February 21 - Judd ordered the windows from Anderson Windows. He tells us that is the best window available and after researching it, we tended to agree with him. Dwight will not be able to start the dirt work until next week (probably around the 27th) when he finishes his current project.

I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Judd this week talking about electricians, plumbers, framers, etc. It seems the house will need two electric meters since we are going all electric and a 200amp unit will not carry the load. The electric co. doesn't offer a 320amp unit, so we will go with 2 200amp units.

We talked to Judd about radiant floor heating in one of the bathrooms as well as the new water heating system that doesn't use a water tank that you have to keep gallons of water heated up even when you might not be around for a few days. Judd wasn't crazy about the radiant floor heating, but would look into it for us. The plumber will look into the tankless hot water heater, but thinks the free hot water tank the electric company offers will be hard to beat. We will probably take the free hot water heater and add the tankless unit later if we still want it.

We are getting a little anxious to start the dirt work as we now only have 8 months and 3 weeks left on the construction loan, but we know there are going to be delays and this is the first of many so we might as well get used to them.

We met friends Joe and Peggy Morris (who are also building a house with a hangar in the Amarillo area) this week a couple of times to shop for household items. Jan found a couple of places that are going out of business and selling things like exterior lights and cabinet hardware at closeout prices. These seem like small things, but we spent almost $2000 on just those items along with a few other things like doorknobs and faucets. All items that I am sure we will be glad we got at good prices when the time comes.

I included a picture of the lamp that we will be using all around the porch on the exterior of the house. These last couple of weeks have been mostly text, but as the work progresses, I hope to have more pictures. but in the meantime, at least here is a picture of the lamp.