Mr. Edison Would Be So Proud...

Because now when you walk into the house and flip the switch (that wasn't even there earlier last week) you are rewarded with....light! It is so cool to be able to walk around the house turning on lights and really being able to see the finishing touches coming together.

Dining Room fixture.

Lights! Sconces in the half bath. Time to get serious shopping for that mirror now. :)

Lots of Changes at the House!

I have been shocked at how quickly they get things done on the house and this week was no different. Last Friday Matt and I went to visit and found workers still in there working on mudding the drywall. Most of the mud was still wet throughout the house.

When I drove by Monday evening I was shocked to see a garage door. That typically meant "lock down" or that something big was happening inside that they didn't want people to steal. I didn't have time to go in that night but finally made it back on Wednesday.

You can not imagine my surprise when I saw the changes that had happened between Friday and Wednesday:

Garage door installed!

Railings on the stairs. Wood will be stained to match the cabinets.

Kitchen cabinets. Cabinets were also in the bathrooms and laundry room.

Doors installed. Also notice the walls have been sanded and primed.

Chair railing and wainscoting in the dining room installed.

Double tray ceiling in our bedroom finished.

One counter top installed in the kids bathroom.

Trim installed. Both base boards and trim around the doors and windows.

When Matt went back by yesterday they had installed about 75% of the electrical boxes, outlets and light switches, throughout the house and had painted the baseboard.

Makes you wonder what is going to take so long that it won't be finished before the end of February doesn't it??

Goodbye Sweet Girl...

Last Friday was a difficult day for the family. We had to say good bye to the sweetest dog I have ever known. Ginger had been fighting Cushings Disease which was  causing her body to produce too much cortisol and therefore making her liver over work and grow too big. If this had been left untreated, it would have quickly killed her. But it was detected early and she was on medicines to keep it that way.

However on Monday of last week her breathing became labored and got worse as the week progressed. On Friday morning mom called the vet to get an appointment. She was very upset when she called me but I wasn't aware of how bad it had gotten. I went with her to the vet and we were both beyond shocked to discovered her lungs were almost completely filled with cancer. Come to find out the cortisol was keeping the cancer at bay but once it was being managed by the meds, the cancer rapidly spread and the doctor didn't feel as though there was anything we could do at that point to help her. She told us a biopsy of the lungs would be extremely tough on her alone.

We never want a dog to suffer and that is all Ginger would have done. So we made the extremely hard decision to say good bye to her. She would have been 12 next month. As I held her in my arms saying goodbye, I couldn't help but relive the moment we first saw her in that cage in Louisville and how we all fell in love immediately with that sweet face. She was the perfect fit for the family and for mom and will never be forgotten. In my mind she will always be Ginger Lee even though her official name is Precious Ginger.

We love you sweet girl.

Gettting in the Christmas Spirit!

Last Saturday was a fun filled day of Christmas stuff! The day started out with Matt and I hitting the mall for our one day of Christmas shopping. We fight the crowd, stop at PF Changs for lunch and try to knock out the final things on the list. And honestly always have a great time doing it. I had told him he could stay home this year but he surprised me by jumping right in the car with me.

After we conquered the mall we headed to Frankfort to attempt to make candy with Nana. Making candy with a 10 and 2 year old is quite entertaining for sure!

We stopped for a break around dinner to head down to Buffalo Trace to see some lights and to meet Santa. The boys even left the UK/UNC game to go with us. The funniest moment of the night happened as we were leaving. Alex had heard us all telling the guard lady good night and Merry Christmas so when he got across the street, he stopped, turned back to the lady and yelled, "Hey lady! Have a Christmas!" It had to be one of the funniest things I have heard yet come out of his mouth.

After we made it back home, Sandy, John and Kathy came by and the chaos just grew but fun was had by all.

Mom and I had to set back together on Sunday to finish up the candy but when all was said and done we managed to make bourbon balls, peanut butter balls, haystacks, peanut butter roll, cookies, fudge and chocolate covered pretzels.

Here are a few pictures I snapped during the fun:

Working hard on the peanut butter.

Time to roll up the balls.

Me asking Reagan to show me her peanut butter ball.

And then I asked Alex to show me his.

Reagan laughing at how many adults it takes to make fudge.

The official taste tester. Once she got a taste of the peanut butter roll she wouldn't leave the room.

Matt and Sandy being Matt and Sandy.

Chilling with Santa. When Santa asked him what he wanted, his response was to point at the big bowl of candy canes and say, "that!".

Goofy child.

I wonder how much longer she will humor me with pictures with Santa.

Pre-Drywall Walk Through...

Last week was a big moment at the house. We had our pre-dry wall walk through. This is pretty much the half way point and when things start getting finished on the inside.

At this meeting we were introduced to our project manager, Jamie, and we walked through the entire house pointing out any concerns we might have and were able to ask any questions we had. 

We also learned that they are installing insulation today or tomorrow, will have the drywall delivered probably tomorrow and may even pour the driveway and porch this week since the weather is suppose to be warmer.

I got really excited when our realtor mentioned that we are about 60 days out at this point which would put us about 3 weeks earlier than expected. But then he mentioned something about a 3 week break for Christmas so we are right back to where we thought we would be at the end of February. I am still keeping my fingers crossed it gets done a little early but my expectations are really low.

Hopefully I will have some more updates really soon with walls, cabinets, etc. Exciting times!!

On a funny note, I can't quit buying for the new house. On black Friday, when I was supposed to be buying Christmas gifts, I brought home new bath mats, new tupperware, new Pyrex dishes, and a bed in a bag set for the spare room. Considering the lack of storage space we have, I should probably quit buying until we move. But it is just so hard!

A New Friend We Call Marley...

I may have mentioned before that there are some 4 legged friends on the farm that aren't horses. Doug (the owner) has 3 dogs that we see around the farm every once in a while. We actually don't see them as much as I expected we would though, just occasionally running around. We have never asked Doug what their names are so we just made up names from them. There is a goldendoodle we call "Doodle", a terrier mix we call "whitey" because he is all white, and a Jack Russell we call "Jackie". Jackie was the first to officially welcome us to the farm when we first moved in. We had left the door open as we were moving stuff into the house and we found her just hanging out in the office. She was as content as can be and it took us a bit to convince her to leave. 

This weekend a new friend showed up. A blonde lab. We call him "Marley" from the movie Marley and Me. He is the most playful and sweetest dog I have seen. He played with the kids for a long time last night and when we finally went inside to eat dinner we saw this lab head pop up at the kitchen window. I tried to snap a picture but he disappeared before I could. He was back this morning to say hello and was thrilled when Alex spilled his Trix all over the carport getting into the car. Since Matt threw him some chicken off the grill last night, he may never leave. :)

Here are a couple of videos of them playing last night. The first one is cute because you can hear Alex say Marley.

Kids Say the Darnest Things...

Just a quick post to share some of the funny things have Alex has come up with over the last few weeks:

Nanny and Poppy or Nana and Poppa?
For the longest time Alex would only call my dad Poppa despite everyone trying to get him to say Poppy. Out of the blue he switched to calling him Poppy. But with that, he started calling mom Nanny instead of Nana. So apparently the endings have to match.


Hi Piggies!
During bath a couple of weeks ago I was helping him get washed up and said something about washing his piggies. So he looked down at his toes and said, "Hi piggies! We are taking a bath!". It was the funniest thing mainly because he was just as serious as could be.


Wrinkled Hands.
Not long after the bath with the piggies I had another funny bath experience. He didn't want to get out but had been in the tub for a very long time. So I told him that his fingers were getting all shriveled up. So he looks down at his hands and says, "hand, you want to get out?" and then looks at me and says, "no mommy, hands no wanna get out."


Disgusting!
The word of the weekend was disgusting. The first time he used it was at Gatti Town with Nana and Poppy when he saw some weird noodles. We got his on video the next night talking about daddy's cooking: (I will vouch for daddy that dinner was in fact very delicious and not disgusting.)

I Not Know:
Another big phrase for him right now is "I not know" and he makes the funniest face when he says it. He scrunches up his forehead and squints his eyes and looks so serious. He uses this all the time too. Night before last he said he wanted a snack and carried on a whole conversation with himself about it:
All Alex:
"I need a snack"
"I not know what I want"
"Goldfish?"
"I not know"


Backseat Driver:
Alex has become the world's worse back seat driver. He is constantly tell me to stop, go faster, turn, or whatever he thinks I need to do. It is pretty funny most of the time.


I am sure I am forgetting plenty of other funny moments since we get at least one a day. I will post again if I think of any other really good ones.

A Clean Car??

I recently broke down and admitted that although I swore I would never drive a minivan, the new Honda Odyssey with the built in vacuum is quite tempting. One look at my car and you would understand why. On any given day you can find a ton of trash, cereal, matchbox cars, a ball or 2, a drink cup, and various other things all in just the back floor board.

It was funny when I spend 20 minutes cleaning out my car to take it to the car wash to be cleaned. And then the employees there still managed to find 3 matchbox cars I hadn't found. Less than 24 hours later you couldn't even tell it had been cleaned out.

I bet you are wondering how this happens? It happens quickly and easily due to the fact that Alex rides with me every day to Frankfort to Sandy's. Before we leave the house he has to gather his snack (usually dry cereal), a drink and a toy to take with him. Most of the time some of the snack is dropped into the car seat, then falling down into the seat of the car. The drink has been known to fall over leaking onto the seat as well. I finally learned to say no to milk since water isn't as big a deal to spill onto the seat. Then the toy, a car, truck, ball, etc. is left in the car, rarely actually taken into Sandy's and never carried back into our house. Thus turning my car into a toy box until I take the time to pack it all into a bag and carry it into the house. Of course the process just starts all over again the next morning.

So my poor car, only a year old, has been through it. Matt finally quit complaining about it and just shakes his head whenever he gets in. Hopefully one day I will drive a clean car again, at least for longer than 5 minutes.

Mess Of Wires, Pipes, and Much More...

Big changes lately! Mainly looking like a big jumble of plastic pipes, wires and metal pipes. But of course this means finished plumbing, wiring and HVAC! Once this is all done, we will get the call for the pre-drywall walk through. This is a chance for us to ask about any concerns we have of anything going on in the walls before they get covered up with dry wall. One might wonder, "how in the world would I notice if something wasn't right" but it is amazing how much you notice when it is your house being built. 

For example, when driving down the road to the house last week I told Matt the front door looked slanted. I am sure he thought I was nuts. But sure enough, it is leaning. The top leans out further than the bottom. I will mention this for sure. Matt noticed a crack on one of our steps that needs to be fixed. I also noticed that when we changed the way the door swung open from the garage into the house, they didn't fix where the light switch went. It should be moved to the other wall, but now it is behind the door. That will be awkward coming in and trying to get a light on with the door blocking it. See you notice things!

But that is why you get these opportunities, to be sure the finished product is as close to perfect as possible.

The other exciting part about all this is that once the dry wall is installed we will get the official closing date. Right now we are set for February 25th but they will be able to tell us exactly when we will close once the dry wall is done. I actually had a call from Ball Homes on Tuesday letting me know things are moving along nicely and asking if we would be willing to move our closing date up and be in earlier. Of course!! We should find out for sure in about 3 weeks. Yay!

Here is what is going on right now:

Looking up into the attic at all the chaos.

Soon to be light switches!

Furnace. On these cold days I really wish it worked when I was over there checking things out! I bet the workers do too!

This may seem like a crazy picture but I was SO excited to see it. It is the sign in the upstairs window with the house number and OUR name on it. Getting so real now!

Rome Wasn't Built In A Day...

But apparently a deck can be built in a half of one! I drove by the house yesterday at 1 and they had just backed a trailer up to the back of the house. I was curious what it was for so I went back by at 4:45. Much to my shock and surprise they had almost completely built a deck in less than 4 hours.

Lots of Help...

Matt and I both agree that there is nothing more annoying than a squeaky floor. So Matt decided to buy a big bucket of screws and go through the house making sure all the floorboards were good before the carpet got laid. Of course the kids wanted to go "help" too. We did find that they had used quite a few screws on the floor throughout the house so Matt didn't have to do quite as much as he expected.

Just a few pictures of his help on Sunday:

Reagan wasn't really "helping" she just jumping in for a photo op.

He had packed all his tools into his toolbox to take with him.

Blink and You Have an Exterior!

After my post on the 1st, we went by that weekend and sure enough they had finished the brick!

And then we go back the next weekend and ta da! we have siding too! I was out of town most of last week so Matt had his hands full with the kids. He didn't get to go by until Thursday and he found the siding. It is amazing how fast things get done. Ben said they did the siding in less than 2 days.

So the exterior isn't finished but it sure has a lot done!

It's A Brick...House...

Looky, looky, we are getting brick!!

And then it rained for the past 2 days so I am anxious to go by after today and see if anything else new has happened. Matt did stop by a day or so ago and said they had been working on the inside on plumbing and that in the basement there was quite the mess of pipes running around.

Couple of Random Pictures...

Thought this was a fun photo op because the wood at the bottom is our project number for the house.

I also had to get a picture of the staircase that was laying in the front yard for a long time. Mainly because we would drive by and see it laying there and think, "shoot still can't get to the second floor". Until one day, we went in the house any way and there was a staircase installed. So we have no idea what the extra one was for.

A Dream Come True...

Some people have dreams of big jobs, fancy cars, crazy vacations. Me? I dream of a big, deep, bath tub. Yep, a bath tub. People have told me over and over again that big tubs are a waste of space. I will disagree until I am blue in the face. I have mentioned before that a big tub (or room to add one) was a requirement when we were house shopping so of course when we decided to build, there was no question about whether we would have one.

I know most people really don't take baths that much, but I honestly do. It has killed me to not be able to take one in the rental house (lack of water pressure would equal the water being cold before the tub was full). So when we walked into the new house and saw my dream installed, there were no words to describe my excitement. It took everything in me not to climb right in. And of course Alex saying "it's dirty mommy". But one day it won't be, and it will have water hooked up and actually walls around it, and I will be in heaven!

Yay!! So excited!

Matt's stand up shower. He is excited about this as well, but not nearly as excited as I am about the tub.

Windows and Doors...Closer...

Just a couple of quick pictures of the windows and doors up close:

Closer shot of the front door. But it will be black when all is said and done.

Picture is dark but this is the back door and windows of the breakfast nook.

More and More House Pieces!

They have really been working hard on the house since my last post. We now have a framed breakfast nook and windows and doors! They also added the stairs to the second floor so we have officially been able to walk around the entire house. It is so very exciting!

Stopped by on Monday to find windows were waiting in the garage.

On Tuesday Matt stopped by and the windows were in place!

Stairs to the basement.

Stairs to the second floor.

Alex's room looking in from the hall.

Our little stairs up to our bedroom.

Looking down the hall to the door of the spare bedroom.

Looking down the other part of the hall and into Reagan's room.