meanwhile, back at home...

...daddy was painting both of our new basement bedrooms. love him.

the new couch

we went shopping the day after Christmas.  we had so much luck last year with very little crowd that we decided to try again this year.  plus, we were hoping to get a deal on a couch.  we have not owned a couch since we left wisconsin.  and we missed it.  very much.

even though we haven't had one, we have not been in a hurry to buy one either.  we have been watching for a deal on the right couch and hoping to get one in january. with our ever expanding family, we thought that a sectional was the way to go and matt talked me into leather (because it is the easiest to keep clean with small children).

we were so excited to find a sectional that easily fit our whole family, fit into our living room (it is probably a little large for most people, but it works for us) and was the right price!  and they delivered it today.  the kids have been ecstatic about the new couch.  maddux in particular.  and then it occurred to me that he has never had a couch or ever sat on one outside of a furniture store.  he thinks that it is so neat to crawl down the length of it and try each 'seat'.  we are really looking forward to our first 'movie night' on the new couch!  it has been hard to snuggle up with three kids in the chairs.

all three of them were climbing all over it and laughing and sliding off as soon as the delivery guys closed the door, but i wasn't fast enough to get the camera. i am sure that there will be lots more couch fun. love.

plan b

like i said in the last post, today looked like the only nice day for the week.  i had packed a lunch for us to eat at the zoo after picking madelyn up from school.  only then i got a call that the electrician could come look at the ovens again (yes, of my three ovens, only one was working - one was electrical and one is the appliance) this afternoon.  and then i remembered that i had 2 and 3pm meetings scheduled for work.  oh well.  mason was so disappointed that he cried - more than once.  why, oh why, did i break my own rule about not telling where we are going until we are on our way?!

i promised them that we would go to the neighborhood park and get the bike and scooter out after my meetings.  mason was pretty interested in the bike since he had no memory of it and stopped crying about the zoo.  he did keep talking about the zoo though...

climbing the rope ladder at the park.

riding the 'bike' on the sidewalk in front of the house.

it wasn't quite what any of us had in mind for the day, but it worked out.  and it helped that i could promise them another trip to the zoo that weekend.  love.

moving

all this moving has worn maddux out.  he fell asleep eating lunch!  it really has us all worn out. we slept on the floor last night and will again tonight (maddux slept in the pack-n-play).  i think the kids fared better than matt and i but it was worth it to wake up in our own house.  matt picks up the truck tonight and the movers come tomorrow!  let the unpacking begin!  love.

exhausted

but our day wasn't over yet... the forecast doesn't look good for tomorrow (100% chance of rain - all day), so i decided that i should try to make two trips to the house.  we have moved stuff in every night since sunday so that we can start living there this week.  the method is to put all the kids in the van, start a movie, load the van with as much as we can safely fit, drive to the house, unload the van, unload the kids, put things away, load the kids back in the van, turn on a movie, load in the empty boxes and drive back to the apartment. does it make you tired? did i mention that our apartment is upstairs so there is a flight of stairs when carrying each box, bag, item?  today i discovered that the whole process takes almost four hours. 

the kids and i went home to each lunch after the apple orchard.  while they were eating i started loading the back of the van.  once they were finished and cleaned up, they went in the van so that i could finish loading.  we have typically been bringing things after dinner, but going during the day meant that i may run into a crew (they are touching up a few things that we requested last week).  and they were there.  because they were parked blocking the driveway, i couldn't pull all the way into the garage like i normally do to unload.  instead i had to park by the trail and walk.  it took around 20 trips to get the van unloaded. then i brought the kids in.  the tricky part has been that we don't have the baby gate installed yet (and not for a lack of trying) so we have to keep maddux contained to a bedroom while we unpack.  he is not too fond of that, especially when his sister and brother are running all over having fun outside of the room (i am in with maddux - we don't leave him by himself).  and then kids back to the van, filled with empty boxes and drive back to the apartment.

the kids ate a snack while i packed up the boxes i had just carried back up into the apartment (why haven't we just bought more boxes? because we just can't stand spending money on things that aren't necessary and we know that somewhere in one of the two storage units are all of our empty boxes from moving into the apartment - matt just can't find them).  then kids back in, boxes in, frozen pizzas for dinner in and back to the house. 

thankfully, matt was already at the house and unloaded the car.  i was in the kitchen trying to figure out our new wall oven so that i could cook our frozen pizzas for dinner (we had some carrots too).  once we were done, i didn't want to leave.  just a few more days.  unpacking has been so relaxing.  just to have some space to put things and gain a sense of 'permanance' again.

the kids saying, "new house"

we still have a lot to do, but are doing it joyfully!  and i fell right to sleep when i got to go to bed - utterly exhausted and happy.  love.

as if we needed another reason

as if we didn't have enough reasons to want to move into the house... tonight matt's side of the closet ripped out of the wall!  oh well, i guess tonight would be a good time to start packing.  love.

update

this week has been crazy!  my days have started before 6am and ended between 1 or 2am.  it has been a heavier work week (not in hours, but in the complexity of the tasks) so i have been working starting the second the kids go to bed until after midnight. 

second, madelyn had a 24-hour vomit bug thursday that kept her home from school and in bed almost all day.  the worst was that she was starving and wanted to eat and drink.  but she couldn't even keep down water.  and she kept trying.  i was trying to convince her not to drink and eat, but she cried for food and water.  at least it was only 24-hours.

third, and this is the best part!, we found out that we get to move into the house a whole week earlier!!!  we had a miscommunication about when the builder was going to be done with the house and are so, so, so excited that we get to move sooner.  as a result we have had to kick all of the transitional tasks up too (getting movers, forwarding mail, utilities, etc).

fourth, we were over budget last month from all of our travels so we only bought absolute essentials the last two weeks.  this week the new month started and i could buy everything we needed - like, laundry detergent (i did 15 loads this week!) and groceries (thank goodness for my 'couponing' because we spent very little and ate pretty well).

now, i am caught up for the most part but wanted to explain the lack of posts.  i don't expect things to be very consistent (post-wise) for the rest of the month as we move.  anyway, we are all good and healthy now (well, mason and maddux have a stomach bug of sorts too and maddux is cutting three molars).  love.

rainbows everyday

we spent some time at the house today.  we picked daddy up from work, picked up some dinner from chipolte and ate at the house.  the purpose of the trip was for matt to water our new lawn and we all went so that he wouldn't have to miss another night with the kids.

while daddy was taking care of the yard, the kids and i walked through the house discussing where things would go in each room and what activities we would do there.  it was so nice.  it was really the first time i have gotten to take a leisurely stroll through the house and appreciate the details and flow of the floorplan.  it was nice to see maddux crawling all over with us too.

and then we made the most amazing and exciting discovery!  check out the video...

as if madelyn needed one more thing to love about our new house!  rainbows everyday! love.

house - parade of homes

and the day we have been racing towards is here - the parade of homes.  our house is listed as "the madelyn".  our builder has the family name the floor plan and they had forgotten to ask us what we wanted to name ours.  i asked madelyn what we should name the house and she said "madelyn" - so we did.

we probably won't go out to the house very much from now until we move in (because it is so far and a little weird to see other people in your house), but i wanted to see the refrigerator and completed landscaping.  matt had been out every day this week so he had already seen everything and wasn't that excited about stopping in again but humored me.

front landscaping

'finished' kitchen

you can see one plant in the bed between the garages and the start of the county's fence they just put in this week

the county came out and installed the split rail fence to keep people using the path off of our property

the back yard is just seeded.  i like all of the evergreens on the side of the house too.

we move in about 70 days from now and we cannot wait!  we have a lot going on in september so it should go by quickly with school starting back and starting to transition everything down towards the house (doctors, school, church, etc) prior to the move.  we are so thrilled with how it all turned out.  it still seems hard to believe that we are actually going to live there - soon.  love.

house - week 15, part 2

so the house is staged!  it is a little weird to have all of this furniture in there that isn't ours (or necessarily our taste).  i think it will show really well though.  here are the pictures - not my best but matt was really worried about the kids breaking something.

sod is almost finished - madelyn was super excited!

view of the great room from the front door

great room into kitchen/dinette

dinette

office off the foyer

madelyn's room (set up as a boy's room)

also madelyn's room.  i just liked the grid dresser with a round mirror above it.

boys' room as a girl's room

i think that the designers got a memo that madelyn likes red.

my flash didn't go off, but this picture shows the complete master bedroom

master bedroom

master bath

laundry room (with the correct hardware now).  i really like the clock on the wall.  it is like old metal sign cutouts.

and that is it.  there are still things that need to happen in the house, but for the most part it is complete.  the parade of homes begins on saturday.  we don't move in until october.  love.

house tour - week 15

i walked through for a quick video before they stage the house tomorrow.  i am holding maddux for the first few (which is why it is a little unsteady - he was a-squirmin'). unfortunately, you will get to see me in my swimsuit in some of the mirrors (we had been to the pool first and were going back after lunch with daddy).  enjoy the tour! love.

house - week 15

the parade of homes starts next weekend!  the sod goes in on tuesday and the cleaners were there today. matt spent the entire day hanging the mirrors we bought on our own, installing a few of our sound system speakers (they wanted to use them for the parade) and basically repainting the basement (there were a lot of places that needed to be sanded and painted).  here are just a few more pictures.

view from the corner.  i can't get over how perfectly smooth the landscaper got the yard.

another view of the front yard.  the crime is that it poured tonight and washed most of it away!

finally!  wood floors! we love them.

almost done.

we will be back tomorrow for matt to work and the kids and i to swim.  love.

house - week 14, part 2

the staging has begun!  we were expecting (hoping) to see wood floors, but were surprised to see staging already.  the floors have been a source of much drama!  here is the short version - some high rise somewhere bought all of the natural hickory from mohawk making our delivery date impossible.  they were going to offer us a higher grade of wood for an additional price, but the builder said that was unacceptable.  they were able to come up with a later delivery date - and then that one was missed.  the flooring retailer here had their crew go get the floors from pittsburgh instead of waiting for delivery from the manufacturer.  the floors were finally getting installed - only in the wrong direction!  we wanted them running the length of the room and they were running them the width of the room.  and, yes, there had been much prior discussion about the direction of the planks. upon realizing that they would have to pull everything up, there was major concern about not having enough to finish the job (because of how much had already been cut).

i showed up on site about the moment they discovered the error with the flooring.  i was there because i wanted to select the exact location of the kitchen hardware in person.  the builder had been sending me texts through out the morning for approvals and i just couldn't see it clearly enough to decide.

completed exterior

closer view of the front porch

back of kitchen island installed and dishwashers

laundry room counters, sink and shelf

master tub installed

double oven waiting for install

back deck staging

part of the basement staging

pool table in the basement

hot tub on the lower back deck

can we move in yet?! love.

house - week 14

we were out of town this weekend and couldn't wait to get back and see what was new at the house.  we went straight there and were not disappointed.  matt had gotten a sneak peak without me on thursday night after golf so it was more exciting for me. love.

all of the front columns were added

the rails were added upstairs and down

the kitchen backsplash tile is up, but still needs to be grouted

chimney hood will go to the ceiling here

some of the plumbing fixtures were in too

laundry cabinetry

master bathroom backsplash runs vanity to vanity

more of the backsplash

a few toilets were in too - here is the kids'

guest bathroom counter top in the basement