April 15, 2013

I have put off and put off writing this post because so many things were going wrong with our plans that I was worried it might not happen!  We have built homes before (twice) and finished many others (three more), so I felt pretty prepared that I knew what we were getting ourselves into.  NOT the case.  

Originally we were told that we would be able to own our existing home AND have a construction loan and start building our new home... next door.  We were excited to get started and found a architect and got to work on our plans.  We started paying for permits and moving things along and then things started to hit the proverbial fan!  Things went wrong with the lot, our buyers ended up not closing as quickly as originally planned, the bank let us know that we would not be able to close on the construction loan UNTIL we had closed on our house.

Nothing too life altering... just extremely frustrating!  I'm not going to go into all of the details... let's just say things WERE NOT going as smoothly as planned.  Also, during this time we married off our oldest son!  :)  So BELIEVE me when I say this has been a long time coming!

Yeah, I have crossed my fingers, held my breath, and prayed that this day would come!!!  We are officially building our home!

Shortly after we started to build our home.... a Utah spring snowstorm hit!

Not to worry... they got the digging done and it didn't even get muddy!

This BUSY weekend

Friday we closed on our construction loan.   This is what I came home to... what a beautiful sight!!!

Last weekend we found such a fabulous deal on bare root trees... 50 to 75% off at Lowe's!  I think we got 11 trees!  (we had to figure some of them might not make it)  Well, with rain and sickness this week at our house we didn't get them in the ground till Saturday!

Megan and Russ got on a baking kick and made old fashioned doughnuts, 20 batches of strawberry jam (Kent's had strawberries on for $3.99 a case) and 2 batches of divinity!

 Morgan liked the doughnut holes!

MEGA, MEGA, MEGA, MEGA OREOS!!!

The other day we were in the store when we came upon MEGA oreos.  THey are maybe twice the filling as double stuffed oreos.  Well Russ thought that that was a little skimpy... so I made him this one!

What a great day!!!  I can't wait to see the photographer's pictures!!!

These are just a few of the one's that were on my camera!

I think that they make a very cute couple!

"New" Desk

For the last few months I have been selling furniture that we won't be using in the new home... a couple of weeks ago I sold my bookcase and big desk in my office.  I have had this "new" desk for almost a year now... I just haven't had the motivation to get it done.

I love the new knobs!  I still don't know if I will leave it as is or add a white glaze.  It has so much more storage than the much larger desk.  I love it!  Now I just need to go through and organize everything in it!  The best part.... desk $20 paint $2.50 knobs $30 total $55!

The scene at our house...

With temperatures staying so low... this is often the scene at our house!  They loved shoveling the sidewalks the first 5 or 6 times.... now, not so much!  Zack sent the angry birds hat home... it's nice and warm.  I don't know about you.... but I sure am ready for MUCH warmer weather!

A girl and her dog...

Dogs are funny.... I really haven't ever bonded with an animal.  I blame it on the German Shepherd that attacked me and my sister or cousin (I forget) when I was little.  Since then big dogs have always made me nervous.  

The hermit crab that my sister got as an answer to prom did little to foster animal bonding.  He just wasn't very fun to play with.  I remember taking home stray animals with the plea.... "Can we keep him Mom?"  But since my mom was "allergic" we never got one when I was growing up.  I think it was that she was raising 8 kids and she had little time for an animal... 

I don't blame her..... now!  :)

Megan and Pippin pretty much bonded instantly.  There is no doubt about it... He is her dog.  He is very protective of her and will jump off the lap of anyone holding him to get to Meg.  The feeling is mutual... Meg will pass every one else when she gets home to go and get Pip.