House update (6/22 & 6/23)

It was great getting to SEE the house on Sunday night. It was raining, but we still had to go out to see it ourselves. And, it look GREAT!!!! I could not believe the size of the front entrance pillars. I knew they were 6x6 posts and 4 on each side...but seeing them there...they are HUGE! The front door looks amazing and we LOVE IT! It is exactly what we wanted. And, the living room ceiling looks great too. It is a large vault...should be fun to heat! :) I could not imagine putting the roof on here...what a mess if you ask me! Here are a few pictures from Sunday night......

The outside of the house :


The living room (I am standing by the big wall of windows looking towards the front door...you can see Hailey's room upstairs too) :


I don't have a picture of this until now...but this is the view from my kitchen window. Maybe doing dishes won't be as bad now :) (yeah right!!!)


On Monday we went to the house 2 times....there were so many guys in there working!!! The plumber was in there, the mechanical guys were in there (the furnace is in the basement!!) and the electricians started as well!!! Now we have to work on finalizing our plans for lights, cable, phone, etc...it is all coming together very quickly!! They need to slow down a little though....we haven't sold our other house yet!! We hope to go out tonight and maybe there will be more pictures. :)

House update (6/17 & 6/18)

Tuesday and Wednesday were more good days to build a house! :) There are now steps from the garage into the house, looks like they are getting ready for shingles, and the exposed beams are up now too...and look great!! :) I cannot wait to see it in person!!

Kari -- you are AWESOME! Thanks so much for being there for us and sending pictures to us EVERY NIGHT! We love you!

House update (6/12, 6/13, 6/16)

A great big THANKS to Kari for keeping us updated on house progress while we are gone. She is so good...she even sends us pictures!!! :) So, what has happened in the last week? The big news...we have a roof! They have started to enclose it, the beams are ready to go up, and the mechanical is starting tomorrow! We also got the front porch done...well, the cement at least. Pretty exciting and we cannot wait to see it!

Thursday, June 12


Friday, June 13


Monday, June 16

Tuesday (6/10) house update

Today there was more progress...I gotta love that! They got a few of the rafters up above Chris' garage and above the master bedroom. The upstairs is ALL framed in...and looks great. And a few little things: the landing in the garage (but no stairs), the race track ceiling in the office, and I think there was something else, but I forgot it already. :) The kids got to go upstairs with me today. They loved seeing their rooms and even got to go into the basement for the first time too! I think they are getting excited as well. :)

Not a very exciting post, especially without the pictures, but oh well, that is life! :)

6/26: Finally ... pictures!!!

Here are the kids looking out Hailey's bedroom window...and Hailey taking pictures in the basement.

BBQ/picnic time

Last night we went over to Doug & Doran's for a family bbq/picnic for family to see Tim & Owen. It was sad that they are leaving this morning (probably already driving right now), but so exciting to know that we get to see them (and Kendra and Mason) on Saturday!! It was a great turnout of family members, and of course great food, so it was a fun night!!

Hailey took advantage of the party by having a lemonade stand. She has been asking for that for some time, so this worked out great. She did great getting the glasses ready...even writing your name on them so we knew who's was who's. And, she is excited to use her money to buy something on vacation. :)


Here is Ryan making sure Uncle Tim has some soap for his mouth! Uncle Tim said "Chicken Butt"...we don't say that word so Ryan ran and got the soap for him! :) And, the kids all got travel pillows from Grandma...very cute!!

Monday house progress (6/9)

Finally a nice day....most of the day. We still got some rain, but that didn't start until 9pm thank goodness. It was a windy day, so I am sure the crew loved working on the upstairs yesterday!! Glad it was them. ;)

They got the outside walls all done on the upstairs, and also got most of the interior walls done. They need to put up the wall that separates Hailey's room from the bathroom and then a door for her closet. Fun to see their rooms finally!

(1) Look...the house got bigger! Last time that happens :)
(2) They finished framing in the wall that borders the staircase.
(3) Standing in the living room looking up to Ryan's room.
(4) The view that Ryan has! Poor kid!!!
(5) Hailey's room (the one wall isn't up yet).



They also got the steps in going downstairs as well. That means I FINALLY get to see the basement!!! It looks GREAT down there. The bedrooms are a good size. The fireplace looks great. The living room is nice and big. My "multi-purpose" room is HUGE...not just for scrapbooking anymore! And I love all the storage I will have too. And we are very happy with our decision to have the ceilings be 9ft down there. What a difference it makes!!

(1) Steps going to the basement.
(2) Basement fireplace (bedroom behind there).
(3) Standing in the storage room looking at the bathroom and then a bedroom.
(4) Storage! and the craft room next to it.



Finally, kind of a neat picture of the house. As you can see, there aren't any houses around ours yet. We don't like that, but kind of nice too. :) The kids will love watching the other houses go up I am sure.

Mr & Mrs Adam DeCock

Congratulations to Adam & Jessica DeCock!! We went to their wedding on Saturday...and it was so beautiful! Jessica was stunning!! And, Adam didn't look too bad himself. ;) The kids had a great time and actually did very good. We left the wedding and Ryan told us "I wanna be married." So I asked him who he was going to marry. He just had to repeat himself..."I said I wanna be married." I think he changed his mind after I explained that he needed a wife. :)

I love the first picture below. It looks like Adam is playing with a toy truck, but he was trying to get Thomas to come down the aisle. :) Very cute!!


Two fun Hailey pictures...one of her and Kari enjoying a snack! :) And, this was my daughter most of the day...taking tons of pictures. I think she took more than me!! :) Love it!


And finally a super cute picture of Ryan, Hailey and Owen. We are sad that Mason (and Kendra) aren't here...but we will get a picture with all 4 of them next weekend :)

Last games of t-ball

On Friday night and Saturday afternoon Hailey had her last games of t-ball. It is hard to believe she is done with her first year already!! Talk about improvement!! Now she hits the ball when Chris pitches it to her. She can throw so much better. And, she even stays a little more focused on the game!! We are very proud of our little girl!! :)



Of course Ryan was there at every game too...and he is ready for his turn to play!! :)

Friday house update (6/6)

Friday was ANOTHER rainy day in Billings, but there was a little work done on the house. They got the boards on the joist for the upstairs, got steps to go up there, and more tyvek on the house as well. Hopefully the kids will get walls on Monday! :)

Oh..funny Ryan moment. We took them out there on Friday night to see the progress. We told them there were steps to their rooms, but no walls yet. There were both happy. Then Ryan said "So we can see God and Jesus?!" I guess we should have explained that his room wasn't quite THAT HIGH in the sky! :)

(1) The steps going to the "kid floor."
(2) Standing in Ryan's room...looking towards Hailey's room. Hailey's faces the street. Ryan's faces the rims/backyard.
(3) & (4) The back of the house.

Thursday house update (6/5)

Well, you can tell they had all day to work on the house!! :) What changed?!?! TONS! Both garages are now up. All the interior walls are done on the main floor (and that changes things so much!!!). And, there are some floor joists up for the upstairs!! Hailey and Ryan are so excited that they have a floor for their rooms now. They wanted to know if there was carpet yet!! So, then we had to talk about how long it will take, all the things that need to happen BEFORE the carpet comes, etc. It will be more fun once they can go upstairs to see their rooms! :)

Pictures :
(1) The two garages.
(2) Standing in the living room looking towards the dinette and kitchen. That is the pantry in the corner. You can see "Ryan's floor" too.
(3) Still standing in the living room looking at the front office. You can see "Hailey's floor" too.
(4) Standing at the front door looking in. To the left is the office, right is the closet and master bedroom/bath/closet.