Saturday, July 16, 2011

House Update

The builders and subcontractors have had a busy couple of weeks.  We have all of the rough-in for plumbing, electrical and heating/air done.  We have some more siding on, we have all the insulation done and we have all of the sheet rock up in the house.  They will finish sheet rocking the garage next week along with doing all of the mudding/taping of the house and garage.  The plan is for us to gather our oh so willing family members next weekend for a painting party - that's right we are at the painting part already!  We will have to see how well the tape dries as it is supposed to be in the 90's-100's all this week so there may be an issue with it drying properly.  Time will tell.

And, we knew the time was coming...this whole house project has been going way to smoothly, we knew it was only a matter of time before we hit a bump in the road.  Last night when I saw my Dad back up to the new garage I knew something was up.  He stops in every couple of days to check on things but he doesn't ever back in.  So, Jed and I went out to see what was up.  We went down to the basement and were met with my Dad and our builder standing in 3 inches of water across the entire basement.  Yup, our basement flooded before we are even done with construction.  We had had about 3-4 inches of water in the last 24 hours and when it rained in the 24 hours it rained hard all at one time and then would stop, then rain hard and then stop.  So, of course our excavating is not done so everything slopes to the house and we do not have gutters up yet so everything runs off to the house, out window wells are not done yet so everything runs tot he house and there is a chance that we have a blockage in the drain tile going away from the house. 
The builder, one of his guys and Jed and I spent our Friday night muddy and wet cleaning up and drying out the basement.  Luckily there was plastic over the insulation which protected most of it.  There were just a few wet spots that we had to lift the plastic and let things dry out.  We got the floor cleaned up and all of the debris (pieces of wood etc.) picked up and hauled out.  So, by midnight last night it didn't look too bad anymore.  Today it is a bit wet again, just due to the humidity, so it will probably stay that way for the week with the warm/humid weather.  I am going to see if I can sweet talk our heating/air guy to putting a rush on our air condition to help with drying the basement out and with the mudding/taping and painting process.

So, a little glitch on the radar, but we are glad that it happened now instead of when we have a ton of stuff in the basement.  Hopefully we can figure out the problem soon and get it remedied and this won't cause too much of a delay.

For us, we will be very busy this next two weeks priming, painting and staining/lacquering the trim work.  Big job but with us doing it we save lots of money, so we will grin and bear it and dream of what the end result is going to be in about a month-6 weeks.
 
 Dining Room
 Living Room (the windows are bigger they are just covered with sheet rock laying up against the wall).
 Fireplace.
 Kitchen & Pantry
 Main Bath
 Master Bedroom
 Master Bath
 The mess.  :-(

Dodge County Fair

We went to the Dodge County Fair on Thursday and of course Grandma and Grandpa had to spoil the kids with a pony ride.  They all loved it!







House Update

We have all our studded walls, we have insulation and we have some siding!










Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Random...

Reagan was pushing her baby around in the stroller but then decided she needed her own stroller - went and got another baby doll stroller and rolled herself around in that while she pushed her baby ahead of her.
...And then the real baby came and she wore me out.  Declan was super good and was only there for a few hours.  But by the time Jed got home I was wiped out - he had to take Reagan to another part of the house so that she would quit climbing into the carseat with Declan while he tried to nap.  Isn't he so cute?!
 Kyra was very proud of her long dandelion stem that she found.  Not sure what the pose is all about?!
 We are dog sitting for some friends of ours.  This dog is the best dog on the face of the earth - I swear.  We don't even know she is here.  She goes out when we go out, she doesn't wine or beg, she only barks when someone knocks at the door, she doesn't mind the kids all over her, she sleeps at the opening of their bedroom door guarding them.  She is the perfect dog.  One morning (after it had been a stormy night and 3 out of the 4 kids ended up on the floor in our room) Jed woke up to find this scene.  Gavin, Emily the dog and Kyra all lined up in a row sleeping.  I even think Kyra and Emily are sharing a pillow.

4th ofJuly

We had a great 4th of July weekend!

We spent Sunday at the lake visiting with friends close by along with friends who traveled from Chicago and Texas!

Once again this year we spent the night at the lake and got up the next morning to head to the Morristown parade.  The only parade that I know of that gets thousands of people to attend in the middle of a field.  But it's fun to watch the kids enjoy such a small town parade - tractors, princesses, lots of candy...what more could they ask for?!

A couple of days before the 4th the 3 older kids spent the night at the lake with John and Josie.  Grandma Mary Jane asked them to help her with a project.  This brave, brave woman let 5 kids - age  and under to each paint a board on her picnic table.  They loved it!  Here is how it turned out...

 Reagan, John, Kyra and Carley lounging in the lake.
 Carley is all smiles.
 Gavin and Grandma out in the canoe.
 Of course then Grandma had to take them all out for a turn in the boat.  Carley.
 Gavin and John...as normal as they can be.
 And as goofy as they can be!
 Kyra's turn with Grandma.
 Reagan LOVED this floaty.  She spent the whole afternoon in this thin.
 We got to meet Baby Kirk who flew on his first plane ride all the way from Texas.
 Bree patiently waiting for the parade to start.  She came all the way from Chicago.
 John and Gavin chowing down on popcorn.
 Gavin Johnson, John and Gavin D.  Gavin Johnson came from Chicago for a long weekend too!
 Reagan enjoying her snack of popcorn and the huge chair that she got all to herself.
 Our whole crew - keep going on down the line.  I think we had 25 people there, if I am counting right.
 Sometimes they do look darling!  :-)  If not a bit tired from all of the festivities.

 Watching the parade in their 4th of July dresses.  Carley, Josie and Kyra.
 Grandma and Grandpa left the Morristown parade with the 4 kids to go to another parade about 45 minutes away.  They got home just in time for supper and then we had a camp fire and "tried" to watch fireworks from our backyard, it didn't work great - darn trees moved this year!