Framing, framing, framing

We cannot believe how much framing has been completed in only two days! We love our framer, Ernesto!

God bless Ernesto!

Our framer, Ernesto, rocks! He began work this morning and has already framed out all the outside (and some of the inside) walls! He built our neighbor's house in 8 days. So we will moving right along! I had parent-teacher conferences until 8:00 tonight so I only got to see it in the dark. That didn't stop me from going up there and walking around, though. I've always said that once I have actual wood on the lot, that I would do a happy dance. And that is exactly what I did! Right up there in my new living room! It's amazing what a difference having a frame makes! you can see the rooms so much better than just with the foundation! I am so excited now! This is definitely the fun part of building a house. Here is a really crappy picture of the framing. I haven't quite figured out how to take a good picture with my camera. The night mode doesn't even really work. (Anyone have any suggestions?) And here is another pic of our "organized chaos" that we are living in right now. We've got two (yes, two) storage buildings full of stuff. This is the spare room at our apartment. We've got it jam packed as well. We're living in organized chaos right now!

So cute!

On a brighter note...how cute is Maggie? She never takes a good picture!

Un-freakin-believable!!!

Okay, yesterday was a great day. We got our foundation poured, closed on our house, etc. Today was the exact opposite! When I went out to look at the foundation I realized very quickly that it was not in any shape to be stained. It was splotchy and had these horrible swirl spots all over it. I knew something was wrong. Since we were planning all along to stain the concrete as our flooring throughout the entire house (except the bedrooms) we hired the "best" concrete guys and were told that the floors would be "so smooth you can shave on them". The guys who actually do the work are a group of Mexicans and the "translator" is this white guy who supposedly tells them what to do. We've had a horrible time with the crew not showing up, etc. And this one took the cake. Upon seeing the horrible job they did, we called the main guy to come and meet us. He was "shocked" to find out that we were staining the floors. He said that he "never knew" that we were planning on staining them...he said that he thought we were putting carpet throughout the house. Apparently they use a whole different process for floors that are going to be stained. I don't know if it never dawned on them that we had laid piping all throughout the floors to heat it and that carpet is usually not heated. (DUH!!!) So basically, there is nothing we can do to fix it and we are screwed. We're losing the money and time that we put into heating the floors. And now we have to find extra money in the budget to buy hardwood. Travis is just sick about the whole situation...he had his heart set on those stained concrete floors. I ended up blowing up and the guy and storming off the lot. Travis was much more calm and ended up working it out that we wouldn't pay for the work they did on the concrete. I'm just so sick of the whole thing! I cannot wait to get this house done! The only good news we recieved today was that our framer wants to start on Thursday. So our ugly concrete may be holding up a frame by this weekend!

Yes, we moved the rock.

As I have blogged before, Tucker is the type of dog who only gets attached to a few items. One is the elephant that I blogged about before. Another is this big, round rock that he manage to dig up from the backyard several years ago. He brought this rock into the house and loved to push it around with his nose. He rolls around on it, carries it in his mouth, hides it. etc. No matter how many times we threw it back out into the backyard, he always manages to bring it back in. He'll play with it for a few hours, then it manages to get shoved under the couch or bed. It'll be forgotten for several months. Then he'll discover it all over again and he gets so excited! While we were moving the couch, we found the rock again. Each time we uncover it, it makes us smile. We discussed what we should do with it...leave it or move it. Without any thought we brought it to the new apartment. He found it today and then, of course was so excited to play with it all over again.

Done deal, rabbit!

Well...it's a done deal rabbit! That's a quote from one of my favorite children's books "Tops and Bottoms". We closed on our house today...we don't have to be out until this weekend. They are already tearing out the carpet and putting in hardwood floors, however! We also got our foundation poured today!!! Yes...finally! I didn't get a picture of it today because they were still working on it when I went by. I will post one tomorrow. Next we have to finish the safe room and then begin framing next week. I cannot wait to have actual wood on it!

Happy Easter

We really didn't celebrate Easter much this year...it pretty much crept up on us. We've been so busy with all 3 of our houses (moving out of one, moving into one, and building another). As Haley put it the other day "why do you need three houses?" Besides that I'm still really sick. At least Maggie and Tucker got to wear their Easter clothes. Travis has been working at the lot trying to get it ready to be poured. I've been making a few trips to the old house to get the last few things. We close on the old house tomorrow. We're about 95% moved out...we still have a bunch of stuff in the attic and Travis' tools. I still have to clean it and Trav has to make a few repairs. We are hoping to have a yard sale next weekend and then be out of it for good!!!

STRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I don't think I've ever been under so much stress in my life! I've spent all of spring break packing and moving. While Travis has been at work I've been packing and moving pretty much all day and then we work until midnight once he gets home. I'm sick with a sinus/ear infection on top of that. Then today our concrete guys were supposed to come and prep our house so that the foundation can be poured. They were supposed to be there yesterday...didn't get to it....then supposed to be there first thing this morning. Of course they weren't. Travis and I tried all day to get a hold of them. The foundation has to be prepped so that it can be poured on Monday. We have about $5000 worth of concrete coming first thing Monday morning and we have to pay for it regardless if we use it or not. So we were pretty much panicked about it all day. Finally the guy calls me back all non-chalant around 5:00 this evening and promises to be there first thing tomorrow morning. I'll believe it when I see it. My parents came up today to help us get most of our stuff out of our house. We worked for hours and hours and are not even close to being finished. But we decided to quit for the day and go have a relaxing dinner. So we headed off to dinner at Chili's. An hour and a half later we finally left after having it out with the hostess, waitress, and 2 managers. We had to wait for over an hour for our food even though they claimed it was only 20 minutes. I won't go into anymore details other than that I will NEVER go back there! I am just very exhausted and disappointed in people in general today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better...I think it has to be.

House Update

There's not much going with the house lately. The weather has not been kind to us and we pretty much were screwed over by the last group of guys we hired. They didn't do the job right and stole some of our tools. Right now we have the foundation almost ready to be poured. We still have to have the termite guys come and spray before the foundation gets poured. This picture shows the initial plumbing that we had done last week.

Jumping Rope

We gave Haley her Easter basket early and one of the items in it was this pink jump rope that plays music while you jump. The ironic thing is that the handles are filled with candy. I guess the idea is to be active and eat sugar at the same time! She can't really jump it...she swings it and then hops over it. She went home today since Batesville had recieved so much rain that we were afraid she might be stranded here the more the river rose! It's always so wierd right after she leaves. My world revolves around her when she's here and once she leaves I kinda feel lost for a little bit. But I do look forward to a little bit more sleep! The dogs feel the same way...they are both conked out on the back of the couch right now!

I'll pinch you! aka Happy St. Patrick's Day

Haley was extremely worried about wearing her necessary green today so that she couldn't get pinched. But she was also on the lookout for anyone who wasn't wearing green so she could pinch them! She and Tucker were definitely in the spirit! My mom came down today to pick her up and take her home but Haley flat out refused to go home. So she's staying with us for a few more nights! She's been such a big help with moving.

Our New Apartment

Here are a few pics of the new apartment. We've only moved in a few things. Haley went over and helped us out a little bit today.

A welcomed tradition

Usually over spring break, my niece Haley comes to stay with us for several nights. This year, however, with the move and such we didn't think it was going to happen. But my brother, mom, and her came up today. We were going to keep her for tonight but she now insists that she is staying for five days! We love having her here and it was so nice to just step away from all the stress of packing and moving for a while. We went shopping, to eat at Chili's, to see our new apartment, all this afternoon. Then we decided to go to build a bear (a must when she comes). She made an elephant, dressed it in a pink leopard bikini, and named it Peanut. We also got her a stroller for it. So she strolled it all around the mall, Target, and Chick fila. And now we're about to go to bed. She's sleeping in her tent next to our bed. She thinks that's really cool! Then for tomorrow we will get started on packing and moving again. And she'll be happy to help us!

SOLD!!!

Well we have finally sold our house... we will close at the end of this month. So we have about 3 weeks to find an apartment and move out! Fun times! It's so great, though, to be done with it and not have to worry about selling it! Thank God I have Spring Break next week...I was looking forward to a relaxing break, but I'm sure I'll be packing and moving now! Our plumber came today and laid the sewer lines. Next Travis has to repack all that dirt, we have the termite guy come and spray, and then the slab gets poured. Our goal is to have the slab poured by the end of this week. You know in our spare time of not trying to find a place to live!

Packing, packing, packing...

Today I started packing some of our stuff. I've been working on my scrapbook room, the living room, closets, and our bedroom. I've gotten over 15 boxes packed already and have barely made a dent! Yikes! The dogs are a little stressed by the whole situation, they don't understand what's going on. Travis spent most of the day working at the lot getting the foundation ready for the plumber (who should come by tomorrow). We will find out tomorrow if the guy buying our house has been approved for his mortgage or not. His loan officer told me on Friday that he was 99.9% sure everything would be okay. So I feel pretty good about it. Once we get the go ahead, we will put a deposit down on the apartment (if we get it) and start moving ASAP!

Busy Day

Since we've started on our house, our weekends have been so busy. We are always running around taking care of errands. Today we bought our mirrors for our vanities (50% at Hobby Lobby!), shopped for new bedroom furniture, and took the doggies to get their hair done. While at the groomer I fell in LOVE with this puppy that she is fostering until she can find a home for. It's a black lab/cocker spaniel mix. He looks completely like a black lab except for he has the long cocker ears and the sad cocker eyes. He's soooo cute and sweet! I begged Travis to let me adopt him but he said no. I know we can't get him...especially since we are moving soon. But I can't help but love a little one like that! Anyone looking for a pup may need to check this one out...he's way too sweet! Here are a few pics of Maggie's new do, and the vanity mirror.

snow pictures...again.

Here are a few from the front of the house.

More Snow Pics!

It just keeps snowing and snowing here! We've gotten several inches now. The dogs had to jump, rather than run around the backyard. And they came in with snowballs in their fur!

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even though we didn't get the inches of predicted snow last night we did get some snow today. We released school early at 10 and I've been at home with the pups all day. It's been snowing fairly hard for the last hour or so. I love when it snows...really, really snows. It's so rare to have a good snow here in Jonesboro. Everything seems to go around us! The dogs love to play in it. Even Maggie got out there and ran around! Here are a few pics of our fun snow day!

Big changes in '08

Wow! 2008 has sure lent itself to major changes in our little life! Here we are only 3 months into the year and we have had so much going on. First, we've began building our house as well as the process of selling our current one. We always dreamed of building and I always thought of it as just that...a dream. I still cannot believe we are well on our way to accomplishing that. We've recently accepted an offer on our house. We are now in the process of getting papers signed and working out all the details. The guy who's buying our house doesn't speak much English so we've struggled with that greatly. It's really hard to explain all the details and legalities with a language barrier! It's really distresses me that we will most likely be moving this month. Also with that comes finding an apartment/house to rent that will allow our dogs as well as allow us to rent month to month. And then in the middle of all this, Travis recieved an offer to come back and work at his old job, Civilogic. He worked there for four years while he was still in school but left last September to go work for the city. He really enjoyed working there but he had a much better opportunity (not to mention more money) at the city. Well a few weeks ago his old boss presented him with a very great offer to come back and work with him. So Travis decided to go back and then of course the city offered more money to keep him. So he had quite a dilemma and decision to make. After much discussion he has now decided to go back and work for Civilogic. He starts back there on the 17th. So we have one heck of a month ahead of us! A new job, new apartment, packing, storing, and moving our old house/stuff, and then of course the construction of our new house! Yikes! Thank goodness spring break is coming up!

Baby, It's cold outside!

What a tease this weekend was! The weather was absolutley beautiful...upper 60's, blue skies, sunshine. Man, spring was on the way. And then today came. It's rained all day...better yet, rained hard all day! I had no idea how cold it was until I went out to do bus rider duty this afternoon. It was freezing!!! I had no coat since it was so warm this morning...I got soaked. I could not wait to get home, change into sweats, and start a big pot of veggie soup for supper! Even the dogs hate this kind of weather!

New purchase!

We were supposed to work all day backfilling our foundation so that we can pour the slab next week. However, the guys who were supposed to help us (and who own the big equipment we need) decided that they couldn't get to it until early next week. And since they are doing us a favor by helping us, we cannot complain. It just really stinks that the house across the street from us is moving right along. They were backfilling their foundation today and they started way after us. So I know they'll get done first as well! :( I know it's not a competition, but the fact is I want ours done first! :) So anyway we ran errands for the most part of the day and then happened to stop by Southern Accents on our way home. We had heard they were closing and having a big sale. But we also knew that even with a sale that their furniture would still be really expensive. But we decided to check it out anyway. I was still wanting to find a hutch for the new house. Being able to have a hutch was my whole reason for having a dining room! I've been looking for a hutch for months now. I had found the one I wanted at Ashley furniture website but had yet to find it locally. And then I walked into Southern Accents and there it sat. The exact one I had been looking for! It was marked 50% off. And then we talked the lady into giving us an additional 10% off. And on top of that they are going to store it for us until our house is finished! Yay! I love good finds! So now I just need a house to put it in! :)