Week 5

Busy week and LOTS of house changes... we have walls!!! Framing started Monday and the basement level is nearly complete. It was so fun on Thursday climbing up to the platform where our main floor will be and looking out. Our next delivery of wood came in on Friday so we should have main floor work starting this coming week. We ordered our fireplace this week and they started to frame in the box for it. It won't go in until after framing is complete but it was fun to picture it. We are STILL deciding about flooring (UGH!) and met with the company that will work out a security system plan. Today (if we can drag Ainsley away from her train set) we're headed to Dell's (our builder - Ainsley sings "Dell the Builder Yes He Can!" whenever we see him - a takeoff of Bob the Builder) to look at 6 pallets of stone. He had it leftover from a previous job and it was the most expensive stone at the store. He's offered to sell it to us for cheap so we can use it for our fireplace and stonework outside AND he can get it off his property! Good deal for us both provided we like it (which we think we do based on the few pieces we've seen). The kiddos have been sick with a nasty cold bug all week - continuous low grade fevers of 100, snotty nose, and a bone-rattling cough. Dean & I have been downing the Airborne but yesterday he started to feel a little puny and after 2 1/2 hours up with Ian last night, I'm feeling a little under the weather today too. Thursday & Friday had such beautiful weather it really made me yearn for summer - hopefully it will be a nice one this year. Dean starts soccer today with their games to be played on the brand new turf field at the Peninsula Community College. Ainsley's been asked to join a soccer team in the fall - AYSO U-6 - coached by a friend of ours. She's very excited to play soccer like Daddy. I'm sure we'll be practicing a lot this summer. They're only 8 minute quarters so not a long time to stay focused. We're hoping gymnastics will start again soon and Ian may start into Kindermusik in the fall since there will be enough kids. We're looking at dance classes since A loves to dance, but we'll see how that goes. Pics from the week... Last Sunday's burn...

What was left after the burn - yay!

Tuesday

Wednesday... yes, that's snow! Luckily, it melted Thursday.

Thursday

Today

Week 4

It was a slow week of work on the house as we waited for the foundation to dry (through numerous rainy days) and prepped the site for this coming week. Framing starts tomorrow!!!! 2-3 weeks for the basement & middle floor and then another 2 weeks for the upstairs. We had a little set back and are back to discussing the pros and cons of radiant heating thanks to the manufacturer's warranty on different wood products. It looks like if we do radiant, african tigerwood flooring will not be able to be warrantied (we're still researching that). Which means we need to pick a different flooring type or a different type of wood - and so far having a difficult time finding a company that will warranty a wood product over radiant. So back to the drawing board - ahhhh!!!!

We did have good news concerning our taxes this week - be barely owe at all!!!! We LOVE our accountant!!!! Last year we owed quite a bit and we had been assuming we would be owing more this year since we made more. So we'd been stocking away some money for that and dreading the meeting with the accountant. However, he had increased my withholding on a monthly basis since last year and that made ALL the difference!!! So now we have more money towards the build and hopefully furniture when we're done!!!! It would be nice to actually have furniture for our house!

Ainsley had a rough start to the week - very naughty. She threw countless tantrums and we couldn't figure out quite what was going on (besides the fact she's nearly 3!). She started eating a TON - like 2 dinners a night and taking extra long naps with full nights of sleep and she seems to have grown an inch! So growing pains refer to much more! Her pants are all getting short but her 3T pants are too long - the life of a "Short"!!!!! After we figured that out, she's been much better behaved and actually quite funny. Her vocabulary continues to amaze us and she's counting to 20 (almost right every time). We've been talking about capital and lowercase letters ("That is NOT a Q Mommy!") and working on recognizing letters better. She's been singing the ABC's for so long, but I think more from memory than actually understanding all the letters.

Ian's still sleeping well - thank goodness!!!! I was about to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore. He's only up once a night and only up long enough to eat. If we weren't all sleeping in a 12 x 12 box, we'd probably just let him cry it out and he could easily make it through the night, but I try to not let it disturb Dean and Ainsley's sleep too much. He's trying to use his legs to crawl more, but he's moving around pretty good using the army crawl. He really wants to stand and walk everywhere - you have to physically bend him at the waist to get him to sit. He's been saying "ma ma" (though not just about me) and growling a lot and his new trick is waving! He discovered the child gate and REALLY wants through it so we are having to be careful about keeping it closed. His little dimple is starting to show in his right cheek, maybe he's thinning out - his weight fell into the 55% last visit, the lowest it has been in his entire life! It's hard to believe he'll be NINE months next week, the time has flown! Even more amazing is that Ainsley will be THREE in a month! Craziness!

Ian pics...

The Williamson's came over on Tuesday for dinner and A & P had a fab time playing in the mud and getting to look at the excavator up close!

The kids weren't the only ones having fun!

Week 3

So, last week foundation walls were poured and waterproofing down on the cement. Next week back fill going in with framing starting the following week... we're trucking along! We've decided definatively on radiant flooring and picked the Rumsford Renaissance zero clearance fireplace. We met with a guy about masonry work and discussed details at length with our contractor. We're meeting with a custom cabinet maker tomorrow in PA and hopefully make some decisions on that front soon. Whew! That on top of super full work schedules!!!!

Dean got new soccer shoes today - the highlight of his week! He's not the only one excited -see pics below.

Ainsley has been talking more about school and seems to be looking forward to going in the fall. She also drew her first capital A the other day. At times she is so mature acting that I can't believe she's only nearly 3 and at other times decompensates into a screaming, tantrum-throwing mess!!!! On the up side, she has been much better with me lately - rarely being as rude as she was a couple months ago.

Ian is sleeping better at last!!! I am hesitant to even say that since it's only been a couple of nights, but now we're only waking once as long as he sleeps the rest of the night in our bed so he can kick me all night! A GREAT improvement to the constant up and down or hours of non-sleep of previous. I woke up this morning to a swift kick that nearly knocked me off the bed and realized I had been balanced on the edge since Ainsley, Dean, Ian, and I were all sandwiched into our bed like a can of sardines! Next bed will DEFINATELY be a KING!!!! Ian is also teething and being a trooper about it - 3 to maybe 4 on top and it looks like another one below.

My life is, as always, a juggling act. I have painfully neglected work to spend more time with the fam and am reminded of that fact daily as my list of to-do's at the office faithfully grows. We have been waiting to enter into our contract with my ex-partner to buy the building and have yet to have a response back. He did buy himself a boat that has consumed all of his time, but we are looking to close the deal so I can start to make some changes. Somewhat frustrating... I have finally weaned off the pump which has been somewhat bittersweet in that I will never breastfeed again. It was definately time though as I was only producing 3 oz a day; a sharp contrast to the 8oz every 4 hours of previous!

Here's a few pics from the week...

Our house as of Sat.

Cute kiddos...

Ian is a standing fool! All he wants to do is stand and walk!

Hmmm... like father like son...

Sunday family hike (Ainsley's holding rocks in her pockets)

Daddy's new "boots"

Week 2

I have a quick moment before I'm off and running again, so thought I'd post a few pics. Busy week but due to nasty weather we had a few slow downs. Footers were poured early week and then the boards went up for the foundation walls to be poured early next week. Dean's got another burn pile to manage and we've got tons of decisions to make soon. It's been hard staying awake long enough to even see each other, let alone discuss major decisions! Ian's been a terrible sleeper lately and I've worked a lot this weekend so it's really been like 2 ships in the night.

Area on our driveway cleared by the excavator & burn pile #2
FootersPrepped for foundation walls (pic taken today)

Cute kiddos!!!

"Cleaning" the portapotty!

LOTS of mud puddles!

What Woody's head (thrown by Ainsley) did to our television :(

Short Week

Thank goodness for our long vacation, meaning we had a short work week. Ian & I are still getting over our cold from Mexico and the poor little guy caught a stomach bug at the end of the week. Ainsley's in full blown cold world now too. Luckily Dean's well!!!


It's been a nasty rainy weather week, which shortened the site work being done by a day or so. Still, we're moving along - laterals in, foundation dug, site cleared. I think the plan is cement starting next week provided we have good enough weather. Dean's busy digging up our lavender so it doesn't get destroyed, digging up nasty scotch broom, and burning our slash/burn pile that's collected over the week. It's another rainy day, so good for burning for him and good for coloring and watching movies for us sickies.


Here's a few pics of our progress...

Ainsley thinks the "diggers" are "awesome"!!!

This is the new rock at the end of our driveway. With all the heavy equipment on site, we had them move some rocks around for us.

Rock again...

Dean's burn pile

New laterals for septic

Happy kiddos pre-illnesses :)