Week Seven of Construction

The painting continued this week- we painted all the trims and door jams and the rooms themselves after all the texturing was finished. This is the boys' new room- a light blue color. Spencer said, "thank you for painting my room this color!"

Miranda's room is a pale yellow- it looks a little green in this picture. We let her help paint- which she LOVED!

Here's a view towards Miranda's room.

We painted the boys old room light purple in preparation for Lindsey. They patched up and retextured the walls in the boys room, office, dining room, and bathroom.

Here's a view of the textured ceiling. Let me tell you, painting ceilings was NO fun. We had to do so many coats of paint!

Week Six- Getting Close!

Monday brought the roofers. They were done really quickly and it looks so nice!

On Tuesday, the insulation began to go in. It was really interesting to see them poking the huge sections of it up between the boards.

On Wednesday, they started the sheetrocking and taping. Now the rooms seem a lot bigger and the kids are getting really excited! Here is our new family room!

Our 3 beautiful windows with a great view... of the dirt pile.

Spencer is in our large storage closet.

Saturday, we hired someone to help us paint the outside of the addition. The three of us painted for 10 hours straight ( Larry's dad also painted for a few hours and his mom babysat for a while). I'm amazingly not sore, but I have some lovely bruises from leaning against the ladder rungs painting the top parts up by the roof. That was really scary for Larry and I. We have to finish up the blue trim tomorrow, then we will be done with the outside and our daring climbs up the ladder.

Scary stuff- painting up that high...

These soffits were the bane of our existence! They took FOREVER!

We are also making the final carpet selection this weekend and narrowing down paint colors. We hope to paint the interior this coming weekend!

Construction- Week Five

Last week was a busy week! It started with filling in the top of the attic area- so it was totally enclosed. Larry's dad came and did the electrical work. We had about a dozen recessed lights put up. The bedrooms will have surface lights. He even put a plug and light up in the attic area- I would have never thought of that... Also, outside security lights and a floodlight.

This is looking from the back corner of the boys' room. They have the small walk-in-closet on the left. To the right of that is the back of the big storage closet in the family room. We also have one of those cool attic ladders in the closet. You can see the crawl space access is also in that closet.

We had a small, wood step put in. (Easier for me to tear out when I decide what I really want later)

Our chimney also grew by about 140 bricks this week.

Construction- Week Four

With all the rain that we had this week, we only got in three days of work- but they really accomplished a lot. It started with the siding and windows going in on Monday. Finally, after heavy rains, on Friday, the trusses came. They used a crane to lift them over the house and into place in the back.

They laid the trusses on the outer wall of the addition and they laid on the existing roof.

This is what it looked like when they finished on Friday. Since they wanted to make up for lost time, they stayed all day Saturday to finish up the roof so it would be "dryed in" for Monday.

I have to admit, it is really strange to look out my kitchen window and really SEE our addition before my eyes. I really think that it will serve us well and will be very functional for us. Maybe it's not the most stylish addition ever done, but I think it will really work for our family. From now on the work is supposed to go really fast. I'm excited to see the interior walls go in and the roof go on!

Eight is Great...

Miranda has had a lot of changes in the past month. The most important being her baptism! She was so excited that day! She could barely keep herself from jumping and skipping everywhere she went. It was really neat to see Larry baptize her and do the confirmation. Thank you for all those who came to her baptism. On her birthday, she had a Cat party. I painted the girls' faces like cats, they chose collars with bells, made cat ears, and named themselves a cat name. They played some kitty games, had kitty cupcakes and strawberry mice, and opened presents. It went pretty well considering that we were still having construction in two of the bedrooms.

Now that Miranda is eight, she will soon get her own room. She is fasting for one meal on fast Sundays and making sure to do morning and evening personal prayers. She will use her own alarm clock to wake up. She gets to help me at every meal to prepare the food. She gets to learn how to sew also and we are going to try piano lessons again in the Fall. Miranda is really taking it all very seriously and I can sense a change about her- she seems like she is more willing to be responsible for her own actions. Miranda is such a wonderful daughter!

Week Three of Construction

Monday started with the subfloor being laid down.

Wednesday brought the roofer guy an his crew. They made quick work of our shingles and laid down new tar paper. They also put up the outerwalls of our addition! It was so exciting to see it all go up.

Here is some of the siding being put on.

They covered the floor with a giant black plastic cover. It made a huge bathtub over the weekend.

Week Two of Construction

This week started with the foundation forms being put into place. On Tuesday, after inspection, the concrete was poured into the molds via a big hose from the cement mixer in the front of the house.

Fortunately, we've had really great weather so far! I hope it continues, because the construction guys are here from 8-5, Monday through Friday. The good weather makes for happy workers.

I've been really happy with our construction guys- they are awesome and super nice, LDS guys.
Here's the boys room. We've been taking out their mattresses every night so they can work the next day. Now that the boy's room and office are patched up, we're putting things back until the drywall guys come and fix them (when the new walls are also ready for finishing- probably a few weeks).

I was very happy when the excavator returned to smooth out the giant dirt hill, fill in the dirt around the foundation and smooth out the side yard. He did a really nice job. Now we've got to figure out what to do with our lawn that is now 80% dirt.

On Friday, they added the duct work and insulation and began laying the subfloor. Work continues tomorrow! I will be happy when there is a floor instead of a hole for us to walk out of the back door onto. The kids have missed playing outside.

In other news:

1- Miranda's baptism is this Saturday a 5 pm with munchies at our house afterwards.

2- Our clothes washer broke almost two weeks ago- I don't think I've ever looked forward to doing laundry so much as I am now! The new one is supposed to come tomorrow. It's a bigger capacity one, so that is also something to look forward to.

3- I taught my first Relief Society lesson today. I'll be teaching once a month. It went well.

4- Kara is a precrawler- she's actually scooting backwards. She finds it annoying to be moving AWAY from what she is trying to get. I have found her several times, backed under our fireplace stone with her head sticking out.

5- WE have a new nephew!!! We were all surprised when baby Grace turned out to be a boy- but we are just as excited. That makes 10 nephews and 9 nieces for Larry and I.