Cómo se dice?

The view of our house from the Hardware store

Definition of Incompetent
1. unskilled person - a person who lacks technical training http://www.dictionary.com/
2. blunderer, botcher, bumbler, bungler, fuckup, fumbler, sad sack, stumbler, butcher - someone who makes mistakes because of incompetence http://www.freedictionary.com/
3. Inadequate for or unsuited to a particular purpose or application. http://www.answers.com/
4. Devoid of those qualities requisite for effective conduct or action http://www.answers.com/
5. Richard. http://www.lucyandboges.com/

If you can't guess by point five, Dad had to fire victim #2. Poor Richard, as sweet as he was, he couldn't build a straight wall if his life depended on it. He also couldn't hammer a straight nail, use a level or count to three. But he could talk underwater telling stories about his "tobacco pickin" days in Georgia, or his delicious squirrel pie after a day of hunting or his favourite fried chicken from Oakland. Aaaah yes, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

We are still picking up the pieces from Richards mistake spree, but in the midst of it we met Jose. (insert angelic choir here) . Jose has stepped up to the plate and brought in a myriad of workers....all Latino (hmmmm?)......and they are amazing. Our house has become a happy hive full of worker bees, hammering, drilling, sawing and digging to the hum of mariachi music. These guys are smart......they just aren't legal. In fact, we had to bail Javero out of jail this morning as he was arrested for driving without a license. Lucky for him, he was only half illegal as he was "waiting for papers", so they let him out on $600 bail. Man, it sucks to be Mexican in this country.


Bill the Dude at work.....

We have finished with the excavating of the back hill, (props to Bill-the-Dude). I even got to have a turn using the excavator, I have to say it was pretty fun. It really is quite the opposite of trying to decide between a satin moire and a silk boucle for a throw pillow I will never see, but spent 3 hours sizing appropriately on a sofa elevation.

Hmmm drapery details or this? I just can't decide.

Yes that's me.

We spent the rest of the week building and prepping the forms for the foundation, which incidentally will be poured tomorrow. woo hoo. Then comes the wall construction which will finally take away my nightmares of the house falling down. If only we could rid me of nightmares of Inspectors showing up....oh wait I forgot to tell you, we did get a visit from an Inspector this week. As it turns out, he or she who we will name Gertrude for the purpose of protection, is friends with Jose, (insert angelic choir here), and Jose brought Gertrude over to have a look and give us a few tips and offer to help if we ever got into hot soup. Gertrude's one piece of advice was to butter up the neighbours. So today I bought all of them a box of chocolates and a gift card to the deluxe car wash, so they can clean their cars off after the dust storm we have created dies down....I hope that works.

Building the forms

The boys bending rebar with their bare hands.

Rumour on Gay hill is that this house is going to be the new "show stopper", so now I feel no pressure whatsoever to get this done right.
We've added a few new things to the floor plan. After Dad had Bill excavate 5 extra feet over than originally planned, we decided to move the front door to the other side of the house. That is pretty minor compared to when dad decided that he needs to excavate all the way to the pool which is about 11' off the house. We thought to ourselves that a room of that size buried into the hillside would make a dandy wine cellar, so we now have a wine cellar in between the pool and the theatre room beneath the library. la-de-da Does that show stop enough for ya? I have been pushing for a blind door that rotates into the cellar like the old 60's bond flicks but somehow I am not winning anyone over. Phooey!

Dad in the soon-to-be wine cellar.

Me in the soon-to-be wine cellar

Dad hasn't been doing a lot of driving but I have allowed him to drive three times all on his own. Out of those three times he has managed to back into a parked car and send a trashcan sailing. That's weird....I don't remember trash cans being in the street. Lucky for Dad this truck is a tank so he wont get hurt, unlucky for those who are within a 20 foot radius of him.

Brandon cleaning off the evidence of Dad's menacing driving. Dad claims the trash can jumped out at him.


Anyway, that's it, next time will be the foundation and walls yayayayayayayay!!!