We Survived...Well, Kind Of

Unfortunately, I'm not writing about tax season here (although, it's done, finally). I'm writing about our first storm in our new house.

Dave and I have been looking forward to our first spring storm here. We were looking forward to sitting on the deck and watching it roll in. We wanted to watch the lightning through our large living room windows. And we wanted to see how the house held up. Well, last night, we finally got to experience our first spring storm.


We had hail.

Lots and lots of rain.


And crazy winds.

It was quite a scene to watch. The thunder and lightning was constant for several hours.

Our house held up quite well - at least that's what we thought last night. We came home today to a large puddle on our floor.

As you can guess, we are not happy. Our four season room ceiling has several wet spots; the floor is slightly warped in one place and there was water directly below in the basement. So much for enjoying the first spring thunderstorm. We'll be talking to our builder on Monday and hopefully he'll be out here immediately to fix all problems (well, not hopefully, he will be out here or he will deal with me and I'm not happy).

We're Still Here!

We're still here! As you can tell posting on this blog has been completely abandoned lately. Things have been super crazy in our lives with tax season and house projects piling up.

Luckily, the end of tax season is in sight. Dave is especially happy about this as he runs the house while I'm working endless hours. I think he's as ready as I am for a break. This tax season has been unusually tough as we are frantically trying to finish up the major house projects.

Dave is making a huge dent in our house projects. He finished sanding all of the trim (this picture only shows a portion of it).

And he has begun the staining process.

In his spare time (ha), he also has begun laying out the tile in the bathroom upstairs. He also ordered the cabinet for the room and we only have countertop and fixtures left to choose.

My dad has been busy here as well. He finished laying all of the hardwood! We now have wood on all of our stairs.

My dad also installed our remaining doors and doorknobs. I never realized how great doorknobs were until I had them on every door. It's the little things, I guess.

So, yeah, we're still here and we are still making process. Only 11 more days until sanity is restored.

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!