House…in color

We got there at 7:50 and they were already at work.

The house is mainly gutted but the siding is on.

Apparently there were 70mph winds over the weekend and took this sucker down.

Nice view of the front.

Side of the house

Good picture from the sidewalk.

(Nikki, notice who the posted this entry….)

Inside of House

Front of the house….we know, cool hats.

View from the garage

Kitchen and pantry to the right

View from the family room.  We are admiring the staircase

From the top of the stairs.  The white door is the front door.

Master bath on the left looking into the master closet.  Yes the closet is mondo.

Inside one of the upstairs bedrooms.

Movin’ along

I know this process is going really fast, but we both know that once they start working on the interior we probably won’t see as much of a drastic change… but this is just too much fun!

Also, these pictures were taken the following day from the last pictures we put up. Again, what they can do in a day!

oh yea… and i broke the rules again  whoops!

From the front-garage on right

Left side of house-downstairs is the family room and upstairs is the master

Rear of house

Family room-looking into dining room and kitchen

Looking in from the "sliding doors" through the dining room into the family room

Fun project

Not to outshine the house pictures, but I’ve been meaning to post these pictures for a while, and finally have Scott’s camera with me.

I wanted to think of a creative way to ask my bridesmaids to be just that, my bridesmaids.  Yea I realize plenty of people just ask whomever they would like to be a part of their wedding in person or over the phone with a simple question (As Scott did).  For me I wanted to do something special.  Each of the girls I have asked to be in my wedding have been very important figures in my life and I wanted to show them just that.

So off an idea I found from a friend at work, I came up with these puppies.   I’m using Sarah’s as the example.  I’m so happy with the paper I found for the inside of the booklets!  It was actually a lucky find at a farmers market for free and it was exactly what I had been looking for.  These also gave me an excuse to buy a stamp I’ve been admiring for a while.

          

It’s amazing…

what they can do in a day. We are already up and starting to frame the upstairs of the house! I couldn’t get as detailed of pictures this morning as  ”technically” we aren’t allowed past the driveway until day 13.  Some would say Scott and I bent the rule this past weekend. I couldn’t do it today, though, as the construction team was gathered at our house this morning.

I am going to try and go back tomorrow because we have been just blown away by how fast things change everyday!

Enjoy some pictures!

Across the Street

They've put up all the beams to go inbetween the floors

Garage

If you look really carefully you can see that they have installed the stairs!!

And onto the second floor we go !!

House Updates!!

Front

View from front door

View from left window (the stairs have not been put up yet)

Back of the house

View from left window (front door is to the right; beginning of stairs on left)

Door leading from garage to the backyard

Garage

thank you thank you thank you!

So I’ve been doing a really poor job of updating what I am thankful for on a regular basis, so I decided to get down to business and put 100 other things I am thankful for. here it is, in no particular order:

1. family (although this really is number one)
2. great friends
3. great future in-laws (more family)
4. cameras / pictures
5. an income, well two incomes
6. good food (all types)
7. security
8. good health
9. our future home
10. health insurance
11. cooking
12. my iPhone
13. our first wedding gift 
14. google calendar
15. Target
16. good books
17. the cabin
18. flannel sheets
19. my education
20. Christmas songs
21. music in general
22. people who protect our country
23. email
24. my mirror – grad gift from parents
25. my engagement ring
26. our cars
27. Costco
28. movie quotes and good movies
29. getting paid time off starting in april
30. sales
31. chapstick
32. Snoop
33. Smokie
34. all four seasons- not the hotel
35. good sushi
36. hot showers
37. my blanket
38. glasses & contacts/vision correction
39. coffee
40. new socks
41. skiing
42. yoga
43. cooking for my friends and family
44. not being a teenager
45. shoes
46. student loans
47. living in this country
48. clean water
49. trees
50. post-its
51. right to vote
52. rain
53. grandparents
54. having lived in the bay area
55. laughter
56. cookbooks
57. bad friends and lessons learned
58. edward cullen
59. manicures
60. soap
61. our future wedding day
62. scott’s technical knowledge
63. calculators
64. grey’s anatomy
65. grey matter
66. computers
67. the internet
68. scott’s parents only being 2 hours away
69. No Rain – Blind Melon
70. diversity
71. crafts
72. etsy
73. blogs
74. family traditions
75. family recipes
76. horse mane & tail shampoo & conditioner
77. fewer stories about jon & kate plus their 8
78. alarm clocks
79. colbie caillat
80. holidays
81. my faith
82. love
83. freedom of choice
84. purell
85. organizational items and stores like the container store
86. happy hours
87. soup at hand
88. facebook
89. to do lists
90. sharpie pens
91. excel
92. my ability to balance a checkbook
93. Tivo/DVR
94. fleece pajamas
95. slippers
96. curling irons
97. anything warm really
98. starting to spend holidays with scott
99. my blog readers— how bout that?
100. everything that has gotten me to where I am today

my mom sent me this on a card one year... evil

Thankful #2

Today, I am thankful for Scott.

I couldn’t have asked for a better person to spend the rest of my life with. He is caring, thoughtful, giving, forgiving, funny, kind, cute  , patient, helpful… the list really could go on forever. If you told me three years ago that I would be seriously dating, let alone, getting married…I seriously would have never believed you. I was quite the happy single girl. I loved my single life.

But once I met Scott, no matter how hard I tried to fight it, the single life I knew so well was quickly a thing of the past.  I’m actually glad that cynic in me has gone away again. I’m so glad that we met and have had a great 2+ years together.

I’m thankful for us finally being able to live together in the same city, and to come home and have dinner with him. I’m thankful for the Costco trips, grocery shopping, and other everyday errands. I love that he actually loves going and doing errands with me. I’m thankful for his want to help me with the wedding planning.  I love that he feeds Smokie every morning, and plays with Snoop almost every night. I love that he goes on walks with me and gets excited when I try a new recipe. I am so proud of him for taking the CPA exam and passing 3 out of 4 parts on the first try… and has one more part to go! I love that he’s just as excited about our house being built as I am.

I love that he thinks I’m going to invent something and it’s going to make us rich, even though I don’t have any ideas of inventing something, he has complete faith in me.  I seriously don’t know where these invention ideas came from.

I’m thankful for his love of good food and all types of movies (Yes ladies, he even watches chick flicks with me AND calls them entertaining!).  I love that a good night out for him is going out to eat, and seeing a play.  I love that he loves me in sweats and a ponytail with no makeup… he actually prefers it.  I love that he puts up with me on my bad days and even in my worst mood tries to make things better.

I love that even in a grocery store he will shout “B” to get my attention and doesn’t think twice about it.  He is my best friend and I love that.

I love you Scott. Thanks for being you and making me laugh and smile everyday!

Little B - Still loves Soccer

Love you b

Thanks

As it is the month of November I think I will jump on the bandwagon and write about a few things in my life for which I am thankful for.

Today, I am thankful for teachers. 

As the daughter of a teacher, a sister-in-law of a teacher, a sister of a futureteacher, friend of teachers, a former student, and (hopefully) a future teacher I am thankful for the gift of teaching.

I was extremely lucky to have had some amazing teachers throughout my education who had a huge impact on who I am today. 

Something that I feel I was extremely lucky to have been a part of was a new program within my high school called “Extended Core” (ECP!).  In the 9^th grade I was offered to be a part of this program that was new and to be honest, sounded a little odd. Well by the end of 10^th grade I ended up entering the program after hearing great things from my Biology teacher, Mr. Gorder, and my best friend Cory O’Brien.  I have to admit, it was one of the best decisions I made throughout high school.  To say that the teachers were great would be a lie. The teachers of that program were leaders, risk-takers, wonderful educators, loved their students, and their students them.

Through their inspiration I hope that one day I can give the same gift along to my children as well as others.

I’m glad these people changed my life (and these are only some):

 Mrs. Armstrong, Mr. Larson (RIP), Mr. Hanson, Mr. Daugherty, Mr. Chandler, Mark Frisby, Mrs. Baker/Monaghan, Mr. Monaghan, Mr. Gorder, Mr. Clausen, Ms. Bailey, Mr. Parnell, Mrs. Evanson, Ms. Erlandson

A very expensive hole

Hey there blog fans,  Shelly and I have a housing update to share with all of you.  This past Sunday we headed out to our vacant lot and lo and behold, there was a tractor.  And this just wasn’t any tractor, it was a tractor in a hole.  And as my title states, it is a very expensive hole.  But it is our hole and we love it!  While it’s not much yet, this is the first step in building our house.  The next step will be the laying of the foundation which should happen within the next week.  We are anxiously awaiting the final product but we realize that we need to crawl before we walk.

I assume the next post will have pictures of the foundation which will also be not much of eye candy…but bear with us, as we document the progress.

Have a great rest of the week!!

-S

No, we don't own the tractor... 

Off to a good start

SOLD!!

We are so excited to share with you (I keep telling Scott there are more than five of you…) that we are well into the process of buying our first home!!  They tell you to do one major life thing a year, but Scott and I are planning for two in 2010.

Over the last year Scott and I have been watching the housing market and dreaming of buying our first home together.  We have been very lucky to have two very supportive families who have encouraged us to live at home and save as much as possible so that we could reach our goal.  With the plan of Scott moving up to the Seattle area we started to look a little harder into the neighborhoods we had been thinking about.

After looking into some places, we were surprised to find that building a new home was a deal we couldn’t pass up in this market.  I think that this must be the first time in the real estate market that it is most cost effective to buy and build a home.

It was so exciting picking features, upgrades and options. From wood floors, kitchen cabinetry to faucets Scott and I were able to pick most everything, but we quickly learned “with limitation” and “no” were words we got to know well. 

We will keep you updated as the process goes along. We expect the house to be “move-in ready” sometime in late January to early February!! And after the house is built we will have plenty of other yard work and house work to do so we will have more to share.

Whose trailer is that?

See that dirt?.. Yea, that's ours!

Scott in front of our lot