Week 9 Recap

The week 9 recap is a few days late. There is really nothing new since the pictures on the week 8 recap. The mud and tape guys have been there every other day to do another coat of mud. I *think* they do a total of three coats, then it has to dry between coats. After the final coat they will go in and sand the walls. I think after they are done, the finish guy will come in and do things like build the shelves in the pantry & closets. I'll post pictures on week 10 & we should have some tile down to look at.

Go!

Blizzard 2010

On Tuesday the local media was going crazy with warnings for a blizzard set to hit around 6:00 pm that night, and lasting well into Wednesday. There was way too much media coverage, and so many warnings, that it sent people into a panic. Everyone jumped the gun and a lot of businesses closed around 3:00 pm for the day. All but one school district cancelled classes for Wednesday, our school included. On the news it showed people flocking to places like Home Depot and the grocery store to stock up on water and batteries. It started snowing around 6:00 pm that night, as scheduled. The problem is it only snowed about 2" and it was done. Business and schools closed down for nothing. I had a couple of appointments to go to on Wednesday that I had to find a babysitter for since my kids were home. I went to Home Depot on Wednesday and you should have seen the line for everyone returning their generators. It totally cracked me up! It always amazes me how panicky people get over nothing. Last Sunday when we got 10" of snow in the valley, the weathermen had called for a "chance of snow." Now, those are the storms you have to watch out for!

This was early Wednesday morning when the storm was supposed to be going strong. Boy, looks dangerous!

80th

Happy 80th birthday to our good friend Bea! "Mother Bea" has been in my life for as long as I can remember, and I love her dearly. Last week we celebrated her birthday and to me she looks the same as she always has. I feel very lucky to have her in my life!

My mom, my sister, Bea & me

Snow!

We woke up on Sunday morning to 10" of snow in the valley. Preston ran out to make a snowman in his jacket, snow boots and PJ's. Parker and Travis tried to go skiing, but it was too cold and snowy. They got a few runs in before Parker decided he'd rather sit in the lodge eating fries and drinking hot cocoa. It was Harry Potter day for me and Preston, and we also took my nephew with us. It was great! I was wondering if I could get away with going to see it again today while the boys were in school. Hmmm....

Please!

Oh, please let that be water!!

Week 8 Recap part II

They finished the sheet rock yesterday so I took a few more pictures to post. It actually looks like a house now! They'll mud and tape starting Monday and that should take about a week. Travis took the week after Thanksgiving off, and his brother is driving down from Spokane and they are going to do the tile. In all of our DIY house projects, we've never tiled so it will be good to learn how to do it. The pressure is on for me to get my colors picked out!

Master bedroom.

Entryway looking into the great room.

Garage. Had I known Travis' garage was going to turn out so big, I would have pushed the kitchen out another 2'. He would have loved that!


Kitchen & dining

Double!

Ok. This I am excited about. I ordered my appliances today, and this is the stove I picked. This is one decision that I didn't have to put any thought into. I have been eyeing this puppy up for a good 3 years. It is a GE with a double oven, without the cost of a built in the wall double oven. The top oven is kind of small, with the bottom being a full sized oven. The top will be great for things like pizzas & cookies, but it wouldn't fit something like a turkey. Ha! That's a good one! I think we all know I don't know how to cook a turkey!

Week 8 Recap

Things got moving on the house today. The sheet rock installers got busy and the bulk of it was installed by 5:00 pm. I am not sure how much more they need to hang then they'll start the mud & tape.

On my end, I need to have the tile and paint picked out & the tile ordered by Monday. I have the tile narrowed down to two different ones, and I am going to have my aunt pick my paint colors. She has a wonderful eye for color, a gene I'm clearly lacking.

HP 7

I'll admit, I am a total Harry Potter fan. I can't wait to see The Deathly Hallows that comes out on Friday. I am taking Preston to see it next Sunday for a mom & son outing. He likes Harry Potter just fine, but I'm totally using him as my front to go and see it opening weekend. If it's good, I'll use Parker as my front the following weekend and see it again.

Week 7 Recap

Another boring week on the home front. The big inspection last week resulted in some changes being made. Apparently our inspection went better than most, and had fewer changes than a lot of homes have. Well, I'd hate to see another house because it has taken all week to work on changes and they are still not done. No inside work can continue until all of these changes are made and the inspector approves them. Some of the changes I am on board with. He wants another support beam for the second floor put in the roof of the garage, and a few other support issues. I'm fine with that. But then he has some dumb things like moving and adding lights. Really, why should he care, or have any say in where we have lights. He wanted one added on the wall (not ceiling) of our stairs leading to the basement. There is already a light at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom. If we want to fall down the stairs in the dark, in the privacy of our own home, shouldn't we be allowed? Besides I think two lights lighting one staircase is plenty. Ugh. So the few things that have been worked on this week include: the windows were installed, the driveway and front porch poured and the roofer has been doing shingles. The roofer is just one guy and he's up there from morning til night. I'd have to guess he is absolutely freezing. I should take him a nice hot coffee. He's wearing a Notre Dame hat so I'd have to assume it's ok. :-) So here's to hoping that next week things get kicked into gear!


My dad sent some of "his guys" over to flatten our dirt out. In our budget the builder allowed for $3,000 dirt removal so it nice we were able to flatten most of it out, and will only have to haul away a little bit.


We put these hand prints right by the garage. It was freezing, and the boys were complaining how cold their hands were. I was determined to get them done.

Cabinets

We ordered our cabinets today and these are the colors that we selected. I have second guessed the color at least a 100 times. The two cabinets above the microwave will be black, the island will be black beadboard, and the crown molding will be black. The rest of the kitchen, and the rest of the house, will be the natural midnight. Have I mentioned that I really hate making these decisions? I like dark colors. I like dark wood, dark tile, dark paint, dark blinds, etc. I am not convinced that I went dark enough on the cabinets. I guess we'll know in 3-5 weeks.

Knotty Alder Black Natural


Knotty Alder Natural Midnight

Week 6 Recap

It was quite a boring week on the home building front. Everything revolved around the "four way inspection". Apparently if you are in the home building business, the "four-way" is a really big deal. I did find out that the four part is electrical, framing, HVAC and plumbing. Basically everything that involves a wall that will soon be filled in with insulation and covered with sheetrock. The inspector wants a beam added in the garage for support, and just a few other little changes, then work can continue. I hope they get the shingles on the roof and the windows in before it starts storming this weekend. Anyway,the few things that got done this week was the electrical, tar paper on the roof, the bathtub and showers were delivered and the big news is the stairs were put in going up. Now we don't have to force Preston through the gap in the laundry room ceiling! I had hoped that the fun stuff was going to start about now. Things like picking tile, hardwood, ordering the cabinets (still up in the air), countertops, carpet & paint. However, this is proving to be a major stress. It seems that $1,000 is the magic number that everything is going over budget. The cabinets are $1,000 over, carpet $1,000 over, light fixtures $1,000 over. You get the picture. I can't wait for this all to be over!!

Halloween

Happy belated Halloween to everyone! I'll blame the delay on the Utah way of celebrating Halloween . . . never on Sunday! We trudged out with all the other fools a day early for trick-or-treating. Wait, wouldn't that make my post early, not late? Whatever! Due to our current homeless state we decided to trick-or-treat in our new neighborhood. It was cold and raining, but we had a good time. Of course, if we held Halloween on Halloween it would have been dry and much warmer. On Sunday, Halloween day, I took the boys to Gardner Village and took their pictures in their costumes. It is so much easier now to take their pictures that they are both old enough to stand there and smile.