The Last Frontier

Painting my very last room today! Woo-hoo! (It's the mudroom.)

A Great Day!

After a minor setback with some flooding in our basement on Monday, we ended this week on a good note.
After a month and a half WE ARE DONE PAINTING!!! Well, I still have to do the mudroom, but it is small so it doesn't count :) I am SO ready to finally get rid of these clothes! Today Mike cleaned out the sprayer, and we got to pull off all the tape and paper in all the rooms. Of course I need to touch things up, but the bulk is done. Danika and Brooke finished rolling their rooms today too.

Here's Mike enjoying the kitchen. Counter tops start being installed on Monday.

Here's our laundry room. Can't wait to have a sink and cupboards to store everything!

Cabinets

The cabinets are installed, but things aren't moving fast enough for me! We still have a lot of painting to do, countertops, carpet, light fixtures, electrical outlets and switch covers, finish plumbing, (etc., etc.) all in the next 2 1/2 weeks! Yikes! Will we make it???

Here are the cabinets: Rustic Maple with Cherry stain. There is a lot of variation in the wood, so it's not uniform in color. I am still getting used to them. Most important is that they are made well, and I have lots of storage space! :) These aren't the best pictures--I took them with my phone.


And here is the computer desk that is right next to the kitchen--very excited to have a place for all that office/homework stuff!

Ciao! I'm off to do some more taping so we can paint tomorrow!

Tile

The tile installers started yesterday, and they are really moving! They are so much faster than I would have been. I can't wait until it's all done!

Moving Along

We started painting walls last weekend (my brother and sister-in-law came to help). We are in waaay over our heads! Mike hired a painter to help :) We are trying to hurry so we can get the tile in (he also hired someone to do that, so I don't have to--thanks honey!) We are scheduled to be out of our rental by Dec. 1st, so the house has to be done!

I'm really excited about my library shelves. I can't wait to fill these puppies up with my books! They are painted now (courtesy of the painters). Here they are only primed.

The exterior is finished now. The painters will be staining the front door today. The gutters are in and I think the only thing left to do outside is to pour the driveway and sidewalk. Yay!

A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh

Last Saturday I took the girls to see The Lion King at Capitol Theatre. IT WAS AMAZING! It was a Broadway Across America production. Capitol Theatre is pretty small, so I can only imagine how spectacular it must be on a bigger stage.

The costumes, sets, and music were completely mesmerizing. I would encourage anyone to see it if they can. It's worth the money, and your kids will love it! It follows the Disney movie verbatim, so the kids knew all the songs (there were a few more in the stage production than the movie).

If you go see it, get seats by the aisle because the animals come right through the audience several times throughout. It was so incredible how they have designed the costumes to be puppets--the giraffe, elephant, cheetah, ALL of them are amazing. Ican't even describe it. I loved it! Megan came home and said she never wanted to forget it.

We're seeing lots of progress this week! The brick is almost done, and the soffit is being installed. I am so pleased with the way the details are turning out around the windows, and the arches over the front bedroom window and double garage. Our bricklayer is AWESOME!

I love these 3 little windows in our master bedroom. We wanted some more light in there, but that side faces our neighbor's backyard, and we wanted privacy, so we kept them little and up high.
And here they are from the inside.

Another touch I love is this play area for Megan under the stairs. She wanted to make this her reading/play area. She wanted little windows so she could pretend it was a fast food drive thru/post office/ticket booth. She helped me attach studs to the framing for the sheet rock installers to go around. The slot was her idea--I think it turned out pretty cute!

My most favorite thing so far is the mudroom. I have been wanting one since we bought our first house. And the dream is coming to fruition! Our finish guy (Rich--Stratford Finish) completed this today, and on the opposite wall will be another row of hooks with bead board. I love, love, love it! I can't wait to paint it.


We had a little problem on Monday. Our framer (Tony) offered to do the finish work, so we decided to hire him. He's an excellent framer, but we weren't thrilled with his style of finish work. So Mike talked to him about a few things and he got really mad. So Mike told him we were going to hire someone else. He started throwing a tantrum and chucking his tools into his trailer. He wouldn't even talk to Mike, so Mike left. Then Mike got a message from him saying he ran over one of the fence posts that keep the horses in next to our property (which happens to be an electric fence). So Mike called the bricklayer, who luckily witnessed all of this, and he told Mike that the guy was backing his trailer out in a rush and almost took out the next post too. So I had to go over and figure out how to disconnect the fence and get the horses into a smaller adjoining pen because the owner was out of town. Mike drove all the way home from work to assess the damage. Luckily it all turned out okay. The horses didn't get out, and no one got electrocuted.

We got the fence put back together, but the electric fence wouldn't turn back on, so hopefully those horses will just "think" it's a hot fence and mind themselves! Thankfully Rich with Stratford Finish was able to start the very next day, so we didn't lose any time.

We are getting very close to painting and tiling!

4+ Years Later...

I finally finished a quilt top that I have been working on. I bought the fabric in Las Vegas when we still lived there. It is made out of 14 fat quarters. All the prints are retro-looking calicoes. It turned out very old-fashioned looking, which is what I was hoping for. Now to just get it quilted!

This and That

House update: we had blown-in foam sprayed into our upstairs walls before rolling in the fiberglass batting. This is apparently supposed to create a vapor barrier, and add R-value to the walls. Once it is sprayed on, it hardens up. It looks like cottage cheese! They put it on really thick above the windows. I hope this means we will be toasty warm in winter and cooler in the summer. Mike and I did a lot of the batting, which was oh-so fun. Fiberglass all over us and in our throats for a couple of days :)

The brick is coming along nicely. They are about halfway done. Here is a close up of what we are having done under all the windows. The brick in this picture looks kind of grey because it has mortar residue on it. They have acid washed the finished parts so they look darker now. I just haven't taken a picture yet.

Yesterday I went to Manning Orchard and bought 2 boxes of Lemon Elberta peaches. They are heavenly! I will be busy for the next few days canning them and making jam. They make my house smell so delicious!

Danika has been working on an assignment for her Studio Art class. She had to draw a front and side view of someone. She chose Natalie Portman, of Star Wars fame. I am totally amazed at what a great job she did!

So I haven't posted in a while, for fear of sounding like I am bragging about the house. While we are very excited, I don't want anyone to feel like we are trying to show off or comparing ourselves to anyone. I just want to document our progress. So, I have stopped emailing posts to people (except my mother-in-law), and I'm letting you find things on your own if you happen to stop by my blog.

Since the last post, we now have shingles, doors and windows, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and insulation. The mason has started on the brick too. Things are moving along quite well. Mike and I have to finish up the insulation tomorrow, and then we will have our next inspection. After that--sheet rock! Yay!


Brooke had her 14th birthday last Thursday. I took her to lunch with her friend Savannah, and after school she got her hair cut. I forgot to take a picture of her when she was finished, but she got about 6-7 inches cut off! It's cute, but very different after having long hair for so many years!

She also got a Nook--an e-book reader. She is a voracious reader, and I don't have enough room on my shelves to buy books at the rate she reads them! Now she can store 15,000 books on one little device! Wow, modern technology! Think of what the Book of Mormon prophets/authors would think of that!

Phase 2

Everything is done with the framing and structural stuff. Now we have moved inside to plumbing, electrical, and heating/AC. We ran into a problem with where to put the furnace. We assumed it would be in the mechanical room in the basement, but there is a big beam running right across where the ducts need to come out of that room, so we couldn't put it there. So we had to put it in a closet in the family room in the basement, which means I have a big box running the entire length of the basement that isn't very attractive. Oh well! At least we will have heat and AC.

I am shopping for light fixtures & appliances, as well as picking out doors and windows this week.

Partial Roof

Here is a photo of what the house looked like while I was at camp. Now the whole roof is done. I will add a photo of it tomorrow hopefully. Pretty much all the framing is done, and the plumber is starting to rough things in tomorrow.


Today my brother Barry and sister-in-law Shirley came to visit. I haven't seen them in about 16 years. That is a really long time! They live in Austin, TX now. Barry is my oldest brother from my dad's 1st marriage. He is in his 60s now--old enough to be my dad. Barry and Shirley's oldest daughter Kim is my age, and growing up she was more like my cousin than my niece. She came to live with us the last year of our Senior year and we graduated together. It was great catching up on things!

Camp

Tomorrow we are off to girls camp. I wanted to take pictures of a few things before we go and everything gets dirty or I'm too busy :-)

This year we are giving the girls prayer rugs to put next to their beds to remind them to say their prayers. I got this idea when Danika and Brooke went to camp with our Las Vegas stake last year. They came home with these, and have kept them by their beds. (Hopefully that means they are using them.) They roll up and tie so they can be taken with them when they travel. They are really soft--one side is flannel, and the other is that soft baby chenille.

Our theme this year is "Your Heavenly Ever After," based on Pres. Uchtdorf's talk in the Gen. YW's Meeting in March 2010.

Our scripture is D & C 66:12--"Continue in these things even unto the end, and you shall have a crown of eternal life at the right hand of my Father, who is full of grace and truth."

We are having a princess-themed camp. I picked out fabrics that hopefully will help the girls remember this theme (crowns, stars, pink, and even frogs!). A sister in our ward helped me sew these, and I think they turned out adorable.


This frog print is my favorite! The girls will be making frog prince prayer rocks for a craft. We are linking the idea to an acronym--F.R.O.G.= fully rely on God.

Danika also made some awesome banners for us for one of her Value Projects. Each of our 4 YCLs (Laurels) will be in charge of a group of girls. They each chose a princess and a YW Value (and corresponding color) for their group. They are so cute! They have a lot of glittery sparkle you can't see in the pictures. This is our main banner:


Danika: Cinderella
Name: The Glass Slipper Sisters
Color & Value: Pink ("light red")/Individual Worth
Even a dirty scullery maid has infinite worth in our Heavenly Father's eyes. "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God."


Lyndsey: Aurora
Name: The Sleeping Beauties
Color & Value: Blue/Divine Nature
Aurora received many gifts at her birth, just as you have been given divine traits and gifts to develop during your mortal journey.


Katie: Ariel
Name: Daughters of the Water
Color & Value: Green/Knowledge
Ariel hungered for knowledge about the human world. You have been sent to earth to continually seek learning and growth.


Sarah: Belle
Name: Babes of Enchantment
Color & Value: Purple/Integrity
Belle showed integrity by keeping her promise and staying at the Beast's castle to save her father. You too will face trials that will require moral courage to overcome.

(Sarah is painting her own, so I don't have a picture yet)

That's all I have time for now. I will post more after we get back.

It's Like Christmas Every Day

It's so cool to see the house going up. For so long it was just a hole in the ground. Now every day we go see it there is something new. It's very rewarding after all that waiting. Today the framers got the garage walls up, and almost all the interior walls are done, so we can see what the layout is like.

Seeing it on paper is totally different from seeing it in 3-D. But so far everything seems great. Of course there are going to be things that will probably not translate well from paper to actual house, but so far nothing too horrible has come up. We did have one glitch; the furnace was supposed to be in the mechanical room which is in the basement on the side of the stairs. Our framer told us that it isn't a good spot for it because the HVAC guy would have to do a lot of extra duct work to get around the stairs and that would result in some reduction in efficiency. So Mike went over and met with Tony (our framer) and the HVAC guy and they decided to use a closet in the basement that is in a better location for the furnace.

Monday the front porch and garage stairs will be poured and the trusses will be delivered. Then on Tuesday, Tony will start putting the roof up.

We met our neighbors 3 houses down today--the Passeys. They are really nice, and have 2 of adorable kids they have adopted--the little girl (about 3) is from mainland China, and the 16 mo. old little boy is from Taiwan. Everyone we have met on our street is so nice. It's good to know we are moving into a good area with good people. We like our neighborhood now, and we would hate to go to all this trouble and then find out we didn't have nice neighbors!

The garage

View from Megan's window

Main floor kitchen looking toward bedrooms & laundry room

Stair treads would be nice!

Mike standing in basement family room

We Have Walls, People!

The walls are starting to go up!

I'm a little behind. Here are pics of the radiant floor heating tubes that were installed before pouring the basement floor. Should be toasty warm this winter!

Dirt Pile Gone!

Saturday, July 25: The window wells are installed and back filled. It took 40 dump truck loads to haul away the rest of the massive dirt pile. It's nice to actually be able to see our view now.


The garage floor is poured and the framers started on the basement walls.