Trusses, Excitement, and Disappointment

It seems like I'm getting into a habit of blogging on the weekend to show house progress and do a week in review type thing, so it's the weekend and here I am, reviewing.

This week the roof started taking shape in the new house as the trusses went up. We have a very different roof line because we have a loft type house. The boys rooms are upstairs and when they walk out of their rooms, they will be on a balcony that overlooks the kitchen and living area. Our ceiling in the kitchen and living room will be a slope starting at 9 foot and go up to waaaay higher than that by the time it reaches the top of the stairs.

If you are in the Texarkana area and are considering building, I highly recommend using Mark Hannible as your framer. He does not limit himself to do only what the plan says. He has very good ideas and just lays out options you may want to consider. Just this week he found a place for another room in our house, and it was already an area that was going to be heated and cooled. I mean, really, an extra room?! Yes, please!

Austin is standing in the entrance to his room, and the extra room that Mark added this week is just to the left of him. It is the area that covers the hall and pantry, but it ended up being a pretty big space. I'm so excited about this space. We are making part of it a closet (because you just can't have too many of those) and the rest will be a play area that will overlook the kitchen and living room. We are just putting railing around most of it so it will be open. It will either look very cool when it's done, or it will be really weird. Either way, it's different. And I like different.

This is the front of the house.

This is the view of the living room from the stairs.

I am so excited about the way the house is coming together. It is even better than I thought it would be. It is very time consuming because there seems to be big decisions to make almost daily. This week I had to decide on which stone I wanted to use on the fireplace, along with what design I wanted it to be. That sentence took 2 seconds to type. The thought process took a good 2 hours of standing out there looking at it, along with at least an hour of looking at stone fireplace pictures online. We also had to pick out our living room TV this week because there will be a place built in for that and we had to know that to know how much stone to order. I also had to decide what type of columns I wanted around the porches. It's so hard to pick out random things and try to picture how it will all work together. Hopefully I'm not screwing up too much.

The week was going really well until yesterday morning when Austin woke up with a pretty high fever and body ache. He laid in my lap and let me rock him for a long time, which is very unusual for him. He just kept saying "momma, I've got the fever". It was pitiful. After a meltdown in the lab about getting blood taken, a chest x-ray, and a 50 minute wait for lab results, we found out that his left lung has pneumonia in it.

Which is bad for several reasons.

The first one is that I hate to see my kids sick. I just wish I could take it from them. Not that I'm any better at being sick than they are (because I'm not), but at least they wouldn't be hurting and miserable.

Also, we had a big week planned next week that this pneumonia put a stop to. Right now, I should be in Dallas shopping with my birth mom and my kids should be in DeKalb ready to spend the week with my mom. Instead, right now I'm sitting at home, blogging and cleaning. Tomorrow I should've been on a plane headed to Washington. But instead, I will be home with a sick child. Oh the sacrifices we make sometimes for our kids...

My friend, Brandi, moved to Washington in June (was that just last month, really?) and I had my trip planned to go hang out with her for a week. I have lived in Italy. Traveled all over Europe. Swam in the Mediterranean Sea. Rode the chunnel from Paris to London. Vacationed in New York, Florida, Tennessee, New Mexico, and well, all over the United States. Except for the Northwest corner. And I was finally getting to go. Brandi and I had plans to go to Seattle, Spokane, Portland, and everywhere in between over this next week. Also, it is 70 degrees there right now. It is 95 here. So it's quite possible I was going to be shopping for a summer home there also.

Anyway, this trip has been planned for a month and Brandi has been texting me a countdown every morning since then. Needless to say, we were both REALLY looking forward to this. And we are both so disappointed that it all had to be cancelled. Maybe if he starts feeling better later on in the week I could still go up for a few days. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 I'm determined to make it up there someday. And I would love for it to be sooner rather than later.



More house progress and camp week

Last week was a very busy for all of us. After church Sunday morning, the four of us headed up to Broken Bow, OK to get Robbie and Aaron set up for their week at church camp. Aaron goes as a camper, Rob goes as a helper. He's been helping out up there for a few years, leaving Austin and I with a week to ourselves. Even though I can't stay there all week right now, I love to visit that place. I made so many friends there when I was younger that I am still friends with to this day. And I'm so happy that my kids are able to have that same experience there.

While Rob and Aaron were gone, I was busy playing with Austin and making house decisions. This was a very big week for our house. When they left Sunday, the house looked like this.

And when they got home on Friday, it looked like this.

This is the front corner of the house, which is mine and Rob's master suite.

And this.

These are the stairs going up to the boys rooms.

And this.

My guys are all standing in Austin's bathroom here.

I'm really glad that I was home this week to answer questions from our framer. There were a few major crises averted by my being here. Apparently the plans that we worked so hard on and overpaid for does not show everything that it is supposed to show. Luckily, we have a awesome framer who cares about making us happy and doing things right. I have really enjoyed all of the contractors that we have used so far in this process and I'm still very happy with our decision to contract it out ourselves. It has been lots of work, but I enjoy having my hand in every detail.

So while we were busy with watching a house go up on our end, Rob and Aaron were busy with their week at camp. This is Aaron and Austin Sunday sitting on Aaron's bed after we got him all set up Sunday.

Cabin 8. First bunk on the left.

Unlike his mother, Aaron wanted to sleep in the bunk right above one of the counselors. In all of the cabins, there are 12 bed downstairs and 4 beds upstairs.  Back in my day, the girls from DeKalb would always rush to get the 4 beds upstairs. It was usually Wendy, Sandi, and me and we would grab one more girl that we knew to be up there with us. I have only good memories from that place.

At the awards ceremony Friday night, Aaron was awarded the Christian Character Award. One of his counselors told Robbie that Aaron was always doing what he was supposed to be doing. He said that when he would tell the boys to get on their bed and study for Bible Bowl, Aaron would often times be the only kid that actually did that. I'm so proud of him.

I also have to say how proud I am of Robbie for what he does up there. He stays in a camper instead of a cabin and helps do whatever needs to be done anywhere in the camp. It takes a lot of work to feed that many kids 3 meals a day, and so he helps out a lot in the kitchen. It was a big sacrifice for him to be up there this week with all he has going on at work right now and with the house being built, but I'm glad he went and had a week away from everything.

Even though we all had an enjoyable week, I'm so very happy to have my boys back home. It's just not right when Rob doesn't come home in the evenings. Or when Austin doesn't have anyone to fight with.

It would've been a little too peaceful around here if it wouldn't have been for all of the hammering going on outside. So glad the framer people could be here for me in my time of need.

These last few pics were all taken Friday evening at camp.

Aaron with his friend Kaden

Craig and his crocs

us :)

A week of progress

Have I mentioned that we are building a house? Because we are and I'm SUPER excited about it! I can't tell you how much time I've spent this week looking out my windows trying to see what the workers are doing. Sometimes I wonder if they see me and say, "that girl is looking at us again, look like you're busy"! But they have been working really hard this week. And with temps in the 100's, I really do feel bad for them. I think we would have a lot more done by now if it wasn't so stinking HOT and they didn't have to stop working and taking so many breaks so they don't die from the heat. I'm not sure our builders insurance would cover that.

Monday

So this is what the house looked like Monday. The concrete workers worked all through July 4th weekend to get ready to pour the slab on Tuesday. They were even here Sunday morning working. Which is why I, again, stepped out in my PJ's to let the dog out. Who would've thought they'd be here then?! These were some dedicated people.

Tuesday

Of course, I HAD to get a picture of the first concrete being poured on Tuesday morning! I was so excited I just wanted to go out and be a part of it but, well, it's hot. And I know nothing about pouring or smoothing concrete. And...it's just hot.

Tuesday evening

This was Tuesday night after all was said and done on the foundation. At this point all we can do is hope that their measurements were right and the plumber wasn't off on his placement of pipes and whatever those other little things sticking up out of the concrete are.

And this was Wednesday. Ha! Wouldn't that be awesome! Foundation one day, house complete the next! Ok, so this isn't my house, but it is the front doors I ordered this week for my house. I love them. Wednesday was just a rest day I guess, because we didn't have anyone out here working all day long. And I missed them all.

Thursday

On Thursday, the framers came out and got started getting it all measured out. They popped chalk lines to outline the rooms and doors. And they also got some of the wood down where it is supposed to go. I love walking around out there and really being able to see it all lined out like it's going to be. Makes it seem real I guess.

Thursday

We also had our brick layer out here Thursday working on our safe room that will be in our garage. We figured since we live in Tornado Alley, a safe room probably would not be a bad idea. My neighbor came down to check on our house progress today and he asked what that room is going to be. This is our conversation.

Him: "What's that brick room y'all are building?"
Me: "It will be our safe room."
Him:  "Oh, ok...well, you know you could also use that as a storm cellar if a tornado comes through, don't you?"
Me:  "Yes sir, that is why we are building it. To keep us safe in a storm."
Him: "Ohhhh, I thought you were building a room to keep your money safe."
Me: "After we build this house, we will have no money to keep safe!"

Oh how I enjoyed that conversation.

Safe room- Friday

And this is what the room that will keep all of our money safe looks like today. It's just missing the door and the concrete top. If only the house could go up as fast as the safe room did.....

Friday

The framers were back out here today getting everything ready to throw some walls up next week. I made them some sno-cones and had the boys take them out to the guys that were working. I think they took that as a sign that it's quitting time, when I meant it as a sign to KEEP GOING! So they left about 10 minutes after getting their sno-cones, and I'm assuming they will not come back today.

I can't wait to see the progress that next week brings! This is so fun!!