Good news!

The inspector came by the new house today to check out the work Nate had done on the water pipe from the meter to the house. We passed with flying colors! Good work Nate! I'm so proud of him for trying this endeavor out on his own without any experience. He did well his first time out in the homeowner world. And I have to say he has done a fantastic job with the floor refinishing too. I'm so impressed by his work.

Our friend and housemate Angela came by today with her son Noah. They helped me paint a few more rooms in the house. We are getting so much closer to the move in date. I can't wait! It was a huge relief to have her help today as I'm getting more tired and just so antsy to have the painting part finished. But it takes time to get it done right, so we'll do what we can. My mom came up today and watched Charlotte for the day while I painted. It was nice to know she was in good hands so I wasn't distracted. Thanks Mom!

Nate is at the house tonight filling up the trench. I think Ben was going to head over and help him with that. Thanks Ben! We have great friends. If it's not too late when they return, I'll head over to finish up the primer in the kitchen.

I'm hoping to begin moving closets over tomorrow. I can do that with a baby no problem!

Third times a charm...hopefully!

Well Nate just headed back to the house for the third time to finish up the floors. We're hoping this is the final coat of polyurethane. When he gets home I'll head out to start painting the kitchen cabinets. I can get to the kitchen without touching the wood floors, so we'll work with what we can get to for now.

Here are some pictures of the progress so far. I think they are turning out great! Nate is a little more particular about the floors than I am, but I guess he has spent more quality time with those floors too. =) He knows them well by now!

I've thrown in a few pictures of our backyard too. My Uncle John came over with his fantastic riding lawn mower and WOW I just LOVE our backyard. So grateful for John and his lawn mower. =) Did you notice the huge lilac trees in the far back corner and then this white one on the side? mmmm...the smells are fantastic!

And of course here is a picture of Charlotte at Home Depot. She likes driving her cart around.

floor update

Nate was able to do more detailed touch ups on the floors yesterday. He used a hand sander to go along the edges of the floor closer to the walls. That really makes it look so much better...but it also takes more time. He also filled in the cracks and holes with wood filler to make a smoother surface.

He put the first coat of polyurethane on late last night and will put the last coat on tonight. Then we wait....

I think we can walk on the floors by the end of Tuesday if not sooner. I'm hoping sooner because there is still so much to do. But I would hate to ruin all the work that Nate put into the floors so we will just see if it's safe enough to walk on then. If not, then I won't even chance it until later.

Today I am working on cleaning up our rental a little bit more. It's hard to clean this place when all I really want to do it clean the new house and get our things organized over there. Oh well, I will do what we can for now.

Charlotte sleeps better here anyway because of the blackout shades in her room. We will need to get some of those for her bedroom at the new house.

Getting it done

Today marks day 6 of officially having keys to our new home. I'm pleased with how much has gotten done in such a short time. Although I cannot at all take credit for very much of it. My mom has been here for the past week taking care of all sorts of things. She has cleaned out the house, taken care of Charlotte so Nate and I could work, driven us to Home Depot on multiple occasions, cleaned out our fireplace, made curtains for Charlottes room and many many more things.
Yesterday we had some family and a friend over to help paint and clean up the yard. I wish I had my camera with me, but I did not. The before and after pictures of the yard are the most impressive. My uncle John was out there mowing the lawn 3 times! The grass was almost as tall as me when he started. Now it looks like a comfortable soft carpet of green! Thanks John!
My aunt Marilyn was doing the detailed paint work in our bedroom. She has an eye for detail, so she did very well on the cutting of trim. It looks GREAT! My uncle Dale was there doing yard work with John. He cleared out the side planter areas so it looks much nicer now. I think our neighbors are most thankful for the transformation of the yard. =)
My dad and Nate replaced the kitchen sink and fixed the leaking pipes. I'm thankful for a deeper sink to do dishes in.
My mom watched Charlotte all day so I could stay at the house and work on things.
Kayla came by while she was on-call at the hospital. She helped me paint the guest room and the living room. I think the colors are really starting to come together. It was good to catch up with her while we painted.

After the crew took off, Nate picked up a floor sander at the equipment rental store and began sanding the floors. He stayed at thehouse and sanded the floors until about 2:30am! I heard him quietly coming through the house late at night. He said he was sore all over from the strong vibration of the sander. I guess it's hard to maneuver around so you really have to use your arms to direct it to where you want it to go.
He slept in to about 9am this morning and then he watched Charlotte while I patched up holes in the floor. Now he's back at the house sanding one last time. We're hoping to have the first coat of polyurethane on it by this evening. They are really looking fantastic! I think we will be glad that we did the floors now before the furniture is in the house. It's much easier that way.

Well, lots more to do and lots of things checked off the list! I am excited about it!

I will keep posting news.

Looking back...

I was just checking out some of our oldest blog posts. And you may not remember this, but Nate was the actual creator of our blog and the sole writer for the first few months. He has some great stories to tell, but is much busier these days to write about them.

Anyway, this picture from one of his previous jobs as a grocery store bagger makes me smile. Although it was a challenging place to work sometimes, he sure made the most of it and came away with stories to tell.

And now our 5th summer at Tilikum has already began. I can't believe we have already been there almost 5 summers! It's been a great place to work. We've enjoyed the staff we have come to know and become friends with.

And I think Nate appreciates that he doesn't have to wear a tie to work everyday. Don't worry, he does still keeps all of his ties in a box on the top shelf of our closet. =)

Hi!

Charlotte loves to watch cars. She has recently learned to pull herself up to the window sill to look out at the cars driving by. Sometimes she waves and most of the time she just stares and laughs. But when she sees Ol' Blue driving up to the house, she gets VERY excited! She loves it when her dad comes home. I think she is mostly watching out the window to wait for Nate to come home. =) It's very cute.

zzzzz.....

I'm not sure why, but these past 4-5 days Charlotte has not wanted to nap during the day. She's become really clingy and sensitive. She cries at the simplest things and does not at all want strangers to look at her or heaven forbid talk to her.

Today for example, she had the biggest yawns and was rubbing her eyes over and over. She even crawled into the living room and laid down on a blanket, but then got up when she saw me walk in. I felt so bad! She was obviously exhausted! So I tried putting her down for a nap, but she has been crying in her room for the past 1/2 hour.

One of my guesses is that she could finally be teething.
Yep, she is one of the only 10 month olds that I know without teeth. Our doctor reminded us that she has yet to meet a kindergartner without teeth, so not to worry.

Another thought I had was that she senses a change in our house. she is crawling around boxes in the living room, she sees Nate and I very preoccupied with life decisions, she may even sense our stress? Who knows. In the midst of our house chaos and other big life decisions I am trying to keep her on routine. Hopefully that will give her more stability in the day and help with her sleep routine.