The Roof & Plumbing

Who knew that this would've been one of the most exciting steps in the house-building process yet? Not me.  But it was! 

On Thursday, January 26, we met with Nate and the plumbers to discuss placement of a few things (primarily stuff in our master bathroom).  We also got to see the latest work on the house...it was the roof, which was about halfway done.  After that visit, I'm now super excited for our master bathroom.  Why?  Well, let me tell you! 

• First, we're going to have a top-of-the line air-jet tub (it blows heated air, not water) that is longer and deeper than standard tubs in the master bathroom (and a couple of the others as well).  We had decided that we didn't need a jet tub, but then our plumber told us that he got an amazing deal on these special tubs.  When we learned that he got them for less than 1/5th the regular price, we just couldn't pass them up! Why get a normal tub when you can get a really cool one for the same price? 
• Second, the shower is going to be done in Slate and the tub is going to be tiled on the outside, which should look pretty cool.
• Third, our shower is going to have an over-head sprayer, a regular sprayer, a hand-held one, and 4 body-sprayers (in the walls..like a car wash, ha ha).  We normally wouldn't have opted for this, but again, our plumber got an awesome deal....all of those sprayers for the price we'd you'd normally pay for just a normal sprayer and a hand-held one.  So the easy decision was, of course, to opt for the decked out shower.
• Fourth, our shower is going to have a keypad that will allow us to control all of the settings (temperature, turning the water on and off, etc etc) from right outside of the shower. Well, in the 'walkway' into the shower (it's not going to have a door). This is kind of hard to explain, but I promise, it's going to be great.  And once again, we got a steal of a deal! 

We're both pretty pumped about our master bathroom, to say the least. We never would have gone for all of these sweet upgrades, but thanks to the fact that we're doing a parade home, we're not spending any extra money. It's kinda fun to splurge on stuff like this when you're not really splurging at all:)

And now for a few pictures from that visit:

View from our kitchen window. It's going to be amazing in the spring and fall.

 

My boys looking out one of the front bedroom windows.

 

Our sweet family room, which you walk into when you enter the front door. I LOVE the big picture windows and am so excited for the views.

My boys again, this time looking out of one of the back bedroom windows.

 

Back view

 

Front view

The Trusses

I don't know if I spelled that correctly, or if I even used the right word. Hmm.  I'm referring to the pointy part of the the roof.  Whatever the correct term may be, this was a really fun visit. Having the trusses on the house actually made it start to look and feel like a real house.  Completely awesome. We got to the lot, were amazed, and sat and started for quite awhile.

Looking up from the main floor.

View from one of the upstairs bedrooms, looking out past our front yard.

Another shot of the back.  Growing and growing....

Top Floor Framing

We stopped by the lot a few days after viewing the garage to take a look at the top floor framing.  We were actually a little disappointed - it didn't seem like they had done much since we were last there.  I guess that's what we get for visiting every few days:)  That's the only time that has happened so far though. Usually we're amazed at how much has been done every time we show up.

Back view.

Whoa baby - it keeps growing and growing.

Nick also got a chance to work with Nate on our future tree-house tree. They trimmed it up all nice and neat and left the extra wood to be chopped into firewood.  Nick got to move some dirt around with Nate's mini dirt-mover (no idea what the real name is), which he was super excited about.  We also both thought it was pretty neat that he got to contribute to the house.  Maybe I'll find a way to dig into the work too...hmmm...baking for the workers?

This tree is going to make for an awesome tree house someday!

The Garage

Nick made sure to include a very spacious garage in our home design. He wanted to make sure we had room for our cars and normal garage stuff like bikes, lawn care stuff, etc, as well as plenty of space for him to play around with tools and such.  I think he's pretty excited about the garage he ended up creating, meaning we of course had to visit the house the day the garage was framed!  An added bonus to that trip out was that a tiny bit of the top floor framing had been done as well.  Cool stuff.

You're looking right at both of our garages.  They actually connect, so we'll only have one garage, but the two separate garage doors, sitting perpendicular to each other, will make it look like two.

Top floor framing

Main Floor Framing

On December 31, the day before the new year, our family decided to visit the house again (it's a good holiday activity!). We had to be sneaky because my mom was in town helping out (since we'd had Maliya) and we couldn't let her know what we were up to!  After Nick got home from work and Cole awoke from his nap, we told her we were going to take Cole for a drive to give him a little one-on-one time with Mom and Dad.  We felt okay about that excuse because we really did go for a drive - straight to the house! 

The framing for the main floor had begun, which was totally awesome.  It suddenly made the house feel huge, especially looking at it from the back!  It was a fun little family trip, made more exciting by the secrecy of it all:)

Heading up our stairs for the first time!

Back View

Front View

More Basement Photos

These were taken on December 27. Yes, we visited just 2 days after our Christmas visit. We usually average 2-3 visits per week:)

Cole - just checking things out

Front View

Christmas Day Fun

Christmas Day 2011 was unique. Different than any other we've had, but in a good way. It was filled with a few really great things, and was definitely a day to remember. 

The first exciting part of Christmas Day was bringing Maliya home.  She and I had been stuck in the hospital since Thursday, the day she was born, and we were all super thrilled to be able to bring her home on Christmas.

The second exciting part of Christmas Day was visiting the house.  The basement ceiling had been added since we'd last been there - nothing huge, but exciting nonetheless.  We had fun exploring the basement - a great family Christmas Day activity in our opinion:)

The third exciting part of Christmas Day was just how we spent the rest of the day...opening gifts, relaxing, skyping and phoning family members, remembering our Savior Jesus Christ.....just enjoying life and time with each other.

Family Photo

(Maliya's first visit to the new house)

Exploring the basement

Basement Framing & A Baby Girl

Here's a fun story for you. On Thursday, December 22, I awoke w/ Braxton Hicks contractions. I wasn't too worried because I'd had them most mornings ever since going into the hospital on Thanksgiving weekend (32.5 weeks....regular contractions...dialated to a 5).  After about an hour I noticed that the contractions weren't going away. Instead they'd gotten a little more uncomfortable and were quite regular.  Nick and I wanted to go visit the lot before he had to go to work that afternoon, and I originally thought it might be good to let the contractions slow down before going.  I nixed that idea though, and at about 9 or 9:30 we headed out to see the latest work on the house - the framing of the basement! 

Nick, Cole, and I had a great time at the lot.  It was so very cool to see the beginning of the framing - made it feel like we actually had a real house being built.  We stayed for probably 20 minutes oohing and aahing over everything, then decided to head home.

By time we got home, my contractions were a lot closer together (still coming regularly) and were actually starting to move beyond the 'uncomfortable' point. Nick thought it would be good for me to just hang out on the couch until they went away, and I completely agreed. That idea didn't last long, because suddenly my contractions became quite a bit more painful.  I told Nick we needed to come up with a plan.  He was confused. A plan?  For what?  In case we need to go into the hospital, I told him.  He was still a little confused.  I began to explain again, thinking in my head that we needed to figure out what to do with Cole, but I couldn't finish - a really rough contraction hit me and I had to sit on the stairs and let it play out.  Suddenly Nick realized what was going on and insisted that we head over to the hospital.  I was happy to oblige.

Instead of jumping into the car right away, we carefully got together a bag of things for Cole - added some toys, made a peanut butter sandwich, etc - in case we ended up staying at the hospital for awhile.  About 5-10 minutes later we finally got into the car and took off.  Nick had me call his office to tell them he might not be in to work that day (I had to make it a really quick call in between contractions).  At that point, we were still pretty naive, not realizing that the birth of our baby girl was staring us in the face.

The drive to the hospital only took about 7 minutes, as usual, which was lucky, because after Nick dropped me off at the ER entrance, it was only about another 25 minutes before I'd had Maliya.  Yep, over and done with that quickly.  I'll post more details on our blog, but I have to say it was one of the craziest experiences ever!!  I can't get over the fact that I was at the lot less than two hours before giving birth.  Are we crazy or what?  (The lot was also the first place I visited after having Maliya. I think we're addicted.)  I'm just grateful that the Lord made up for our naivety and made sure I got to the hospital in time!

Here are a few pictures, taken on a very special day indeed.

Basement siding/insulation

On or around Friday, December 16th (I need to stay updated so I don't forget the dates!) they put in the siding/insulation for our basement.  They used a fairly new kind (I don't remember what it's called) that's supposed to be really efficient.  It looks like styrofoam to me, but we'll see:) It was cool to see our house begin to rise...

Look how thick that is!