Chad works too hard.

View out our front door.

The Craft Room




Jedi with a U of M hat

Chad is still working his cutie-patootie off finishing the wood floors and cutting wood to heat the house. It's inhuman. He puts in a full day at work and then comes home to work some more. He got another floor done last night and only has the master bedroom and family room left. Yesterday I picked up all of the decorative lights and it takes all of my willpower not to keep taking them out of the boxes and manhandling them. I am getting so excited to finish this house.

I am also getting tired of the 24 x24 living quarters, listening to both Chad and Devin snore, eating out every night, going to the laundromat every other day (50$ a week!)...we are in such close quarters that every night when Devin swings his light sabre around and makes the "szzzshhuuuu szzzshuuuuu" light sabre sound I get smacked. Seriously.

I tried to take a good picture of our front yard to show you how "rural" we are. I think we are about a half mile from the road. We are so 'rural' that there are always deer tracks around our place. One morning I found the biggest deer tracks I have ever seen and a huge pile of poo about 15 feet in front of the shop. The tracks were so big that I made William come look at them. William said that they weren't deer tracks (and if they were he would drop out of school just to hunt a deer that big). I spent the rest of the day making everyone that was at the house look at the tracks to figure out what made them. Finally the flooring guy told me that it was horse poo & tracks. So, like, a random horse was wandering around our house. Rural, man.

One plank at a time...

Muffler

Slowly...

Kahrs Hardwood Floating Floor


Wow, this took all night!



Break time already????

I thought siding was the slowest part of the building process. It seems as if Chad has been siding every weekend for years now. I was wrong. Wood floors win the "Putziest Project" award. Yesterday Chad spent the whole day (albeit much of the day was just setting up) laying wood floors and did only one room. I layed the green, obnoxiously curled, muffler pad which is supposed to make our house quieter (maybe if I layed it OVER Devin) and get rid of that "clicky" sound when you walk on floating floors with your stilettos on. I don't think we are going to make the Thanksgiving deadline. Kids: You may want to make other plans.

Speaking of kids. After I layed the muffler, watched Meet the Robinsons (A Disney movie that will make you CRY! Is there anything sadder than orphans?? ) and Star Wars Episode I (I didn't know Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vadar didn't have a father! Supposedly it was some form of 'immaculate conception'....that explains SO much. I will have to talk to William about this...)

Check out this link:

http://www.stcloudstate.edu/athletics/sports/track/WilliamBrenny.asp

Isn't this cool????!!!

I'm almost floored!

The tile dude has been working hard the last few days and almost all of the hall & bathroom tiles are done. They have only been layed, not grouted. This weekend Chad is working on our wood floors. The stack of boxes above is the Kahrs Hardwood Floors that we are installing ourselves. Since we have in-floor heat we need to have a "floating" floor so it can expand and contract. Kahrs was the only real wood flooring that you can use over heated floors and I guess they just click together like legos. Sounds simple. We'll see....

Dev & I will be at basketball this morning and then Devin has our afternoon all planned: We are going to watch all 6 Star Wars movies from beginning to end. Interestingly, my other son made me do the same thing years ago. He was a little older though and he wouldn't let me knit while watching because I had to pay attention. Hopefully Dev will be a little more lenient....I am just finishing a sock.

Separation

Kids bath

Kids Bath

3/4 Bath

The opening above Chad's head is for a TV.

My cabinets.

I designed my house. I looked at hundreds of plans online and found one that I kind of liked, modified it and brought it to an architect. Chad set some rules: One level, NO interesting angles or jogs (everything square), no vaulted ceilings, separate Master Bedroom walk-in closets, no carpets, kitchen peninsula that sits three and a garage that's close to the kitchen (easy grocery unload). Ok. I had my own rules: Separation. I didn't want an "open" layout like our last house where the kitchen, dining and family room were all in one big room and I didn't want to see the TV from the dining room table. Though, I did agree to a small under-the-counter TV in the kitchen so I could watch the news while making dinner. Somewhere in the building process it was brought to my attention that it was trendy to put a TV above the fridge. Ok, a small TV above the fridge would be fine, that cabinet was always inconvenient anyway and I have plenty of others. Now that the cabinets are installed it was pointed out to me that I have room for a 42" television above my fridge. Really. And, you can see it perfectly from the dining room.

Space

William & Courtney

William & Alyssa

Papa & Chad

Celebrating at Space Aliens

Last night we celebrated William's 19th Birthday at Space Aliens. Even though the service there leaves something to be desired, I really like the food. The burgers are excellent and the pizza is awesome. Chad always has the ribs and he is pretty picky about where he'll eat ribs.

Speaking of "Space":

Before

After

Behind Chad is the bathroom linen cabinet. Space!

Before





After

The cabinets are in and I officially have tons of SPACE! When I was designing my home the architect asked me if I wanted vaulted ceilings here and there and Chad said NO to any vaults because he didn't want to "heat air that he wasn't using". Fine, so we decided on 9 foot ceilings throughout the whole house. I seriously thought that I had 9 foot ceilings in my old house. Wrong. So when I designed the cabinets I thought it would be a great idea to have ALL of the cabinets go ALL the way to the ceiling so I wouldn't have to dust the tops (like I ever did) and I would have an extra few inches of storage. Yeah. Well, my old house apparently only had 8 foot ceilings....my new cabinets are mammoth. I will never own enough towels, toiletries, etc. to fill the linen cabinet in the master bath. Never. (I guess I could store yarn & fabric in them....hmmmm?) I will also need a step-ladder to use any of the upper cabinets in the kitchen. When Chad saw how big the cabinets were and how many all he said was "we are never moving again". I told him I just wanted a little more space.

Trim & Doors

After a slow weekend (I watched 3 movies and finished another book) this week is going to be very busy. Yesterday Acorn delivered the trim and doors and they're are putting in the kitchen and bathroom cabinets today! The painters are finishing up and the plumber and tile guy will be doing their thing. Everything seems to be moving so fast now. As soon as the kitchen cabinets are in Granite Tops will do a measure and the counter tops are tentatively scheduled for installation on the 20th.

Also this week: William's Birthday dinner at Space Aliens, conferences for Alyssa & Devin, dinner (and switch shopping) with Brian & Tammy, religion and Dev is visiting a pediatrician. There is no school on Thursday and Friday. No time for books or movies this week!

This weekend I watch Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It reminded me of the Spongebob Squarepants Episodes where they bring Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy out of retirement. It was awful.

The Painted Veil was excellent. I love Edward Norton. I wish I had read the book first. I have a hard time reading the book after I see the movie (unless it is an autobiography) and I heard the book was very good.

Are you a Keira Knightly fan? Do you lie? You should see Atonement. It's the story about how one lie affected the lives of 2 sisters and a childhood friend.

I was crying at the end of both Atonement and The Painted Veil. I love movies that make me cry. Although, seeing a middle-aged Karen Allen in "mom pants" fighting Russians in Indiana Jones also made me want to cry.

Happy Birthday William!!!!

William is 19 today!
Courtney turned 18 last week!
(When I didn't have a computer)


May the force be with you both!