Missing Teeth

Sage lost her first tooth this week! She was eating an apple at school. It freaked her out. She smiles to show it off, but her lips cover the gap. To see it, she has to make a goofy face. She is good at goofy faces.

Hayden finally lost his wiggly top tooth. This is tooth number 3. At 8 years old, he is about the only kid in his class with any baby teeth left!
Yeah, he is a skinny thing, but this picture makes it look so much worse. I promise I feed the kid-a lot!

Windows. I went with clay colored on the advice of my very helpful window guy. He has been really great to work with. My roof is on too. Black. Diego the roofer is awesome! I gave him a bunch of Nectarines and he gave me 2 watermelons. He has a great accent, and helps me when Sage comes home with new Spanish words but doesn't know what they mean.

Bathtub in main bath. I love our plumbers! They are really great guys.
Soffits. That was not a word I knew until just recently. Building a house is a learning experience. Diego the roofer is also our soffit man. They are still a work in progress.

My front door. It needs to be stained, but i love it. I fretted for weeks before picking it out. I decided against any decorative glass and opted for good old fashioned see through kind. Heath and I installed that puppy. It involved a lot of shims and at one point I had to hold it tipped away from the house on that aweful ramp for a good 5 minutes while Heath caulked around the thing. He ran out of caulk part way into it and had to round more up, then reload. That is a heavy door!
Inside: that business on the floor is where my island goes, that is the plumbing for the sink. I build that wood tool box looking thing to keep my kids from damaging the pipes. yeah, I have mad carpentry skills. Before the doors went in, the kids liked to ride up the ramp in the front, through the house and out the back ramp. Drive thru!

I love the tall ceilings!

Window wells. All filled in. The kids can get out of the basement no problem. One day all the neighbor kids were over playing tag. It was like Whack-a-mole, watching little heads pop up every few seconds.

My grand bathtub. It really isn't that big, only 5 ft. But if you build it up, it looks pretty great!

First Day of School 2010

My big 3rd grader. Hayden was up at the crack of dawn, said he wanted to "look sharp" on his first day.
Mom: Would you like to ride the bus or can we take you to school
Hayden: uh, well, I think maybe I should just ride the bus
Yup, thats right, mom is not cool, he doesn't want to be seen with me. It was emotional to send him off, but I did not cry this time.

Sage is off to Kindergarten this year. Its all day so she gets to take her lunch. She is in the dual language program so half the day in Spanish, half in English. This was a real tough one for me, and I cried all morning long.

She forgot her backpack on the first day-right after this picture she set it down and ran Hayden his lunch that he forgot (yes, totally crazy morning!!!). Then we jumped in the van and headed to school; as we pulled in the parking lot she realized she didn't have the back pack. I took it to her about lunch time. She burst into tears when she saw me walk through the front door. She was overwhelmed from the whole morning of not understanding a thing. I cried even more. All afternoon I cried until I picked her up. She bounced out the door with a huge grin on her face and proceeded to tell me how great her day was. She has been all smiles since. She loves to say, "so I went to Kindergarten, and I can't understand anything my teacher says!" Sage is soaking up the Spanish like a little sponge. I marvel at how well she rolls her R's and the cute little accent she has picked up. Aside from that first morning, she loves Kindergarten.

Framed!

Rolling the trusses! That's Heath in the attic; we may turn that space into a bonus room someday.




All framed!

Out of the Ground!

In July, we finally got out of the ground! Dirt was put back into place and it started to look like a house!

Step 1 Waterproof the basement

Step 2 Get some wood

Our house in a pile!

Step 3 put a lid on the basement

> Inspectors making sure its sound

Hayden and James plotting a new game...

leap across the abyss into a pile of moon dust
So incredibly fun to the guys, totally frightening for mom to watch. And yet, I photographed it.

Step 4 put up walls!

A way out of the hole! No more crawling through windows-well, for me at least; the kids think its a great way in and out.









Heath and Ted playing with the forklift. Pretty cool!

Our fun 4th

Jamie and Kyle came for the extended 4th of July weekend. As always when they are here, we had so much fun. We made red, white and blue tye dye shirts and festive hair ties. We had a campfire, and roasted giant marshmallows. We hiked up the ridge-when it was really hot-and forgot all the water in the car! But my Sage made it pretty much the whole way up on her own (a hundred yards or so courtesy of Uncle Kyle). What an amazing kid! Marlee prefered the route up the hill on her daddy's shoulders. Great view from the top though.

There were some Pop-its and sparklers in addition to the spectacular fireworks over the river. We met up with the Barth family for the big show. We also checked out a really cool park just down the street that despite living here for over 7 years had no idea about. But best of all, before they left Monday afternoon, we got Kyle to help Heath hang all the window wells in the basement. So Great! Thanks Kyle, you saved me!!! Neighbor Ted was pretty instrumental in the process as well.

dirty job

Boy, there is a whole lot of dusty dirt at our new house. We bring mounds of it back to our old house after every visit. I have to scrub the ring of dirt out of the bathtub after every use. It is a full time job to keep up with the laundry!
Marlee, right before she slid down and got completely coated in dirt. She loves dirt!!!

making trails in the mounds of dirt.

The good news is that within that giant hole, much progress is being made. After the hole was dug, the footings were poured. Then came the walls. Plumbing went in, back filling the inside, putting down the vapor barrier, and the slab was poured on friday. The rock chucker and concrete pumper have been the most exciting pieces of equipment. The compactor, on the other hand, which is a tiny little thing, was heavily feared by the kids.

footings

walls
forms for walls set to go
Forman Hayden and his trusty sidekick, Emma. Hayden checks progress daily.

Since building things is what Heath does, he is pretty cool about each step, but for me its all new and exciting. I feel like a big dummy when i talk to the various subs, but luckily Heath has good friends that are patient and take good care of me. pumping the concrete into the forms

walls revealed

the Stone Slinger-even sounds cool!

choices, choices choices... yikes, I have only just started makeing choices, but there are so many things to think about. I hope I don't pick something aweful and ruin the whole place. faucets are on my mind right now. The plumber took me to the showroom and I got to look at all the possibilities. Marlee thought it was heaven with all the toilets!

I had never given any thought to the height of a toilet until recently. Hand washing is a whole new experience now that I have to check out every sink in town.

Heath hard at work

Marlee checking out exactly where stuff goes when you flush
Hayden is making sure everything is up to code
me and Heath getting the vapor barrier down before the slab is poured
a good fit!