We are so close!

I don't really have any new pictures to post because there haven't been any real big changes in the last few days at the house. Most of the stuff in the house will be done by the end of this week. Our woodworking stuff will have to push into next week a bit because he is only one person and can only work so fast. He does awesome, good quality work so we are totally fine waiting for him to finish. We are going to move some stuff out to the house this weekend and maybe slowly during the week next week. We are planning on moving beds and clothes and stuff next week after Thanksgiving. So I guess I would say the BIG MOVE IN DATE would be FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28th. I want to wait until the weekend to give the kids a couple days in their new bedrooms before we have to throw school into the mix. I will be sending out emails when all of the internet and stuff will be switching and when to send stuff to the new address.

Nov. 14th

The fireplace looks much better without the white next to it, doesn't it? Our painters were out last week doing some touch up painting.

Here is my craft room with the cabinets getting installed. He has the countertop on and again I didn't have my camera with when I saw them tonight. We checked things out after the kids' hockey practice this afternoon.

Here is the other wall of cabinets. The ceiling is lower on this wall for ductwork, so we made these taller for a work area. There is going to be a big table in the middle of the room.

We are hoping everything will be finished this week and we can start moving in this weekend. The electricians are waiting for some shelves to be installed so they can come and put up the lights on those shelves and lights in the library. Then they have a few odds and ends to finish up and they are done.

I believe the plumbers are done. The contractors guys only have a few more things to finish up, but nothing big. And our sound system guy has more speakers to be put in the ceilings and to bring in our equipment. We ordered it all from him because all of our stuff is really outdated. Cross your fingers all goes well this week!

November 7th

Here are cabinets going into the craft room. I need to take a more updated picture in that room because he now has the ones in the middle of the room in place.

The mantel on the family room fireplace is finished. We made a smaller version of the wine cellar one on this side.

The family room. The suede paint needs to be done by the mantel and they are going to be doing touch up painting tomorrow. The darker color through the doorway is the wine sitting room. The next doorway is the craftroom. There is a double pocket door between those rooms.

The doorway you see to the right is the mechanical room.

Jeff and Bruce, cabinet guy, designed the library together. If we were to do all wood book shelves between the windows it was going to cut off most of the view. You would literally have to stand in front of each window to see out. Jeff designed these steel rods and brackets for the wood shelves to sit on. These are more open and doesn't cut off the view as much as the wood did.

The boys said right now it looks like a bunch of fishing poles hanging. They are kinda right. It will look better after the shelves get put on.

Kindergarten Projects

In Kindergarten you bring home lots of crafts. Here is all the stuff Isaac made for October and Halloween. We take pictures of our projects so mom can put them in the scrapbooks. Then we keep only the most favoite ones in a tote and the rest get thrown away. Yes, choosing favorites is not easy.

November 2nd House Updates

The carpeting on the basement got started over the weekend. Declan is enjoying the nice soft floor in the family room for my picture.

Here is the wine cellar floor. We choose to have it stained. Hopefully, since the weather is supposed to be horrible the rest of this week, he will get the walls done. It is very smelly.

Here is the back of the house with the deck and railing finished.

They got the Timbertech on the steps, too.

The kids are posing on the deck for me. Yes, you are right it is huge. We tried to plan the deck to where we will be putting furniture on it. Our neighbor gave us a good idea before we made the deck plans and that was to not have our table and chairs right in front of the patio door. It would kill the view and we agreed. After making sure there was room for that, there was no good spot to really taper it off to the stairs, so we kept it simple and a rectangle.

There are more finishing panels on the kitchen cabinets.

Here are 3 different views of the kitchen.

This one of my favorite parts of the cabinets, a stand for my mixer. No more carrying it around the kitchen to store it. There will also be an outlet in this cabinet, so I just have to pull it up and use it on this shelf.

The pantry cabinets have doors on them now. If this isn't enough storage between the kitchen and pantry, we need less stuff.

Other side of the pantry.

These stacked ovens are also in the pantry, just need to be put in their box to the left of this photo. They are just right around the corner from the cooktop. We ran out of walls in the kitchen and we also figured the heat can be in the pantry and not the kitchen. Plus, you don't have to keep as close of an eye on stuff in an oven as you do on a cooktop. These are also convection ovens, which I have been told are really nice. I will have to learn how to use them. Yes, we have a full size freezer and fridge in the pantry and a fridge/freezer in the kitchen. No more going to the basement for meat and drinks. YIPPEE!!!!

Castle Kids Park

There is a really cool kids park made like a castle in East Grand Forks, MN. It was a beautiful 60 degree day on Saturday, which is off for Nov. 1st, so we went to this park for the afternoon. The kids had a great time and Jeff and I did, too.

Costumes

Declan was a skeleton this year and Isaac was a white Jungle Fury Power Ranger. We had hockey games in Grand Forks on Halloween, so the kids wanted to go up there instead of trick or treating here in town. We met up with some friends and trick or treated in their neighborhood with their daughter and then the kids could trick or treat on the suite level at the arena. We still ended up with too much candy. It was a fun weekend! Thanks Mark and Stacy!

Kindergarten Halloween Party

Isaac's Kindergarten class had a Halloween party and parents were invited to attend and help. The class seemed to have a great time. He has the greatest reacher who had everything planned and ready to go. The kids made several craft projects at the party. Each table was a different craft. I bet he will be bringing everything home today after school.

Here is Isaac's table with their balloon creations that were made for them. Isaac has a white dog.

I helped at this table with craft projects. My table had these foam pumpkins and decorated them with glitter glue. They are pretty cute.

Here is the class with their costumes. Isaac is sitting in the front row next to his best friend, who was a storm trooper. Isaac's teacher is in the orange shirt standing in the back. It was a crazy busy, but fun party!

October 31st House Updates

There haven't been too many reasons to take pictures this week. Most of the stuff that got done was little things that would be hard to notice on a photo. They did get the stairs started to go from the deck to the back of the garage.

Here is the fireplace in the family room. We will be having our TV above this fireplace. The darker wood on the hearth was Jeff's idea and it really made it look sharp.

Here is the fireplace on the wine sitting room side. Jeff found these Mahgony Korbels online and we just had to get them to finish our vision of this mantel. Bruce did an excellent job making them work and finishing them.

Closer view of the Korbels.

PUMPKINS!

The kids got braver this year and cleaned out their own pumpkins. It was a happy day for Jeff and I because we don't like that job either. Isaac cleaned out his whole pumpkin himself and then helped Declan finish his. Isaac was pretty proud of his bravery this year!

After cleaning out the pumpkins, we went over to our friends' house and carved pumpkins with them and another friend's family. There was 5 kids total who carved pumpkins with mom or dad and 2 who just hung out. The 2 year old was having more fun watching everyone else carve and carrying his pumpkin around the house. This is the first year we have used templates to carve our pumpkins and all the special tools. It was fun and the pumpkins are cool. Here is Declan's bat that he and Jeff made.

Isaac and I made his pirate ship. Don't ask me why his eyes are like that because I don't know what he was doing either.

Here are the 5 pumpkins glowing. Isaac's pirate ship, Nycole's dolphin, Declan's bat, Mason's skull, and Dalton's deer.

The kids are in the same order in this picture and we added Kendall, the 2 yr. old who isn't look at my camera, and Cailen who just didn't want to carve this year. It was so much fun doing it with friends and watching and laughing at each other. Thanks guys for letting us carve with you this year!

Here are the 4 of us after the carving. Can you tell Declan was done with pictures at this point?