The house.

Have you wondered if we fell off the earth.
Truth is, it feels like we almost did.
This house building/remodeling business is not for the faint of heart (or energy for that matter).
The entire month has been eaten up by that house. Every waking second that could be spent there working on something, was (or is, as the work continues as I speak). Drew's poor calloused hands, tired eyes and battle wounds are all evidence of the required dues when you decide the way to save cost is to put in some sweat equity.

We're in the home stretch though. We'll be moving things in the week of memorial day, with the first overnight June 1st. In a very brief (but overwhelmingly long task list) we'll be living in the new place.

So what exactly have we been doing? Well, a lot. Except for it doesn't look like a lot on the camera. When you see these photos you'll think, it looks almost the same as before. I know. Its frustrating not to be able to see all of your many long hours invested.
The trouble is that now we are down to millwork and finishes all of the long hours go into tiny visual things- baseboards, door covers, window sills, headers, grout, tiles etc.

The past four weeks we have:
- prepped all the showers for final tile (which takes FOREVER)
- put in all the bathroom floor tiles, grouted and finished them.
- put in all the baseboard, window and trim moulding
-put up the siding on the outside
-changed the basement around a bit (which meant tearing out some drywall and moving a few things around).
- discovered that the only way our couch is coming out of the basement is with a Sawzall.
-carefully cleaned out every single outlet and wall component for power (thanks Aunt Jan!) so that the electrical fixtures and plugs can be installed.
-picked out all the colors for wall paint

So here we go. One more time around the whirlwind tour of the house.

 So, here we are in the office. Looks the same you say? Pay attention to all that trim work along the floor and windows. Its tedious work, I tell you.

 Main floor bath. Whats that lovely green!? Why, don't you like it? Not to worry, its just the waterproofing membrane. There is no tile in the showers yet (that will happen post painting for the most part). But you can see Drew's mom cleaning out the tile spaces so they are prepped for grout (which is apparently, my new side gig).

 Here's where the vanity goes in the bathroom next week. You can't see most of the lovely tile that we put in because once it was set we quickly covered it up. But you can see a small corner of it here, the grey long tiles in a herringbone pattern. I love herringbone.

 A more direct view.

 Then we're in the dining room. See that header. I think it was the first one to go up.

 And the living room. More headers and trim. Lots of small white pieces of wood.

 And here we are in the other corner.  Don't worry, the upstairs peek through rails won't stay. They are just temps to protect the painters from falling.

Main floor bedroom. Window trim and baseboard. Fun stuff.

 Main floor closets. More trim, folks.

 Boys room, second floor. Built in cabinets for their clothes.

 Same deal, other side, trimmed out and ready for paint.

 This is the loft bedroom. It sort of is a staging area. Ready for paint though, if they ever get moving o it.

 Upstairs play space, all trimmed out.

 Second floor nursery. Doors are off for painting, all trim and moulding is done.

 Lovely hexagon tile in the boys bathroom. But, you can't see it because the painters are protecting it. I worked very hard on it, so I'm happy about all the pink paper.

 Master bath is the same story. There are these great black metalic tiles under that pink paper. You'll see it in the near future.

 Master bedroom all trimmed out.

 Master hallway. here you can see the pocket door trim. Fun stuff.

 Basement big room. Those boxes are all tile and light fixtures. Also, somewhere in there is my giant farm sink which I can't wait for!

 Other side of the rec room in the basement. No trim here yet though. We were waiting for the concrete to get leveled (which happened today).

 Here's another look at the bathroom tile. Its the same stuff as on the mainfloor, but is in the basement too. Here it looks yellow because I was too lazy to switch the light setting on the camera and there wasn't much natural light. It not really yellow, I promise.

 Here's the snafu in the laundry room,which hopefully will be all patched up this week.

 Did you wonder what the outside was looking like? Its all sided in now. The grey is a bit darker than in these pictures, because again, I was too lazy to mess with the light settings much.

 Closer view of the front side. Drew is probably sad that the garage door isn't closed. He loves it. Its a carriage style and has the quietest motor in the history of the world (to hear him tell it).

 Side view. Don't you love our beautiful grass.
Ish.
The lawn is another nightmare to be explored.

 P.S. It was 81 here today. April 28th. Last week we had 8 inches of snow. No joke.

 Owen, exploring the sand in the backyard, and the back view of the house.

And finally, a shot of the back door mudroom.

So thats it. Updates galore.
I imagine I won't update again until all the paint is on the walls and the cabinets are in, so it will be a few weeks. It would just be too depressing to update in between.

I'm so anxious its painful. I want to move in already! Geez.

Until we meet again....