Progress of the Basement

So as per the request of my dear sister-in-law, here are a few pictures of the basement. If you didn't know we are working on finishing the rest of the basement. Terra and Tim and Maylee are coming to stay with us in November while Tim does some of his rotations. We are very excited. It will be very fun to have them here. This is what we have been up to lately: (Besides being extremely "homely")

This is the door and window into the play room under the stairs.

This is the cubbyholes. We will put 3 shelves in each cubby, so there is somewhere for kids to put toys away.

Looking the other way into the playroom.

Inside the closet Jon put in at the bottom of the stairs.

The closet we put in at the bottom of the stairs. We had extra room at the end of the tub, so we walled it off and made it into a closet.

The bathroom.
All the sheet rock is up. All we need to do is tape, mud, and put in the sink and toilet.

The bigger bedroom.

Smaller bedroom. It has a corner closet. We are getting the sheet rock up right now.

The hallway.

Hope that gives you a little update...and I'll try and get some pictures up when it is done! :)

A WORK of Art, A Thing of Beauty, (FINALLY) A Place of Rest

Yard when we looked at the house.

The weeds we had to kill...look Round-up won in the back corner.

Starting the trenches for sprinklers...and to clear weeds.

Burying trenches, and weeds.

Our good little helpers.

The backyard all flattened and ready for sod!

Our garden area. :)

Laying sod.

The side all done :)

The back...YEAH grass!

So we have finally called the work on our yard good for the time being. We have little things, and more to finish later. But as of now we are calling a time out...
So we have a garden area with where our shed will be in the future. (One of the things for later.) We have put in a sprinkling system, flattened the front and back, leveled and put down sod. It was A LOT of work. But it looks good. I love looking out the windows to see green (or yellowish want to be green) instead of brown. It's FANTASTIC! We were so lucky to have so much help from family. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! You are the best! :)
So a little about the adventure...the front yard was HORRENDOUS!! Something about hard clay and a ton of rocks. Not kidding tons. We couldn't even use a rototiller because there were too many. We sifted them out with my parents rock sifter, which fell apart before we were done. We probably won't have to buy any rocks to go under our cement though. :) So in one week we got the front yard ready. Jon's parents were getting rid of a bunch of grass and told us on Tuesday that we could have it if we were ready for it that weekend. So yeah, got it done and laid sod that Saturday. We had enough for the whole front yard. The next week, we did the whole backyard. It was two weeks of hard work in the HOT sun. But it is awesome now.

Umm...Catch Up?

Hey so everyone, including me, is a little tired of the same post for the last several months. So here we go…I’ll try and recap.

So we moved to our new home. We love it! We have lots of space. We didn’t actually get to move in until the middle of May, but we are here now. During the interim we stayed with Jon’s parents. They were very gracious and the kids loved being with Grandma and Grandpa. In fact, Ari loved having someone to get her chocolate milk every morning as soon as she got up. She generally has to wait because I’m feeding Sarah, but she could go get Grandma or Grandpa and they would get it for her. Lucky girl. Now she has to wait again.

Since we moved in we have been working hard! Chris and Jon put in a home theater system in the basement. It is really fun. We have almost unpacked…the important boxes. Of course there is plenty to go through in the storage room, but we are almost back to everyday life. We are working on the yard too. We have the sprinkler system in and are working on leveling the yard back down. We also have a garden. It is looking good. We have corn, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cantaloupe, zucchini, and pumpkins. It was kind of a requirement. When we were looking at houses Adam started making lists of what we needed… 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, music rooms, and a garden big enough for pumpkins and tomatoes for mommy. He even prayed for it, so we have a garden with pumpkins and tomatoes. It’s kind of funny because I like tomatoes, but I really don’t eat them all the time. He just thinks that if he gets pumpkins, mommy needs something too.

We have had fun too. So a few stories: Adam’s has figured out that Daddy won’t leave mommy. So when we are trying to leave and he isn’t ready he always checks where I am to make sure I haven’t left so he won’t be left. In fact, we were getting ready to leave my parents one evening and we asked him to go potty before we left. He looked at me and said, “Mommy, go inside.” Then he told everyone that “Daddies don’t leave mommies.” So he wanted me to go inside so that he wouldn’t be left. Funny kid, but smart kid.

Sarah is getting so big. She army crawls EVERYWHERE!! She also loves animal crackers. She will stick the whole cracker in her mouth and suck on it as it dissolves. She makes terrific messes with them.

Ari loves being a princess. Grandma Morgan set up a Princess Lemonade Tea Party with her and Isabel. They invited their other grandmas. Then we found out that Janel would be in town so we got to have her, Jenny and Adrienne and Kelli and Sam come along too. It was really fun for the girls. Ari however kept trying to escape to play with the boys. She enjoyed painting her nails, but then she was done and wanted to go with the boys. (They were playing with Alma downstairs and outside.) She was funny; I had to keep grabbing her to keep her with us.

So a little more about the tea party: we started with painting nails. Even Sarah’s nails got painted. Then we had a luncheon with fruit, sandwiches, and pink lemonade. Then Grandma Zelma read the girls a story. Then we all went downstairs and made hot pads. Then we let the kids all play. It was so fun, everyone had a great time!

Check out the gallery, I’m going to put some pictures there.

Pictures of the House

The kitchen: I love the island! Well, I just love that it is BIG! And we aren't trying to share the dining with the kitchen! And I have a pantry!!!!!
The front of the house. Don't worry, it will be finished when we move in. They should be pouring the driveway and stairs, and putting in the carpet and such pretty soon. :D

New House

So I promise to try and catch up after we move. But things have been crazy trying to get everything packed and ready so....we are behind. However, people keep asking for pictures of the house so really quick I'm putting some in the gallery. (And when it lets me I'll post some here...)

Adventures in House Hunting

So...as you know we have been looking for a new place a little further north since Jon is now working at Hill. So recently we have been out actually looking at houses. Well...I just want you to know that there are still places out there that no normal person would give a thought to. I'll give you a couple of examples: (Now understand that we looked at the information that our Realtor gave us online, so all the places APPEARED decent online....lol.)

First example was what has become referred to as "The Humming House." We were out looking and we pulled up to one and well, we almost didn't go inside. It was right next to a power substation. So there was the LOUD buzzing from all the cables or whatever buzzes in those stations. The house was actually really close to what we were looking for EXCEPT the substation next door. I mean NEXT DOOR. The one boundary of the property was the barbed wire fence to keep people out. Can you see me telling the kids to go play outside? "Hey kids, go play, but make sure not to kick your ball over there...or don't climb that fence you might really get hurt!" Yeah right. Not to mention you would have yell anytime you were outside to be heard over that noise. So a backyard bbq...not happening. So yeah, that house....thumbs down.

Example number two we like to call "Alcatraz." Proof that they used to make basements dungeons! (Obviously they didn't post any pictures of the house EXCEPT the two rooms they remodeled...) We went to look at it because it said 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Priced decently. Once again...YIKES!!!!! The upstairs (besides the remodeled rooms) looked like the 50s. (which was okay because it was built in the 50s.) However, we went down to the basement and it was all cement...small rooms with tiny little windows. The basement kitchen smelled of something dead and rotting. K...if that isn't bad, it was only 5 foot ceilings. I had to duck to walk around down there! DOUBLE YIKES!! Can you see me sending the kids to their rooms? "Hey! Go to your room!" "No mommy, please anything but that!!!!" Geeze! I tell you what it was bad!

Anyway...that just goes to show, you CANNOT believe what is posted online when house hunting...you gotta go look at it.

On a lighter note...we did find a nice one! It is in the process of being built. They are going to finish when they get a buyer. So the buyer gets to pick carpet and paint. It is 3 bedroom and 2 bathrooms. (The basement has room for 2 more bedrooms and another bathroom...unfinished) It has a huge kitchen with tall ceilings. (which Jon likes) :)

Nuff for now...hope you enjoyed! :)