Summer Projects

While Phil is still unemployed, we decided that this was a great time to get some of the house projects done that we've wanted to do since moving in last August.

*Re-do the flagstone patio. Take out the little rocks that get kicked up everywhere and lower the flagstone so the wooden beams show so we can build a railing eventually for safety.

*Plant a veggie and flower garden on the side of the house in the flower beds.

*Plant flowers and plants out front to make the front of the house look nice. As you can see, it's still a work in progress.

*Build a storage loft in the garage so we can park one of the cars in the garage and clean/organize the garage.

I am so proud of my husband and what a great job he did on the loft. I helped a little here and there when needed but he was the mastermind behind the job. Great job for your FIRST EVER construction job!!

Over the past 3 weeks or so, we were able to accomplish all of those projects. We still have a little more to plant in the front of the house but the other projects are done! Now for leveling, tilling, topsoiling and seeding the side-yard. I can't WAIT until we have a nice side-yard of grass for Taeya to play in. I'm also looking forward to not tracking in TONS of dirt every time we go out to water our garden.

All the Trimmings

We had a wonderful time last weekend decorating our home for Christmas and picking out our Christmas tree in the mountains with our friends, the Jones family.

Enjoying our snack time in the middle of our tree hunting.


Taeya loved the sledding.

Taeya and her girls.

Wearing Momma's hat

A little of our beautiful state of Colorado
Mommy and Taeya

Taeya had a great time playing in (eating) the snow and having fun with the Jones girls and we hunted for our tree.

Taeya looked like such a big girl here, I just had to get a picture of her eating her cereal.

Our first Christmas in our new home.

Our beautiful Christmas tree. Taeya loves it!

All Moved In

Well, we have finally moved into our new house after waiting for a few months for it to be completed. We closed on the house and moved in during the first week of August. Since then, I've been busy unpacking and getting things organized. We are loving the house and Taeya's having a lot of fun exploring all over the house. Everything is not quite finished throughout the house. There's still some trim that needs repainting, a mirror to hang in the master bathroom and some little odds and ends that need to be finished...including the whole outside yard and fence. Those will come but for now, we're enjoying being in our very first house! I haven't lived in a house since the one we rented in PA when I was 15. Since then, I've lived in apartments or condos so it is wonderful not having to share any walls with any neighbors and having a yard to call our own (even if it's not yet finished).

I took these pictures a few days ago so things have progressed even more since then. I will try to repost pictures in a couple more weeks when everything is more finished. We're nearly done decorating but I'm still needing to get some bookshelves so I can unpack my tutoring room.

Our master bedroom.

One side of Taeya's room. I love her room. It's exactly what I was hoping for. Now I just need to figure out how to make curtains for it.
Our front entryway and dining room. Excuse the messy table please. We chose to make the front room our dining room and move the living room next to the kitchen because our couch would fit better and it worked better with our furniture overall.

My bright and lovely kitchen. I am loving having an island!!! I've already used it for baking cookies, muffins and brownies. I love the dark granite and dark tile as well.

Our livingroom.

I still need to take/share pictures of the basement, laundry room, guest room, back patio and tutoring room. Oh, and the front of the house when it's finished.

A Little Busy, Okay, A LOT Busy

Okay, so I know it's been absolutely forever since I last posted. I've definitely been keeping busy though. We are living in "box city" right now and Taeya is loving it. She has discovered the joy of playing in boxes. I have some pictures and a video of her playing in her box but alas, they are still on the camera. I would say I have our house probably 75% boxed and ready to go.

Moving day is coming up. Not exactly sure when it is still although it is probably within a week. The house is nearly done (on the inside). They were rushing like crazy to get the garage sheetrocked today and some of the last minute things done. The inspector is supposed to come tomorrow to issue the certificate of occupancy (CO). Loan paperwork is well underway and our lender said closing is probably set for Monday, August 3. WE CAN'T WAIT! This has been a long and sometimes challenging process. We have enjoyed many parts of it and Phil and I did really well working together and making choices that fit both of our styles. We definitely love the finished product and will love our new home. I for one am looking forward to getting reorganized. I'm also excited to have a tutoring room where I can put up bookshelves and pull out all/most of my teaching stuff. I told Phil, I don't know what I'm going to do when we're in the house and we don't have any more building/design decisions to make and we don't have to visit Lowe's three times a week. It was a fun process and I'm glad we did it but I'm really looking forward to being done with all of that though and focusing on other things.

We have been doing some fun things lately. We went on a family walk down by the river one evening last week. We also stopped by the biggest wave in CO and watched the surfers (yes it's true! you can surf in CO) and kayakers practice their skills on it.

I took Taeya and a little boy I was babysitting to our local parade a couple weeks ago. Taeya received a paper nurses hat which she proudly put on her head. Her friend and babysitter, Annie, joined her for another future nurse picture.

House Progress

Well, today is one month to the day that we're supposed to sign our contract on the house. We're guessing it's going to take a little bit longer and not actually finish on time but it is coming along.

The outside of the house is nearly finished. They just need to hang the shutters. The yard still isn't finished but it's coming along. They put the wall up for the back patio and the side garden. It looks great.

Inside the house, they have done all the wiring, insulation and drywalling. They just finished actually putting the drywall up. They haven't yet filled in the seams and textured it. Paint should start going up near the end of this week or early next week I'm guessing. It's exciting. I walked through the house tonight without my camera but it's amazing the difference a lot of white drywall makes. It really defines the rooms and their sizes. Before this, it was hard to really tell what each room would feel like size wise. It looks awesome though. I'm just imagining how it will look when it's FINISHED!! For now, here are a few pictures that I took probably a week or so ago. The outside really hasn't changed any.

Looking out from the upstairs front bedroom.

View of the mountains from the side bedroom.

Taeya and Daddy hanging out on the upstairs landing. Master bedroom to the left and guest bedroom center doorway. To the right is a linen closet.

Closet in Taeya's room. I was a little sad at how shallow they are. My storage tubs won't fit in these closets like they do in my current place. Thankfully, they're decently wide.

The beginning of our flagstone patio. We've decided to lay concrete and then flagstone on top of that. We didn't want the original gravel filler and then have to deal with weeds.

There's our house! Isn't it a beauty? You can see a good 'ol Colorado thunderstorm rolling in behind. Love it. Who wants to come for a visit when it's done?! We'll have guest quarters in the basement and another guest room upstairs. We love visitors!

We're thinking about painting the front door black or possibly even a deep red. What do you think? We're going to have black shutters and there will be black lights. One by the garage and one on the front porch.

House Progress

Here are pictures I took on Friday night of our house progress. It's coming along well. The stone in the front yard will be going on the house where the black is. I think it'll be done early next week. Inside the house, they're running the piping for the plumbing. The showers are all in and everything is coming along nicely. We've made a lot of decisions and still have many more to go. In about 2 more months, we should be living here. I'm so excited!!