DAY 394 : Happy Halloween!!

This is where we hope to be living by next Halloween (honey bucket is out of the picture this year....)

Happy Halloween 2012!

Yep....DeJa Vu!!!

http://ourconcretehome.blogspot.com/2011/11/happy-halloween.html

Halloween is here!  This morning I get to go to a school parade and parties. Maya was up before six to make her preparations.  Here is a sneek preview:

 Maya drew up her costume and mom made it happen.  She wanted to be a "Candy Corn Witch".  However, mom needs to learn the order of her candy corn colors....ugh...

 So grateful this year for Estee!  She agreed to recyle Maya's "Cleopatra" costume.  We don't do a lot of recycling, each kidlette gets a new costume each year.  But we bought her a new (very itchy) wig (that won't last the first twenty minutes of school).  And the necklace is the real deal--a gift from my parents when they lived in Egypt.  She was tickled as she skipped out the door.

Sierra LOVES Avengers and wanted to be a girlie Captain America.

 Of course Captain American needs big glittery eye lashes....

I have LOVED being a mom at Halloween and have sewed many, many, many costumes. Each year the kids have dreamed and schemed.  I will make them a costume until they turn 12.  After 12, it's up to them to assemble, collect, recycle, or make their own costume.

Here's a look back since I have had a digital camera...

2003

Sierra and Maya insisted on being parrots when they saw the costume at Costco. One of the few store bought costumes. 

2004

Estee was 2 weeks old.  Cole REALLY wanted to be Spider Man, I didn't want to sew on stretch fabric, so we bought the costume.  Sierra's Rapunzel costume has a collar made out of material from my Grandmother's 1940 sewing materials.  Love the history.

2005
One of my favorite years...Cole turned heads with his Jawa.  It was AWESOME in the dark.  He made his own glowing glasses. 

  2006

2007
There's that Egyptian princess costume on Maya... 

2008
Cole is in 7th grade here (older than 12) so he recycled his Jawa

2009
Cole made his own Tony Stark glowie light thingie.  I LOVED that the girlies agreed to match this year!

 

2010

Estee was Tinkerbell again.  She loves Tinkerbell! Alice was too big, mom read the sizing wrong....but...we've been able to use is as a Junior High recycle costume!

Estee reenacting her newborn moment on the bench.

 2011

DAY 391: Bungalow Gothic circa 1994

We are having a restful Sunday afternoon (much needed!).  I was with two of the girlies in the living room and saw our pile of Christmas books.  The first year we were married I purchased an illustrated children's Christmas story with the intent that the tradition would continue year after year (it has, we're on book 21 this year).  Each year I have remembered to put in our Christmas card inside the front of the book.  We have had some pretty creative cards in the past but have fizzled a bit since trying to get the house done.  Anyway, this is the first Christmas in our first home.  Sans enfants.  Just Brent and Lisa.  We still own this little downtown Provo bungalow.  When I visit to help out tenants I love to see the things we repeated in our concrete home.  Specifically from this view:  an awesome porch (we will have a swing just like this house) and two large pictures windows in the front.

Yesterday we went on a shopping spree to Lowes. We had a coupon for 10% off so it had to be used! We purchased $1.000 worth of lighting supplies.  The trip took up three hours of the morning.  Brent and Cole started working on more electrical.  We actually have switches, plugs and a light in the laundry room!  I helped Hilario with the painting. I was sanding girl.  He is VERY particular and I am grateful.   It was a busy, long day but things are coming together!

Living room and kitchen are now officially PAINTED!!!! Each time I see the Revere Pewter on the walls I LOVE it!!!!  It's the perfect color for us.  Very mellow, not white. 

 This is the mess that is the front of our house right now.  The garage is almost all wrapped.  I can't wait to see the hardie board on the garage and get the sneek preview of what our house will look like. 

 Remember Easter?  My table was  mess like this.  Trying to pick out color schemes...

Wanting very much for the color scheme to be similar to the home that got the design ball rolling...

So I plastered the front of the house with three green grays and three tan yellows.  These were the poster boards that the girlies painted two weeks ago.  The plain white poster board represents the trim/banding color.  This picture isn't kind to the color choices.  They are a lot more vibrant in person.  I know for sure that I DON'T like the middle green gray, too gray, too blase (imagine an accent aigu over the e.  I don't have a french "keyboard").  If you have any input, drop by the house and tell me your preference.  I think that our house may stand out a bit in the neighborhood, doesn't exactly match the color scheme.  But it matches our scheme!

Now, gotta' sew, gotta' sew, gotta' sew.  For the first time in a VERY VERY long time, I only have one costume to sew.  Estee, bless her heart, agreed to wear one of Maya's old costumes.  She makes a darling Cleopatra and gets to wear a brand new wig!  I can't believe it's Halloween. I think I'm going to light my baked apple candle and try to get in the Fall mood. It always feels like a build-a-house mood...

Happy Sunday! 

DAY 388: Weather Snap

Weather looks like this out my front door right now.  Our Utah snow is starting to kick in.  The siding crew is supposed to wrap the garage and wood parts of the house today.  Snow delay?  I hope for only a couple of hours...it's supposed to be inspected at noon today!

DAY 386: L-A-D-D-E-R-S Spell Relief

We have been waiting for our siding company to arrive.  Brent decided that the hardie board, shingle, lap siding, and stone were a little more than he was willing to take on right now.  We went on a careful search to find a company and finally decided.  We got bumped, then bumped again, and waited an additional week after the first month-and-a-half waiting period.  But the ladders and a few supplies arrived THIS AFTERNOON. Whoooppppiiiiieeee!  Brent and I felt relief immediately. 

 Brent installed our beautiful doorsets.  Love it!

The neighbors a house away backfilled their foundation today.  Challenge accepted, the race is ON!!!  They don't even know that they are competing on the highly anticipated reality show "Be The First To Move In".  I hope we beat them since the producers gave us an eleven month headstart!

The past couple of days Brent and I have been reaching out to other siding companies to check on their availability (in case the other company didn't work out).  So I was visiting a website trying to find the subcontractor they use for exterior finishing (they have beautiful homes). This is what I found...

Six Steps to Build a Home:

1. Select a home style and location
2.  Sign an offer, including earnest money
3.  Get pre-qualified with an approved lender
4.  Attend your design center appointment
5.  Hold a pre-construction meeting
6.  Sit back and relax while we build your new home!
Um, not quite our experience but hey!  I think we have thus far accumulated approximately 1647 steps to build a home.  (Number 6 gave me a great laugh anyway!)

DAY 383: Painted Splashes of Color in the Rooms

One of the projects we worked on today, Saturday, was to add the accent wall color to each of the kidlette's bedrooms. 

Maya and Estee both had to compromise (they are sharing a room) and settled for "Pink Innocence".  Cole's wall is "Rockport Gray" and Sierra's wall is "Antiguin Sky".  They all chose awesome colors but the pink is a little too pink for me (the girlies are tickled though). 

 Our powder room bathroom is a delicious sounding color "Lemon Meringue".  It feels really yellow to me right now...I think I need to wait a while before I do anything drastic like soften the color.  This bathroom will have a white bead board wains coat with trim, a white pedestal sink and of course a white toilet.  The floor will have the charming white "subway" hexagon tiles.  I can't wait for this bathroom--it's going to be soooo cheerful!  Estee begged to paint so I let her try it out for a bit....

Everyone was tired and cranky today but as a wise man once sang "Things can only get Better!!!!" Now sing along "Woah, woah, woah, oh, woah, woah, woah, oh, oh, oh, oh".  But check out another wonderful part of Howard Jones' song:" Future dreams we have to realize.....A thousand skeptic hands, Won't keep us from the things we plan.......And do you feel scared – I do, But I won't stop and falter...."

We're getting closer each day.  It's still a LOT of work.  I am proud of our children who have worked nearly every Saturday for the last year.  Truly a family feat.  I love you Cole, Sierra, Maya and Estee! Thank you for helping us build our home.  

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DAY 381: Hhhmmmmm, interesting

Well, hmmm, does this look right to you?  Me neither.  So as sub contractors are working I wonder if they think "Brent and Lisa will never notice this".  This is a water pipe in our ceiling going into a wall.  Yes, we should have caught it earlier, but here we are. 

Another one from this week, does this look right to you?  (ah, take a gander at that beautiful front door that Brent and I fixed up!  Love it!)  The columns are supposed to match the two wooden points that come down.  One is snug to the stairs and matches, the other is about 10 inches away.  Double hmmmm.  The columns are now both filled with concrete as is the entire hole.  Wonder how we will fix it...

Both subs have assured us that they will make the necessary repairs/fixes.  They have been good to work with us.  

I fully admit,  I can be a perfectionist.  It makes me a little crazy that we spend so much of our money, that we have saved, and that the project isn't perfect. Building a house is a much more organic process than I expected.  One subcontractor (or more often Brent and Lisa) doesn't do perfect work and the effect just multiplies with following subcontractors or projects.  The house won't be perfect and I just have to allow my "Monk" personality some time to accept that.  (Monk lives in a bungalow too, makes me laugh.  It must be something about the perfect lines, the repeating squares, the shapes, the simplicity).

And now for the pep talk...

Dear Lisa, 

Do you remember how these four windows bugged you?  They made you CrAzY?  How you thought that they would never line up?

Brent went into ACTION.  Brent called Omar and he chopped out the window to match the top. 

And then you and Brent went to task and reshaped the window, filled the side in with more concrete (which was a little bit of fun, admit it), foamed it and got it fixed up. 

Now, you love it! You can't even tell that there was a problem.  Time, energy (and money) will fix it and it will all be okay! So snap out of it.  Love, Lisa

Yep, another one of those days....

DAY 376: An Almost Finished Retaining Wall and More Painting Prep

We have almost conquered the retaining wall!  But alas, once again it took up our entire Saturday.  The blocks that stacked on top of our bases were easier to place (as we were told) but I still don't enjoy putting up retaining walls.  But I will for the rest of my life look at that wall and know that Brent, Cole and I did it all by ourselves.

Brent always likes the days when he gets to rent a big toy.  He was getting really precise towards the end of the project and could manipulate the bucket really well.  It takes  touch and Brent did it!

 Grandpa and Grandma picked up Estee for a special Birthday breakfast at IHOP.  Estee loved it and I was told that she shared all of our family secrets.  Ah, kids....

 When I wasn't retaining walling I ran a few errands.  On one of the errands I filled my car with 35 gallons of primer, 15 gallons of ceiling paint and 20 gallons of Revere Pewter to get the walls started.  Our house is now all white inside. 

I took the kidlettes to Brent's work party tonight.  Brent stayed behind and continued to work.  The kids loved it and were happy to have a break during fall break.  Ahhhhhh, here comes Sunday, I can't wait!  I need it! 

DAY 375: Paint Prep

Brent took today and Monday off of work.  And LUCKY for the kids, they are on Fall Break so they get to help at the house too (can you hear them cheering? um, not really, they are normal kids.  They would rather be playing during Fall Break).

We spent a chunk of time prepping for paint...

 Prepping is one of my least favorite jobs. It's just tedious but it's SOOOOOO important (So, no pressure).  But, we're making it through.  We have some help with the painting which will be fabulous.

I picked up a bunch of cute little paint sample cans.  When the girlies got to the house their job was to cover the white poster boards in the paint.  That way we have much bigger samples to look at on the walls. 

 These are exterior possibilities.  Once again I refer you to the homes I fell in love with in SLC: http://www.ourconcretehome.blogspot.com/2012/03/day-186-bungalows-of-sugarhouse-slc.html
Brent and I are really excited about our color choices since they will completely define the character of our home.  You would think that with my art background I would just be able to select the perfect palet in 3 seconds flat.  No way.  Way toooooo many choices.  Brent and I think that the colors will be the yellow tan on the bottom far left, the wet gray, and of course the white on the top. 

For the interior we have chosen Revere Pewter with White Dove for the trim accent/doors/details.  This shot does not reflect the truly wonderful color it is.  You will just have to come for a visit and experience it for yourself.  

 Tomorrow (Saturday) we hope to be spraying all of the primer.  Mmmmmm, wet paint.

Our family should really do a commercial for Subway.  We are the new Jared.  Well, not that it's making us any thinner but we really should get some credit for financing half of the Subway here in town.  It still amazes me that Cole can inhale an entire Meatball Marinara WAY before any of us have finished our cute little 6 inch sandwich.  Maya is not a fan of sandwiches these days (burnout) so she opted for a Costco salad (good choice).

Brent and I stared at the retaining wall again today.  We debated for a while about getting the backhoe today but the weather was just too yuck (rainy).  We have it reserved for tomorrow and will try to attack the wall again.  I am optimistic that it won't be as hard as putting down the 8 blocks for the base.  We've been told by a few sources that the worst is over and now it's just a matter of stacking blocks.

We celebrated Estee's birthday yesterday with a hike (her choice!).  We went to Battle Creek Falls which is on the front of my favorite mountain, Timp.  If you are a local it's at the very top of 200 South in PG.  It's a fun, very easy hike, perfect for little kids.  It's a hike with a great reward--a little waterfall.  We had a blast!

 Even found a tree FILLED with cobwebs.  I'd like to meet the spiders responsible for such a creepy mess.

After the hike I wanted Cole and Sierra to see the concrete home going up across the street from Maya's cello teacher.  We have been watching the progress and are hopeful that they don't finish before we do.  I think I know all the concrete homes in Northern Utah County.  But once you get the siding up, can't tell that they are any different than all the others. 

 Estee chose an ice cream cake for her birthday.  So, we made one after the hike.  She choose Strawberry cake with playdough ice cream.  I think she had a great day.  Her favorite present?  I fluffy robe which she tried to wear all day today.  Love you Est!