Windows

Windows are very important to us.  When planning our home, we wanted to make sure we included a lot of windows in order to provide great views and lots of light.  I think we ended up with 50-something in total.  I'd say that's probably enough:)  We're pretty excited about our windows, especially the huge picture windows in the great room. 

It was fun to see the house with the windows installed last week.  It made it start to feel like the house is really coming together.

Not a window shot - but a fun side view of the deck:)

And just a few pictures of Cole.  He loves to explore when we visit the house.

Sometimes it gets a little cold, so Cole and I will sit in the car for a few minutes to warm up. He's pretty good at entertaining himself in the front seat.

Be-Decked

On Nick's birthday, after dropping Kim off at the airport, we ran out to visit the house.  (As I said previously, we think it's a good holiday activity:)) It was nice to see the house - we hadn't been able to visit for about 4 days straight because of visitors had been going through withdrawals!  Okay, not really. But it was fun to visit there was something new to see - our deck had been added.  We're really looking forward to lots of family fun time out on that deck.  BBQ-ing, playing games, relaxing. Can't wait.

A Little White Lie

This past weekend our families were in town for Maliya's blessing.  We tried to avoid the topic of our lot while they were here, but as we kind of expected, both sets of parents asked to see it.  Since taking them to the lot obviously would have blown our big surprise, we decided that we'd have to fib a little.  Okay, maybe 'fib' isn't exactly the right word. I'll admit, we lied.  And it wasn't a little, it was a lot.

In order to keep our surprise going, we took our families (at two different times...meaning twice the lies) to a lot two doors down from ours.  It was actually one that we considered originally, but we're glad we didn't get it, because we really don't like it now.  It came in handy, though, because it's about the same size as our lot and the creek that runs through our lot runs through the  cover-up lot as well.  The sad thing is that whoever recently purchased the lot decided to clear all of the big trees, leaving it as just a big patch of dirt.  When we gave our parents the grand tour, we not only lied about the lot being ours, but we also lied about clearing the land and about how much we love the lot.

It was hard not to point over to our lot (visible from the cover-up lot) and tell everyone about our completely awesome house.  I so badly wanted to walk them through it!  We stuck to our guns, though, and everyone seemed to buy our story (though Nick's parents and Meg and Ryan didn't seem to like the lot very much, ha ha). Whew - crisis averted!  It was tough, but luckily (a) Nick is a really good liar (seriously, he made up some really convincing stories to a lot of on-the-spot questions), and (b) we don't think we'll have to do that again.  I sure hope we won't.  It's way easier not to spill the beans when nobody's asking about them! 

The Bird's Nest

(Cole's Outlook)

Nate, our builder, had a really neat idea back in September that he dubbed 'Cole's Outlook'. He thought it would be cool to create an extra passageway off of the main staircase that would lead to a little lookout/kid's space.  He wasn't sure if it would be possible, so we had some time to think about it while he figured that out. We weren't too sure about the idea at first, but gradually it grew on us and we became pretty excited about it. 

After deciding we liked Nate's idea, we also decided we needed to rename it, simply to be fair to all of our kids.  One day we were brainstorming and nick suggested calling it the Bird's Nest.  I told him I thought that was a definite possibility.  A few minutes later I felt really clever as I suggested that we give it the name of the outlook barrel that pirate ships have.  Nick had to laugh as he let me know that the outlook I was referring to was called a Bird's Nest.  When he suggested that name totally thought he had an actual bird's nest in mind. Ha - I felt pretty silly:)

The passageway, or Bird's Nest, was actually framed into the house last week, and after seeing it, we're about 20x more excited.  It is so cool!  Not only will it be a fun spot for our kids, but it also is a great source of light for the staircase (which Nick and I love - we originally wanted a window in the staircase but didn't think it would be at all possible), and it offers an awesome view. 

It's hard to explain the Bird's Nest in words and unfortunately the pictures below don't do much better.  Basically it's an extra staircase that comes off of the main staircase landing.  The stairs are right above the master bedroom closet and the outlook and window are right above the master bathroom.  The outlook is probably about 4' x 5' or so and will have a little kids table or beanbag  or something fun like that.