Homeward Bound

Finishing Up

2009-06-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

My dad had to come back 2 or 3 times after we moved in to help finish up the electrical. He put on all the light fixtures in the basement, hooked up our doorbell, and also finished up the plug outlets. As I mentioned before, Brayden absolutely loves working with my dad. And although it usually took twice as long to finish each project, my dad was happy to spend that time with Brayden. Here they are working on one of the outlets.
We have been so fortunate that my dad has been able to help us out so much. It's been fun to watch him teach Josh and his friends how to build a basement from scratch. We feel blessed that my dad knew how to do this and was willing to take the time to teach us. I have to admit that I got a little emmotional when my dad gave us back the key to our house. We've had such a wonderful experience the past few months with my parents. I loved all the extra time I got to spend with my mom while the guys were working. Thanks mom and dad for all your help! We couldn't have done it without you!

Boots and Wheelbarrows

2009-06-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

Brayden has got to be the cutest kid! He continues to melt my heart everyday with how adorable he is. While we were unpacking he found his winter boots and he hasn't stopped wearing them. I think it's because he can get them on by himself that he insists on wearing them. Well we were out in the front yard and Brayden was needing a project to focus on. So I showed him a big hole that was in our yard and asked him if he would fill it up with dirt. He became the cutest little worker as he dug, filled his wheelbarrow, and dumped the dirt in the hole until it was full. He did this for about 45 minutes before he was done, and of course, he had to wear his boots!
Here he is filling up the wheelbarrow:
Each time he tried to roll the wheelbarrow onto the grass it started to tip over:
Problem Solved! Just carry it!

Filling the hole using his shovel:

Shovel taking too long. Answer - dump it out!

Couldn't be complete without a break to chase the birds!

Our Yard

2009-05-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love how big our yard is. However, it is not grass...it's weeds. Since we've been focusing so much on the inside of the house, we haven't paid attention to the outside. Sandy City finally sent us a notice that if we didn't have our weeks cut to lower than 6 inches, they would do it for us and charge us. So we were back on KSL looking for a lawn mower. I found an awesome one quite close to here, so we quickly ran and bought it. The day before our deadline I started mowing away. I wish these pictures did our yard justice, because the weeds were literally 3-5 feet tall. It took me all day to slowly mow them down, but I did it. I didn't start taking pictures until I was half way done, so hopefully you can get an idea of what it looked like when I started.

The night before I mowed the yard Josh and Steve spent a few hours using sickles to cut down about 1/4 of the yard. I still ended up mowing over it anyway, but here are the piles they made.

I got this far by the end of the afternoon. The kids were not having fun back there with me so I finally had to stop. When Josh got home I sent him inside with the kids so I could finish. A neighbor came over early the next morning with a trimmer and went around the edges. Let's just say we'll never let it get that bad again.

Water Leak

2009-05-08T13:06:00.000-07:00

We finally found a fridge on KSL and got it home. My dad came over to help us hook up the water and ice machine. Of course we didn't have the right parts and it started leaking. After getting the right parts my dad came over and finished hooking it up for us. Brayden LOVES working with Grandpa every chance he can get. My dad is so good at letting him help with real tools and making him feel like he's really helping. Thanks dad for being such a great grandpa!

First Night

2009-05-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

As soon as we were done moving everything in, Josh went back to the condo to get another load and to clean a little bit. That left the kids and me to enjoy the evening in our new place. We got in some warm clothes and went on our first walk. Brayden really wanted to ride his bike, so off we went. We made it half way down the street and he was done, so he walked back and I carried his bike. As soon as we were done with dinner, I realized that I had forgotten to clean the bathtub. I improvised and the kids loved taking a bath in the sink. I'm loving this place already!!!

Moving Day!!!

2009-05-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this day finally arrived! It feels like we've been waiting forever to move into a place of our own with much more space. We started early at our condo with a U-haul that we rented. I had packed and labeled most of our stuff so it was pretty easy to load up. We had quite a few guys from the ward show up to help so it went pretty quick. Most of them even offered to load up their cars, drive to our new house, and help unload. We got to our new house just as the rain started pouring, of course. Some guys from the new ward came over and helped unload the truck. Half of the guys stayed outside unloading the truck while the other half took their shoes off and stayed inside. I stayed at the door directing all the traffic. As the boxes were handed off to the inside crew I was able to tell them which direction to go and which room to put it in. We were a little nervous about our couches fitting down the stairs, but they made it. Once everything was unloaded we ordered pizza from Nevoles and fed everyone that was still there. We are SO grateful for all the help from the two wards, our friends, and our families. We could not have done it without them. In fact, I still can't believe how smoothly and quickly it all got done. They even put together our bed, the computer desk, and Brooklyn's crib! Here's Adam with Brooklyn's Easter ears on:

Our bedroom:
Brooklyn's room:

The living room upstairs:Family room downstairs:
Toy room. Yep...you read correctly. We now have a toy room!!!
Computer/scrapbook room:

Clean-up Time

2009-05-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

Friday night we stayed quite late at the house. Josh finished grouting the tile downstairs with Ryan Tucker's help while I spent the night cleaning the upstairs with Trianna. I can't wait to be able to stay at the house. Our poor kids have been such troopers with all the driving to and from. Brooklyn has been pretty good about sleeping at the house in her carseat, but there was no way to put Brayden to bed there. That meant that this little boy has been going to bed around midnight for the past few weeks. Here are some pictures of the house ready to move in!
Brooklyn's bedroom:

Our bedroom:

Upstairs living room with one tired boy:

Gas Leak

2009-05-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

While our carpet was being installed, I called the gas company to come check out a potential gas leak. Josh and Rudy had smelled some gas coming from the gas dryer hookup while they were tiling. I didn't realize it was such a serious process. As soon as I told the Questar operator I thought we had a gas leak, she said to leave the house immediately and connected me to their emergency line. They sent someone to our house within the hour. He walked around the house then went to the laundry room and started testing. Their was gas leaking everywhere. Not good. My dad happened to be in the area so luckily he was able to come down and talk to the Questar guy. They determined that the existing gas line that was put in was leaking at every joint. The Questar guy said we needed to take down all the sheet rock, replace the line, then redo the sheet rock, mud, and paint. Hmmm...not an option. So after more discussion they decided that we really didn't need a gas line since we have an electric dryer. My dad ended up spending the rest of the day capping of the gas line and replacing the gas line to the water heater. What an ordeal! I thought for sure we would have to wait to move in, but thanks to my dad he was able to fix the problem so we could move in on time. Thanks dad!!!!

Carpet!!!

2009-05-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

Finally - the carpet came! I took the kids over to the house early in the morning so we made sure we were there for the carpet layers. They made it about 20 minutes after we got there and got to work. They were done so fast I couldn't believe it! As soon as they were done we couldn't help ourselves from rolling around on the carpet. It's the first time we actually been able to put Brooklyn down on the ground and not worry about her little knees. We kicked the ball, tackled each other, and just had fun for once. Too bad we couldn't leave the family room free of furniture. It would be a great play room!

Doors & Clean-up

2009-04-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

On Thursday we had our door guy come and install all our doors. Thursday night we finished up the baseboards that were connected to the doors then we started the clean-up. We had a lot of help so it went fairly quickly. We emptied the basement and got it ready for the carpet.

Uncle Dave spent about one hour scraping the glue off our stairs. Brayden sat and talked to him almost that entire time.

More Tile & Paint

2009-04-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

Crunch time started as we neared our move-in date. We knew we wouldn't be able to finish everything, so we started at the top of our list and tried to get as much done as we could. Josh & I spent a day painting the kitchen while Brooklyn slept and Brayden helped paint the walls.
Josh decided to quickly finish tiling the basement laundry room and bathroom. He spent two nights at the house until about 3am getting it done. Here's Brayden helping Josh mix the cement before we headed back to the condo for the night. Here is what it looked like after they layed out the tiles:
Doing the bathroom closet:
Rudy stopped by and helped Josh do the tricky drain. They did a fantastic job.

Baseboards

2009-04-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

The never ending project continues. We don't have the doors in yet, but we decided to quickly do as many baseboards as we could. I painted them all last night, then we nailed them up, caulked, and touched up the paint. We'll have to come back and finish when the doors get put in. Here I am painting the baseboards with Brayden's help:We didn't have a nail gun, so there was a lot of pounding going on. Here's my dad and Ryan Tucker working on the rounded corners:

Here's the family room:

Finished Tile w/ Grout

2009-04-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

We were able to finish the tile and grout in tonight. Although the grout looks ok in the pictures, it is much pinker than we expected. We have had many conversations about what to do about it, but haven't decided. For now it's staying put. We might end up staining it later. We are VERY happy with how it all turned out. The tile is perfect and looks great.

Tile!

2009-04-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

After weeks of searching for the tile we liked, we found it at Home Depot. We LOVE the tile and it was in our price range, especially b/c I still use 10% off coupons on everything I buy there. Uncle Dave had a night off so he offered to come teach us how to do it. Thanks to Steve, Michael, Adam, and Uncle Dave for all their help. Here's Adam cutting the tile: Uncle Dave hard at work:

Bathroom: Steve:

The Crew:

Painting!!!

2009-04-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

Before I get to the painting, I wanted to post a picture of the texture that is on the walls in the basement. It's called orange peel. This is not a very common texture, but it is what is upstairs so we kept it consistent. It's hard to see in the pics, but it's there.

We finally started painting both the upstairs and the downstairs. I wasn't sure about the color, but it turned out awesome. We had a lot of help which we are very thankful for. We used my dad's paint sprayer in the basement and we rolled the paint upstairs. It's hard to see b/c of all the paint in the air, but here are some pictures from the basement after we sprayed it:

My aunt Cindy has helped us out SO much. Here she is painting like a pro:

We got a lot of help from the Ericson brothers. Thanks guys!

Andrew Allman. Need I say more?!

Andrew is the perfect guy for the ceilings.

More Sheetrocking

2009-04-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

I had no idea that sheetrocking was such a long process. It has taken SO long, but we are finally getting to the end. We decided to go ahead and sheetrock the laundry room and bathroom while we are at it. Here are some before pics.

This is the greenboard we put up around the tub.
Brayden's little retreat where he could snack and watch shows.

The after pictures:
This is the bathroom closet area:
One tired boy:

A Very Long Week

2009-04-15T13:11:00.001-07:00

About every night this week we went over to the house and worked on it. My dad spent the week finishing the sheetrock. He also spent a lot of time prepping the laundry room and bathroom for sheetrock. It was a nightmare, he said. Wires and pipes were everywhere they shouldn't be. So he had to move a lot of stuff so we can now sheetrock.

Here is our makeshift play room so I can get some work done. It has been the best thing I've done. Finally Brayden has something to do while we are there.

All Brooklyn needs is a box.
We did our first coat of paint in the living room. Doesn't it look so much better?
Here are some random pictures of the finished sheetrock and mud.

This is the second best thing I've done. I went to Walmart and bought Brayden a tool set. He is in heaven. He loves to follow my dad around and "help" him. He loves the tool belt because it is just like grandpa's. The set has about 20 more tools in it, but I will try and give him one new tool each time we go to the house. Hopefully that will keep him excited, eventhough I don't think I'll have trouble keeping him interested in the tools. He doesn't stop playing with them.

Sheet Rock Party #3

2009-04-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

April 4th we continued working on the sheet rock. Thanks again to all those that continue helping us out. By the end of the round of sheet rock, we were able to be completely done with the family room and computer room, which includes the stairway and under the stairs. My dad has put in countless hours and we are so appreciative of all the time he has sacrificed. The same goes to my brother Justin. He continues to help during the week as well as on Saturdays. Without you two we would not know where to begin.

Here is a picture of the new window. The people before us replaced every window but this one. They had actually put up sheetrock in front of it. Not sure what they were thinking, but it looked terrible from the outside to see insulation in the window.

Here is a before picture of the computer room and stairs.

Here is the stairwell. Here is Justin cutting more sheetrock. Here is Josh's brother's friend Pat working under the stairs.

Sheet Rock Party #2

2009-04-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night, the 26th, Justin, Josh, and a few others sheetrocked the ceiling of the computer room as well as part of the wall. I didn't get pics of that night. On Saturday the 28th we tackled the ceiling in the family room. We rented a handy contraption from Home Depot that held the dry wall in place so we could use people to start on the walls.
Here is a glimpse into the computer room.
Here is the contraption that worked wonders.
Here are a few shots of the finished ceiling.

Sheet Rock Party #1

2009-04-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

On March 21st we had our first sheet rock party. We had a lot of help and got a lot done. Thanks to everyone that came and helped us out. My aunt Cindy and my mom were troopers by doing all the insulation. I was able to help insulate while the kids napped. Everyone else was able to help finish sheetrocking two of the bedrooms. It's looking great!
Here is my mom working on the insulation.
Here is my aunt working on the insulation. Cindy was SO fast we couldn't have done it without her.
Here is Aaron doing one of the closets.
Mike measuring and cutting the sheetrock.

Our fully insulated family room.Justin and my dad in deep conversation.
One of the bedroom closets.
Justin hard at work.

Work Day 2 - March 14

2009-03-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

Throughout the week my dad stopped at the house a few times to continue working on the electrical. We also got 3 bids on Central Air. One bid was a referral, the other two were chosen through the eeny-meeny-miney-moe method using the phone book. So I was very surprised to open the door and recognize Don Chytraus. His family was in our ward for a few years while growing up. Of all the bids he gave us the best one, by quite a bit. By Saturday it was done! We now have AC - a must for the summers.

On Saturday my dad continued with the electrical. Josh, Andrew Allman, and Ryan Tucker all came over and helped him with everything he needed. They also finished taking off the ugly lava rock around the garage. Thanks guys for your help!

Here are the pics of the garage without the lava rock. It looks SO much better!

We stopped by towards the end. Brayden loves to work with the "big boys."
Brooklyn has been pretty good. She'll play with her toys and just watch everything going on.

Here is today's crew that helped my dad:

Work Day 1 - March 7

2009-03-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

Because we have so much work to do, we are really trying to push hard to get it all done so we can move in sometime in April. We got a lot done this first day. Uncle Dave came over and spent the day helping tear up the kitchen and bathroom floor. He also helped lay the subfloor. My dad came and started working on all the electrical, which is a mess, downstairs. A few friends came over and helped also. They knocked down some of the sheetrock in the basement, starting tearing off the lava rock around the garage, and helped out wherever they could. We felt it was a very productive day!
Here are pictures of the kitchen after the floor was ripped up.
Here is the bathroom after the floor was ripped up.
Laying the subfloor.

This is where they knocked out the sheetrock. It was full of holes and really old so we thought it would be best if we just started from scratch. As you can see, the electrical is a mess. Wires everywhere. My dad said it's one big fire hazard! So his first project is to rip out all the old wiring and start from scratch. Thanks dad!

It's Official!!!

2009-03-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

So we bought a house! It seems like it has taken forever to close, but we closed on March 2. We are VERY excited, but nervous because there is a lot of work that needs to be done. It is Sandy and we got a great deal on it. We will spend the month of March working on it and hopefully we will be able to move into it in April! Here are a few of the pictures of the house. As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done. Lucky for us, though, the previous owners starting fixing it up.

Here is the front of the house. It sits on .25 acres, so the backyard is really big (pics coming.) The roof needs repair and we need to do a bit of landscaping.

Can you see the lava rock on the garage? What fun it will be to take that off!
Here is the brand new kitchen that was put in. The bathroom is beautiful and all new, except the floor which we will replace. I love the jetted tub and the sink.
Now we get to the fun part. Apparently the fridge leaked and it destroyed the kitchen floor. There are bubbles and warped would throughout. This will be a fun project!