil backsplash. It looks great. I could not seem to make a decision here, so I posted my possibilities on Gardenweb and crema marfil was the hands down winner. They are some smart people over there!

The guys, namely Saul (pronounced like Raoul), worked hard to finish the beams in the kitchen.

The baking / clean-up area still needs a pretty antique at the end. I saw an awesome hunt board the other day, but it won't fit. darn.


The paint still has a bit to go.... but it is definitely getting there!

Today they began sanding the floors... finally... so glad to see that happening!

The chandeliers for the stairs and keeping room arrived today. I have gotten so used to seeing the keeping room without them that I am questioning if we even want them..... We'll see.....