The Kiddos

I have to say, this house project has been INSANELY time consuming for us. W e knew it would be of course, but it's also been a serious test of our family strength. I say this because I want to mention how awesome the kids have been throughout this whole ordeal. For dealing with living in the tight quarters we have, not having their toys and things, living with all the change...they have been fantastic - really! Of course there are ups and downs, but for as hard as it's been on our family time, they have really been super kids throughout.

I want to share a few pictures that were taken last weekend with Aunt Amy. She got to spend some quality time with the kids while I worked on a room redo project for Hector's mom. It was good to see them out enjoying the sunshine, the park, the river...all the fun stuff that she took them to do. The pictures she snapped turned out so cute!!!

Crunch Time

As awesome as it is to have everything just zooming along, there are some things that are starting to get in the way. For one, we had our furniture delivered today. Exactly where to put everything amidst the tools, wood, tile, and workerbees??? It's a bit crazy. We have a slew of people and things to-do this coming week and the following. Septic goes in, yard gets prepped, driveway gets poured, carpet gets measured....lots of the finishing touches finally get completed.

I'm hopeful to predict that when we get back from Hawaii, we just take our dirty suitcases straight to the new house. That would be wonderful!! Here are two pics of the kitchen backsplash that just went up. It looks much neater in person. We love it!!! The stove will go just below the pattern with the hood above.

Still Cruisn'

I ran up to the house this morning to drop off some light fixtures and a few other things. There was no parking available!!! (No complaining here!) We have a troop of workers finishing up things on the house. The trim is up and just about complete - we LOVE how it turned out!!!! Doors are all in, just need hardware. Tile is all down, just needs grout. It's basically little things here and there...and a driveway. We head to Hawaii for a week of vacation on the 1st, so we're hopeful that when we get back, we can start the moving process!

Here are a few pics of the trim and fixtures:

So much going on!

Several of you have asked for the latest on the house...I apologize for the delay in getting out a new update and pictures of the progress. Here they are!
For once, I'm happy to report that there's a LOT going on!! We can finally see the homestretch ahead...everything is really coming together.
Our cabinets are completely in, our countertops were all installed last week, electrical outlets/lights/switches/can lights/fixtures continue to get installed (almost done), as well as tile work. The biggest thing this week that will REALLY help pull it all together, are the doors and trim work. We have a stack of trim ready to go in the garage and our doors for the house are in place, ready to be hung.
Outside, the front porch railing was put on (needs to be painted though). Once we get the driveway poured and the front yard prepped, we'll get the steps to the porch finished up.

Ryan hopes to finish grouting the tile in the downstairs bathrooms, so that we can have the plumbers get the toilets and sinks installed. Once that's good, we can arrange to have the carpet laid, finish installing the appliances, and whatever other little finishing touches that are left. It's really getting exciting to see it all together!!!

Master cabinets/counter

Master shower

Kitchen sink

Closeup of the kitchen counters: quartz

These look much better out of the box!!

Garage - trim, doors, tub, etc. all ready to go

Interior doors

Trim; a bit darker than this pic shows

Bonus room - can lights working, softer new color

Kid's bathroom countertop

Cabinets In

We've had several neat things move along with the house recently. This past Tuesday, the biggest of all were our cabinets going in. The installer is still working on the kitchen, but should have it done here soon. Upstairs and laundry rooms are done, our bathroom comes later. They turned out awesome though!!!

Ryan tackled the tile in the front entry area, just ready to finish up the grout work. Still more tile to do in the laundry room and of course, our bathroom, but it's such a chore. Tony the tile guy was there today starting on our shower. We're guessing a good week or two to get the bathroom finished?

I managed to repaint the bonus room last Saturday...gone is the celery green. We were going for a grey shade in there, with the bar area being a Seahawks blue. Again, another blue room, sigh. Looks like I might need to try putting a different color in our bedroom/bath....

Everyone has asked about the progress on things or when we'll be moving in. While stuff keeps getting ticked off the list, progress is still very slow. My ambitions to move in before our trip to Hawaii June 1st were deflated last week...that's just not realistic, I realize. =( We're probably out for another two months or so.

Here's the recent batch of pics:

Moving along...just not in

Things are moving along nicely, just not really wrapped up. Little things here and there are getting done. Over the weekend, Ryan and his uncles and a friend came up to the house to work on tiling the kitchen. It looks AWESOME!!! They did a fantastic job...thanks fellas for the help!

With other tight appointments and always things going on, it's been tough trying to get up there to work on anything else. And of course, it's hard with two little ones underfoot. Ryan is hoping to grout the kitchen tonight and then start on tiling the entry and front bathroom this weekend. We have our kitchen cabinets being delivered this Friday (YEAH!!), bathtub this weekend, sinks, faucets, etc. Our guess is that by mid next week, the house will start to really fill out. Still a lot of tile work to tackle, but it's getting there. The painting in the house is done...for now. I am going to attempt to repaint the bonus a "more manly" color this weekend, as the celery color isn't flying too well for a man cave. Oh well, I need a good workout finally! As soon as I get up there, we'll take and post new pictures.

Take care everyone!

LOTS of pictures!!

There’s no better way to spend the Easter holiday than swimming and tanning in Florida!! Ethan and Gretchen spent a week-long vacation visiting with her family down there, visiting with brothers, sisters, grandparents, and new niece Peyton. We had a great time lounging around the pool, some shopping excursions, and even a full-out special day for Ethan at Port Manatee, where he got to ride a REAL train!! It was all low-key and relaxing…a very nice vacation to visit and catch up with everyone. Here are some pictures we took.

As for the house, this Saturday was the first since returning from our trip that I’ve seen it. Boy, it REALLY looks like a home now!!! The drywall is complete and all interior painting has been done. There’s color in the house now! Our room turned out a bit more bright-blue than I anticipated, but I hope once carpet, doors, millwork…and all our housey things are in, it’ll pull together just fine. The colors look great, they’re just very stark right now. Our bonus room is what Ryan doesn’t want to call “celery” green, but it is. Bright and fresh and something different. Leah has a soft pink room that I spent painting on Saturday. The entire house throughout is a soft khaki color and our bathroom toilet room is more of a dark caramel. That’s is as far as inside colors go. I’d like to bust out whatever else I can manage to paint before anything else goes in, but it’s hard up and deciding on colors without being sure of what all goes in the room. I think doing anything else will just have to wait until we’re settled. At least the inside is moving along now. We hope that the tile work inside starts sometime this week or next. Probably about a week for that…then it’s onto lighting, cabinetry, millwork, and other finishing touches. Altogether, a good guess before we can move in is about another 4 weeks, if everything stays on track. Stay tuned!