Drum roll....

....and the winner for the staircase vote is - NEITHER! :) We've decided to go with an all dark stain (no white spindles). Steph, our wonderful "eye for design" suggested we stay all dark - I think it will look snazzy!

Below are some photos. The drywallers are finishing up the mudding, Jocie has the the white on her sweater to prove it! :)


Siding almost complete

L-R: closet, boys' room, bathroom, girls' room (standing in gathering space)

Master bathroom

Looking from den into gathering area (laundry and master behind)

Standing in boys' room

Staircase Vote

Vote now for your favorite! :) Not much time for this poll, 1 day! Dark stain or white? Also, where that beautiful painting is - that will be a door to the "powder room". :)

Work Day!

Today was a work day for the family. It started shortly before 1:00 and ended around 6:00. With six of us working - a lot of time went in to cleaning up the house. Sweeping, shop vacc-ing, picking up drink cups, nails, wiring, etc. all made for a long day. Should have taken before and after photos - but trust us - what a difference!

The beautiful fall view of the kids' new school from our balcony.

Formal dining with floors so clean you could eat off of, well not really. :)

Family room!

Standing in boys' room looking at master closet & bath.

Quarantined

I feel that I have been quarantined with my children for over a month now. :( I wonder how they feel!? :) Illness has been running through our family - Jordan being the hardest hit. Sorry for the lack of updates, but it's been a whirlwind. Even with committments being taking off my plate because of my inability to get there with sickies, life is still crazy...a different kind of crazy.

Electrical and plumbing roughins are almost complete. The siding crew should be finishing up this week. Then I'm guessing it'll be insulation and then drywall? So here are the updated pictures.

Pictures coming - rough couple of days

The past two days have been kind of rough in our house...Jordan is sick yet again. Poor guy has missed 8 days of school and cannot return until Monday. He had a 105.6 fever yesterday morning. Thankfully we were able to cool him down. We took him to the doctor and she tested him for influenza. Long story short, it's a generalized influenza test for strains A and B and said to not be that accurate (meaning you could have it, but test negative). Of course, he tested negative - but she said due to his symptoms she's treating him as if he has H1N1 (since the other influenza is not going around our state yet)....

...So I have no pictures to post, but I hear the HVAC, plumbing, and roofing are continuing to go well, with a few minor hiccups that Alan and Eric are working through this morning. Hopefully, I'll have pictures later this evening.

On a side note, I closed the poll - we have decided to leave both areas vaulted...thanks for voting!

Promises of good things to come

This afternoon the entire family was able to go up to the house and see all the progress. The biggest change was concrete in the garage! My biggest boy (Alan) got really excited today as he watched them work on the slab - a big garage, with his own special "man-place". :) Today we met with the electrician and foreman to walk through where lighting and electrical were going to be placed. Bob (we really like Bob), went to town on finishing some of the framing, including changing out a few stationary windows that Eric ordered to be "sliders", but were installed incorrectly. He also put up plywood over the icky crawlspace, worked on the stairs, leveled the ceiling in the laundry room (it was vaulted which would have created a strange lighting situation), and made the plumbing wall a little thicker in the laundry room for an extra sound barrier.

Next week there will be an inspection or two, HVAC people working, basement slab, I imagine more roofing, and not sure whatelse! Eric seems totally on it (and his crew) so it'll be good! :)

I did want you to vote (see the poll to the right), comment, or drop me an email, on your opinion of the vaulted area on both sides of the laundry room (the last picture in this post). Eric said typically they'll cut across the ceiling over the stairs so it is flat, but it looks as though their guys forgot to do this. He wanted to know if we wanted it done or not. The stairs will have a hanging fixture, but the area in front of the window next to the laundry room & master bedroom doors will have a recessed light, which means it will be pointed at an angle due to the vault. Sooooo....which do you like better, vault or flat?!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!


Beautiful double rainbow outside the back of our house!

Is this ok to write on the walls? Eek feels like vandelism! :)

Downstairs in the basement-didn't know he wrote on this wall. Guess we'll be seeing this for awhile. Will someone take the Sharpie away from this child!?

See the beautiful garage floor behind those two kids? :)

If you make this picture larger you'll see it's raining in our house! :)

Vote now on how we should finish the vaults.

Construction Party!!

Wow, talk about progress! Today was a big day! We had the foreman, the roofer, the construction crew (lots of them too), and plumbers, oh my! So many, working so hard on our house! It was very exciting to see all the things that got done today! (Sorry for all the exclamation points, I'm just REALLY excited).

Work progress that happened today:
-Roofing began
-Windows & patio doors are going in
-Plumbers began running pipes & installed tub/shower enclosures
-Front porch beams/supports went up
-Arches in dining room were formed
-Garage door was cut out, including the concrete
-Backfill in garage and basement was wet in preparation for concrete slabs
-More work on deck
...all that and a bag of chips (just kidding) - I mean cookies to the guys!


Look at the arch! :) So pretty!

Standing in fm. dining (another pretty arch & windows!)

Girls' shower!

Boys' shower

Look at the windows & roof!!