day 80

I'm in a little bit of disbelief that we're on day 80.  11.5 weeks.  2.5 months.  In some ways, it seems like forever.  Afterall, we've really been working on this project for 8 months or so.  In other ways, another 80 days does not seem like enough time to get everything done.  But, I'm totally ready to be done.  Ready to move in.  Ready to decorate.  Ready to throw a housewarming party.  Ready to be out of this drafty condo.  The only part I'm not ready for is the packing up and moving again.  Any volunteers for that task?

It's cold in Wisconsin this week.  Not "Los Angeles cold" (see clip below - it's worth a laugh, especially if you hail from a state that actually gets snow or ice), but truly cold.  I think my car said -6 yesterday morning and we were up to 16 this morning.  Anyway, the cold means two things.  1) We're lining the walls of E's current room with blankets (see above).  I have never seen/lived in/experienced such a drafty place.  Especially one that's only 23 years old.  The wind and cold air is gushing through the electrical outlets and seeping in where the floor and walls meet.  It's crazy.  2) There hasn't been any progress on the exterior of the house.



I absolutely do not blame the siding guy for not coming out this week.  My fingers turned red when I ran out to the house for a short five minutes today at lunch.  While I was not surprised to see no work going on outside, I was completely surprised to see that the insulation was done inside.  Well, stage one is done.  The walls are insulated and plastic is hung.  I assume they'll be ready to do the ceiling insulation once the drywall is up.

[kitchen corner]

[dining area ceiling]

[master bedroom corner]

[living room]

[bedroom 2]

Nothing too pretty to look at, but we are beyond excited to see progress again.  I tried to peek through the plastic on the window to see when the inspection had been done and it looked like it had just been signed off on this morning.  The crew must have been on stand-by to come complete the insulation as soon as the inspection was signed off on.  I believe, at this point, they need to start warming up the inside and will then begin drywall.  The furnace is installed and hooked up to a thermostat already so I think everything just has to be fired up.  I'm not looking forward to paying two heating bills in this weather.

In other news, it was crazy windy on Saturday (day 76) and we lost some shingles.  It hasn't been hot enough for everything to properly adhere to the tar paper, so the 40 to 60 mph winds were able to do a bit of damage to the roof.  Not exactly what you want to see when you walk up, but the Construction Manager is aware and assures us everything will be fixed.

And, we received news late last week that the tile we'd selected for our fireplace is no longer available. I'm a huge second-guesser of decisions and was actually quite confident in my fireplace tile decision.  So, the thought of having to select something else wasn't very appealing.  Luckily, the Designer seems to understand by taste pretty well at this point and I was immediately on board with his recommendation.

[tumbled Torreon by Daltile]

Next up?  Ordering cabinets.  Finding a kitchen sink faucet.  Picking a paint color for the master bath and main bath.  Picking a paint color for the kitchen.  Maybe picking up a different post light (still not in love with the one we bought).  Picking out a lamp post.  And???  Anything I'm missing?

day 53

Merry Christmas, everyone!  The lack of posting lately is due to (1) the littlest dude in our family being sick and out of daycare for a full week (!!), (2) traveling for the holidays and (3) not a whole lot of new progress to report.  I'm glad to have survived and am already in need of a few more days off.  Ha!  Thankfully, we have no plans for New Years and I'm looking forward to some quiet time at home before work gets crazy with year-end.

[sick boy]

After battling a fever Monday through Friday, we were thankful E woke up on Saturday morning feeling mostly better.  Since we were traveling Sunday through Wednesday, Santa came to our house on Friday night and we were able to spend Saturday unwrapping gifts, playing with new toys and getting ready for our trip.  I just love seeing the excitement and magic of Christmas through the eyes of a little one!

[Santa came to visit!]

[unwrapping gifts]

[trains!!]

[peek-a-boo!]

[breakfast break for Christmas Tree waffles]

[play time]

[trains with Daddy]

We were also able to run by the lot on Saturday afternoon and I grabbed a few shots of the completed roof and interior progress.  When we arrived, we were surprised to discover that the house was officially locked up.  Luckily, our Construction Manager quickly responded to our "Umm - what's the code?" text and we were able to head inside for a little exploring.  Not much had changed other than some duct work being run and some bathroom insulation hung.  The plumbing work had also progressed a bit.  Warning - I hadn't been out in the daylight recently, so I took a few too many pictures.

[snow-covered house!]

[sunny morning]

[who needs a trampoline when there is spare plywood to jump on?!]

[insulated fireplace and finished archways]

[bedroom - bathroom - bedroom]

[duct work started!]

[Where's E?!]

[master bedroom and walk-in-closet]

[master suite - basement stairs - powder room - laundry room]

[kitchen and flex room]

[flex room - front foyer]

[bathroom insulation]

[E's self-proclaimed bedroom]

The biggest surprise, however, was seeing our port-o-potty chilling in the road.  Apparently the little snow/ice/wind we got was enough to push it off the curb.  I'm just glad it didn't tip over in the process!  Not exactly the way we want to make our first impression in the neighborhood.  "Hi, we're your new neighbors!  Yes, the ones with the poo and blue ice all over the front yard."  Um, ewwww.

[runaway potty]

We headed out of town first thing Sunday morning and made stops at four different family Christmas gatherings over the next three days.  Our family was beyond generous this Christmas, but our favorite part of the trip was spending time with family that we don't get to see every day.  I didn't do a great job documenting the trip on my camera, but I'll definitely cherish the memories.  Please tell me that I'm not the only one completely overwhelmed by balancing picture-taking and being present in the moment.  It's a constant conflict for me - I enjoy putting the camera down and just enjoying the company but then I always regret that I don't have enough pictures.  Ugh.

[E and his Cousins on Christmas Eve]

[Auntie and E on Christmas morning]

We got back to Cheese Country last night and hurriedly had to unpack and put stuff away, since our house cleaner came this morning.  I didn't exactly leave our Condo in the best condition (read: it was a disaster), so it was a pretty late night trying to find a home for all of our new Christmas treasures.  I am happy to report, however, that I think almost everything found a spot.  Just don't remind me that I need to pack it all up again in about two months.

We did run by the lot on our way into town last night, but the only noticeable difference was that our siding and trim had been delivered.  Hubby quickly explored the inside using the ever-handy iPhone flashlight, but said he didn't see that anything had been done.  Today was a different story, however.  We now have a basement floor!  The front and back porches, as well as the garage, have been sealed off with insulated material, but Hubby said he wasn't sure if they'd actually gotten the floors poured.  Either way, it's exciting to see progress again.

I have to work tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to heading out on Saturday morning to check everything out myself!  Exciting stuff!!

 On a completely unrelated note, I used a bit of down time over Christmas to finally finish editing some photos I took back in May.  Ridiculous, I know.  But, isn't this little guy just precious?!  I can't help but share. I have one more little guy to finish up and then maybe I'll start going through our vacation photos...also from May.  Eeek.

day 42

It rained all day yesterday.  And we were out Christmas shopping in it.  I've been completely spoiled since moving to our area of Cheese Country and have been able to avoid shopping malls for the most part for almost ten years.  We have an amazing outdoor outlet mall in town and I try to shop there or at stores that are part of the 5,287 'strip mall'/'shopping centers' that keep going up (I might have exaggerated that, but it seems like they're on every corner now!).  Normally, I love this.  I can be in and out of the stores I need without messing with chaotic crowds and without being tempted to browse through other shops.  Yesterday, it was not so fun.  I'm not sure why I took the time to straighten my hair and better yet, why I didn't choose to wear something with a hood.  Oh well.  I'm almost done shopping and was even able to wrap during E's nap today.

The worst part of the rain was that the roofers were not successful in getting the shingles on last week.  The framing crew was back working all day, though, so the house is now a muddy mess -- both inside and out.  We ran by this afternoon after E's nap (and my wrapping marathon) to grab some photos and check out the latest progress.  Ethan managed to make a mess of himself playing in the mud and Keith was even able to hang some solar-powered Christmas lights (thanks Walgreens clearance aisle!).

[hanging Christmas lights!]

The big events this past week include:

All windows and doors have been installed!  I think the wrong back patio door was installed, though.  The current door is full glass, but we had selected grids in the glass.  At least it's an easy fix.

[bedroom windows]

[garage window]

We met with the Electrician for the electrical walk-through on Tuesday afternoon (day 37).  We added 13 can lights (gulp) -- 4 in the kitchen, 4 in the great room, 3 on the back porch and 2 in the master bath.  We also added additional outlets (including one on the mantel and two more on the exterior), had Cat-5 cable run to various rooms, split the bathroom vanity lights from single to multiple fixtures (two 3-light fixtures in the kiddo bathroom and four single sconces in the master bath), added a couple more switches and added a motion-sensor light to the back corner of the house.  The Electrician was super easy to work with and they've since finished adding all the boxes and running wiring throughout the first floor.

[electrical wiring - and muddy floors]

The roofers started installing tar paper and shingles.  The materials were delivered on Wednesday morning (day 38) when I was meeting with the Electrician again to confirm placement of can lights and the bathroom fixtures.  They started roofing on Friday, but were only able to complete the northeast corner.

We met with the Designer again on Friday morning (day 40) to make our tile selection for the fireplace and to touch base on a few other items we needed to finalize.  We're still undecided on a kitchen faucet.  I find it remarkable that I can't find a faucet from Kohler that I like and is affordable.  I did nail down our pedestal sink for the powder room, as well as the faucets for the powder room and kiddo bathroom.  We're still waiting to hear pricing on upgrading a couple of doors and on switching out our tile tub surround for full-bathroom wainscoting in the master.  I know we chatted about more, but I'm drawing a blank.

[fireplace tile (I think!) - Torreon Travertine by Daltile]

On Saturday (day 41), we returned the light fixtures we were unsure of (the kitchen pendants and the bathroom pendants) and picked up three hallway lights and two ceiling fans instead.  That evening, we also spent several hours scouring a crazy number of websites (Shades of Light, Crate and Barrel, West Elm, Schoolhouse Electric, BBC Lighting, Build.com, Lowes, Home Depot, Overstock, Lighting Universe...to name a few) and lighting catalogs (Feiss, Progress, Kichler, Hinkley, Craftmade...to name a few) for replacement kitchen and bathroom fixtures.  I think we finally have them nailed down, but I haven't hit the "Submit" button on my order just yet.  I really didn't think this would be so difficult.  I'll have to do another full post on lighting, but here is a preview of my non-boob hallway lights.

[Oil Rubbed Bronze Frosted Glass Semi-Flush Mount Light from Lowes]

So, as of day 42, the house currently looks like this from the outside:

The inside isn't quite as pretty, but I suppose that's the hard part of going out so frequently to see what is going on.  Here's to hoping they get the roof on soon and that the snow forecasted for this week holds out as long as possible....

* It'd be remiss of me not to mention the deep sorrow we're feeling for the families, friends and community impacted by the senseless tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.  I'm hugging my baby a little tighter and saying an extra prayer of thanks that my current worries are about light fixtures.  I simply can't imagine what they're going through and will continue to send prayers their way, as they learn to live in their new state of reality.