Drumroll please....

I am SUPER happy to announce the window in the bathroom is back!! Woohoo :)
Scott, Mark and David I know how happy you are to hear the wonderful news. I couldn't stand the dreadful dark bathroom anymore; we decided it was for the best. And after Nathan knocked out the plywood (for the exterior) all I could do was sing "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhh". Let there be light!!

Here are some before and after pics so you can understand how yucky and dark it was before verses how cheerful and bright it is now. This made me very happy today :)

We bought a double hung replacement window at Lowe's and after spending the afternoon putting our brain's together it's now installed. So we can open the top window and let the steam out when we shower and I can stare off in space at the beautiful countryside. Ahhh... I love it!

Thank you Nater for all your help and hardwork getting this installed. I know it wasn't the most fun we've had but we will be thankful for it forever, and ever, and ever!!



































In other news, the drywallers will be over in the a.m. to finish the last of the sanding and texture the walls. I can't wait because that means I can now start on the floors and paint the walls and ceilings. We need to get out of this hotel SOON. Here are some of the finished look after they mudded the walls.













































































I am mentally and physically drained so I'll wrap this up with a few fun photo's I took out at the house of the land and the boys. For those of you who are unaware, please click on the photo for the full size image. Enjoy :)







































































p.s. Our appletree has started to "bloom" (I have no clue on the correct terminology) and we have little baby apples.

Stinky feet

With each hectic day, late night or all nighters we accomplish I continue to believe it will be the last one. And every time I am wrong. Yesterday and the day before I was calling drywall finishers and trying to get some quotes. Two guys came out to the house and one guy was maintaining phone contact keeping me posted on his schedule. Yesterday around noon I get a phone call from Jeremy (drywall guy I'd had phone contact with) and he told me he had a short break in the schedule and could in fact start the house Friday (today). He said they would use a 'quick set' joint compound instead of traditional compound (that would require them to make several trips out to the house). Instead they'd do it in one quick sweep with the quick set, followed by joint and then Monday the guys would come in for one last sanding and he would texture. I couldn't believe my ears... Monday, finished drywall??? Woohoo! I researched quick set and couldn't find a whole lot but decided what do we have to loose at this point? I just want to get moved in. I called him back to accept the offer and started brainstorming how we were going to have the house ready in just over 12 hours. I headed to Lowes, got my lumber and cement board, picked up the boys and headed out to work around 5:30. And we worked all night. Finished up at 7:30 this morning when the guys pulled in. My feet were throbbing and I was pretty tired but so happy with what we'd accomplished. And I was so happy to be headed back to the hotel because the smell of my body odor was making me sick. I can't believe how gross I smelled. And anyone that knows me well understands that typically I stand by the fact that 'my shit don't stink'. Well this remodel job has changed me; I am now aware that I am capable of smelling like a 'sweaty wrestler' from time to time. And since I live in crocs most of the time apparently my feet can not handle being confined by my shoes anymore b/c I have a nasty "foot aroma" that will not leave even with a good scrubbing in the shower. YUCK!

Okay, I'm done grossing you out for the day. Here are some pictures I took the in the last 12 hours.

Most of the time I'm taking pics of Nathan working so I had Nathan take a couple pics to show that I actually am running power tools here. I am loving the nail gun!







































Here are some before and after of the closet doors. The closet is very shallow (maybe 14 inches) so we are going to put 96" high closet doors so we can access the whole closet and utilize the space. It will just be several shelves running across. It may look kind of weird but we need to maximize closet space. The pic of the board on the floor is covering the hole where the old chimney used to be (our secret passageway to the scary old cellar).






















Here's a photo of me trying not to look nauseous and exhausted after a night of smelling my incredibly stinky, hot body! (feel free to gag)

















This is all the stuff that had to be moved outside so the house would be clear for drywall.






























And the last of the photo's is the few I took this a.m. when the sun was coming up and the house was all clean :). I was so thrilled to be done at that point and so relaxed enjoying the fresh morning smell of dew and grass and listening to the birds chirp.

Cleaning Day :)

To start today, here are two of my favorite photo's I took of little man today.



















Woohoo!! Today was cleaning day :). I am one of those people that love to clean (when it's needed) because I get so much gratification when I see the results. So today I shop vac'd (you can't tell from the pics) and organized all the leftover drywall scraps. It felt so productive and I knew Nathan would love it (he can't stand the chaos). Here are some pics of the results :)












































Here are a couple pictures of the leftover drywall scraps we'll use for the closets and possibly garage.





































And lastly some pics of play time and some of little man and I (very rare). Enjoy :)

The hotel failed THE test.!

That's right. The yucky hotel we are staying at failed my very, very important pube test. And I didn't even have to pull back the sheets to find the yucky, coarse, curled up hair. I walked into the bathroom and there they lay (yes, they, there were more than one). I'm pretty sure the hotel room never got cleaned. The toilet seat was up and a drop of seriously dark, unhealthy, yellow pee and a pubic hair sat staring up at me. If I didn't actually gag at that moment, I know I wanted to. I made a comment to nathan and he said "You are so hard to please". Yes, everyone knows I squirm at the thought of hotel rooms but nasty, curlies all over the bathroom. Yuck!

So we stayed here Friday night, at the house Saturday in the tent and then Sunday rolled around and Nathan asked if we wanted to stay here. Our only other options were Econolodge (not much better and they were completely booked for the week) or Best Western (very eerie and scary from the outside - Nathan said it looks like it belongs in the movie The Shining). So I grimaced and said "no problem, that sounds great". When he got out of the car to check in I sarcastically told him to ask for a remodeled room. He did get us a room on floor level and it was actually cleaner than the previous one. So I'm dealing with it. Little man wanted to gross me out even more the first night by rolling all around the floor (gag again). He was showered and not allowed to get off the bed sheets after that. Yes, I stressed sheets because I always pull the comforter back and sit on the sheets. Comforters are not washed and it's one more thing that gives me the "itchies" as my dad puts it.

Okay, okay, moving on....
this past week was CRAZY. I got up last Wednesday and spent the whole day going up and down the stairs filling containers and loading them on the trailer or in the car. It was a busy day and then we headed out to the new house only to stay up all night preparing for the drywallers who would be arriving the next day to start hanging. We wired more, pulled nails, picked off the remaining tedious plaster and cleaned up. The guy came to deliver drywall around 9:30 in which we were scrambling around trying to insulate all the places he was sitting the drywall. Then the guys showed up to start hanging around 1:00. Nathan and I stayed one room ahead of them and put up 2x4's for nailers wherever they asked. It was nuts. They worked until five.















Window or no window in the bathroom? I think it seems tiny and dark. I could custom order a glass block window that would not be easy to install and then we'd tile around it?? Any thoughts....
















This is what little man did all afternoon Thursday and Friday morning. We felt like terrible parents. But kids are resilient and he never was angry with us. I kept him stocked with food and movies. He's not going to know what to do when he's not allowed to watch so much tv.














It doesn't end there. We had a TON of homework to do to prepare for the next day. By 11 pm we couldn't think straight so we fell asleep until 2:00. The rest is a blur.... (insulate, pulling wires, looking for the same tools over and over again, drinking more soda, eating more candy, sleepy moments) drywallers showed up around 8, we again tried to stay ahead of them. Finally at 10:30 I had to leave and get home before closing and get everything packed. Thanks to my dad and Amber for keeping me awake on the drive home. Little man fell asleep and I filled garbage bags full of the stuff we had left. Not as little as I thought. The new owners showed up a little after one to do the final walk through. They agreed to let us come back after closing (very nice) to let us finish up packing. I was stressing because I didn't have the house all clean and was so unorganized. After closing we headed back, packed for over three hours and headed out to dinner. Then we delivered the trailer out to the new (old) house and we made it to the hotel by 11:00. Here's a pic of our last minute stuff... (what a joke)
I wish I'd taken a picture from another angle. We shoved a TON of garbage bags of crap under the desk and on the other side of the washer and dryer. Thankfully the mattress tied down held everything in place. The cars were completely loaded down as well. But we made it!

The house looked really good when we got there (see above pics) and all that was left was the fireplace wall, the wall between the living room and a bedroom and the laundry room. The next day I called the contractor and told him the house looked good, we could even up and if the guys had time this week to finish that would be great. Saturday we took it a little easier and finished up the rest of the wiring (in which I lost in paper, rock, scissors) and had to do the tedious job of feeding a wire through a tiny space in the attic (yuck). We were filthy and finally called it a night at one a.m.. Sunday I didn't even know it was Father's Day until I talked to Lee around 3pm. That's right; WORST WIFE EVER. I felt like shit. Poor hubby. So I went in and apologized and then called my dad. I'm telling you my brain is fried. So Monday I was going to not be so rushed and frazzled. WRONG. Woke up to a phone call saying the drywallers were on their way to finish up. What?? I had no warning. I need to finish putting in insulation, run a couple more wires, go over everything.... EEEkk...
I brushed my teeth and left. Little man and I had to run to Lowes to get more 12-2 to run through the attic. Anyway, I sweat bullets for about six hours straight but again, the payoff was worth it. The house is officially complete with drywall hung. Now it needs to be finished and textured (still working on finding someone for that). The house looks awesome. We cleaned for a couple hours last night and I will post pics of the finished product soon. I didn't have my camera last night. We had a TON of garbage. Anyway, sorry for the SUPER long and crazy post. I wanted to get you all caught up. I miss having contact with my family. Soon enough I will be available! Little man just woke up so I'd better get going. Have a happy Tuesday. Tonight is Mexican food and a yummy Margarita!

The clock is ticking...

The time is quickly approaching to say goodbye to our beloved home. Where will we go next? The current condition of our new house is this...




















Does it look move in ready? I don't think so. It looks like we will be camping and staying in hotel rooms for a week or two. I'd much prefer to camp but Nathan has a little thing called "work" that will prevent us from camping 100%. We could possibly make it work if we had internet at the house but we are still figuring that out since our only option currently is Satellite. We've heard Satellite sucks so we are asking the Electric company to come back out one more time to test again to confirm if we can or can't get wireless internet. All the trees in the yard are the problem.
Hubbies parents came down to help us move so Saturday we loaded up the trailer and headed out to the house to get it ready for storage space. Sunday we spent the first half the day loading up our trailer and an enclosed trailer we rented from Uhaul. Then unloaded it in the garage at the new house. Not too bad.


Tomorrow I meet the drywall guy out at the house to measure. He'll see what we need and hopefully have it delivered come Wednesday. Next step, completely prepping the house for drywall. Realistically it probably won't be until next week when we start drywalling :(



Little man is still doing great. He's been such a chatter box and so very polite. He's been using his 'please and thank you's' all the time and making us all laugh :). He loves the empty, vacant house because he can move at dangerous speeds, ramming his car into my heels (ouch). And of course he is loving every second at the farm. On Saturday when we went out to work he played out side driving his race car (clash) through dirt piles and across the driveway.

Music, music, everywhere...

It's after midnight and I should be packing but I'm taking a much needed internet break. It's been a couple weeks since my last post so I'm going to take a time out from the madness and babble on my blog. It's been a hectic couple of weeks. Our house sold rather quickly so we've been trying to hustle to get our new house ready. The big thing is finishing wiring and framing so we can start drywalling Monday. We've got a big weekend ahead of us. In the mean time we are trying to do trips to Lowes, order cabinets, more Lowes, and of course packing since we'll be closing on our precious first house next Friday. So that catches you up to speed. Today I finally needed to get music back in my life. So I copied all my songs from my external hard drive and loaded them onto my computer and into itunes. Now I'm going to have wonderful company to help me pack tonight!! Yeah :)

Considering the craziness I just can't complain. Little man has been a champ through all the working out at the house and driving back and forth.

I try to limit the movies because of the trance he falls into when the TV is on (scary).

Hammering the floors for us

He's wondering what project to tackle next :)
Working at his tool bench from G'ma and G'pa.

Adoption: I think of our little baby in Ethiopia often but thankfully I have plenty of distractions right now. But my mind wanders to it throughout the day. Is he born yet? Is he safe? Healthy? I wonder about his parents? What they must be thinking about everyday? What struggles and challenges they are facing (how insignificant my dilemma's are)? I hope he is being loved and with his mother right now bringing her as much joy and happiness she can hold. I think of them!

How my dear husband gets his kicks....

We ordered Applebee's a couple nights ago and I asked Nathan to pick me up some ice cream and thank you cards for the guys that helped us install windows this weekend. He pretends to hear me and leaves. 20 minutes later (5 minutes after the food was supposed to be picked up) he calls and tells me he has forgotten what to get at the store. I refresh his memory and then tell him to forget about it and get the food (I hate cold carryout). I hang up the phone shaking my head. 10 more minutes pass and I'm talking to my mom on my cell and the house phone rings. I say to her "I sent Nathan out for a simple task and this is him calling confused". Sure enough it's Nathan wanting to know what kind of Thank you cards to get. At this point I try to remain calm and tell him to forget about the cards and get our food. NOW! Within 2 seconds of that the garage door opens and I realize he is home. I could have killed him but laughed instead. At this point my mom says, "how do you put up with him". I'll say no more.