Can A House Trundle?

Hector core drills 4" vents through the concrete

I think it can, because the house is trundling along. Signs of progress here and there, but nothing earth-shatteringly exciting. Unless you find core drilling to be an erotic experience. Which I don't.

The retaining wall is finally finished and ready for backfill

The retaining wall, on the other hand, is one Sexy Beast (but not like Ben Kingsley as Don Logan...). It's essentially finished now, at long last, with spacers between the beams of pressure treated lumber to allow for drainage. Next step will be for Ken the Excavator to come in with his Bobcat and backfill to the top of the wall.

My new 58" cardboard TV!

Oh, wait, this is exciting too! The A/V guys marked out the spot for the new 58 inch Samsung 3D plasma TV, which I ordered from USAppliance.com at an outrageous price last week (outrageously low for such an amazing TV). The TV will be centered on the wall, but we weren't able to fit my big in-wall speakers into the bays between the studs, and as it's a sheer wall we can't cut any studs. So we're going to switch out the excellent NTIW28s from The Speaker Company (an online retailer that went belly-up earlier this year) for three much smaller Niles HD LCRs, which also come highly recommended.

Rough-in for a Bose in-ceiling speaker alongside a recessed can light

While Mike the Sparks and his intrepid gang of wily electricians finish the rough wiring for the entire house, the A/V guys finish wiring and setting the rough-ins for the eight pairs of Bose 191 in-ceiling speakers that will rock the house in a couple of months.

These look like Hobbit door compared to the giant ones upstairs

And, yes, sliding doors #6 & #7 are now installed in the basement, lending an air of sophisticated comfort that was otherwise missing to the lower half of the house.

The basement starts to look a little more cosy

I also removed the masonite sheets from the basement floor and threw them away, so the concrete floor now looks a thousand times better, even though it's hard to keep it clean during construction.

All six of the rear sliding doors are now installed

Today Hector had to use a Skil saw to cut away big chunks of the OSB above the sliders at the rear of the house, to enable Mike the Sparks to run cables and install the outdoor recessed puck lights into the 6" eaves. Those should go in tomorrow, although the rain may delay the process. And finally, a big clean-up crew came to the house today and worked their collective bollocks off removing waste, trash, materials and junk from all over the site. When the weather improves I will for the first time be able to get some great photos of the exterior of the house, unencumbered by construction detritus.