House/Baby Update

A LOOOOOT of progress has been made on and in the house.

We (had to) got a small retaining wall in the front... 

Our columns are up and all the exterior is almost finished.  For some reason I have a recent pic of that... but I will.  

We have been working on our garden, which might not even get planted this year ;(, and we had dinner up on our porch.  AWESOME!

We have amazing views from the front AND back of the house.  The porch has a great view of the temple and the back deck and patio have a great view of the Great Salt Lake and valley.

We are getting REALLY close to being ready to move in.

Tile is almost done, hardwoods almost done, carpentry is almost done.  We have painting to get started and then finish the lighting and plumbing fixtures as well as cabinets and counters.  It still sounds like a lot, but it will go by super quick.

On the outside we still need to finish the stucco, driveway, walkway and sidewalk as well as doors needing paint.

Its fun to see all of the things I have been selecting come together.

This has been like a pregnancy.  I LOVE the beginning even with the crappy start we had.  Then I have enjoyed seeing so much progress and the excitement of it all.  BUT, the end, like when I am pregnant, has been the hardest!  The last few weeks are driving me crazy. I want the "drs" or in this case contractors, to give me a date of delivery, because mid-May or end-of-May is simply not good enough for me.  I have been dreaming and thinking house stuff NON-STOP!  Just like at the end of my pregnancies, thats all I think about.  PLUS, I am ornery with everyone and everything!

GIVE ME MY HOUSE!!! Thats what I want to scream to the world.  hahahaa!  Truth is, it will come when its ready (like a baby) and it will be beautiful (like my babies have been)!

Soon... VERY soon i'll post about our new home.

ps. the house will not have "hair" like my babies did.  It will be like Milli, bald, meaning no grass.  It will just be dirt, for a while.  but I will love it just the same, because it will be mine! :)

Tomi's SHORT visit

 

Tomi was in the States for business for a month and we got to spend a weekend with her! 

She arrived late on a Friday night and we had a great time chit chatting and catching up and hugging and maybe some bumm pinching too ;) 

 

 Tomi is such a cute aunt!  She loves her nieces and nephews and even though she is far away the kids LOVE HER!  She is sweet and loves to give them hugs and kisses :)

 We all got together on Saturday and spent pretty much the entire day together.  Cousins LOVE to hang out together and that is always fun :) We have been having lots of great times together lately, its great!

 Awww! Dave getting a little hug from Poopy Squatz!  Dave is not huggy, but he likes Tomi... He just doesn't show it.  hahaaa!

Sunday, Tomi spent time with our dad.  Sunday night Abuela and I headed down to Tomi's hotel and hung out.  Got mani's from Tomi and ate an entire bag of Mini Cadbury Eggs... SO FUN!

Monday night, Tomi came back with a box of Sweet Tooth Fairy Cupcakes!  OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Heaven in my mouth!!!!!! I was just the adults and it was a wonderful time.

 We were really lucky to have Tomi around for the short little weekend.  

Still EVERY little bit is wonderful!

We will all be together again VERY soon!  IN COLOMBIA!!!!!! Tomi is getting married and so far the five of us will be together again.  SO FUN!!!!! Life is good when family is around :)

House Update - NOT so BOOOORING

Another House Update.  This time, its fun and drama free! WOOOHOOO!  This is reason so celebrate.  Picture overload :)

Once the framing got started, we saw tons of progress day after day.  The basement went up SUPER fast.  It took them two weeks to frame the entire house!  We can tell where things will go and the feel of "the lot" has now become real.  We no longer call it "the lot", its our "HOUSE".  It really felt like this was never going to happen.  Its awesome!!!!!

This is our first picture together IN the house.  It was taken on Dave's Bday.  

Only the basement was done at this point.  No stairs yet. 

It was great and slightly emotional to be in OUR HOUSE :) LOVE IT!!!!

Tomi was here and she got a quick glimpse of what the house will sortta look like.  

It was AWESOME to have her here! It was a super short time (more on that on another post).  

Here we are, the three of us, together! :)

You could sit and watch the house come up!  It was pretty awesome to go up the several times a day, dropping off or picking up the kids, and see the progress being made :) 

The upstairs seemed to take a little longer, but not really.  It was still super fast. 

Again, it was pretty crazy to see it go up so fast.  

 This is a view from the "kitchen" into the house, 

you can see some of our rooms towards the back :)

This day was pretty cool.  We have stairs! 

This made it feel like the two floors were finally connected. 

Yay! Roof trusses!!!! The house taking shape...

This week we got our roof, almost done... 

Today we got doors!  The front door, garage door into the house, 

deck door and basement door out to the backyard.  

A LOT has been getting done inside the house.  Plumbing has been put it, we have bathtubs, and showers, rough plumbing in the bathrooms and for the appliances. HVAC has been put threw all sorts of little crevasses. Electrical has been wired and strung all over the place.

LOTS of decisions have been made.  I have picked out the exterior colors, doors, lighting, cabinets, counter tops and lots of little layout things that we were unsure of.  Its been GREAT!

Next week I will be picking out fixtures, flooring, interior colors and finalizing a bunch of little things.  We've had great subs working on the house and that is a cherry on top. 

There is still long way to go, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting much closer!!!! We are happy and SO looking forward to the next month+ to get in our home.  It will be a year, in June, since we sold our old house.  We never thought this would take this long, but it will be worth it in the end :)

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

House Update - BOOOORING!

This will be a boring, slightly dramatic, picture-less post. 


Late December we had a call from the bank that we would be doing the construction draws differently than we had been.  (RED FLAG goes UP).

1st week in January a Sub Contrator calls and says, she ONLY wants to send me the invoice and wants nothing to do with our Contractor. (RED FLAG goes UP HIGH).

2nd week in January, I start asking LOTS and LOTS of questions.  The bank answers and then I start calling EVERYONE that has EVER worked in our lot.  Long story short we found out that nobody was being paid from our contractor, BUT, he was taking our money.

Things got from bad to worse, EVERYDAY in January.  It was an extremely difficult month.  It was lonely and depressing and faith-trying.  I took matters upon my hands and while calling and finding things out we also found out that our contractor hadn't paid our permit, didn't have a contractors license for part of our building process, had bounced checks and simply would not do what we asked him to do. He was SHADY, to say the least. 

We started to find out or better yet, make sure that the work that had been done in our home was in fact inspected and passed by the city.  Late January we found out that he had put everything 2feet TOO LOW!  Meaning the footing and foundation was TOO LOW! This was extremely hard blow as the cost to fix this BIG mistake is very costly.  We quickly got a second opinion on things and contacted another contractor (two other contractors) and they spent more hours in one week with us than we had spent since we had started this process with our contractor.  Needless to say, we had gotten screwed. 

Do to legal reasons we had to wait an additional two LONG weeks to be able to sign with another contractor.  We did the work ourselves in the mean time and raised the footing and foundation two more feet (this after talking to our [fantastic] architect and engineer, extensively!)

We started the actual building process at the beginning of November and should be in our home by now, had everything gone smoothly.  HOWEVER, so many good things have come since then. 

We have new FABULOUS contractors.  Nothing but complete honesty and transparency with them, something we had not had with the previous dude.  They helped us solve the "mystery" of what was going on and how to handle it. 

Where is the house now?

We have foundation at the appropriate height, we have a garage floor, we have a porch floor, bonus (unexpected) cold storage, we have some plumbing, basement sub floor and a HUGE storage room under the garage.  We also have a lot of geofoam under our driveway, this is to alleviate some of the pressure dirt would have had on the foundation wall that had to be extended. 

We also have new contractors, a new appreciation for people that have never met us, yet they felt for us and our situation and helped us just because they are real and kind. We have also learned a lot.  We have become stronger and closer together.  We have a bigger appreciation for what we have and the INNUMERABLE blessings we have received despite the "trials" we have had. 

We continue to feel that this is what Heavenly Father wanted for us and for our family.  Everything had worked out perfectly when we started this process and we had faith that this was what we were supposed to do.  We continue to trust that the Lord is guiding us through this and continues to bless us.  We see His hands in our lives daily and we are grateful beyond words!

We see a little light at the end of the tunnel.  Its little but we see it!!!

When Life Gives You Lemons....

.... you are supposed to make lemonade.  But with out some "sugar" the lemonade is still as sour as the lemons. 

It has been a rough couple of weeks.  Trying to look at the positive things lately has been hard.  Every time I turn around I find out more bad news.  In the hopes that looking at the positive in my life it will make me feel better.  Or you can also say, I want to look at the 'sugar' in my life to make the lemonade taste as yummy as I have always remembered it. 

Sugar (close to home):

I am blessed with a hard working husband.  He loves me and wants to do everything for our family to make our dreams come true.  I love the connection he has with the kids and the bond they share.  I am blessed to spend eternity with him.  I miss him when he is gone and love to him more than I can say!!!

I am blessed with four monkeys that make me laugh, cry and smile every day/hour.  They are forgiving and love me regardless of my flaws and weaknesses.  I am proud of their accomplishments and progress in school, home and church.  I love them all!!!

The other day Otis fell asleep in my arms.  I don't ever get to do this and I enjoyed every second he was in my arms.  I wanted to kiss his soft little cheeks the entire time and nozzle up to him and breath in his yumminess. 

I am really blessed to have a loving husband and four stinkers!  Its hard to be upbeat when life is hard at times.  My 'worries' change my attitude and its not fair to Dave or the kids.  Its hard to change my attitude and just have fun and spend time doing the things I know I want and need to do.  The kids have been watching too much TV, just so I can deal with the 'lemons' that have been sent my way. 

I don't like to be a Debbie Downer, as I feel like I am usually a Happy Heidi (i just made that up, I have no idea if there's such a person :))  Talking through my 'lemons' always helps, but its not always the best solution to the problems. 

Truth is, that I am extremely blessed and I need to remember to look at all the good in my life.  It will make the 'lemons' into a delicious 'lemonade'.  I am looking forward to the sweet lemonade life has to offer me and my family.  I just need to be patient and count all the grains of 'sugar' i have been so richly blessed with. 

New Year, New Year's Resolutions, New Shoes

Its almost February and I haven't posted about our New Year's Resolutions. 

We enjoy setting goals and we have been doing great so far! 

Otis' goal is to sleep through the night.   That's all we are going to get him to work on :)  He has finally regulated his BMs and that is wonderful gift to all of us!  He just out grew his issues, like Mylo did :)

Milli's goals are to sit nicely while eating, learn to ride a bike (weather permitting) and go to Primary by herself.  She has achieved the last goal.  She has been doing so well, she even volunteered to say the prayer!!!  WOOHOOO MIlli!!!

Mylo's goals are to be more kind (by not pushing), try to sleep longer (he is our early bird!), learn to ride a bike (he has a hard time.  I think he is scared to fall), learn to do an "S" curve on a snow/skate board, say prayers in the morning.

Leah's goals are to control her reactions, nail down her "S" curve and listen to at least one talk during sacrament (baby steps :))

Dave's goals are to leave Skullcandy work at work, attend the temple at least once every quarter and decrease in weight by 10%

My goals are to control my yelling (yes, I yell at my kids sometimes and I dont' like it.  I am not perfect!), pray more fervently and decrease in weight by 10%

Family goals are to be better listeners, take naps after sleepovers (they are horrible after sleepovers!) and read our scriptures daily.  We have been doing SO good with these!  We have loved to 'check in' on each other weekly.  

To achieve one of my goals Dave got me a pair of Vibram Five Finger Shoes...

I have really like them!  I have only ran with them twice, but have been working out with them all the time.  I am looking forward to running with them as that was my biggest reason for wanting them.  I had some soreness after the first couple of workouts/runs but I feel that they are strenghtheing my muscles, slow but sure! 

I am looking forward to this year and the good it will bring to all of us.  Though some times things might be hard, they will always be worth it!

Winter is FINALLY Here (I'm not pleased with its arrival)

We woke up on Saturday to SNOW!!!!!!  Seriously, I was not happy about it, because of the house, this BETTER not slow us down this week.  If it does, then Mother Nature better watch out!!! (jk, I love Mother Nature and I am grateful for her and her 'moods').

The kids LOVED it!  After a few hours of begging me to go play outside I let them.  I haven't let them play outside much because I can't watch them.  Our apt is around the corner from the parking lot and I don't feel safe letting them play there. But one of my goals this year is to be more of a "yes" mom (more on that on another post).

Snowball "fight"

They played on this parking strip right in front of our apt for a while.  

They tried to pile enough snow to make a snowman, but quickly realized it was too much work.  I love how Mylo is trying to get the snow to the right area, heheeehe. 

Then they moved over to the parking lot, where they found a fort-like pile of snow and played there for an hour or so.  Otis joined in the fun for a bit... 

 

 

 

Otis kept his hat on.  SO CUTE!!!! 

 

When they got cold, they rushed inside for some hot cocoa.  

Isn't that the best part of playing in the snow?

It was worth the work getting these monkeys in their snow gear.  They played for a long time and were so happy.  Plus, this is what being a kid is all about.  I'm glad I can see them enjoy life in simple ways.