Grass and a brand new home for Bessie

What a summer it's been.  I would rather build or remodel a house any day over putting a yard in.  Just in case you've never done it installing a sprinkler system and leveling it before hydro seeding sucks.  Never again!  Ha, yeah right.  I also said that it was Mark's job to mow, well until he gets a riding lawn mower we will both be mowing our 7500 sq feet of yard.  Good thing we have two lawn mowers.  It's nice to see it with grass, I even decorated the porch a little for Halloween.  Can't wait for Christmas.

 The back yard, the patchy part is going to be gravel eventually.

 The front yard, more gravel is going where the dirt is.

The back yard from our little mini porch.

So, after eight years and three months Bessie, better known as the Lethal Weapon Monster Truck, finally has her own home.  I've decided to call her Bessie because she reminds me of a big dumb farm animal, fun to play with but not useful in anyway.  Bessie has been residing in our two car garage for the last eight years, at the old house and the new house.  Do you know what that means?  That's right, if Bessie was living in the garage, we weren't parking in the garage.  Bessie lived on one side and all of Mark's stuff was on the other side, so definitely no room for a car or two in the TWO car garage.  Just for reference, we have been married for thirteen and a half years and have owned a house for ten of those years,  I was able to park in the garage for one winter.  I repeat, ONE WINTER out of ten!  I'm not bitter though...

Anyways, last weekend was the big day.  The concrete in the shop was finally cured and ready for something weighing ten thousand pounds to be parked on it, YAY!  Mark drove the truck out to the shop and backed it in, it was at that point that I realized how big this shop is.  Before the truck was in the shop I was thinking that he was going to run out of room out there.  Seeing Bessie parked I realized that the square footage of the shop was more than the main floor of our house.  I think I got jipped somewhere in the grand scheme of things.

Regardless of the size of the shop it was good to see Mark so excited to have her out there where he will be able to work with plenty of room to move.  We should be have power out there this weekend and Mark has already hung lights, can't wait to flip the switch.

 Our garage before the move

 The shop before the move

Bessie's new home, doesn't she look lovely in her very roomy and clean shop?

Bessie's tires, she looks like a little girl without them.

So now that the garage is clear it makes sense that I get to park in there right?  Ummm...  No.  It's not  a new car, but it's still my car and I want to park in the garage dammit.  Marks car is in there,which isn't such a big deal because that's the car we normally drive, but I have recently been informed that we only get to park in the garage if we are staying in for the night.  Wait...  What?  Apparently it's a waste of electricity to open and close the garage more than once a day.  He's kidding right?  Oh no he's not, he got all snippy with us when we joked about it.  It was fine when he was watering the lawn every single night at the old house and our water bill was out of control or if he has all the lights on and he's running all sorts of power tools but heaven forbid I get to open and close the garage door.  I'm pretty sure he's holding the opener hostage and it's probably the reason he's not going to put the keypad on the outside of the garage.  That's right, no unauthorized opening and closing for us, no way Jose.  

On that note it's time for me to got turn on the dryer and see how much electricity I can waste by drying his socks.

All in a Days Work

Yard work has never been my thing but we had a plan on Sunday.  Scrape the alfalfa, move the dirt pile from the back to the front, and try to level it out.  I estimate we are working with about a half an acre.  I figure the distance from the street to the back of the back yard is almost an acre.  The house is taking up space and there's the areas that are going to be gravel so I, because I totally know what I'm talking about, think that we have about a half acre of yard.  Imagine Mark rolling his eyes when I tell him this, he is fairly confident that I have no idea what I'm talking about.  Oh, well...

We started at 8:00 am, well Mark started at 8:00, I sort of watched and took pictures.  There wasn't a whole lot I could do until he was done scraping.  I'm pretty sure he was having a lot of fun in the skid steer.

Looking the amount of work that had to be done I didn't think there was anyway we were going to get it all done on Sunday.  It only took him a couple of hours to scrape the back yard and fill in the grooves over the drain field (remember how my backyard is a dumping ground?).  From there he was off to move the mound of dirt that was left in our back yard to the front yard to fill in the low spots.  Now, as you know, I've never built a house before but I'm pretty sure that you are not supposed to have a six foot tall, ten foot wide pile of dirt and rocks left over.  I understand that the yard wouldn't have a final grade when all was said and done but it didn't get any grading at all...  But we paid for it, I know we did because it was part of that final itemized list of building costs.  Either way, it doesn't matter now.  We spent the whole day playing in the dirt. I got a nice tan (well, it will be when I'm not so pink) and the yard was finally cleared out.  Leveling will come later this week.  The low spots were filled and we move the Stonehenge rocks, it seems we need about six more to complete the look we're going for.

The Drain Field -Before

The Drain Field-After

Remember the pile of dirt?  Now you see it...

Now you don't.

 Stonehenge

We definitely need way more rocks.

 The front yard-Before (street view)

 The front yard-After (porch view)

My first gardening attempt, not so bad right?  The ones that died are clearly not pictured, not sure what happened to those little guys.  Mark said to take them back to Lowes, apparently they have some sort of guarantee on their plants.  I don't think that it covers inexperienced gardeners like me.

On a different note, we have gotten to know a couple neighbors, the record keeper for the Willard 6th ward, and the Relief Society ladies.  We have had tons of offers to help with our yard, the guy across the street used to do sprinklers and has given Mark a ton of great ideas.  The guy down the street brought over this cool rake thing to hook to the back of the 4 wheeler and the Relief Society brought cookies and a cute Welcome card.  The poor ladies ventured out in the pouring rain so I had to invite them in, which led to an invite to the Tuesday night activity at the church, not sure how I'm going to get out of that one.  Kandis just laughed until I told her if I had to go she was going too, not to worry, neither one of us are going.  I'm pretty sure the church isn't ready for the Gallaghers.  :)

School is out and now we are looking for things to keep Kandis busy this summer.  She's doing good, but too much time alone can only cause Sybil to come to the surface.  Wish me luck, being thirteen really sucks.  I'm beginning to remember how it was to be thirteen, I think maybe I'll cry too. 

Shop in a box

I got my house, which I absolutely LOVE, and now Mark has his shop.  Which, by the way, he absolutely LOVES.  What a process this has been.  Now that we are in and settled I finally had time to get my craft room in order and actually sew something.  It was wonderful!  Lame, I know.

They started the shop about a week and a half ago and it is done.  Too bad we couldn't have built the house like that.  They delivered the shop in pieces and boxes and spread it all out in the back yard.  Looking at it I thought that there was no way that the pile 2 x 4's and boxes of screws was going to turn into a 42 x 45 shop.  Surprisingly, it did.  I have loved seeing his face when we get home at night and he sees the progress, it's better than Christmas.

 He had so much fun in that thing.

The future home of our shop.

 Told ya, shop in a box...

 More shop in a box.

 This is a shop?

 Getting better...

 Walls!

 Celing!

 Almost there.

DONE!

Can't wait to see stuff in it and out of the driveway and garage.  Now we are ready to start the yard.  Busy, busy, busy...

Have to find something to make for dinner for the missionaries tomorrow night.  Don't ask... :)

Squatters Rights

Yes, I realize that it's been a little while since I posted.  Partly because we have been moving and unpacking and partly because Mark wouldn't let me post anything.  Moving and unpacking you ask?  How could we have finished the house, closed, packed (stuff at the in-laws), and moved in without me posting anything?  That's the part where Mark wouldn't let me post since we technically should have been moving.  Let me tell you a little story...

We finished the painting and the carpet was installed on time, only barely though.  On Tuesday February 12th Mark called me about 10 a.m. and asked if I wanted to hear some bad news.  Like I was supposed to jump up and down excitedly??  Apparently the carpet people (who will remain nameless) had the install date down for March 12th instead of February 12th!!  Mark had talked to them about carpet, the builder had talked to them about carpet and they still had the wrong day.  By some miracle it was installed on the right day and we were ready to hang doors that night.  The toy soldiers went up fairly smoothly (surprisingly) and we actually had real electricity and plumbing.  The light fixtures were in and most of the outlets were covered, the city inspector would be there on Wednesday afternoon and the final appraisal would be done on Thursday.  We were hoping to close on Friday the 15th so we could move over the long Presidents Day weekend.  The city inspector came and went, we passed and a Certificate of Occupancy was issued.  The appraiser was scheduled for Thursday but found out that we didn't have bathroom mirrors so he wouldn't come because the house wasn't "complete".  Grrr!  I was headed to Wal Mart for some little handheld mirrors to hang up when they assured me that the real mirrors would be in Friday morning and the appraiser could come then.  It didn't look like we would be closing on Friday.

Our storage units were due that weekend and we had to have everything out or pay for another full month, which was sooo not happening.  We rounded up the troops and emptied and and half storage units on Saturday and the rest of the second one on Sunday.  Whew, that was a relief.  We move more in on Monday, Presidents Day, and I even scheduled the Internet to be installed so it would be ready when we did finally get to close and move in.  Yes, I realize that we really shouldn't have been moving before we closed but we were against a payment schedule and it was worth it to break the rules a little.

Tuesday rolled around and we found out that the loan officer didn't have the numbers from the appraiser yet and it was looking like the end of the week to close we decided enough was enough and in we moved.  And so on Tuesday we spent our first night amidst boxes and bags.  The dogs were super excited, so excited in fact that they both fell down the basement stairs and Scarlett limped until today.  We spent the rest of the week unpacking and getting organized.  We have blinds up, a kitchen table and four chairs, and a TV stand from IKEA all put together.

I finally got my washer and dryer installed on Sunday, YAY!!  I've never been so excited to do laundry.  I love my main floor laundry room and everything else about our house.  Kan's Zebra bedding that she got for Christmas looks so cute and I have all my books out again.  I know where my sewing machine is, although I haven't actually opened any Craft Room boxes yet.  My kitchen is finally in order and tonight I mopped the wood floors and got rid of all the dirty footprints from all the moving help.  Now that we are in and settled there isn't a reason to be wearing shoes so they should stay nice and pretty.  Can't wait to have people over.

You notice that I haven't said we closed on the loan, right?  We have now been in the house for almost a whole week and still no closing, I think that makes us Squatters.  We were very close today.  We were at the title company office and had pens in hand and then....  Mark wouldn't sign.  Is that even possible??  Apparently it is, because we didn't and are meeting with the loan officer tomorrow morning so she can go over the final numbers with us.  Yes, I know this is something we should have gone over before but Mark likes to do stuff backwards.  I'm sure it's right but he won't sign until he sees exactly what we are paying for.  I get that, I really do, but at the same time I just want to be done with this whole process.  It's not like we can really dispute it and say we aren't paying it.  Once we go over the numbers we are headed back to the title company for take two.  I have my fingers crossed for a good day tomorrow.

In the meantime I am off to "Just Dance" with my kiddo....  Or not, since she just informed me that she is off to bed.  I think she's up to something, it's only 8:38 pm.  Very strange.  Oh well, I have laundry to fold.  I never thought that would be fun, but it is. :)

p.s. the dishwasher we spent a fortune on, it's amazing and oh so quiet. I love each and every one of my appliances!

And they all fell down...

It started out as a good morning; we got up, I threw a load of laundry in the wash, and we were off to the house. When we got to Willard there was so much snow that we had to park in the street and hike to the driveway for shovels.  It took us an hour to shovel the driveway and front walk, plus the gravel at the bottom of the drive so Mark could back the car in.

In the meantime random guy and his two kids pull up and start talking to us, only slightly awkward.  Come to find out he's the guys who's digging for the septic system.  Dedicated to come on a Sunday and drag his kids with him?  Probably not, he took Friday off and this needed to be done by Monday.  After he plows a path to the back yard (we almost lost him when he slipped in the snow) he starts to dig up my back yard and lay big pipes to drain waste into the back yard (can we say gross???).

While my back yard is being turned into a dumping ground Mark is down stairs setting doors up to be sprayed and I am pulling up paper from the floors and brooding over my ridiculous kitchen sink.  No one ever asked me what kind of sink I wanted other than if we wanted stainless or ceramic/porcelain.  We ended up with a sink that you can only fill half way up!  The divider in between only goes up halfway.  Who makes a sink like that?  More importantly who installs that in someones house without even asking the homeowner if it will work for them?  We can't even have them replace it because the sink is under mount and we would have to rip the counter top up in order to change out the sink.  Arghhh...

Someone told Mark to use paint stirring sticks to hold the doors together so that they are standing upright and you can do the front and the back of the door at the same time and  you don't have to worry about drying and flipping over.  Sounded like a great idea and it would have been if the sticks had been just a little sturdier and maybe if there were two sticks per door instead of just one.  Once the doors were all set up I went back up to continue pulling paper from the floors.  About five minutes in I hear swearing and then "!@#$, there they all go!"  followed by a loud crash as the toy soldier doors fall like domino's.  By the time I got downstairs they were down and Mark was beyond livid, kicking hinges across the basement and swearing up a storm.  It really broke my heart, he worked so hard to get them set up and it is so frustrating when we have been working so hard to get this house done so we can move in.  We ended up leaning the fallen doors against the plastic covered walls and spraying them like that.  It was worth it since the floor will eventually be covered with carpet and the walls will be sheet rocked rather than plastic over insulation.  We should have done that to begin with, but we've never sprayed mass doors like that before.  Lesson learned, to bad for my hubby.

The rest of the afternoon went well and we are ready for carpet to be installed on Tuesday.  We have partial electricity and hopefully it will all be working by the end of Monday.  The county needs to come and inspect the septic system and then they can close the holes and we should be able to flush toilets (Kandis has first dibs on that activity).  My goal for Monday is to find out who I need to contact for a garbage can.  Marks goal is to talk to the builder and loan officer and make sure that we are a go for closing this week so we can move in this weekend.  We would really like to spend the night in our new house Saturday night.  We spent the day at IKEA on Saturday and got some new glasses and bathroom stuff plus a very nice stand for the TV for the front room.  I miscalculated the number of drawer handles we needed so we will be going back for more of those and hopefully a new dresser for our bedroom as well.

I have my fingers crossed for a closing this week.  After five and a half months the road home is almost complete.  What will I write about next?

That's a wrap

Remember how I mentioned before that I was soooo very tired?  Well that hasn't really changed.  There is a light at the end of my tunnel though, I'm pretty sure I can see it.  If it's not the light at the end of the tunnel then it's the other kind of light and I'm dying...

I honestly didn't realize how large of an undertaking it was to paint our whole house.  I thought I was tired of painting at the old house, little did I know that we skipped lots and lots of steps in the painting process.  I have learned all about paint sprayers, primer, tape, and plastic window coverings, yay me!  I'm thinking about sending a video the DIY or HGTV channels to get my own show, maybe something like "The Remodeling Momma" or "How to DIY with your Spouse".  I have paint in my hair that I'm afraid I'll never get out, I've ruined two pairs of sweats, and I can't tell you when the last time I shaved my legs was!  Okay, possibly that was a little TMI, huh?  My hand is almost permanently clenched like I'm still holding a paint roller and it's taken me three days to write this post because I can't stay awake long enough to form coherent thoughts.  We painted until 12:45 am on Friday night, took Saturday off but we were so exhausted that it didn't feel like a day off.  We were back at the house on Sunday by 9:30 am and didn't leave until 8:00 pm that night (p.s. Panda Express closes at 8:30 on Sundays) but everything was pained except for our bedroom and closet.  Monday night we were back at the house after work to finish up the last rooms, we left at 9:45, good thing Kandis didn't have homework, poor kid.  She's been such a trooper, especially since we have practically abandoned her this last month and a half.  Tonight we ran back to the house so Mark could scrape the last of the snow from our front walk way and I could paint the linen closet.  Finally!  The painting is done,the plastic is off the windows and all the blue tape has been pulled off the trim.

The counters and cupboards are in (the island is amazing) but I have yet to see counter tops in the kitchen, not sure what the hold up there is.  All the appliances are in the house except for the fridge, can't wait to see them in place.  The plumber was there today, we have toilets but no septic.  We have lights, but no electricity.  The inspector was out and gave us the thumbs up for Rocky Mountain Power to come out and inspect so we can finally have permanent electricity rather than temp with extension cords strung out all over the house (because that's sooo safe...).  Hopefully the electrician remembers where the house is so he can install the lights.  They started digging for the septic tank today, hopefully we should be able to flush a toilet by Friday.  Our builder has said that we will be done with everything by the middle of next week which means we should be able to close by the end of next week.  Our loan officer seems to think that is something that shouldn't be a problem but we all remember the original loan application and closing issues, right??  It would be wonderful if we could move in next weekend since it is one of those fake holidays that Mark hates (only because he has to work and I don't).

We are headed to IKEA this weekend to look for towel bars, other accessories and  possibly even furniture.  I can't believe we are finally to that point and we haven't killed each other yet, whew.

 LOVE my island!!!  It is 9 feet long, hopefully the counter tops will arrive soon.

 My little painter all decked out in his white suit.

 Kandis's bathroom sink, it's mini but then so is the bathroom.

 That is sooooo much tape!!!  About 8 rolls actually when all was said and done.

  Still love that island!  The pink paper is covering the hardwood floors.  

So excited to see them without paper and dust all over them.

My blue office.  I love it!!!!

Who builds a house in the middle of the winter??

When we first decided to build we discussed the pros and cons of starting in October.  The biggest con was obviously the late fall start date and approaching winter weather.  I kept praying for mild weather until the house was framed and roofed and if at all possible the rock and stucco completed.  I got most of my prayers answered.  If the stucco guys hadn't been so slow we wouldn't have had to tarp and heat the outside of the house.

Anyways...  As I was saying, I was extremely happy that most of the outside stuff was completed before we got any major snow because it could snow as much as it wanted and we could still work on the inside, which is technically true.  Apparently I forgot that we have a no driveway to speak of.  I guess we do have a driveway, it's just covered in three feet of  snow just like the rest of our dirt approach, and did I forget to mention that snow plows apparently do not go through our subdivision?  For good reason I'm sure, it's a dead end on both ends of the road, however it makes it difficult to park anywhere near our house.

Once we're in the house it's not bad because the heat is working (still no water or electrical), it just that getting to the house is sometimes difficult with the weather we have been having.  The roads are too snowy or icy to make the trip up and back safely.  Weekends are great because they have been fairly nice lately, there just aren't enough of them.  I truly don't mind doing a lot of the work ourselves, I know it's done the way we want it and I have learned a lot.  Finishing the basement is going to be a breeze.  I am just soooo tired.  I'm tired of the whole building process, I'm tired of working full time and then going to the house and working with floodlights, I'm tired of eating fast food, I'm tired of trying to fit laundry, homework and time to spend with Kandis into 2-3 hours a night, and I'm tired of living in someone else's house (I miss our own stuff!  My father-in-law has been amazing though).  Sometimes (more often than not lately) I just want to hide in a closet and cry.   We are so close, so at least there is a light at the end of my tunnel.

The shower and tub surrounds were installed this week.  The very nice installation man probably thought I was nuts taking pictures of the shower as he was working on it.  The shower looks great, haven't been back to see the tub skirt or surround in the main bathroom.  Kitchen and bathroom counters and cabinets are going in next Wednesday and then after that it is just little stuff, I'm so excited to see the appliances in place.

I had no idea that all of the trim and doors needed to be sealed with caulk before you could paint!  We have 15 doors in our house so that is a hell of a lot of door trim and door jams that needed to be sealed, not to mention baseboard trim and all those little nail holes.  My fingers are numb from spreading caulk, those fancy little tools they have don't work nearly as well as a finger.  We bought paint and it is going to be beautiful when it is on the walls.  The house will be light brown, really creamy, and the office wall is like a dark slate blue.  Can't wait!

 Some of the wood floor before it got covered.

 The kitchen floor covered in protective paper before we paint.

 See, I wasn't lying about the snow.  Isn't she a cute little house?

 We're ready to paint the town!

 Trying to dig the trench for the electrical lines, too bad the ground is frozen solid.

 This is the soffet/facia guy.  I'm pretty sure he was frozen in place 

because he was in that same position for a really long time!

 The cultured granite installer cutting the shower surround out.  

Yes, that is an El Camino in the back ground... It belongs to the soffet guy.

Our shower surround.  It's not pink, I promise.