Alright then - pictures!

The almost curbside view of the house. (The garage didn't make it in the frame.)

Looking into the Kitchen from the Great Room.

. . .AND into the Great Room through the Kitchen.

Dining Room (from inside the Den)

Ahh. The Craft Room and into the Laundry Room from the Mud Room area. (Yes, the West Wing!) Only women could possibly FULLY appreciate this area. Tyler thinks he does, but he doesn't.

The 'Tower Room'. ie: Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair. . . Every girl needs a tower.

And now, what kept me up all hours of the night for the last couple of weeks:
First: Grey's Batman Room. And, yes, the building lights, the spotlight beam and the giant Batman signal glow in the dark. Maybe I'll even be able to get Grey to turn off his night light to see everything glow. . . maybe not.

Second: Nick's Train Room. SO, the hills still need a little work. . . I had to move on. I'll get back there. Seriously.

And my favorite: MY Room. Okay, I'll share. (All you get is the picture of the bed wall - because I'm obsessed with it, and that's about all I took pictures of.)Half-way through painting the wall behind the bed (most of which is actually covered BY the bed, but that's okay because I love the bed too!)I told Tyler that I loved it SO much I wanted to marry it. (It was late.) He told me to go for it, but I'm sure he's secretly jealous. He just hates to give me the satisfaction of ANY kind of reaction to anything I do or say.

The bed, by the way, was made by our friends Steve and Leah at Sleepy Beds. I love its' size and shape and the juxtaposition of its' blockiness with the girlie wall design and bedding. (Told you I'm obsessed.)

ANYWAY - I have to add that you shouldn't go feeling bad for Mr. Max because I didn't work myself to death in his room too - he said he wanted a 'normal room' almost until it was too late to do anything about it. THEN he comes up with "How about we just do a Star Wars room, with Darth Vader and maybe a tie fighter or something?" Like that's not five hundred THOUSAND times harder than the other rooms! It is sweet that he thinks I could just paint those things like snapping my fingers. Sweet, but a leetle bit unrealistic. Good thing FAThead makes a seven foot tall Darth Vader wall-clingy thing. Everbody's happy. (he DOES have magnetic/chalkboards on his closet doors like his brothers - sheesh!)
Blah-blah-blah, so sorry for the rambling. Can't wait to finally move in and have a housewarming party!

Sing Fat Lady, Sing

Wednesday the asphalt for the street in front of the new house wasn't even poured. Only part of the driveway and sidewalks were in. No Sprinklers. No lawn or landscaping. Inside, the stairs and railing were all messed up and had to be torn out and re-done multiple times. There were only a few pieces of furniture in the house, no decor whatsoever. The flooring for the west wing (okay, it's a mud room, laundry room, craft room - but it is kind of a wing, and it is on the west end of the house)hadn't been installed. Etc. all you want on that and you've got the idea of where we were in the process. By noon today (Friday) it was all done. (Alright, alright. I still want to to add drapes to a few rooms and add a few more pillows here and there. You're so picky.) DONE! The last week and a half Tyler and I have averaged a bedtime of about 4:30 am. Last night, there was no bedtime for me. BUT now, it's done. Now there are a gazillion people traipsing through it, and we can't move in for two weeks. BUT, it's done. Stick a fork in it. Cue the fat lady. Done baby.

I took a few pictures today, but I can't post them until I get my own computer hooked back up - hopefully tomorrow.

Tick-tock

I know, I disappeared again- I PROMISE to stop doing that in exactly. . . well, soon. The house is almost done, so when it is - I can blog like a madwoman because I will have nothing else to do. So much free time on my hands. Loads. OR, maybe I'll get around to doing some of the other things I've been blatantly avoiding. (Laundry doesn't count because, really, how long could I actually NOT do that before someone was out of underwear? Not long enough, that's for sure.)

Top 5 Things I Need to Stop Ignoring
1. Renewing My Driver's License. Apparently it expired in September, on my birthday, go figure. AND, I know, I could have just sent the renewal form back in August or something, but that would have taken forethought, and initiative, and (let's face it) caring - so I opted out.
2. Getting a new keyboard so I can type the letter 'e' without punching it. As if I didn't need enough help typing - although for only using 3 fingers on each hand I pretty much rock.
3. Playing my Guitar. Poor dusty guitar. (Okay, that's not entirely true. I would never let my guitar get dusty. NE-VAH! The case, on the other hand, is a different story.)
4. Planting My Garden. At least I'm par for my own course on this one - never planted before Memorial Day yet. . . why start now? I am destined to buy sugar peas and all other spring vegetables at the grocery store.
5. Riding the horses at home instead of just the ones at work! Enough said there.

Anyway, back to what I started out saying: the house has to be done by the end of the month so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I took a few pictures inside and outside, but most everything is still masked off inside - kind of hard to tell what anything is.





Yeah, that's right. I said the end of the month. Two weeks and 1 day from today. Funny or scary - you decide!

Progress

It's been awhile since I did a construction update - it is moving so fast! This week they finished up the exterior (except for one little repair in progress), installed the wood floors, continued with the finish trim, and installed the deck. Next week: Tile, Cabinets, more finish trim work, and Interior Paint begins!

A shot of the wood floor and the unfinished front door:


The floor going into the kitchen / great room.

The floor is quite dark, although you can hardly tell with all the construction dust covering it. Swiffer anyone?

Sunny Spot on a Dreary Day

I love finding myself in a warm splash of sun when everything around that sunny spot looks dreary. Max, Grey and I walked out to the new house while Nick was napping and found ourselves in just that situation! The light was so cool that I had to snap a couple of pictures of the boys playing before we moved on to the house itself!

As far as the house is concerned, I'm happy to say it is still moving along very quickly! We passed the 4-way inspection. The re-inspect happened the first of last week. Windows are in, Insulation is in, and the drywall is being hung on the interior at the same time the rock is being put up on the exterior. We should have hard-surface flooring and cabinets installed in about two weeks! Crazy!

Building Update

Almost time for the "four-way". That's contractor-speak for the first big inspection - framing, ac/heat, electrical, and plumbing. I walked through with the electrician yesterday to go over where every light switch, light, plug, etc. would go and today all the boxes and cans are there and they're pulling the wires! Lights in light speed!

It's not cold, eh?

With the framing ALMOST done on our house,(Yeah!) I have to commend our friends that are the framers (Paul & Peter Hill & crew). Everyone keeps commenting about how surprised they are that the house is going up so fast - especially in the freezing weather we've had. I credit this fact not only to their amazing work ethic but to their Canadian Blood! Everytime I mention that I can't believe they're out there when it's so cold I get the same answer, "Oh, it's not cold, eh?". The boys love to go out and "help the guys" every chance they get. . . they don't last very long in the cold though.

Beautiful Abyss

The following statement has literally been YEARS in the making : I am SO happy to announce we finally have a gaping hole in the ground where 'the shanty' (the old barn - if you will . . . but I won't) once stood. Yes, we have officially broken ground on our new house. I can't even imagine the hang-ups that will surely rear their ugly heads between this momentous occasion and that of finishing the house. However, if we've managed to get through all the set-backs we've had to this point, I'm pretty sure we'll manage picking out tile and drawer pulls.