Happily Livin'

It feels WONDEFUL to be living in our home!!

Last week I took a few pictures of us outside in an effort to capture "the" Christmas card photo, which we did successfully. Also took this great picture above of us standing on our front porch. And to think such an awful looking structure was standing there less than six months ago.

We hosted Thanksgiving for nine adults (siblings and parents) recently and I think it all went quite well. My sister and I baked on Wednesday and Thursday morning Brad and I work up at 6:30 a.m. to put the turkey in the oven. Everything else fell into place thanks to the help of our moms.

First few nights!

I wanted to give everyone a quick photo update because I know I have been MIA. I am going to blame it on Verizon because we are still without internet at home and I have taken some vacation time from work so I am forced to visit the library to logon to the internet. We spent our first night drinking champagne, eating a good dinner and Brad surprised me with a pretty bouquet of flowers. Yes, we did use the blender as a vase since we only had random boxes at the house.

Our first few weeks have been a whirlwind because we went out of town and had guests over for Thanksgiving (more on that soon) but I just wanted to say hello!

MOVE IN DAY!

Yup, you read that right - today we can move in!!! Brad called me at 8:40 this morning to tell me that the inspector had already been otu to our house and everything went great. Three hours later he has already brought our new sofa, ottoman and mattresses to the house and will getting more things together throughout the day. I'll write more and FINALLY post pictures in a few days, but for now I'm just going to enjoy spending time in our new home.

Still Waiting

I haven't been posting because this house process has still been draining me emotionally. We are still living with Brad's parents and waiting for the house to be done. Last Friday I was on-site for a plumbing/septic inspection when they realized one of our pipes was broken, meaning we failed our inspection of course. The pipe was fixed in no time, but another inspection couldn't be done until Monday, Nov. 2 - luckily we passed. Also on Friday the plumber told me our sewage grinder pump wasn't operating correctly. In an effort to prevent sewage from accumulating in our pipes, I called WSSC and within three hours a new pump was installed (much easier than I thought) at their expense. Now we learned that we need to wait 10 days from chlorinating our well to have the water sample test done which carries over to next Tuesday, Nov. 10th. We are going to the house daily and running water to speed up the dissolving process of the chlorine tablets because we are several weeks behind "schedule" and patience has run out. Sigh.........

Ding-Dong

This past weekend Brad and I did what we could at the house after four days of rain...which was obviously nothing outside. Instead, we went to Lowe's and bought a wireless doorbell (with upgraded button because the plastic one was ugly) and some blinds. I am lucky that he is handy because even though he said both of these were "simple" tasks, I know not everyone's husband could do it and for that I am grateful. He was happy to hear that I did not want to doorbell that plays 60+ different tunes, including Christmas music. All I wanted was a simple single and double-tone bell...even the "Westminster 8 tone" was too much for me. Brad also put up one set of blinds in our bedroom so we can decideif they are the ones we like or not. While we love our Andersen double pane, inside grids, tilt in windows, they are not deep enough to mount blinds inside the window frame. So, they have to be mounted on the trim across the top of the window. Thank goodness he is also patient because I am more concerned with seeing the mounting bracket than how the blinds look. It's a girl thing I think. Have you ever made your own curtains? Suggestions for doing so??

Rain rain, Go away

Dear Weather Gods, Please stop raining in Maryland. I am appreciative that the snow is staying up north, but the rain isn't helping our contractor finish the exterior work on our house. He is doing all that he can while you give us a break. Do I need to do a rain dance for better weather? At least last week was productive - we got a new driveway, electricity and the plumbing was finished. We also got our porch railings installed :). I will upload pics soon.

Back in Action

Well, it is now October which hopefully will be the month we move into our house! Below are a few updated pictures since we are getting closer and closer. We are supposed to have electricity tomorrow which will allow me to vacuum all the carpet fibers everywhere and our driveway should be poured by the end of the week. People keep asking us what the holdup is, but it keeps raining here and the mud is slowing us down!

In Memory

Well, I think I can accurately say that "9/11" has a different meaning for everyone who is at least 20 years old. I was e-mailing a co-worked about something for today, September 11, and wrote 9/11 instead and she called me to say "it freaked me out a little." Isn't that interesting how it effects people? This morning in Washington there was additional traffic and road closures due to the memorial ceremony taking place at the Pentagon which included a visit by the President. Although it is still another day, eight years later, you can't get past it especially when the news stations are replaying footage from eight years ago. This morning a local radio station played something that gave me goosebumps. Google "red skelton pledge" and listen to it and tell me what you think. Red Skelton talks about how in elemnetary school the principal came into his class to explain each word of the Pledge of Allegiance. I never toook much time to think about it in a dissected form, word by word, but I can tell you that it is worth thinking about. To all that have given their lives since 9/11 and before...thanks.

Moving Out...again

Last weekend we moved all of our furniture (besides matress and dining table) out of our basement apartment. Since our lease ends on Sept. 1 (a Tuesday) we needed to do everything in advance. Since moving all the furniture to storage we have continued packing loose items and other things still in the apartment. We both have plans on Saturday, but we'll need to finish up so cleaning can be completed Sunday and hopefully we can be out of there. Where are we moving? Luckily, we have my in-laws since the house is still a few weeks from completion. We will be staying in brad's childhood room and living out of suitcases. Jake our cat has been up there for a week getting used to the change in scenery. We found out that he behaves much better when he is at their house...hopefully he'll be good at our new place too since he will have so much room to roam both inside and outside. How many times have you had to move? Don't count moving from apartment to apartment in college. How many states have you lived in?

Rosettes

Well, I have a wedding in October and have been looking for a dress. Of course the fall dresses just started coming in, but I knew I wanted to find one sooner rather than later. Funny thing is - I found shoes about three weeks ago that I bought, planning on wearing them for the wedding without knowing what dress I would wear. Although I ordered another dress, once I saw this one and was able to weasle a discount at the store, I went ahead and bought it :). I love the texture of the "rosettes" around the neckline andstraps. Now I have to go back to The Limited and return the purple dress I bought, but I think this one is much better. I love when I find a great item and can get it for less than the price on the tag!

What a Beauty!

Above are some still shots from last week's "house razing." Now that our first new home is in place, I can't imagine it not being there! We have gotten some very kind compliments from oru neighbors about how wonderful the house looks, how happy they are that we are moving in, etc. It means alot because our community (consisting of about 15-20 homes) is very close knit with a variety of residents. Some folks lived on their land in trailers for many years, others just moved in, while some have been there for 50+ years. We have enjoyed getting to know them over the last year and can't wait to actually be their neighbors.

We have our house!

Yesterday the four sections of our house were delivered and setup on our foundation! This is a rough-cut I made of video I took throughout the day just to give you an idea of how it all played out. Pretty impressive and VERY exciting for my and my hubby :). I even got keys to the front door....

Almost here!

We received confirmation yesterday that our house will be "delivered" and set on our foundation on Thursday!! In less than 48 hours I will be sitting on a chair on our property watching them piece together our new home, lay carpet, finish hanging drywall, complete the basement floor, etc, etc. I can't wait! I am going to take videos while I'm out there and will upload them here or to my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/EnjoyLifeLove7 soon after :)

"Let there be light"

We see a light at the end of our home-building tunnel! This weekend we stayed home from Ocean City because the Keystone plant amanger offered to meet us in Pennsylvania on Sunday morning to walk through the pieces of our house. Since the facility has operating hours of 7-4 Mon-Fri, we haven't been able to see anything thus far since we work full-time.

I was thrilled to see the progress, especially on the two lower level sections. All has been completed except for installing carpet (done in Poolesville when they deliver), appliances and cabinet doors. It was fun to see what steps have been completed and what is left to do.

Brad laughed after I calmed down a bit after seeing our kitchen. The kitchen is where the most pieces come together. We chose the floor, cabinets and I had the countertop special ordered since I didn't like any of their standard options. The fact that there is no seam in the counter and that we have spaces for our appliances (including microwave which we haven't had in a year) is quite a thrill.

I found out that Keystone has the capcity to build five homes (warehouse to the left) at one time, but since business has slowed down and the size of their staff has decreased with less business, they are only working on our home right now. Nice to know the best of the best are making my house perfect for Brad and I!

Out with the Old, in with the New

The old 1870s house is gone and we are starting new! You can see from the pictures that our foundation has been installed and we're just waiting for the basement floor to be poured. My mother-in-law was nice enough to go to the site when the foundation was going in to document the process for us since we couldn't be there (work!).

I was quite pleased with what I saw and it made this process really tangible for the first time - we will have a new house! We still go to the house each week to tend to our vegetable garden and my two baby trees - a red delicious and flowering cherry blossom. This weekend we are going to see our house being built in Pennsylvania at the factory - expect to love it!

Long Time No Type

I think I realized the blog thing doesn't really work for me like I hoped it would. Since my last post was uumm 10 months ago...about that...Sorry! I think part of my laziness comes from knowing that no one reads this anyways and since I have a journal and can post pictures on social networking sites, I am able to get out everything I need to in those outlets. I'm going to try again and if I fail a second time I'm giving up.

So we've been married for 7 months now (it was 3 months until the wedding at the time of my last post) and all is wonderful. Actually, today was Brad's last day at his job and he's starting a new one on Monday. I hope the wedding we're going to in Charlotte doesn't wear him out too much! Also different from my last post is that we bought 1.5 acres of land on 10-23-2008 and the house is currently in the final stages of demolition.

The first picture is the way the property looked a few weeks ago since we started mowing the lawn, installed the silt fence and everything starting happening after 6 months of fighting with the county over our permits. Below are a few pictures from the first two days of demolition this week - I can't believe the change!

By tomorrow the whole house is supposed to be completely gone. brad and I met up in Poolesville last night to visit the demo site for ourselves and it was a weird feeling...