Amarillo for Thanksgiving and early Christmas

We left on the 9th for Amarillo.  I haven't seen my Amarillo grand kids, son and daughter in law since July so it was time for a visit.

 One thing I will say about Amarillo, it has the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.

 

We are here until first of December.  We are going to celebrate two holidays at once.  That is because this lucky family is going to Disney World for Christmas!

Of course, we leave and they install our granite counter tops and sinks.  This is the picture Mike sends me.  As you can see, you can't see much because everything is covered up so they can paint.  Mike is just teasing me.

Christmas tree is up but so are the pumpkins and thanksgiving decorations.  We are ready for both holidays!

Off the subject and back in Houston, we came across this setup at the resort.  I have never seen this type of hook up on  a fifth wheel.

                                                                  Well that's different!

Progress on the house

It's starting to look like a house.  Cabinets were installed today.

 Look at those kitchen cabinets!  We don't have electricity, so it's dark but the cabinets have a grey stain on them.  I know they look brown but they are a brown/grey.

This picture is of the living room standing at the bar.  You can see the crown molding in this picture and all the dirt from the rain.  The front doors are not the ones we will have when it's finished.  These are just temporary ones.

 Another view of the kitchen.  The granite has been ordered and should be in next week.

                                                                 This is our pantry.

                                          This is the view from kitchen to back door and mud room.

                                                  Our bedroom.  I love the five panel doors.

                                                                       This is our bathroom.

                                                                This is our closet.

                                                   Guest bedroom

                                                         Guest closet

                                                    Guest bathroom.  I didn't get a picture of tub/shower. It's to the right.
Next pictures should show granite, flat work (concrete outside) and flooring.  Electricity should be hooked up by then too so that pictures wont be as dark.
All the dots or what looks like dots on the walls, are the texture that has been applied. Paint is a-coming soon.
Later

More pictures of house and a very bad oops, on my part

 This looks like some kind of monster but it's just the septic system.  It keeps growing!

 This is a view from the laundry room through the kitchen and mud room to the back door.

                                               part of our bathroom...mostly the shower            

                                                   the living room, bar and kitchen area
They are ready to tape and mud the drywall.  I am picking out appliances now.
Did I mention that I lost my small coach purse.  The little one that hangs off my arm.  Well, I guess it fell off, I left it on a table or Doug threw it away with the trash.  I have cancelled all my credit cards and tomorrow I will go get new drivers license.  What a pain!!!  Insurance cards should all be in the mail too.  I hope I haven't forgotten anything.  I think I am going to take a picture of everything in my new wallet so I will know what is in it, if there ever is a next time.

more pictures of house

Here are some pictures inside our house.  The guys were discussing the broken tractor.  It seems operator got a little over zealous and broke the hydraulic lines.  oops

We have a ceiling now

                                              working hard... I don't know how he walks around on those stilts

           This is the mud room entry looking into the kitchen and then laundry room

                                                          Another view of living room.

                   They should finish my little house tomorrow.  They are still working on Mike and Kaitlyn's house.

More progress at the house

 We sat outside most of the day today on this back porch.  Though there was a nice breeze,  I wish the ceiling fans were up to help when there was a lull in the breezes.

There was a lot of sheetrock going up today.  It amazed me at how fast it was going up.

Then the guys showed up to put in the septic system.  Things sure have come a long way in that department!

                                     After digging a 6x7 ft hole they installed the first tank

                                              Then they lengthened the hole another 5 ft.

                                              and put in another tank

                               Then dug out another 5 ft. and added the third tank.  Tomorrow after inspection, they will cover these up and dig the lines.  Don't fully understand how but from the time "it" goes from tank 1 to tank 3, "it" will be "clean" water that will water the back field. 😅
Now back to inside the house....

                                                 There were 4 guys working sheetrock today.

                                     This is a nook in the walkway to the master bedroom.

                                                            one of the guest bedrooms    

                                                        master bedroom, trey ceiling still undone
They should have Mike's house completed tomorrow and will start on ours.  Ours should be done in one day at the speed this crew works.  For some reason my pictures didn't all upload.  I will add more tomorrow.  Doug has a doctor appointment tomorrow so it will be late.
Later

House update

Things are moving along on the house.  The painters are working on the exterior of the house.

                                      They still have alot to do but you can see how it's looking.

On the interior they have put all the insulation on the outside walls and sheetrock will be delivered tomorrow.  Hope to have walls to show you on Friday.
Later

Electricity is finally fixed

It took forever, but everything is finally fixed in the bus.  Well not everything.  All outlets are now working.  Now that there is power to all outlets we found out that the tv in the bedroom didn't survive.  The red light showing it's getting power is all it will do.  Looks like we will be shopping for a  tv for the bedroom.  The direct tv didn't survive either.  The tv in the living room is fine.  So is the surround sound.  The winguard that controls the dish on roof is working but the HD-DVR isn't.  Guess it's time to contact direct tv.  The lightening took out our inverter, one breaker, two gfci outlets and two regular outlets.  The surge proctector we have is fine.  When I asked why didn't the surge protector keep this from happening, this is what he told me.  The electricity was going off and on because of the storm.  The SP cycles on with the electricity but it takes a second or two when it first comes on.  With the storm shutting power on and off and then lighening striking right behind us. It was just a perfect storm.  There were about 6 units that took a big hit besides ours.  A brand new Entegra had to go back to factory to be repaired,  another motorhome had $37,000 roof leak!  Insurance wouldn't repair just the front two panels, they wanted the entire ceiling replaced.  I don't know if owner is going to do entire ceiling (but if he doesn't insurance won't fix it again).  Another unit had all the wires melted in it.  Insurance wanted to total it.  It was a 2007.  Owner didn't want it totaled.  I don't know what they decided.  It has been a mess to deal with for everyone.  This was my first experience with a hurricane.  I don't think I like them!
On a good note, sheetrock should go up in the house this week.  They have to inspect all electric and water before walls go up.  This should all be done by thursday.  Hopefully, friday the walls go up!
Later

Lightening got us, worse than we thought

When we returned to the motorhome, everything looked fine but unfortunately, lightening struck right behind our unit.  We have a large built-in surge protector but apparently it didn't save everything.  We have electricity on side of the bus and not the other.  What I thought would be a simple fix, is still causing us headaches.  The inverter was toast.  We had that replaced.  Still same problems.  They replaced a couple of breakers.  Still same problems.  He found a dead plug behind the refrigerator.  It has been running on LP.  He changed that out.  It's still running on LP and same dead plugs on left side of bus.  One of the GFCI plugs was blown.  That was replaced.  Still same....  We found two more dead plugs up front.  One was the TV and the other was satellite. Both work when plugged in elsewhere thank goodness.  By the time we get this thing fixed, we should have all new electrical.  My washer/dryer works but only the washer.  Dryer isn't drying clothes.  Now what!  We weren't the only ones to have electrical problems.  Several had inverters blown and a/c's messed up.  One brand new Entegra was told by Entegra to head back to plant.  Theirs could only be repaired at manufacturing plant.  A Winnebago Tour had a leak in the roof and insurance paid them $37,000 to replace entire ceiling inside.  I guess things could be worse for us.  We have lights, AC and the fridge is working fine on LP (it's brand new).
Hoping tomorrow they can finally get this all fixed.
Later

Back in St. Francisville

Doug got out of the hospital this morning.  We have returned to St. Francisville to wait for the water to recede so that we can return home.

 these are pics of the RV resort in Pearland.  This area is the older part and

 much lower than where we are.

This is the latest picture I have of the house.  Still high and dry.
The neighbors across the street have supplied us with all of the pictures from the neighborhood.  Here are some more.

                               They had to walk to their house.  This is Cheyenne Ridge Dr.!

This is their house.  A tree had fallen and knocked out electricity..  Yes, the downed wire is dead.
Don't think I would have had the nerve even knowing it was dead.

While Doug was in the hospital, Lucas and John decided to wash all the vehicles.  He was so serious about his work.

I think everyone got wet, not just the vehicles.  Thanks guys for the excellent wash job!

Though it is beautiful here and the company impeccable, I am anxious to return to Houston.  

Hoping the roads to Houston clear up soon.

Later

more Updates

Doug came through like a champ.  His surgery was a breeze.  He has had no pain at all.  In fact, the pain he was having up until the surgery is gone.  He is eating with no problems and he walked the entire 4th floor.  The only thing he has had is a little shortness of breath.  They have checked him out top to bottom and find nothing.  The only thing off is his billirubin.  I think that's how you spell it.  He is alittle jaundice but that is improving.  He is still in the hospital because of the billirubin.  They will draw blood tonight and if it is continueing to fall, he will be released.  If it isn't, they will do a procedure (that I can't remember what it's called) where they drop a camera down his throat and look for a stone in his ducts around the colon, pancreas and liver.  If they find one they can retrieve it.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that.  We will know in the morning.  He if feeling great, so we don't anticipate any problems.
On the Houston/Pearland front.  The flooding is horrible.

The picture above is a before and after.  I could post way too many pictures like this all over the city.

This is Interstate 45N at White Oak Drive overpass

610 at Brays Bayou

Pray for Texas