Busy week!

This week has been busy. On Wednesday, when I went out to the house the windows were being delivered, there were 2 cement trucks there, & a large truck with a trailer holding a digger. The masons began pouring the basement floor this week, and also they poured the garage floor. Yesterday they poured the steps in the garage for the entrance into the house. The digger will pour footings for the porch. The porch itself will be started after several inspections during the process. The windows were delivered and by the end of Wednesday all were in but the garage (still couldn't walk on the concrete, so I'm guessing that's why). Also the window in the great room still needs to be framed and then the window can be put in. For some reason they didn't deliver the round top windows that will go in the great room and bonus room, but they should be delivering them today. Today the siding is supposed to be delivered also. Unfortunately weather is predicting a snowstorm to begin tomorrow afternoon and go on till night. I don't know if they intended on starting siding, I am guessing with a snow storm they wouldn't, but who knows? Well, who knows if the weather guys are right anyhow. It snowed last Wednesday night, and Thanksgiving Day Mike was up on the roof shingling! He said it was a little slippery! Went out this morning and the front door is boarded up (until we put the door in). Now that the windows are in they are working on closing up the rest of the house, too. Doors won't be put in quite yet, but we are supposed to order it ASAP (which means I have to decide now what I want! I have a general idea, just don't know what color to go with...)

I posted a couple recent pictures from this week. They are just from the exterior. If it's not too cold today, I may take some more interior pictures.

Should we change the color of the house to....

Green and Gold??? I think we should consider it!!! Not sure what the neighbors would think, but I don't care!! How awesome are the Packers??? I've been looking for a little Green Bay Packers flag to stick out by the building permit.

So FINALLY my camera is ready to pick up (which I will do tomorrow) and I will be able to take pictures again. The shingling is nearly complete, there are steps to the upstairs 2nd floor. The tub/shower modules are in the house, and the plumber has started putting in the pipes/drains already! The skylights in the bonus room are in. Alot on the plate for this week. The footings will be poured for the wrap around porch. Once the footings are poured work will begin on the porch--the posts, the roof, etc. Windows in the house will go in sometime this week, as well. The basement floor is getting poured, too. Not sure if siding will start this week or next. Lots going on this week!! I met with cabinet people last week, have the laundry room finalized. Going with white beadboard cabinets, figure it may be the only room I can get away with white all over and that it won't get too dirty! Still torn on what to do with a vanity and a corner cabinet in the master bath. Apparently there is no such thing as a ready to buy corner cabinet that is 36" deep, so I need to figure something out for that! The kitchen cabinet layout is still up in the air a little bit, too. We did go look at the appliances the day after Thanksgiving, but I don't think I saw exactly what I was picturing so I have to look some more.

So today out at the house, there was a WOLF in the back yard. I totally freaked out. The kids were in the front playing and Mike's Dad saw it first in the back yard. It then dashed into the neighbor's yard, and disappeared. The kids found wolf tracks by our garage doors. So I am totally freaked by this and ready to fence in the entire yard. I'm not sure I am ready to be a "country girl", and totally scared of anything more than rabbits and squirrels running through the yard. I do wish I would've had my camera, though.

I can't wait to post recent pictures!!

November 15

No new pictues of the house to post as of now! A good portion of the back of the house is shingled, though. Mike will be out there again on Saturday and Sunday, as long as the weather is dry, to keep shingling.

Tuesday, I met the plumber out at the house and discussed the basement plumbing. Yes, the plumber is already to begin roughing, WOW! Monday he will start the first floor of the house. So my assignment for tonight/tomorrow is to finish picking out faucets & sinks. We already have some items, but there's plenty left to choose! Mike and I also met for lunch on Tuesday and went to a couple different fireplace showrooms. The first place didn't have anything that really jumped out at me. I had a vision in my head, and I had a picture to base it off of. But I am such a visual person, I need to see it. So, we went to a second place and walked in the door, and upon walking in, BOOM. There it was. I pointed, and said, "That one." Boy I wish everything was that easy. I uploaded a picture of it from the fireplace site. I have to get over to get our final cabinet designs done as well. Nearly every room in the house could have built ins or some sort of cabinetry as far as I am concerned, but of course, that's not possible! It would cost an arm and a leg...but for sure we need the kitchen, the great room, the laundry room, and our bathroom. So lots more decisions to make. I am really struggling with the laundry room layout. I want to make the most with the room we have, and I have to keep the washer, dryer, and sink where it is in the plan no matter what. So that makes it complicated. I'll put my thinking cap on and see what I can come up with!!

Perhaps this weekend I will have new pictures to post! : )

Lots to be done...

and soon! Not too much has changed in appearance on the house this week. The wall was put in the open space on the front upstairs part of the garage. Otherwise it's been alot of work not so visible. Yesterday I picked out the shingles and the siding. Mike is hoping to shingle this weekend, along with is brother and brother in law (Mike's Dad and Mom are on their way to Africa today for almost 2 weeks). Anyhow, amazingly enough, they are out of stock on the color I picked (a color called weatherwood). Mike's brother is calling around to see if he can find some somewhere. Not a big deal, Mike says there are enough other things to do all weekend if for some reason they can't begin shingling. For one, the window in the kitchen is being raised up because I want to be able to have a built in sort of corner bench/window seat thing and I don't want it to be to close to the window. There are plenty of other things to do. So as for the siding color, it's called pebblestone clay, similar to the color of a vanilla cappucino, or maybe coffee with cream, I guess (I don't know for sure, I don't drink coffee!). Another thing on the to do list, I need to go through the house and mark the exact places of all sinks, showers, tubs and toilets for the plumber. It sounds like fun to me!! We don't have everything picked out, so that makes it a little difficult to think about where everything is and the size it will be. Other news, the windows are ready whenever we are, so in the next few weeks that will be a project, too, maybe when they are close to finished with the shingling. we have to finalize the fireplace ASAP, too, because right now in the house there is nothing where it is, and after we do pick it out, Mike will have to build the area. Oh, the floor is in the bonus room above the garage. I bravely climbed the ladder the other day to see it. Well, to get to it, you have to step over this open space which looks in to the garage (there will be 2 steps eventually, but not yet...) I almost had a heart attack. I was so scared!! But the bonus room itself is awesome! I can't wait to do something with it (the plan is to have part of it walled off and used for my scrapbooking/craft room). Part of it will be a playroom, too. I'm trying to convince Mike that upstairs we need another shower, and i thought a kitchenette would be cool somewhere in the bonus room (I'm losing the battle as of now) I thought it would be nice to have a small sink, a small fridge and a microwave up there so that when the kids are bigger it could be a movie room or something cool for them. There's even a little area we didn't have in the plan, but that Mike and his Dad did as a storage area or closet or something--I'm thinking it will make a great secret hideout for the kids! i didn't bring the camera upstairs...I was too worried about not falling off the ladder! I hear all the time that once people start building a house they are thinking "I wish we would've done..." or "I wish this room was bigger/smaller..." The only thing I'm worried about (which it's too late to change anything!) is the location of the laundry room. I didn't even think about it when we drew up the plan. But it is as far from the bedrooms as it could possibly be, and there is no way to have a laundry chute. So I'm a little concerned about that. I wish we would've done a different window in the master bath, but I don't really care. That's honestly all that I would change, I think. I love this house!!

Another great weather weekend

We have had no rain or bad weather at all. That is simply amazing, given that it is now November, and November is so unpredictable. As long as we don't get snow or heavy rains anytime soon, we should be okay.

Sadly, my camera is not in my possession. How can I cope without my camera? ? It is almost like a 4th child...I rarely leave home without it. It was sent to Sony to be fixed, and we should have it back within 2 weeks. I do have our old digital camera, which I pulled out of the closet, dusted it off, and reaquainted myself with it. Unfortunately the batteries didn't last long, and they are currently dead, so I need to buy new ones (rechargable!). I have pictures that are more recent, but can't upload or take more pictures until I get new batteries (which will be first thing tomorrow morning!!) I haven't driven by the house since Thursday, but Mike tells me a good portion of the garage roof is on, as well as the back of the house. I am assuming they hope to have it fully sheeted by the end of tomorrow. Mike, his brother, and Dad (and a couple other hired hands) have been working many days a week sun-up to sundown on the house. You guys are great! I'd like to bring you lunch tomorrow, but I don't want to miss the Packers kick off at noon! hehe I actually plan on bringing an early lunch to the guys. Mike told me not to rub it in that they won't be watching it, but hopefully they'll have a radio out there to listen to the game!
I'm excited to see the progress since a few days ago. It won't be long till there's a lot of time between notable progress, especially with plumbing and electric. Once the house is shingled and sided I wonder if I'll have as many pictures to post and as much to talk about.

Oh, and there are a couple friends who might have to battle it out to be our nanny (haha, I wish sometimes!) Don't worry, Morgan, you get first dibs : )

UPDATE: I found batteries! So there is a new picture. So the most recent picture I have is listed as November 1, 2007. It's a small picture, but I can't figure out how to make it bigger.