It has been awhile......

I guess time flies when you are busy.... School started since I last posted and here are our cute girls ready to go on their first day. I love having them all with me all day (Maddie is in all day kindergarten). They all love school, have great teachers, and work really hard to do well.
Around the house we have made some progress since the end of August.... slow, but steady right??? We are getting sick of always working on the house, but it is starting to pay off. I have a working kitchen - it is not all finished, but it works and we can cook. It was starting to get cold in the mornings having to get our cereal outside so we were all grateful for the chance to stay inside to get our milk, and it is really nice using real dishes and not plastic and paper for everything! The small things...Here is the picture of my hood above my range. Yes, it is blue and I love the way it turned out. You can kind of see in the corners of the pictures the cream which is the rest of my cabinets color. They don't have doors or shelves yet, but they will be soon (at least the shelves!)

My double ovens that work.... I have had lots of people come in and laugh that I have two ovens, I'm not really known for my cooking abilities and don't use one oven very often, but there are two reasons - 1. the looks and 2. I am having Thanksgiving at my house this year so I'm am sure I will use both of them on Thanksgiving and Christmas!

We have an island in the middle of the kitchen and Ryan built the countertop out of cherry. I love having the island and I like the look that cherry gave the kitchen with all of my painted cabinets. I'll have to take some pictures a little farther out now so the full effect can be seen.

And this last weekend was fall break for us so we had 2 days off school. We had planned to go to Vernal for the weekend, but ended up just working on the house all weekend. We painted all of the moldings on the main floor (pain) and then moved our bed upstairs into our bedroom, moved some furniture out of my sisters shed into the house, I painted the piano black, and then the girls and I got a few decorations out. We still have quite a ways to go, but the house is liveable now and we can be upstairs - I was starting to feel claustraphobic in the basement!!! Here is our living room with a little bit of furniture - nothing on the walls yet - but that will come. You can still see all the dust on the furniture. My niece Whitney and I washed our wood floors 4 times in one day (Friday) and I woke up on Saturday and they were dusty again..... it will take awhile to get rid of all the dust.

Now it is on to the bathrooms upstairs and back to the outside to get it finished up before winter sets in.

The Red Farm House

I have always described this house as the little red brick house on Ryan's parents' farm and I wanted to keep it as a red house so we painted the siding red. I love the color and how it looks. We saw a house in North Ogden that was a great red color (red is kind of scary to pick out sometimes) and Alan Smith jumped out of the car and asked the owners what color they used. They were very nice and even went and got the paint bucket so I could right down exactly the color and paint formula. As you can tell the entire house is not finished, but we decided to paint as we go along so that it isn't quite as overwhelming of a job to paint the entire exterior of the house.
Sheetrock is all finished and the inside is starting to look like a house again. I painted the ceilings while Ryan was at scout camp - I rolled it all and my arm was killing my by the time I finished - Ryan got home about 20 minutes later. Pretty good timing on his part! Then we spent the next couple of days and have all the walls finished up. We just have a few touch ups left to do. I was going to do a bunch of fun different colors, but ended up just getting it all painted and I'll go back after we get moved in and make it more interesting. We were able to even uncover the piano this week. Morgan has been practicing up at my work because it was such a hassle getting to our piano.
The concrete is finished - Yeah - I have even been parking in the garage the last few nights! Above is the walkway to the back basement patio with stairs that go back up to the back yard. Our deck stairs will come to that landing as well. Below is the driveway. The girls have been loving it. They have been riding their bikes everyday. We have never had a driveway that they could ride on. In Perry it was way to steep, and this one was small before so they are getting good use of all the concrete!
Yesterday we started the wood floors. This is the west wall of the big room, we probably got about half of the room finished. Morgan was walking around saying, "it is so nice to have a smooth floor", kind of sad when your kids have to walk around holes in your floor and always wear shoes if they are inside! We will hopefully get the floors finished up this week. Ryan is kind of pulled in different directions at this point because everything that needs to be done he has to do it, the siding, the floors, and mainly the kitchen. So we just kind of hop back and forth between each of them and decided that everything is progress. Our goal is to have a working kitchen by October 1st (Morgan's b-day)! Hopefully that works!!

Progress Today

I told Ryan this evening that today has been the first time in quite awhile that I have been semi excited about the house. It has gotten a little overwhelming and just plain old the last few weeks - which is probably why I haven't posted any pictures. You can only be so excited about constant messes and dust. But today we had some fun progress....the first wall of siding went up. Yes it is the smallest wall with siding, but it was at least started!

The cement guys showed up and they will be pouring the back patio and stairs in the morning. I have been the most anxious for our cement to go in... I am hoping it will at least help to clean up the look of the outside of the house.
This is just a picture of the first piece of siding going up... I was excited! Ryan thought I was dumb! The sheetrock was also stocked today so the sheetrockers will be here in the morning to get started on that. The last of the really dusty things to do. I am excited for tomorrow!
And then just to add to the busy-ness around here I decided to take a new job last week. I will now be teaching 2nd grade this coming school year. I am excited, but have a ton of work to do between now and August 28th!

The House

The wall between the old and the new coming down. This was probably the worst day of this whole adventure so far... it was beyond dirty and dusty. Ryan and I were both black from the mortar on the bricks and all the dust. It took 4 trailor loads to the dump just to get rid of all the stuff we ripped out. I don't think I have ever been as tired as I was at the end of this day.
This is our current living area in the basement. We have a blanket hung at the bottom of the stairs to try to keep some of the dust out and we have one chair and two camp chairs that fit in the space. Ryan eventually pulled out his foam mat he uses for camping so he can lay down sometimes to watch tv. We were able to finally get the thermostat for the air conditioner temporarily moved into the basement so that we can use the air conditioner - it got a little warm for awhile.
This is standing at our front door looking straight back. The opening to the right has been framed in for our bedroom that will be on the other side of that wall. Morgan has to uncover the piano to do her practicing - she gets annoyed each day when I remind her to practice.
This is standing by the back wall of the addition looking towards the front of the house.
Our kitchen will be in that back corner. The walls were all insulated this last Tuesday. Those are my ovens sitting in the middle of the floor - We have had them for a year now just moving closer and closer to where they will be permanently!

A Few Fun July Activities

The Stewart family went to Island Park together for 3 days in July and we had a great time. It has been awhile since we have been able to do this and I'm glad we were able to get together. We went fishing one morning and actually caught a few fish. Ryan caught one and Morgan caught two. She was so excited.
While playing in the River by Mack's Inn. Ryan and the girls in the kayak. The were actually pretty good at cruzin around!
The whole family (minus Kathy - she wasn't able to come) at Mesa Falls. It was a beautiful waterfall.
A bunch of little girls trying to raft. They pretty much just turned in circles. Between my sisters and I we have 10 girls from 9 years old and down and only one 6 year old boy....He is a really good sport to hang out with all the girls!
The 6 year old's plus one 8 year old

We had bought a bunch of plastic while our roof was off the house incase it started raining and we decided to turn it into a slip and slide in the backyard on one of the hot afternoons. The girls had a blast and played for hours - I'm afraid it wasn't to kind to the lawn....
Here is Maddie with her new "ruffle pants" I think these are my favorite project I made for the girls this summer.
Fourth of July activities at Grandma's house. We watched the parade and then walked down to the Perry Park to play all the games. Here all the little cousins after the parade!
Our kitchen was taken out on July 3rd so since then - this is what I have been cooking on.. a grill and a camp chef. We have them out on our new back deck along with our fridge, freezer, a table for the toaster and all the paper products, and our table to eat. It has been quite the adventure. I can't say we have had very many good meals - but we are not starving. I have to admit it is getting a little old. We are going on one month without a kitchen and I'm guessing it will be at least one more....

It's been awhile.....

I realize it has been awhile since I posted and I have lots of pictures - but we have been under a little construction around here and things aren't quite as convenent as they usually are.

My kitchen came out just over two weeks ago, I now have my "kitchen" on our back (unfinished) deck. It consists of our microwave on a table, our camp chef, our grill, a box with some food in it and lots of paper goods. The fridge is still plugged in in the front of the house so we at least can use it. If I need water I have to use the outside spicket, and I try to use as few dishes as possible that have to be washed. If I do have to wash any dishes, my sweet sister in law lets me come next door and use her sink. I never realized how often you use a kitchen sink. I also really miss my kitchen counter - I have no where to walk in and put anything down...old habits are hard to break. Maybe after this I will not have a pile of stuff on my counter.

This last week the wall between the old and the new came down. It was a very long day and Ryan and I were both wondering what we were thinking when we decided to do this. Everything is dirty and dusty and not easy to get around. But we got through the week and we think we are on the downhill side of the project. So this is where we are....

* Roof is at a manageable amount to finish up - love the shape of it and the color!
* We are living in the basement - a little cozy, but we love each other right!!
* Exterior cement should go in this week - I am very excited for this to help clean up the outside a bit.
* Plumbers, electricians, and HVAC should all finish up this week.
* The framer (Ryan) should finish this week also

It is all starting to take shape and I am so excited to put everything back together! I'll post pictures as soon as I figure out how!

Ryan has been working on the roof (as well as his regular job) for the past week and it is finally just about there. He is picking up the felt paper and ordering the shingles as I sit here and type! I will be glad to have a leak proof roof over our head again. Here are a few pictures of the last week.
Injury #2 happened as they were working on this side of the roof. Ryan's brother, Dale caught his leg on one of the metal plates on the trusses and ended up with stitches. And according to our niece Hallie - "that is going to cost him a butt load of money!" We laughed at that!

The back of the house. I am so excited for the deck. I think I will spend a lot of time there! I just need a rocking chair to put up there!

What our house looks like as of right now. I love the shape of the roof and am excited to get the shingles on there!

The next step in the process is gutting the upstairs. This past week I have just about moved everything out of the upstairs. We are sleeping in one bedroom downstairs and the girls are in the other. I have sold my dishwasher and stove and they will both be picked up on Friday, and I also sold my kitchen cabinets and they will be picked up on Saturday morning. So as of Saturday I no longer have a kitchen. I have stocked up on paper goods and cereal and will have to get creative with our grill. Ryan says about 1 1/2 months - but I am prepping myself for about 2 months before we are up and running again. We have also been without a air conditioner which I hate - I am one who never turns my air conditioner off and I love to be able to walk into my house and be cold - so needless to say it has been a little warm around here the last little bit. But we should be able to hook the air conditioner back up soon. One exciting note - I bought myself a new serger/sewing machine with the money from the cabinets and appliances - Ryan was going to just throw them all in the dumpster so I figured I would buy something fun with them!

Trusses and Rain...

I woke up this morning about 5;30 a.m. because the wind was blowing quite hard and looked out my window to see dark clouds to the west... normally I would have just rolled over and gone back to sleep, but when all I have is a layer of sheetrock between me and the great outdoors, I started to panic just a little. The clouds continued to get closer, until about 8:15 when it started to rain - hard - but luckily it only lasted for a few minutes and the inside of my house was spared... the crane arrived soon and the guys got to work.

This is the first truss going up

The next group of trusses going up.

At that point I took off and went to the Dinosaur Park with my sisters and had a great time!

And returned just in time to see the last few trusses go on. It is starting to come together and it looks great!

One funny comment from today, Ian, my 6 year old nephew was watching Ryan quite a bit today and following him around a little and after awhile told Ryan, "You have an awesome job, I'm going to call you my working uncle." We love having Ian in town, he is always making us laugh!

We had a ton of help come this morning and by noon we had...

a finished product....or I guess we should say an unfinished product.
I was pretty excited that we had no broken windows and only one little tiny hole in my ceiling inside. Now to get a roof back on.....

It Started...

This is our house as of 5:15 on Friday evening....

Ryan and Alan decided to get a start on the roof - Ryan's leg fell through some of the old boards on the roof - our first ingury.

This was the roof after about an hour of work. Insulation was flying and to be honest with you it makes me a little nervous. We will see what today brings. There is quite the crew of family coming and I am sure it won't take them long to get it all off. One of my friends asked if we were still living here and the answer is yes! We are trying to stick it out as long as possible. So far the inside hasn't changed to much so that is when it will get hard to live in I am sure!

An update on the house.... before we left for SC Ryan got the garage floor poured. I need to flip this picture - but thought Ryan was looking pretty good in his rubber boots and shorts!

Finishing up the garage floor!

What will be our back deck and covered patio underneath.

What the view will be out my kitchen window(minus the construction debris) - I love it!

And now what the view out my front door is - our trusses for the roof were dropped on the front yard this morning. Ryan is planning on taking the roof off our house this weekend as long as the weather cooperates and hopefully all of these will go back on quickly without any rain inbetween! Wish us luck!!

Charleston, South Carolina

We always love the last day of school around here and this year we were even more excited because we left the next morning at 6 a.m. for Charleston, South Carolina. A lot of Ryan's family went and we had a great time. The last time we went we had a 1 year old and a 2 year old so this time the traveling was so easy! We took a ton of pictures but here are a few of the highlights. Here are the three girls crabbing. Ryan's cousin, Raymond, took Morgan the last time we were there and that was her favorite thing about the trip. This time all three girls were able to catch a crab. You throw raw chicken out into the tide pools and grab the crab with a net when you feel them tugging. As we were walking to the crabbing spot the girls found full sand dollars along the beach - they were pretty excited about that as well.
All of us in front of the pineapple fountain in the Waterfront Park in downtown. This day we walked around downtown, went to the Market, walked along the Battery, saw Rainbow Row, and played in the water fountain for a few hours!

Went to Patriots Point and toured the aircraft carrier and a submarine. I would not handle working on a submarine.... We also went to Fort Moultrie from the Revolutionary War and a lighthouse.

This is a picture of Ryan at Charles Towne Landing (were the very first settlers came). It was a beautiful place, but had these signs all over. I thought they were a joke at first ...Ryan assured they were not a joke. Luckily we never met an alligator, just lots of turtles. We also went to the Aquarium (I forgot my camera that day). It was fun - we always love aquariums.

The rest of the week was spent on the beach. Ryan's mom got a condo and beach house for all of us to stay in. We had such a great time and love the ocean. The girls had a great time playing in the sand and the water, walking out onto the pier, and shopping on Folly Beach. We were sad to come home. Maddie's Birthday was yesterday and we were traveling all day so I had one present for her to open before we left (the outfit and crown) that she got to wear all day as we were in airports and airplanes. It was fun because she got so much attention! She was really, really shy, but kept the crown on so we figure she liked it! We have a hard time believing that she is five!!