Pine, Pine & More Pine

Ella- mischieviously preparing to climb the scaffolding and help Dad hang some T&G pine in the loft dormer.

The ceiling in the living room - one row shy of being done.

Althea - enjoying the slick crawling conditions on the new floor upstairs.


Our new flooring for the loft living room, master bedroom, and girls' room. 5 1/8" Heart Pine Plank flooring. It's quite nice, but ridiculously slippery!

A little bit of perspective - this is a picture taken 7/18/2007, just a little less than a year ago. What a trip to think this house was merely some footings, insulation, and a sill plate!

Ella wanted Rusty to take a bath with her in the beautiful new clawfoot tub. He played tough, but I think he enjoyed it.

Ella & 36 (count em, 36) boxes of 5" heart pine pre-finished flooring that will be going in at some point this month hopefully. : )

Ella & Althea playing in bed and reading books with Dad.

I installed the closet system for the master bedroom on Sunday - 2 closets down and only 2 left to go! YAY!

More later - nearly asleep at the keyboard right now.

AJ

Fiesta

Check out this bathroom and bedroom! Shawn & Grandpa Novak finished up the bathroom T&G this afternoon and made good progress on the bedroom that will be Ella's and Althea's. It's really starting to take shape; it's quite beautiful! Yippee!

Here, Ella and Shawn are modeling Ella's newest fashion trend.....hair clip earrings. : ) My sweet husband is really getting his fill of "girliness" with his two little ladies. He frequently does Ella's makeup and occasionally Ella returns the favor. I just want to laugh. Ella seems to believe that a girl can never wear enough makeup.....and don't even try to get ready in the morning or for bed without putting on her body spray. It's great.

While the boys were playing today, we played in the kitchen and made some delicioso enchiladas from scratch. Both the Novaks and the Gaylords were able to enjoy dinner together. It was lovely to entertain in our new abode. Stay tuned for a big party this summer to celebrate! Althea was gnawing on Grandma Novak's apple and drooling all over the place.

Time for this tired mama to get to bed. More pictures soon!

Got Wood?

Recently, we've been working on preparing the tongue & groove pine that we'll be putting on the ceiling. What a project! Shawn did the first batch inside, we did the second batch outside and then finished it inside. He started working on mounting some in the upstairs bathroom on Thursday night. Here's to good weather and cooperative wood so we can get the rest of it done!
And, of course, the obligatory cute kid pictures. Ella was reading a Berenstain Bears book on the couch and Althea wanted it SO BAD! It looked tasty. : ) The picture below is of Ella and Shawn on Thursday night. I took the kids (Ella, Rusty, & Althea) out on the farm for a long walk - Rusty's walk was longer than the rest of us since he decided to run away and we had to find him - and then came back to get everyone ready for bed. The girls wore their Halloween pajamas and while I nursed Althea to sleep, Shawn and Ella passed out on the futon in the living room. We are all tired puppies around here.

We've Got Doors!

Slowly, but surely, we're settling in and our house is looking more like a home. It's amazing what a couple of doors and some shelves will do! We still have to stain the doors and install the knobs, but it sure helps. Grandma Novak (Sandi - Amanda's mom) will be having rotator cuff surgery on Friday, May 9th so I will be taking vacation next week to help out. Shawn will probably be sanding, staining and installing the tongue and groove pine for the ceilings in the living room and upstairs rooms. After that, we'll be working on the flooring (as of yet still undetermined - something hardwood though), installing upstairs doors, finishing the bathroom upstairs, installing the finish staircase, and trimming the baseboards, window sills, and doors. Still lots to do, but so much closer.

Progress....

Lots of progress, although at any given moment it sure doesn't feel like it! We have passed our final inspections on the mechanical, plumbing and electrical and are expecting our building inspection on Friday morning. We have moved everything out of our rental house in Mesick and are looking forward to officially occupying this space that has been the focus of all of our energy for the past year or so. The kids seem to enjoy being in one place and it's been nice to start to settle in. I'm still in a bit of shock - this will be where we live for the rest of our lives! It's very peaceful and quiet.

To the right is a picture of me and the kids (Ella-3, Althea-5 mos., Rusty-5) at the rental house! Ella is parading in her fairy princess dress and Althea is picking on Rusty and drooling. This is just a sample of our daily life.

More pictures soon (thanks to DSL!).

Cute kiddos.......

All I Got From Disney World Was.....

A Rotten Cold!!!!!


We're working frantically on the house so we can get in soon. Perhaps we'll live there sometime in April? We can dream. Grandma and Grandpa Novak took Ella to Disney World near the end of March so that we could have a concentrated block of time to get lots of work done on the house. She got a cold and brought it back to infect all the rest of us.

Slowly but surely.....

So, it's been a while since I posted obviously! Our family of 3 became a family of 4 on November 20th, when we became the parents of another daughter. Althea Jayne Gaylord was born joyfully at home weighing in at 10 pounds and measuring 20 1/2 inches. Thea has been very helpful already doing the plumbing and electrical work wrapped up in her sling taking a snooze. She can even sleep while a saw is running (now that's what I call a baby!).

Our drywallers are almost finished hanging and should begin finishing in the next day or so. Our cabinets (Kraftmaid Durango with Natural Hickory finish) arrived late this afternoon. We have our rough plumbing, electrical, and HVAC done and once our drywall is done, we'll prime the walls and bust a move on getting our finish work done so we can get temporary occupancy. Someday we'll live in this beautiful house - I think!