A Much Enjoyed Break

We really enjoyed Christmas this year (I always do). I'm not sure if its because it was our 1st Christmas morning as a family together, or that we actually made it into our house by Christmas or that we have been so busy this year that the break from working on the house felt extra good. We started staying at the house on Dec 8th when we got our hot water system working. We then worked non-stop on the house to get it ready for Christmas, counter tops, sinks, doors, washing machine & dryer, dishwasher... December 22nd I wrapped my presents & the next day we started our Christmases. The 23rd at Curt's parents, the 24th I had all the Martins here at the new house, Christmas Day we went to Mom & Dad and later to Curt's aunts in Devon, then the 26th at Grandma Graves. We spent the next day sledding in the back yard and then got together in the evening with some family friends. We've had a hard time getting back to work these last couple days, we'd much rather watch movies, play games and clean up a bit (only me). At least we have the essentials now and our work on the house can be a little more relaxed.

The Day Has Come!!!

We're living at our new house, I guess, kind of. We've stayed at the house the last couple nights, however Nollie says we're not living there yet 'cause we don't have couches there. We have the two things we were waiting for, hot water & heat and so we've unofficially moved in. I still have to get our clothes out there and the rest of our stuff, which I will work on today and for the rest of the week. It seemed like we were never going to get to this day and then all of the sudden it's here. It feels strange, but good.

The weather was so good to us this year durring the building but if the snow could have just held off for one more week. Because of the snow & ice we are unable to get up onto the roof to get the solar tubes in right now. No free heat for us, we will have to pay for gas just like everyone else. Oh well the house is warm & there's lots of hot water for baths in the new jet tub. By the end of the week I might even have countertops, a kitchen sink, a dishwasher and a washer & dryer. I'm not sure if I can take it all at once.

I also started checking out some of the "junk" boxes and its not really all junk (Thank goodness) there's lots of good stuff in there, I think we must have just been getting too tired of packing to label it properly.

More Junk

Why is it that so many of my boxes say "More Junk" Where's the good stuff? It's probably true, I bet each of the boxes with these words are full of things that I don't much care about and don't know what to do with. Oh, this is going to be fun to sort through it all. I've been taking a full van load with me to the house every day for the last week or so and I think I've now moved all of the boxes from the garage (still lots of furniture & miscellaneous stuff in there.) I'm sticking to opening the "kitchen" boxes, they sound more exciting to me than "yet another junk box". All of these treasures I haven't seen for 15 months, almost forgot what I had.

Curt has taken this week off again for more work on the house. Our kitchen cabinets are now in. The kitchen looks so great, I'm really happy with it so far, I can't wait to see how it looks with the countertops too. We finally got the tanks that we were waiting for for our hot water/heating system and we hope to get it all hooked up in the next few days, it's pretty complex though so it may take a while. There is a chance that we could be living there next week. What, how did that happen? The day always seemed so far away. The house is still far from done. There are no countertops, sinks, interior doors, closet rods or shelves, showers let alone trim but there will be heat, hot water, we have toilets and a bathtub with running water. It will be so much easier on the girls not to have to get up and go to the house first thing in the morning and then pack up and go back to go to sleep late at night when they should already be in bed. We should be able to get more done if we're there all the time. However I've been warned that the work comes to a halt once you move in. I don't know, I want to see how it will look finished and Curt is a finisher so I'm sure we'll still keep truking for a while. I'm getting excited, (and tired.)

Tomorrow I'll take another load of "more junk" to the house. There has got to be a box that says "awesome stuff that you must see right now" I'll keep looking for it.

November

Can you believe that it's almost December, wow! We've been so lucky this far to not have any cold weather or snow. We are still waiting for a few parts for our solar hot water/heating system and currently using a space heater to keep the house warm. I'm not sure how well this would all work if it dipped down to -30'. When the rest of our system gets here & we get it hooked up we have to get up onto the roof to put the solar tubes in place and I really don't want to do that with ice & snow on the roof so hopefully the weather can continue. Every nice sunny day we just think about how much free hot water/heat we could be creating if we had the solar system complete. Hopefully it all works well.



Our week of working on the house went well. We spent 5 days installing hard wood flooring, and we now have all of the vanities installed, tiling complete & two toilets installed. The toilet is such a treat, don't take yours forgranted. Grandpa Sandy has nearly got all the finishing electrical done and we have lights in the house. It is looking so complete. My appliances are there and I have the girl's new bunk bed set up in their room. We will install kitchen cabinets this week & weekend and if we get the parts we are waiting for do the heating system next week. I'm hoping for a move in date of December 6th but I guess I shouldn't hold my breath until I see the items we are waiting for arive & I know the heating system all works.





The girls are enjoying the new house & run and giggle from one end of the house to the other. Nollie is relived to have flooring because now she can run around without socks or shoes on. This girl is forever kicking her socks off.



I can't wait to move in. I am going to stay at home for a month. I guess I better stock up on lots of groceries.


This is how I get Luca to sleep at the house. Throw her in the back pack & keep working.

1st Birthday, Haloween, New Van, Paint on the Walls

All of these things deserve their own post but I wasn't able to sit down and get them done. I'm so envious of people who manage to post on their Blogs every day. I enjoy checking my regular Blogs and seeing something new each time. Then the posts can be short & sweet and not extensive novels. Anyway, I though I better give my update before too much more happens.

October 20th was Luca's 1st Birthday. I can't believe that my little red head is a year old. She is walking up a storm. She can sit and play now, though she's much more active and will not sit for loong, she's always on to check out something new. She is starting to enjoy books and though we have probably a hundred books she will bring her one favorite to us to read several times a day (1, 2, 3 Count With Me). She loves to roar on the page with the lions, who am I kidding she loves to roar on every page. Her cutest "trick" is when she blinks. You ask her to blink and she will do some long exaggerated blinking. She's got one word mastered for sure and that is "up" (sounds more like "uphphphphphphph") When she first started saying it she wouldn't say the "p" so we would make a repetitive p sound after saying up, now she does the same thing. It gets her what she wants.

Last week we got a new van (new to us). I am now a minivan mama, I love it. So easy to get the girls in and out, lots of room for storage & transport. The signal lights work, the heater works, I get radio reception (not always the case with the car). And there's room to grow.

Halloween. We dressed up for play group, went to a haunted house, and on Halloween night went trick-or-treating to all of the local family members house. It's alot of work to get everyone unbuckled, and out of their carseats, get Nollie's wings on grab the treat bucket, get up to the house and say trick-or-treat, visit a bit and then get back to the van and get everyone buckled into their carseats around the Halloween costume. Nollie would practice saying trick-or-treat in the van but as soon as we got up to the door she would clam up (She's her mothers daughter) I think she was only able to say trick-or-treat once, but she did say a quiet thank you to everyone. No one believes us that she talks so much and so well at home.

The house - Drywall is done and we have paint on the walls. We hope to finish up painting the ceiling tonight & tomorrow and then start on flooring this weekend. Curt is taking next week off and we hope to get flooring done & cabinets installed & if we're lucky maybe a working toilet, but we'll see how we do.