Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas to everyone! Brandon said to me, "we should really send out Christmas cards this year." I said, "that is a great idea honey, go ahead and do it." Well, it didn't get done. I didn't even get to send out my Christmas email this year. We were just too busy trying to get our home to a livable stage. We did manage to have some fun though at Christmas. We had Brandon's parents, Paul and Joyce Campbell here. We took them to the DAVIDSON Christmas eve party.

Always a great time, with lots of great food.

My parents joined us for Christmas dinner. And, the next day Brandon's sister JoLynn and her daughters Waleska and Roxy came to stay for a few days. We were all blessed to get some beautiful handmade quilts from Joyce.

She worked a long time making us these amazing quilts. She does all the top stitching by hand!

Brandon and his dad went shooting during our Christmas break.

I took JoLynn and Waleska on a hike up Badger Mountain. It was very cold and foggy. We didn't have any view but they were willing to make the trek with me.

We ate lots of food, played lots of fun games, had a good time relaxing and watching movies. The house feels empty without them here.

Our Home

We are in love with our home!

Brandon chose this enormous refrigerator. He could probably fit in it.

I love our big tub and see through fireplace! 

There are some unexpected findings in this house that we don't love. One of which, is that our oven is fueled by gas. We do have a gas stove top which we love but thought that we had bought a dual-fuel range/oven. We don't have natural gas here but a large propane tank to supply our gas needs. Most ovens come fitted for natural gas but whoever installed our oven only converted the stovetop, not the oven to propane. We didn't realize this until we used it and our carbon monoxide alarms went off one evening. We got a technician over to figure out what was going on and he tells us he isn't allowed to convert it to propane and we don't know where the parts are for it anyway. So just before Christmas and just before Brandon's family is coming to stay, we can't use our oven! 

Instead we are going to use the roasting oven sitting on the counter (thanks mom for lending it to us!) and are pulling out as many electric appliances we can.

Will it ever end?

Although we are close to being done, it feels like Christmas should have come a couple of months ago so don't ask me when we are moving in! 

Here are the latest photos of the house.

We have some sod in the front of the house. Because it is so late in the season, we are just going to put some kind of grass seed/groundcover mixture in the backyard for the winter. Hopefully it keeps the dust down and hopefully it will grow grass next year and not tumble weeds. I'm sure our neighbors are sick and tired of all the dust.

The mudroom is painted. We still need to put up some hooks.

The toilets are in.

We have some lovely undercounter lighting.

Here is a better look at our flooring which I love despite some of its flaws. We could host "Dancing with the Stars" in here and perfect some break dancin moves. I'm gonna moonwalk all over theses floors!

We are ready to move into this place! But it's not ready for us!!

Month #7 Building a house

I thought we would be in the house by now, but another month has gone by and we are not there yet. (Note to self, patience is a virtue).

A lot of the finishing touches are happening though and we REALLY hope this is the LAST month.

Here are the latest photos of what has been going on:

We have finally found a chandelier. I've spent hours looking at hundreds of chandeliers so this is a big deal. I wanted something unique, the right size, and not way over budget. And of course Brandon and I needed to agree on it. So this is it!

We also have this really awesome fan for our great room that is supposedly very efficient and is called "Aviation".

Our backsplash tile is up in the kitchen and bathrooms. We used glass tile, subway style.

We have our mud room designed. It still needs to be painted.

Cabinet doors are on with the hardware. It looks like it is right out of houzz.com or maybe even a parade home. These white cabinets have about 14 layers of paint/primer and look AMAZING! Thanks to Fesser cabinets for making all our cabinets look gorgeous.

Don't mind the mess on the floor. Some of the subcontractors do not know the meaning of a garbage can or cleaning up after themselves. I can't wait till they are all outa my house!!

Carpet has been laid and looks great.

Laundry room counter top is done. It is this nice "sea grass" motif which I thought would go with the very calming "Cowen Blue" paint but it is making the paint in the room look more green than blue. So I'm not sure I love it. I really loved the paint color as it looked before the counter top went on. Should we redo it?

We are still waiting for some important plumbing items to be installed. Can't move in without these!

Month #6 Building a house

This better be it, the last month I post about building a house! 

We are in the final stretch now and are getting close to the end. Hopefully just a couple more weeks if all goes right. So here are some more photos of the updates:

The first look at our epoxy floors. Yea!!!!!!!!!!! I am so in love with them! They take a whole week to finish and cure but it is worth it.

Our big 'ol gas tank is in the ground. 

Our back patio is in.

And the back concrete pad behind our storage room.

Our fireplace is getting her game face on.

And our granite countertops are on. 

A lot should be going on in the next couple of weeks. Still have to find a chandelier/dining room light. Any suggestions?

A funeral and a wedding

This past Friday we celebrated the life of  my grandma, Mary Hyde. She passed away peacefully on Thursday September 12th at 94 years old. She was a remarkably strong woman and set an example to all of us. She was very generous even though she wasn't considered wealthy. She was a traveler and didn't just let the many years she spent as a widow slip by. She volunteered for nearly 25 years at a local hospital. She taught me how to knit and play scrabble. She voiced her opinion to our legislators or elected officials because she felt like her one voice made a difference. We will miss her.

 Grandma's amazing children with spouses (left to right): Judy and Rick, Bill and Sue, Mom and Dad.

My siblings were all there, Verna, Kirk, Kim, Keith and I.

And lots of great grand kids were there too. It turned out to be a beautiful day.

***** The wedding*****

The following day we got to celebrate my oldest niece's wedding. It started out as a windy,cold day, but ended up being perfectly calm and warm.

Here are Italia and Jonathan just after being sealed in the Colombia River Temple.

Afterward, a ring ceremony for those who couldn't attend the sealing.

Italia's parents put together a pretty amazing reception, Javier as DJ/MC and Verna as event planner. The reception was held outdoors at a friends house and it was spectacular! I definitely didn't get enough photos to show it off but here is my handsome date.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

It is a challenge figuring out all the details of building a house!! 

One challenge was how to place the tile around our tub. 

 I think we got it figured out.

We had to figure out how to hold back the 7 ft wall of dirt next to our house and this is what it is looking like now.

After several samples, and repainting, we have some colors we like on the walls.

Here is the home gym, no caffeine needed to wake up!

My laundry room- Copen blue (Sherwin Williams)

We are still figuring out some lighting options, how to landscape the yard, what kind of hearthstone to use or do away with a hearth, where to put concrete and blacktop. 

We were very excited that our cabinets got installed this week. Here are some photos:

Month # 5 Building a house

Is there supposed to be a month #5? No! But here we are, starting the fifth month of this adventure and we'll probably even get a sixth month! 

We are seeing changes weekly and having ups and downs with this process. Most recently we are deciding on paint colors for the interior. 

Not the best photo but Brandon is trying out a few "greens" for our home gym. We want something bright that will be energizing. We saw a home gym at our local "Parade of homes" last year that had a bright green paint that was fun.

For our main areas we are going to paint them grey. But which grey? You won't believe how many variations to a color are available.

We have our front door framed in and our contractor doesn't want anyone opening it. Hence the -"No".

He has another sign by our bathtub:

The fine print says you will lose your foot as a consequence of standing in the tub. 

We are also deciding on light fixtures and fans. I like something modern like this:

And this:

We just have to see how far the moola will go to afford these fancy things!