We Love Routine!

After a very busy, very lazy, very slow, very fast, very non-routine summer, we were SO ready to begin the regular routine that school brings with it today. Ahhhh....

Bear headed out the door first today. All alone. By herself. First time ever. She was relishing the thought of the independence of no siblings at school with her. For now she thinks that's cool. Next year she might be wishing for some sibling company at middle school.

Little Buddy and Little Girl were ready next. They had decided against riding their bikes the first day, but Little Buddy tore off on his when he saw the neighbors heading out. Little Girl and I drove up to the school and met Little Buddy to head in to their 3rd & 4th grade classes.

Heidi was already feeling the woes of the day ahead because Dad left with his suitcase (business trip to Florida for a few days) and Mom was getting ready like she was going to leave too. She pouts when she knows we're leaving her. So pitiful.

Bit was insistent on NOT having the traditional first day of school picture taken.

She ended up giving in while the younger two were goofing off out front. Butterflies were making her a bit jittery on her first day of high school.

Moving In

It was a long and fun-filled week of moving, painting, building and installing. Once we got the keys on Monday, we went right to work installing blinds and taping off rooms where we were painting. We started moving on Tuesday and got most of our stuff moved before the weather got bad.
Dad installed the most important first blind - the powder bath window right beside the front door.

Bear helps Dad with the first splash of color in the new house. Boy, did that "Jamaican Bay" look bright on those walls! Dad kept calling me back in there (I was taping other rooms) and asking me if I was SURE about the color. I told him to trust the paint. I was trying to convince myself...

The first morning we woke up in the house, we were iced in. (Gee, what would we do stuck at home all day???) Heidi SOOO wanted to explore her new backyard.

A sign that construction was complete - I got a picture of the port-a-potty being taken away just like I got a picture of it being delivered. Ok, so it's kind of weird...

We loved having a fan in our master bathroom in our old house. We had them block and wire for the fan and we (ok, Dad & Poppa) put one up. Bit of a tall ceiling...

This is the only shot I've gotten of Bit's "Lavender Sparkle" room. She's been sick this week. Heidi's taking care of her...

Little Girl's "April Blush" room. It's just a tad pink... She LOVES it. She has more space between her beds than we'd expected, so we're in search of a desk or something in place of the temporary tables. Hope to get her curtains made soon. Had the fabric since last July...

Amazingly, Little Buddy's room has looked like this for an entire week. Mom is LOVING having him downstairs and so centrally located.

Once Bear's room got blinds, furniture and bedding, her wall color appeared more toned down. She absolutely loves her space and her great grandparents refurbished furniture.

Bear commented a few days ago that she loved the new house. I asked her why and she said it wasn't too big, but it wasn't too small. It was just right. I completely agree. It's so nice to finally be "home".

For Grandma

Ok, Grandma - here are some pictures of the 2nd floor. :-)


Our first stairs. None of us has ever lived in a house with stairs. It's so exciting! (right now, anyway...) :-)




I'm sure we'll have a different view a year from now.
Little Girl in her room - still need a window frame moved... (her closet is to the right and her bathroom is out of the picture.)

















Bear in her room (closet behind her to the right - bathroom to the left)


Yes, we were walking around UPSTAIRS and across the "bridge" with wide-open walls framed. Yes, my knees were a bit wobbly at times... The kids were actually very careful. Of course, they were threatened to do so. Little Buddy is crossing here and Little Girl is waiting at Bear's bedroom door for her turn to cross. (To the right of Little Buddy is the open family room - to the left is the staircase - there will be wrought iron railings across here.)






Bit in her room - an awkward shot because her room is down a hall and I wasn't going near the edge to get a clear shot into her room. Wobbly knees. Her bathroom and closet are all on the right of the picture.










Second floor is taking shape.


Rafters going up. The house is looking rather tall because it's sitting up on a hill.


It's difficult to see, but they delivered the windows yesterday and they're all up on the front porch between the garages.

Hard at work early this morning. Still haven't moved one of Little Girl's bedroom windows, but while I was out walking the construction super stopped his truck to say hi and told me they were working with the framers to get that resolved. The framers need to have something on paper to look at and they're having trouble finding the blueprint info they need to set it straight. Fortunately, they aren't building this house again in our neighborhood, so we can tweak some things and no one will say, "but that house has... and we want that too..."

Walls and Woes

As we watched and waited all week for framing to begin, I was so glad to at least know why it wasn't going. They began delivering the framing materials on Monday. However, we knew nothing would start going up until they fixed the electrical box by the utility pole.

They had originally installed the pole on the southern corner of the lot. However, the hook up was actually on the northern corner of the lot. Don't know, didn't ask... So, I think that because there was no utility pole there, the unknown and covered up electrical box just got clobbered by all the equipment out there. THEN, they had to replace the box to get the utility pole hooked up so the framers could start working with their compressors. I'm so glad we knew about the electrical hold-up or I might have gone nuts looking for progress on the framing all week long. As it was, the box finally got repaired late Wednesday. Utility pole hooked up on Thursday and - woo-hoo - walls on Friday.

Then on Saturday, we found our first "stuck in stone" woe... Our 2nd bathroom (Little Buddy's) has a drain set for a shower instead of a tub. It's on the 1st floor, so it's LITERALLY stuck in stone... Of course, all the plans show a tub. There are good things, of course, and we'll probably get a nicer tile out of the deal. BUT, who thinks Little Buddy is going to be squeegeeing his glass shower every day...?? Yeah, exactly! Ugh. I really liked the idea of just buying him a new shower liner every few months for his tub. Every time he uses our glass shower in our bathroom, it's like shower, conditioner and soap explosions all over the place... Ugh. BUT, I did pray many times over the past 24 hours for God to help me come to a peace about his bathroom situation (oh, my goodness, how bad is my OCD! What a drop in the bucket of other things worth worrying about!) and I do feel much better about the discovery now. It's certainly not like we're going to have them infringe upon the integrity of the foundation by moving the drain now...

The 2nd floor is decked and they should be starting the 2nd floor framing bright and early Monday morning. No rain predicted for the week, so it should be a very productive house-building week.

In the mean time, it's utter chaos in our current residence as we prepare to move out of our home of 10 years next weekend... Even the kids are feeling the bittersweet emotions of the move from the only house they've really ever known. Bit got "stuck" yesterday in her packing and just couldn't do anymore. She was overwhelmed. I found her sitting on the floor in her room just staring at everything. It's nice to know they feel an attachment and appreciation for what we have here. Four more school nights of shower sergeant duty as the kids share one bathroom... I REALLY have great visions of how much easier it's going to be in the rent house with a couple more bathrooms for the kids. High hopes.

"Remarkably Easy" House Story #2

So, from where I left off last time...

We put our house "back on the market" after the first offer fell apart at closing.

Four days into manic-mom mode again, we had our first showing and (a few days later) an offer. After some finagling back and forth, we came to an agreement and went through the inspection and waiting period all over again. I told Dad that if we did this too many times, the inspectors were really going to be hurting to find anything at all that needed fixing. (I think they must have a pre-set quota on things they have to find wrong...)

With this offer, we would once again be planning to rent the house back, but this time it would only be until the end of September. Our new house is not scheduled for completion until February some time (well, they say January 26th, but we know how these things go...) SO, within a day or two of this realization we were presented with a solution to our short-term rental situation with 4 kids and a 50 pound dog.

We have some friends who used to go to our church that have a house on the market that they haven't been able to sell yet. However, they were presented with a perfect handicap accessible house to purchase shortly after putting their house on the market and went ahead with the possibility of 2 mortgages for a while. It's been several months now. Well, more than several months. They have some renters right now that are moving out mid-September when their new house is completed. Even though this house is on the market, the owners don't mind having renters because they are having to pay two mortgages. Even though we're having to move twice, it's nice to know we're actually helping them by living in their house. Not easy for us to have to make two moves, but good to know we're not the ones benefiting from it.

Now, I laughed at the irony. Have you seen it yet? The thing I dreaded most was living in a house on the market for very long. Isn't that funny? It's interesting how God can give you a peace about what causes you anxiety. Not take away the anxiety but help you live through it. But, then I got to laugh even more because they've decided to take the house off the market while we're living there so they can start the clock over on the listing (and we can do some painting and stuff for them while we're there - I may solicit some wall paper removing tips...). Whew!

We closed on the sale of our house the first day of school. Almost 10 years to the day that we signed the papers to begin building the house. We are now renters in "our house". Feels weird... We'll be moving the last weekend of September, so if you don't get an address update from me for our next rent house, let me know. Phones and e-mails will stay the same.

It's Almost Time to Pour!

Oh, look at all those wonderful sandy square mounds inside the forms!

Oh, plastic stuff! So close!

It's hard to see from here, but all the rebar and post-tension cables are spread across and levelled out.

Oh, and you can make out the juliet window in the back now, too.

Driveway forms and cables in place.

The last time we built a house, the driveway was done almost at the end of everything. Seeing it in place already makes it feel like we're farther along than we really are. BUT, it's so exciting to see the driveway in place because if you've ever been to our house now, you know what a HIKE it is to walk or drive up our driveway. We were pretty specific about this concern for the new house because the house is still a pretty good grade up from the street. Oh, this driveway is exciting! You think I'm crazy, don't you? :-)

Here's the swing on the drive and I think I see a basketball goal in the near future! Imagine that! Basketball in our driveway! How fun!

Getting the finishing touches on the prep work for the foundation. Come on inspectors! Let's get this concrete party going!

The House Creeps Along

Forgive me for not posting 1st day of school pics yet! Coming soon...


In the mean time, here are some progressive photos of THE BUILD.


We're still in that "snail's pace" lets-get-started-already mode. We feel like if we can just get the foundation poured (over 2 months after signing the papers), we'll be on our way. Of course, it's been raining off and on since the day they moved the first scoop of dirt. I've carried my umbrella around all day. I figure that's a sure-fire way to keep it from raining. :-)

August 28 - trenching














August 29 - let's cover up the trenching...














August 30 - Little white stickin' up thingies - yeah, rough plumbing!














Today - Some of these guys were probably wondering who the loony was up on the retaining wall taking pictures of them working...














Ok, so just imagine that there's going to be a house standing on this pile of dirt, sand and pvc pipes really soon...

The Build Begins

Almost two months later, dirt finally moves on the lot!

We got an electrical pole a week or so ago, but now it actually has wires hanging from it.

We were surprised that the forms had gone up because it had been raining since the last time we had driven by. Yesterday.

While we were looking at the forms, the truck pulled up to deliver the port-a-potty. Dad was mortified that I was taking a picture to document. Hey, that's a big sign when the lot finally has a port-a-potty! That means there's about to be a lot of work going on.

Here's a view of the lot from one of the top-most corners. Looks like a long way down to the street...

Little Buddy finds a way to have fun while visiting the "lot". He said he was making himself look like an Oompah Loompah... The orange sand stuck all over him. Lovely.

"Remarkably Easy" House Story #1

It's difficult to know exactly where to begin on this story, so I'll start by giving a 4 point overview of the last week of June:

1-Monday - we put our house on the market
2-Tuesday - we signed the papers to begin building our new house (more bathrooms...)
3-Wednesday - we had our first two showings and an offer from the first showing
4-Thursday - we found out our buyers aren't in a hurry to move down here from Illinois and they'll rent our house back to us until our new house is finished in February

Sound like a dream world? Feels like a dream world! Actually, it's just been "remarkably easy".

On Sunday, we met with our sales person to talk about building a house. Before we drove over to the sales office, we went by the lot we wanted and prayed. Then we went by the spec home of the plan we're building and walked through it one more time and stood in the family room and prayed. Dad specifically prayed that God would make this whole selling/buying process either "remarkably easy" or "remarkably difficult" so we would know that we had reached the perfect timing for this big decision. "Remarkably Easy"...

1-We have talked about finding a bigger house (2 more bathrooms, a game room and a 3rd car garage) for over a year now. We had slated "late spring" as our projected time to list the house and try to sell. Just thinking about the whole process of having a house on the market pretty much freaked me out. I was SO dreading the stress of being so particular about how everything looked for showing because I share a house with 5 people whose particularities aren't particularly particular in that area. Needless to say, we've been practicing for several months to try to get into the hang of natural neatness. It wasn't miraculous, but I do think the practice has paid off. The particularity of other family members has gone up at least a notch or two.

Now, here's the important part. Knowing at least a year ago of the impending "manic mom" that would take over our house, I began praying for the people who would come to buy our house. I told God I knew His timing would be perfect and He would send the perfect people at the perfect time. I also asked Him to please send them quickly. Patience is always something I can work on, but please help me learn some patience lessons in some other area besides the showing of the house for sale. I kind of think that a lesson in patience has come in the waiting of the actual listing. I was beginning to think we were never going to get it on the market. The "punch list" never did get completely finished, but the sign went up anyway.

2-We've been looking for a potential house to move to for at least the last year, if not longer. We were torn with wanting to stay in our current school zoning and being open to change schools for the kids. Again, I prayed for God to help me be open to changing schools if needed, but I really hoped that we could remain in the same zoning. Of course, staying in the same zoning meant a VERY small window of places to look for a house. We mainly wanted two more bathrooms, a game room for the kids to gather, a 3rd car garage for Dad's growing workshop collection and hopefully a little bigger yard for Heidi to run around. Before we really even started looking over a year ago, I actually found a perfect house plan in a brand new neighborhood directly across from our elementary school. We kept coming back to that house and comparing it to the existing homes we looked at. Nothing else really compared. Our only problem - they ended up taking the plan out of the neighborhood in May because they couldn't sell the two spec homes they had on the ground. We stayed in touch with the sales office and kept checking with them to see if they were adding any other 5 bedroom plans that we liked. I was so disappointed, but I thought that if God was telling us that this wasn't it then He was speaking pretty clearly by taking that plan away from us. However, while we were on vacation in early June, we got a call that not only were they going to bring that plan back for us to build, they would do it on a contingency for the sale of our current house.

So, we signed all the papers to start building our house on Tuesday. When the sales guy printed up the numbers after we added a few changes to the already extensive list of included upgrades, the bottom line was actually LESS than it had been when we had met on Sunday. We got to drive out to the lot and meet our construction superintendent and ask him a few questions about the grade, drainage and retaining wall before we signed everything. (by the way, he's an Aggie... how perfect) He gave us every answer we were hoping for and more. While we were back in the office actually signing the massive multitude of papers to get this going, we received a phone call for our first showing the following afternoon. We just looked at each other - "remarkably easy". I shed a few tears during the 3 hours we spent getting our new build in order. "Remarkably easy" tears...

3-Geared up for our first showing on Wednesday afternoon, I had the whole day planned out. Did I mention it was VBS week? Aunt Cynthia and her husband were coming to spend the day with us, so I had planned some last minute cleaning - especially floors - for that afternoon before we left the house. HOWEVER, just before leaving the house to take the kids to the church, I got another phone call. Another showing at 11am. I was ecstatic. And panicked!! The kids had done a good job, but I had a whole afternoon of plans that I needed to cram into an hour and a half. Did I mention the touch-up paint blooper from the night before? Dad had gone to Home Depot ONE more time with a huge chunk of the purple paint wall (NEVER found that can of paint in the garage) so he could get it color matched and we could touch up paint in the last room. Well, after about 25 little spots had been touched up, Bit says "Daddy, I don't think that's the same color..." Sure enough - blue spots all over the purple wall... I spent 30 minutes at Home Depot that morning trying to get the paint fixed, but the machine just wouldn't cooperate. I left without paint and only about 45 minutes to do what I had planned to do in 3 hours. As crazy as I had been for the last hour or so, as I walked out of the house 10 minutes before the showing window I had a strange feeling of calm. I prayed once again for the people who would come and asked God for these to be the people I had prayed for. Please let them walk in and know that this would be their house. The way I felt the first time I walked into the house like we're building. Sounds crazy, but it "spoke" to me. I know - crazy.

So, we got home from VBS and spent the afternoon visiting with Aunt Cynthia and everyone helped me do the floors again before we left again for the other showing that day. We met up with Dad and took everyone to dinner and while we were eating, we got another phone call. Someone wanted to see the house after the current showing was finished with their time. Then they said something about this being a "2nd showing". A 2nd showing? Did that mean that someone was coming to see it again? Isn't that good? "Remarkably easy..." They made an offer that evening. More tears. I stayed up late looking at rental information online. If this went through we were going to need to find a place to live until February when our house was finished!

4-Our realtor was coming over Thursday afternoon with papers for us to sign on the offer. She walked in and said she had great news. I said, "You found us a place to rent!?" She said she did. I said, "Oh, where!?" She said, how does this house sound. I was frozen for a moment - oh, no! Had the offer fallen through? She said the couple is retired and we thought they were wanting to close quickly so they could move, but they were just wanting to get it all taken care of so they could have it finished. They live in Illinois, but they aren't planning to move down here for another year and they were going to rent it out in the mean time. They said we could stay as long as we needed and pay them rent until our house is finished. "Remarkably easy..." I have tears even as I type this story that I told many times over the past weeks. "Remarkably easy..."
No, God is not teaching me patience in the listing and showing of our house. Although, I do think he gave me some lessons in patience as we waited for the right time to list it. I think God is teaching me gratitude. My thoughts immediately went to Sarah and Abraham. When God told Sarah she would have a baby in her old age, she laughed. It doesn't say the word "unbelievable" in the scripture, but that's the general idea that went through her mind as she laughed. Yet, how can she think "unbelievable" when she had prayed for a child for so long? If she prayed believing that she would have a child, how can she tell God it's "unbelievable"?

That's what I found myself thinking - "unbelievable" - as I laugh at the whole week of "remarkably easy" events. Yet, how can I really find it "unbelievable"? I prayed for this to happen! Didn't I believe that God could answer those prayers as I prayed them?

God knew exactly when our sign would go up. God knew exactly when this couple would be planning a short trip to Texas to look for their place to retire. They looked at 30 houses in two days. God knew exactly when they would come even though I only found out two hours before they came. God knew that they would want to find renters. God knew we would be building a house and we would need to rent a place.

Now, the story doesn't stop there. As it happened, on the day of our closing in mid-July, while we were AT the title company office waiting to sign, the buyers' lender informed us that they were actually missing a document for the loan that the buyer's son wouldn't sign for them (rental property they owned together), so they had to cancel the contract. (The buyers weren't there, but they had already signed everything up in Illinois and sent it down. They weren't happy at this turn of events...)

And yet, in the midst of this HUGE disappointment, I never felt panicked or even hugely disappointed. I felt calm. I knew things would work out, even though we went back to "manic mom" for a bit after that. (Dad wasn't as calm, but that's being a guy, I think.)

And so, we were back on the market. And it took twice as long this time... :-) SO, story #2 should be ready to publish the first week of school. We'll see how this one pans out. It doesn't look as easy for US this time, but I like where it's taking us.

More wedding pictures

More pictures from Aunt Cynthia's wedding. And Uncle Keith!

Seamstress...NOT!!!

Aunt Cynthia got married this weekend!! Her neices and nephews have long awaited this wonderful day for her. Or, for them. The girls have long talked about getting to be in her wedding. Did she have a choice or did they ask what color their dresses were going to be?? They were engaged Memorial Day weekend. They were married Labor Day weekend. Not a lot of planning time. So, she went right to work on planning and preparing for the festivities. Somehow, after a bit of shopping, I got roped into sewing the 4 junior bridesmaid/flowergirl dresses for the neices. We went shopping down on Harry Hines for fabric and even though I laughed at the pattern's "easy" labeling (aren't they all??), I thought I would be able to manage the crepe-backed satin fabric and all the wavy ruffle things for the 2 smaller dresses.

So, since we were in the middle of major remodeling in our house, I tied the fabric up nicely in a bag and put it in my closet to protect it from all the glue, dust and paint we had spread all over our disastrous abode.

My 3 girls were so nice as to remind me often of how many weeks were left before the wedding. I think I may have even said "shush" to them once. With a smile, of course. So, after we got back from vacation in early August, I pulled out the table I had bought at Sam's two months ago just for this project, dusted Bear's sewing machine off (hers is much better!) and got to work. Things were going nicely until I hit "the tiers". Did I spell that right? Maybe it should be "tears". If I hadn't been so darn frustrated with those stinking tiers, maybe I would have shed some tears. I started wondering how long it would take to FedEx the whole mess to Amy in Colorado and have her do it.

And then, Mawmaw came over and in her smooth and angelic way asked me if I was using the rolled hem foot for the tiers. A what? Thirty years of sewing. Never heard of the thing. We looked in Bear's machine booklet to see what feet came with her machine. There was one foot in the pack that wasn't in the book. After some online research, we found that it was...a rolled hem foot! Mawmaw hadn't used one, but she knew her mom had and at least knew what it was used for. So, between the two of us, we figured out how the foot worked, practiced on some extra fabric and voila! A hem that didn't look like crap! Well, it was way better anyway.

Don't the girls look lovely in their dresses? Don't look too closely.

Still, I would have gladly paid $100 per dress for each girl rather than tackle that project again. I was so frustrated with all those dresses and fabrics! It is a good feeling knowing that I made the dresses for the girls, but I also know how bad they looked because they could have been so much better with a professional seamstress!

I'm so glad the older girls wanted dresses without the ruffles. (Bear, Bit, Little Girl and cousin Jillian.)

Here's a slideshow of various pictures from the wedding. We didn't take many pictures with our camera, but I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of shots the THREE PHOTOGRAPHERS got.

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

(trying out a new slide show website I came across - ran out of storage space over at PictureTrail!)