All smiles. :)

My happy girl!

Lots of good changes!

A lot has happened since my last post - we finished (almost) the house, moved in, sold our old house, and by far the biggest change - we became parents to the most beautiful baby in the world (I'm not prejudiced at all!)














First things first! My J entered this world on January 6th. It was the coldest day we have seen for 20 years at a -36 windchill (although if we're being honest, I really had no idea how cold it was and I really didn't care at the time). She was 7 pounds, 15 ounces and 20 inches long. And born with a set of lungs! I don't know where she got that from - A and I are both typically quiet...I think, anyway. She has her daddy's forehead and her mommy's blue eyes. And she likes to eat! A lot! She has been consistently eating about double the typical amounts for her age according to our pediatrician.





I love her beyond everything - I didn't know such a love was possible, though I'd heard it was. And this is my last week of maternity leave. I'm so incredibly blessed to have had this time with her and I will have a hard time come Monday morning I know! Twelve weeks sounds like a long time...but it is so, so short.


As far as house stuff - the new one is finished besides a few bits of trim here and there. And I love being here! It's so nice and quiet (on the few warm days J and I have been able to get outside). It's still quite a mess inside despite the fact that we moved in over a month ago...we have gotten a large bit of STUFF (that we had decluttered from the old house for selling) out of my parents' basement so it looks like we moved in all over again. Thank goodness for rummage sales! I'm doing my best to downsize and contribute a lot to the sale we will have when the town rummage sales are going on. And I'm doing my best to get the majority of it done before I go back to work! I'm making progress but there's a bit to go.


Our old house sold at the absolute most perfect time it could. God had a plan for us all along, though I worried a bit along the way! We sold the house within weeks of being able to move into the new house, so we didn't have to bother with moving into temporary housing in between the two. Which would have added to our stress exponentially! (Just for the record, building a house and having a baby at the same time can be done...obviously. But it's definitely not something I'd recommend everyone do! It's QUITE stressful.) And the person who bought our house seemed like she really liked it, so I feel better knowing my first house will be taken care of. It was a good house for us to start our life together in and has a lot of very good memories associated with it.


Now I'd best go unpack and sort a few more boxes while J is happy in her bouncer!

Big news and probably the last update for a little while!

Big news and events going on around here! Obviously, I haven’t been very diligent about updating here, and I hate to say it but that will probably continue.

Baby is due Sunday, but really could come any day I guess. Hopefully we are ready! We have tried to make ourselves as ready as possible but we are newbies so I’m sure we will have a huge learning curve to jump on! We are EXTREMELY excited! And a bit nervous, too…

Also big news – hopefully our house has sold! It isn’t final yet so keep your fingers crossed – we are waiting for the buyer to get confirmation that the loan will be approved. Which we all know can be tricky these days with the economy and all that jazz…

I have started packing up a few boxes here and there in preparation for moving. I know for a little while after the baby arrives I won’t be able to do a whole lot in that department so I’m trying to get as prepared as possible! It makes my mind rest easier anyway, knowing I’ve gotten a start – however small and insignificant it may be.

Our new house is coming right along! Drywall has been hung, mudded and taped and painting has commenced! I love how the colors are coming out. It’s hard to tell what exactly you’ve chosen when you are just looking at a little colored square on a piece of cardboard…but so far everything has been exactly what I was picturing! I can’t wait to see all the pieces come together…especially the kitchen. I have a specific vision in my mind of what it will look like when it’s finished so hopefully it all comes together that way! So far, so good. The yellow is lovely.

(On a side note, it does create a bit of extra work for painters when you choose a different color paint for every different section of your house…but the end result is super happy and wonderful! )

After painting is completed, we will be ready to install the floors, and then cabinets and all the rest of that type of stuff. We are almost there and it is (so far) looking like everything is falling into place beautifully!

See you on the other side of Baby Day!

An Update!

Well, we are still working on electric…but it is almost done! A assures me there is just a little smidge more downstairs to do and it will be finished. Which will then be followed by insulation and drywall and…paint!!

I keep telling A that we need to go to the store and get more paint chips because I totally didn’t get enough the first time around. (Although it’s not like we’ve just been sitting around trying to find things to occupy our time!) I really would like to be prepared with what colors to buy ahead of time so we aren’t waiting on me. I think I have a general idea for about half the house – and I need paint chips to finish up the last half!

On the baby front, we have hit the 30 week mark (!), which seems unbelievable to me. 10 weeks left sounds like so little! We still don’t really have anything ready…we have half a crib that A’s cousin very nicely gave to us since she was finished with it – unfortunately the front panel was in storage at the time we picked it up and they were in the middle of moving so…we don’t have that part yet. But half a crib is better than nothing, right? We also need to hit a fabric store to pick out fabric to have the rocking chair I got from A’s grandparents’ sale reupholstered. And we have a dresser. That’s pretty much it! The showers are scheduled though and I am completely resisting the temptation to check what is missing from the registries! We are getting more and more excited with each passing week. Oh, and we do have a few clothes that a friend gave me and that Mom found at some garage sales. Mom washed them up for us and it is so lovely to smell that wonderful baby laundry smell…

Hopefully we will be able to start moving forward on the house more quickly once the electric is finished – it seems like it has taken a long time, but doing it ourselves has saved us a LOT of money. Which is always a good thing. I’m getting ready to see it look more like a finished product!

One Big Update!

Well it has been awhile, I know! There has been a ton going on, so I’ll try to bring you up to date without overlapping information.

*The rock is going up on the outside of the house – this is the last outside finishing. It looks really good! I was a teensy bit worried it wouldn’t match the siding well, since we had to choose it by holding the rock book up to the siding instead of checking out some samples in person. There just wasn’t time. Thankfully, it turned out wonderfully.

*Indoors, I don’t know if I mentioned it, but all the doorknobs are on my exterior doors. This thrills me tremendously, and probably a bit more than it should…but it is just cool to be able to walk into our new house through normal functioning doors!

*The garage door is installed and the opener works when it is hooked up. I love the door. Through some issues at the company with backordering the door we initially chose (which was pretty much a cheapie as much as possible), we ended up getting a carriage style door for the same cost as the door we had ordered initially because of the time constraints we were under at the time to get the house closed up. So we basically got 15 to 20% of our door free! It is beautiful, and more what I would have chosen if cost was no issue, so I’m happy with it!

*We ordered the kitchen cabinets and counters – they should be in later this month. We aren’t ready for installation yet but we couldn’t pass up the kitchen and bath sale at Menard’s! It saved us about $2,000! Not too shabby! I’m very anxious to see these!

*We ordered the bath vanities at the Menard’s sale as well, and they are ready to be picked up. I hope they turned out well! Although to be honest, we went for the cheapest we could get in most cases. These things can be upgraded later and just aren’t that crucial right now, as long as we have something!

*This past weekend we got a fabulous start on running the wire – we opted to do the electric ourselves because it would cost a BUNDLE to have it done for us. Luckily, we have a lot of family and friends that have plenty of knowledge and experience to help us out and get it done safely. We are saving an immense amount and certainly wouldn’t be able to do it ourselves! Most of the wire for the house circuits has been run – now it’s all about getting everything connected and plugs and all that good stuff. After that comes insulation and drywall – it will be looking fabulous!

On the baby front, we have only about 3 more months to go! It is unbelievable. We are so excited for this. And we are just getting into a lot of the decisions that come along with baby – which is a little overwhelming (though fun!) at times since neither of us has much – ok, any – prior baby experience. We are enjoying the learning process a lot though! (And incidentally, I think there are TOO many pacifier options in the world – just saying.)

It really is a house!

Our house is looking so housey now! The trusses are on (which made a big difference just with that) and part of the sheeting was done by the end of Friday. You can actually kind of see where it’s going now, and know that it is going to be a house when it’s done – not just a compilation of random walls and windows. Not that there was any doubt…it’s just very much a thrill.

It is so cool to see what we have envisioned  for so long in our heads finally taking shape in the real world. Paper transformed into wood, nails and concrete. It’s an amazing process. I’m sure it’s humdrum to those who see this everyday (A for sure was not as excited as I was for the concrete – it’s just another day of work to him) but for me it is just unbelievable. And exciting and fun!

We are going to be ordering shingles soon…we have picked the color we want anyway. I’m not sure when the actual ordering will take place. This weekend I sat down with the blueprints and mapped out roughly how many electrical outlets I want and where I want them – a task much more involved than you might think. You have to consider placement very carefully; you don’t want all your plugs stuck behind large immovable objects and you have to make sure that you will have plenty (but not too many) because they would be a complete pain to add later. I think soon after the roof is completely on, electrical and heating work may begin. (And we will be back in territory where I really can’t make decisions…because I don’t have a clue what all the terms and questions mean.)

Now if I could just fit time in there to work on nursery décor ideas and name lists…hopefully this decisionless time (for me anyway) will help me with that!