No More Secrets 

My parents and sister Mandi came in town last weekend and we FINALLY told them about our big surprise.  In order to get them up here during the parade weekend, we told them that we had a surprise for them 'involving the kids'.  They had no idea what we were up to, but they were curious, so they came.  We also told them that, wow, they were going to be coming during the Parade of Homes and that the builder we met a year ago was willing to give us free tickets so we could see his work.  They love parades, so they were all for that.  

They came into town Friday night. After chatting for awhile they asked us when we were going to tell/show them the surprise.  We told them it would happen sometime the next day, that'd we spring it on them at some point.  On Saturday we made them first endure a hike/river walk (along a dried up river bed - lame). Then we 'decided' to see 'just one' parade home before lunch because we needed to get those free tickets from the builder.  We drove them to our home for the tour.  As soon as we got out of the car, they noticed Phil Crenshaw's Sound Solutions truck (he was there for the parade).  They were shocked!  My mom just knew that it was his truck and was excited to go inside to see if he was there.  What a small world!  Well, sure enough, Phil was there. Luckily, though, he and Nate were both SUPERB fibbers.  They were completely in on our charade (along with Jennifer and everyone else in the house).  My parents and Mando went through the entire home and chatted with both Nate (who gave us a tour) and Phil for quite awhile without suspecting a thing.  (My mom did notice things, like the sewing machine that was just like mine.  Nate was quick on his toes though, and explained that it was his wife's. Good job Nate.)

As we left the house, I asked them if they wanted to see the surprise before lunch, provided Maliya could handle it (she had been freaking out for the past 15 minutes). They thought I was a little off (no way could Maliya handle it) but said 'sure' anyway.  That's when I told them to turn around (per the video above).  As you can imagine, they were quite surprised, just like Nick's parents were.  They couldn't believe it, which is exactly what we were going for, and they were really glad they hadn't said anything bad about the house, ha ha.

Nick and I waited for almost a year to let this surprise out.  We were super excited to do so and were hoping for a fun reaction.  Neither of our families disappointed us. Seriously, you guys were great. Thank you for making it so fun for us, and for being patient as we filled you in on the details.  I'm sure we talked your ears off (and then some).  It's been a fun adventure, but it's been even better being able to share it.  We love you and can't wait to have you back!

Phil's Truck

As usual, Cole found plenty of things to play with at the house

Family Photo

Jennifer, our extremely talented and wonderfully kind designer

Home Sweet Home

Terminado - Finuto - Beendet

It's finished!  Well, kind of. Finished enough for the Parade, which is going on right now (Sept 14-16 & Sept 22-23). All of the contractors worked around the clock the past few days to get the house ready for the parade.  It was craziness. I even pulled a few late nights trying to get the staging finished. Nick also pulled a few no sleep nights stressing about everything:)  In the end, it was all worth it. The house has come together beautifully.  There are still a few projects that will be finished after the parade, but those are just minor things.  Everything looks fabulous and we couldn't be more grateful for the many wonderful people who have shared their time, talents, and sincere kindness with us throughout this adventure.  We have met numerous individuals whose kindness has just blown us away and truly inspired us to 'pay it forward'.  We are grateful to all of them, especially  Nate (world's best builder), Robin (world's greatest loan agent), and Phil (coolest guy ever in so many ways). We're also grateful for the house we fell in love with at the 2011 Utah Valley Parade of Homes, as most of our design ideas came from it.  (Pictures of that house saved us SO much time and energy when making decisions.) Most importantly, we are grateful to our Heavenly Father, who made this all possible.  He has guided us through this entire process and is continuing to do so as we close on the house and finalize our loan and we are grateful.  What a blessing it is to know that the Lord knows us, has a plan for us, and loves us so very much.

Final Pictures

Master Bath

Master Shower

Master Bedroom

(custom bed made by a new friend - love it!)

Master Fireplace

Master Bathroom

Great Room
(the couches are in a weird position because the carpet was being cleaned)

One of the few pieces of furniture we purchased 

(holy cow, furniture is expensive!)

Kitchen 

(custom kitchen table made by a church friend - love it!)

(custom metal pantry doors made by a new friend using the metal from an old oil tanker - love it!)

Awesome art piece made by the pantry door guy

(he is ridiculously talented)

Theater

(The house project has been a bit of a stress for Nick.  Once his theater was finished, his real smile came back...)

Basement Family Room

Basement Game Area

Slide

(Nate's pride and joy)

Basement Bathroom

Craft Room & Piano Room

The Bird's Nest

Study

Maliya's Bathroom

Laundry Room

Hallway Window Seat

Maliya's Bedroom 

(once she's big enough for a bed)

Cole's Bathroom

Cole's Bedroom

(His favorite part is the red car pillow)

Cole's Secret Hide-Out

Baby #3's Bedroom

(I didn't take a picture of the 4th bedroom, which will be Maliya's room for now, as it is empty and not that exciting to look at)

(This furniture, as well as the furniture in the craft room, was custom made by the same friend who made our bed. He loaned these pieces to us for the parade.)

Rock & Roll

Our sound guys came up to GJ all of last week to install Nick's precious theater system.  We received a text the Saturday before from Phil, our family friend (& our awesome and amazing and ridiculously generous sound guru), telling us that we'd better be ready to Rock & Roll!  Boy was he right.  When they got that sound system going last week the house was jumpin'. Seriously.  The theater and the t.v.s and the sound system - they're all just awesome.  What's completely sweet to me, though, is how excited Nick is.  When he first heard music being played down in the theater, he got the biggest, most adorable boyish grin on his face.  It was classic.

 

The theater is almost complete - just needs one more paint job.  Here you can see the speakers mounted into the walls and the projector attached to the ceiling.

This is our SWEET screen and more speakers.

On another note, we met with our super talented and extremely generous faux artist, Kimberly, and her son (Wes?) last week to decide on a few more faux finishes. Wow, they are both so kind and are fabulous artists. They are going to be doing some very neat faux finishes over the next week (I don't think they'll be sleeping much) that I'm super excited to see.  (We learned that some of their finishes will add architectural value to the house - cool.) They finished one today that is beautiful and does a fantastic job of tying the floor color into the rest of the basement area: