To preface today's blog about Teddy's house (2nd house built since the Habitat Tuscaloosa re-boot) I am going to share a little confessional about my experience of becoming a Habitat homeowner back in Arlington, Va.'back in 1999. I had been volunteering with the local affiliate there for almost 5 years when out of the blue one afternoon, the Ex. Dir. of the affiliate suggested that my wife and I apply to become Habitat homeowners. The thought had never occurred to me, but since she asked, we filled out the paperwork and were accepted by the family selection committee to become homeowners. A combination of our large family size (5 boys), smallish income, and current living condition were contributing factors of the decision. At that time, I was working for :a company called MCMC. We were specialists in the dying art of ornamental plaster moldings. We worked on homes that were on the other end of the housing spectrum than Habitat homes. One home that we worked on in Miami, the people spent $40 million dollars. Our Habitat home was to be one half of one of four duplex townhomes that were built in the Nauck neighborhood of Arlington, Va. When we were accepted, the other three duplexes were well underway and ours was just a foundation. It was decided that we would do a mini-blitz to get our house caught up with the rest and in the week between Christmas and New Years of the Y2K scare, we did just that. My friend Bart Tucker was house leader next door and I got to be house leader on what was to become our home. I say was to become because even though we we working on it, it wouldn't become our home until the closing after al the construction was complete. Here comes the I was a rascal confession. As I said, I was working at the molding company and had access to all of the molds and oops mistake domes that would have gone in our dumpster. I salvaged one 5 foot radius elllipticall dome with round trim at the bottom for the ceiling in our dining rom and more moldings for the living room ceiling with an ornate crown molding with egg and dart and dentils and flutes. My kids and friends and I installed them when no volunteers were around. I thought that the stairways were a little dark, too, and cut in a couple of special order returned discounted anderson casement windows. These two additions which were deviations from the approved plans nearly drove the construction director batty. P-e-e-e-t-e-r! he would yell. Jon told me that the windows would have to be removed because the inspector from the city would be there Monday and would fail us because they weren't on the plans, but then Karen (the ED at the time) said to let them ride and see what happens. As luck would have it, the inspector who came was a rather portly fellow who didn't feel like walking upstairs and as he was being careful holding on to the handrail going downstairs didn't notice that window either, so they both are there to this day. The point of the storry is if you point your finger at somebody, you,ve got 3 pointing back at yourself. The things that Teddy is doing on his future home is the same things I was doing to drive the Northern Va Habitat crazy too. Different paint colors in every room, Full tiled bath with whirlpool tub, fancy kitchen cabinets, etc. Whole bunch of