Looking Like a House

In addition to finishing up the chinchilla's room, Dave's been working on multiple other projects. He sanded the floor in the bathroom upstairs so he could put down hardiboard. In doing so, he created quite a mess.

He was a mess....


My house was a mess...

But that's life. He's also been working on sanding our trim. He won't let me help - says I work too much so that's why I have time to post.

We did finally get the bedrooms upstairs set up. They are finally looking like bedrooms!

The curtains are a temporary fix and hopefully all of the items in boxes will eventually find homes. I think we are just now feeling somewhat settled in.

Chinchillas

I know I said posting may be scarce, but I didn't think it would be this bad!

Work has really picked up for me. I'm working at least 65 hours a week (and that's a slow week). It's been crazy!

Dave's been working his butt off here at home without me. He's getting lots of things accomplished and I can't wait to show you all of them, but we broke our camera. We have been lost without it. I took some photos with my cell phone so I could show you Dave's most recent accomplishment. They aren't the greatest quality, but they'll do.

Our poor chinchillas have been living in one of our upstairs bedrooms since we moved in. They've not been very happy as they had the run of the basement in our apartment. We finally finished their room here and they are loving it!

We purchased a wood framed screen door on clearance last year. It was a bargain! My mom sewed a curtain for the door. The chins love looking out the door to see what's going on.

We have an egress window in their room. My mom also made curtains for it. We moved the futon into their room as well.

We have lots left to do in their room, but this is a start. I want to put little shelves on the wall so they can climb up and down. I also want to stain their floors (we covered them with cardboard for now) but this will have to wait until late summer.

He's Back!

That's right. After almost two months lounging around the house, Dad is back!

He came up this weekend to help us with a few project and to start getting back in shape. His knee is doing well, but he says the rest of his body is now out of shape.

While I was at work Saturday, Dave and he finished the hardwood in the bedroom upstairs.


Once we get the chinchillas out of the other bedroom, we'll be able to install all of the hardwood upstairs!

Of course, to get the chins out of the room, we have to finish their room downstairs.

To help us out with that, Dad hung their door. We chose a screen door so they will be able to see out. They'll love it!

Dave and Trent also started hanging the drywall on the ceiling. Once they're done, Dave will finish mudding the room. I've selected the paint, so we are getting close!

Once we get the chins in the basement, we'll be able to finish the upstairs. I think I've chosen the tile for the bathroom. Now I just need to pick the faucets, countertop, cabinets, paint.......It's never ending.

Still Making Progress

We're still working away here. Well, at least Dave is.

He's got almost all of the drywall hung in the chinchillas' room in the basement.

He also has finished the hardwood in one bedroom upstairs.

What about me you ask? Well, I'm putting in lots of hours at work (yeah, tax season). I'm about this close to deciding on the tile for the bathroom upstairs (so Dave can install it). I've got the paint colors picked out for the chinchillas' room. And I've contacted a great dane breeder (they'll have a litter ready to come home mid summer!!!!).

So, things are continuing to progress. No guarantees on the blog getting updated much over the next couple of months. I'll try to get Dave to update it but we'll see (he has so many other projects!).

Meet Our New Niece

Meet our new niece, Hooch (please note we were not consulted on the name thing).

She's Michael's new dog and she's adorable!

I met her for the first time on Sunday. I convinced Michael to bring her to mom and dad's (they needed another dog in the house even if it was only for a few hours).

We gave her a bath as she was one stinky dog. She lives at Mike's shop and gets petted by lots of greasy hands. She was filthy!

We also let her have several of Rolo's old toys.

She wasted no time shredding them.

If you get a chance, stop by Mike's shop and meet her. Watch out for her tail though. When it gets moving, it'll knock you over!

Winter 2010 and The Pool's

In case you haven't heard, it's a little cold and snowy out. We are receiving wind chills of -35 degrees and temperatures of anywhere from -5 to 5 degrees. Right now it's 0 degrees outside. We received a few more inches of snow yesterday but the real problem has been the winds. They are creating massive drifts everywhere.

In light of this, Dave and I both brought work home with us yesterday. We weren't sure if we would be able to make it to work this morning. Well, we didn't. Here's how our morning went...

6:20 am:

Dave: I'm heading out to scoop the drive. It's blowing pretty crazy out, so I think you should stay home today. I'm going to try and get to work. (Here's the translation - My car still doesn't have new tires and I don't want to drive across town to take you to work. You work from home and I'm heading in to my office.)

Sarah: Whatever.

7:30 am:

Dave: I'm leaving for work. See you tonight.

Sarah: Whatever.

8:02 am:

Text message from Dave: I'm a dumbass. Stuck on Garden.

Text message from Sarah: Still?

This was followed by a phone call to Dave because I wasn't sure if he was still stuck (remember, he had left half an hour ago). Turns out he was still stuck right outside of our development.

I bundled up and headed his way (laughing of course).

This is what I saw (taken from 150th and Garden)...

Keep in mind that it was not snowing at this point but the winds were blowing so hard that you could barely see where Dave had driven through.

Luckily Bryan from Anderson Ford was on his way to pick up Mike Anderson and happened across Dave. Unfortunately for Bryan, he couldn't get to Mike until our vehicle was moved.

Bryan plowed and plowed and Dave scooped. Finally, they got to a point where we could drive the car out of the snowbank (with a little help pushing).

After our car was out of the way, Bryan drove through. He barely made it but had to get going. He didn't have time to clear up the rest of the road. By this time it was 9 am. Dave had been stuck for almost 2 hours!

As a result, my car is now sitting in Bennet waiting for the snow plows to clear up Garden.

Dave and I had to walk home. Did I mention it's 0 degrees out with windchill up to -35 degrees? It was a nice 1/2 mile walk.

I asked Dave what he was thinking when he saw the drift. This was his response: "I thought, Oh, I can do it. So, I backed up and gunned it. I was thinking I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then I couldn't move. This was followed by lots of cursing. Then I had to crawl out of the window dukes of hazard style."

So far, our first winter out here has been incredibly memorable. Hopefully the rest of it will be much more uneventful.

Chinchillas

The boys got a treat tonight. We let them out of their room while Dave cleaned their cage. The shop vac scares them and since they are in temporary lodging, they have no where to hide from it. We forced them into their play balls which they haven't been in in ages and threw them in the hall. No worries, I blocked the opening to the stairs.

Dusty enjoyed exploring the balcony. Rocky did not.

Enjoy ... we certainly did.

I think Dusty was eyeing all of the wood work. He would love to be free in the house, though he'd probably fall off of the catwalk.