Lots of progress!

The last few weeks have been very productive.

In fact, this picture is already outdated! The roof will be ready for shingles on Monday. We've had tons of dirt and sand brought in and a lot of excavating work done. And, the skating rink in our basement is now gone- yay!

we have progress!

Starting to look like a house :)

Jaime's Top Ten

The top ten things I'm most excited about re: the new house.
10. First-floor laundry.
9. No more stairs and baby gates!
8. No more carpet.

7. My OWN bathroom! (Well, I'll have to share with Matt, but at least the boys will have their own).

6. More room- more storage - more space!
5. My OWN office. No more working in Jayden's "room".
4. Carter and Jayden will have their own rooms :) Jayden won't have to sleep in my "office".
3. Bigger kitchen.. enuf said!
2. "Mud" room for Matt's messy shoes.
1. GARAGE in which to park my car!! No more scrapping windows!
(ga-rage [noun]: a shelter or repair shop for automotive vehicles) Does a 4- wheeler constitute as a "vehicle"??!

The latest challenge...

... our framing was at a standstill because we needed to get to the cement footings that were poured (now buried under the ice!) for support beams, etc.

This is our basement. Matt talks about the ice down there but I never imagined it was so thick. I had no idea until I stopped out there yesterday to take pictures. He is standing on the footing they needed to get to (that they already "cut" out the ice with chainsaws) where the stairs will be.

So, Matt and a few friends have been working all weekend with chainsaws and ice augers to cut through the ice down to the footings. CRAZY!!!! Along with keeping heaters running to melt the ice and pumps going to pump the water out of the basement. (I'm still amazed that our framer hasn't thrown in the towel and walked away from this project!)

Matt assures me that now since the footings have been reached (YAAY!! Matt has a very sore back to show for this!) .....the framing can start. Wheewww. As for the basement floor, the foundation wont be poured until all the ice is gone (obviously!) and the weather warms up. Where there's a will... there's a way!

not much happening...

Progress on the house is slow. I am told we have a "floor" or at least the floor trusses are in place. Now we're hoping to get the foundation poured in the basement... as soon as it's warm enough to do so. Framing will follow- yay!

But meanwhile, we had a great time in Cancun! We missed the boys like crazy but they had fun with grandma and grandpa Drewis.

Here's a pic from the 7th floor of our hotel.

Happy Thanksgiving... turkey, potatoes and foundation!

We have basement walls!

Waiting...

I was told to be patient and expect delays... but I don't wanna!

First we waited for the rain to stop and the land to dry to dig the basement. Now we're waiting for the foundation to be poured. The footings were done last week, then came a holiday (Veteran's Day) and now we're waiting for the foundation crew to have time to come finish the walls. I've been told that should happen tomorrow! So that's exciting.. finally we can "see" the start of the house. I'll post pics soon (I know concrete is pretty exciting, huh!?).

So meanwhile, here's a pic of the boys on Halloween :)

Just a couple recent pics of the boys... Carter looks a little scared in this pic- but that's a pretty normal face for him when Jayden is around!

Lake Drewis

We've got a start to the basement.. but it's now a lake :( It's supposed to rain all week.

just a little update...

Carter: He's getting 2 teeth at the same time on the bottom- how exciting! He seems to be doing fine with them. Crawling all over and into everything. He's so fun!

Jayden is LOVING preschool and so am I! He gets so excited every day he gets to go. When I drop him off, he points out his "friends" to me. I love seeing him having fun and learning new things. (and I've also noticed his behavior at home has gotten better!)

Jaime: I am busy with work as always. Matt has stopped asking me why it takes "15 hours to get my 8 hours of work done". I think he was tired of the dirty looks I gave him when he asked that question (and he's lucky that's ALL I gave him!) My days are longer (usually waking about 5:30 to start work) and so broken up with droppingoff/picking up Jayden from preschool, running errands/secretarial stuff for Paramount, going to the gym (for some "me" time!), etc. But I love staying home with the boys and I try to complain as little as possible :) I just started as an Independent Demonstrator for Uppercase Living. I thought it sounded fun and would be a good way to get out of the house occasionally. My first Open House Party will be this weekend in Burt for mom.

Matt: He's gone a lot.. not sure what he's doing but I think he's usually working!! He's been coordinating the house plans... and he's been really busy at work. I can tell he's pretty excited about getting the house going.. and he'll be helping his friend Trunnel dig out the basement this weekend. I am getting nervous that winter is coming so close, but I think we have a good crew of contractors lined up and I'm sure they'll do their best to get things done done efficiently and soon :)

Meanwhile, ANYONE want to buy a house!? I've decided to stop holding open houses and just plan on showing the house on demand. Unfortunately, we haven't had much demand. We are aware of the "sucky" market currently and know that we might be here all winter but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed we'll sell soon.

oh, I almost forgot Abby. Poor Abby. Jayden loves to pick on her... but she's so good with the boys. and now she has Carter pulling himself up on her as well! But she's managed to get on my bad side a few times.... she seems to like formula! I've come home TWICE to find Carter's formula can on the floor ... and Abby running away with whiskers full of formula. EWW. not to mention an expensive dog treat. I've learned my lesson- the formula goes in the cupboard now!

This is... our driveway! I know it looks like just dirt and mud, but it's exciting to us! The highway is at the top of the pic (although you cant see it). Matt spent some time at the land this weekend with his friend putting in the 62' culvert and "building" the driveway.

Next weekend.. digging out the basement thanks to Trunnel :)

Ready to go!

On September 11, we closed on the land. It's ours :) We're very happy with the location - just 3 miles north of Bondurant. That puts us 7 miles from Altoona and 7 miles from Ankeny. Matt is very happy that he'll have a little "play room" to ride around on his 4-wheelers and we'll have room on the land to bulid a garage down the road. The development is nice- all the lots are at least an acre so we're not on top of our neighbors and there is currently 18 lots sold or for sale so we'll have plenty of neighbors eventually. The area directly behind our lot will probably become a park some day according to the developer.



Week of 9/18: We applied for the building permits and everything passed. We're ready to start! Now we'll just wait for our plumber, etc to become available to dig the basement. Matt is anticipating breaking ground the weekend of October 6/7.