Moving On Up!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!!  I hope that everyone is doing something fun this weekend!!  I wish I was!!  But I am working towards a goal, so it’s OK!!  And it’s been raining since Thursday!!  I love the rain, but it’s making for messes when we are trying to move. 

I thought I better update you. 

I really love being able to see the weather move in and out.  Esp. when it’s rainy like this. 

Here is a sneak at our bedroom.  The colors were pulled from the comforter and pillows we already had. 

The master bath is painted and the flooring is in.  This is linoleum and it’s beautiful.  It’s exactly what I was looking for and I found it locally… it’s going in both baths and the mudroom area. 

 

Here is a shot of the rest of the flooring going in.  The rest of the house is all going to be laminate.  I can’t wait to see more. 

So a bit of an update from last post.

• The master bath is ready to be finished.
• Everything is textured and ready to be primed and painted, with the exception of the kids bathroom.  (??)
• The only rooms left to prime are the kitchen/dining, office, living room and kids bathroom. 
• Flooring is done in all three kids rooms and master bath. 
• Septic tank is in.

So this week the plan is:

• Water, power, heat, etc will be trenched in and hooked up.  (we could have used the heat this weekend.
• Finish flooring through hall, and master bedroom.
• Finish kids bath
• Painting
• Move.  Yes, we have to be out by Friday so we will be camping with the neighbors across the road for this week while all of the above gets done.   

Keep on Swimming, Keep on Swimming

Hey there…  I wish I had more to share with you right now.  We are at the awkward stage where we are half packed, half ready to move, yet we still have another week. 

So I’ll just update where we are. 

We painted some more Friday and Saturday.  The utility closet is done so the utilities can be set up.  Then on to RC’s room.  We got the base of some blue down… I can’t wait to finish his room and share, but that is later on down the road. 

Then we got the Master bedroom and closets.  I used three gallons of paint on the walls, and ceiling and that still wasn’t enough, so one closet is not finished.  LOL..  And I haven’t painted the blue wall. 

Then we packed up more stuff Sunday and got to spend some down time as well. 

What I hope happens this week:

• Master bathroom finished
• Kids bathroom finished
• Floors put down in the bedrooms and bathrooms.
• Water, propane, power and more hooked up.
• Telephone people out there. (I think I saw them going out this morning!!)
• more painting, and packing.

Kind of a reach, but I think it can happen.  The plan on the table is move in day May 29th – and if the above happens this week, we can do it!!   

Here is what else is going on this week:

• Baseball starts tonight
• Baseball continues every Monday and Wednesday night.
• School is out Wednesday at noon.
• McKinley is supposed to start a dance class for Jr. Miss
• Stamp Club meets tomorrow night
• Dentist appt. Thursday (this is an all day trip)

Instead…

I so should be working my tail off on packing and cleaning and painting and packing. 
Instead, I got on etsy and went shopping.  You know that it kind of like antiquing from home. 

I scored these lil pans for only $14 plus shipping.  Still cheaper than I’ve seen in stores.  Mc loves to make mud pies and she’s already broke these in. 

I got this sign for RC.  I  loved it, thought it will be perfect for his new room.  Or somewhere sweet for us all to enjoy! 
Instead, we also went to the park Sunday afternoon to play for awhile. 

I like this cute picture of Mc in front of the old bridge. 
Instead, I dug out some supplies and finally made a sign I’d been wanting to make. 

I saw something similar to this on Pinterest, and ordered the saying from Uppercase Living.  I finally found some old wood I liked and applied the letters.  They do not like the wood, so it was tough.  However, they are staying on there, so it’s going to be great. 
In my mind, I have a spot for it in the new house.

Painting…

I was waiting for this day to come… the day I could start painting!! 

On Friday night, I primed the first of the bedrooms to be painted.

The kids got the treat of riding the bus to the new house. 

Then on Saturday, we painted some more.  Mom and David started in his room.

It ended up looking like this by the day was done.

And we worked on McKinley’s room.

And here is how it ended up looking.

I’ll share more of the rooms as we fill them and decorate them.  Each kid was able to pick out the colors they wanted.

David is going with a WWE – Smackdown v. Raw room.  Yep. 

RC is getting a sports themed room.

McKinley is getting an American Girl – or Molly Girl as we call them –room. 

Greg and I are getting a romantic room. Tee Hee…. 

Kittens

Who loves kittens? 

We do.  Especially when they are so new!

My dad told me that their were 8 or 9 kittens born and in a barrel in the barn.  So the kids and I went over Saturday to check on them.  Right away we found the barrel, but only 5 kittens.

We snuggled on them.  We loved on them.

This one is my favorite. 
So, after constant bothering, we went back Sunday to check again.  That is when we found out, we were looking in the wrong barrel.  There was another barrel.  And that is where the 8 original kittens were.

So that makes THIRTEEN kittens!  Yay! 

While we snuggled babies, these big cats enjoyed supper.  And watched us carefully – they aren’t very friendly. 

Making A Home

I thought I would share a bit more about our home design.  I think I should have got to architectural school.  I love home designs and floor plans.  I stalk the Saturday paper for the weekly plan and I’ve also enjoyed browsing through them online. 
Quite awhile ago, I got a home design software called Envisioneer Express 5.0. It allows you to create your own floor plans, and home models.  I did this for my parents when they built their house 8 years ago.  And I’ve had TONS, I mean TONS of designs on there that I loved. 
So when it came down to the chance that we might actually decide to build a home, I looked to my designs and created some new ones. 

This was the final cut.  A one level house with room for everyone and maybe more to spare.
If you didn’t know, my husband has been in a wheelchair since January 2006, and shortly after that we bought the house in town and fixed it up for us to live in.  And it’s been great, but our dream has been to be in the country. 
So we needed a few things.  One level, so that we didn’t have to worry about an elevator or chair lift.  4 bedrooms, so everyone can have their space, now and if/when they come back to visit.  I wanted my craft room.  I am lucky, I know!!  We wanted a large garage that can house our cars and Greg’s tools.  And more space for all of us to move about and be together in. 
I’m pretty excited seeing how this design on the computer is coming to life.  and learning a little about it in the process. 
RIGHT NOW…
We are pouring cement for the garage.  Then the phone, water, power and propane can be ran into the house. 
Then the rest of the taping and mudding will be done and the texture sprayed.  Hopefully, by the weekend, we will be painting. 

The House–From the Beginning PART 2

I wanted to break it up some, so this is the 2nd part of the house building up to this date. 

The weekend of March 17th, my dad set to work on our road into the house. We still have some more to add, but it’s a road that leads to home. 

I like driving up now seeing our house.  I love the color.  When I told my brother I picked RED, he wasn’t impressed, but I am!! 
I wanted to be able to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible so we wanted a deck out back.  This photos is from the patio doors off the master bedroom. 


Here is a better shot of the back porch. 

The patio doors on the right are from the master bedroom, and the doors on the left are from the dining area. 

Here it is with the tin on to match the roof. 

Since mid April, the sheetrock has been going up.  I am impressed with the speed of the work when it comes to this.  YAY!! 


This is from the kitchen and dining area and below is the living room. 

This is another shot of the living room with the built in area. 

This is one of the kids’ bedrooms. 

And this is a shot going down the hall into the kitchen and dining area. 

The House–From the Beginning…

This is the beginning of the house building. 
We finally decided to build this new home in the end of Summer 2011, and we were pouring concrete the day before Thanksgiving. 
Now if you’d seen the Montana winter we had in 2010-2011, then thinking that we could build a home in the winter in MT would have been nuts.  But this winter was 180 degree difference from the previous year. 
These first three were from late October 2011, when we did the dirt work for the foundation. 

Next came the footings and foundation, that were poured in November 2011. 

It wasn’t long after that the foundation walls and the floor joists were put up.  I snapped this photo of D and R standing near the future garage area,. 

And just as quickly, the walls went up.  I love this photo of the kids in their future bedrooms.  (December 2011)

Also, in December, we dug a well.  It was interesting to watch that happen. 

By Christmas, all of the stem walls were up. 

However, the week between Christmas and New Years was warm, but windy.  Very windy!!  Two of the walls blew  down. 

And the wind pushed these braces through the wall. 

That was quickly repaired, and it was all tied together. 

I remember the day we drove out and it looked like this.  A house.  AWESOME!!

It didn’t take much longer for the inside walls to pop up either!  Seeing the skeleton of the house was fun!!

Soon, we started seeing more, as the windows and doors went in and the siding went up. I don’t think too many people are able to put siding on a house in February in Montana.