Ho Ho Ho...

So what do you think.... Have they been Naughty or Nice?!?!??!

This shot was taken after Ally's school program. That's cousin Brett in the middle!

Hope everyone is getting ready for the holidays. We are still trying to clear a spot for a tree in the house!!! Will Santa still bring stuff if you don't have a tree??

And what color is your house?

So I was giving directions to our house the other day and the salesman asked what color the house was. I replied "blue.... no actually brown.... well technically it looks a little green at the moment.... Honestly I'm not really sure what color my house is right now."

I suppose all of the above were correct on that given day. One side was the old blue siding, a couple of sides were green with the new house wrap, and one side was brown with the start of the new siding. IT LOOKS AWESOME!!!! I can hardly wait to see it on the addition. It really makes the windows stand out.

Here's the before (picture has the new soffit but still has the old windows)...

And here it is with a little sample of siding...

Notice the big ugly chimney has disappeared?!?! Yippee! It will look even better when we get all the trim work done. Now if the inside just looked this nice!!!

Here comes the school bus!!!

Guess what? We can actually watch for the school bus now without standing with our head pressed to glass and our neck crooked at an angle to see to the North from a rather high West facing window! Confused? Me too. What I really mean is that we now have a beautiful tall casement window facing to the north in the living room so we (even the kids) can see the bus coming down the road without being a contortionist! And better yet, we have a door on the front of the house that you can actually use! Yes... I realize there was a door there before, but this one actually opens. And you can go out it. And it even closes. Woohoo!!!!

Here is a shot of the northeast corner of the house before. The wood stove is gone and the new window sits just behind where the stove originally was.

And now here it is with the new window...

And here is a shot of the old door. See the pretty insulation we had stuffed in between the door and the outside storm door in an attempt to slow down the wind from coming in??

And here is the new one. Insert drum roll here.....

Okay... so that's not really our house but that really is our door. Except ours still looks like this (minus one sidelite)...

Now dad doesn't have to nap in the lazy boy in that cold, drafty corner of the house when they come visit :)

Things are changing by the day. Our favorite thing to do when we come home is to go around each night and try to figure out what they've done that day. It's like a scavenger hunt for the kids!!!!

A room with a view...

I am SOOOO excited to share these next photos with you! They started into the existing house to get the windows in this week. Our biggest problem is that nearly all the furniture from the 3 bedrooms is now in the living room and hallway. Needless to say... ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!! Good thing Thanksgiving wasn't hosted at our place this year, although you could have eaten dinner on a dresser or bed in the comfort of the living room!

As you can see, the windows are mostly in, but there is LOTS and LOTS of finish work to be done. We moved a lot of the windows so they have to patch walls and re-drywall this coming week. Hopefully sooner than later... it's a little drafty around here!

Any suggestions for paint colors in any of the rooms? We're taking suggestions and looking at all kinds of samples these days. Decisions... decisions... decisions.....

I think the living room transformation is my favorite so far... Maybe it's just getting rid of so much of that ugly dark paneling we had!

Quote of the Day

Construction is for the birds!

If you thought my post about the turkeys was funny, check this out. These big fellas squeezed thru a hole in the soffits prior to getting them finished and were the first to spend the night in the new addition. Not sure what kind of birds they are so if you know, please share it in the comments! As usual, GR saved the day and rescued us from the scary things when he came home from work!!! Isn't he great?!?!

Stairway to Heaven

Ok... so it's maybe not heaven yet.... but I it's close enough to imagine. We just need drywall and plumbing and heat and paint and flooring and tile and trim and...

So maybe it's not even close but at least the stairs are in! The pics don't show it all that well but it is starting to take shape. At least we have a visual now! The old overhead power lines are now buried and the ugly pole is out of the landscape so that's an improvment. Given the October weather challenges, we are thankful for the beautiful days we've had in November to make so much progress. Now if it only hangs on thru December!!!