Exhausted

Ben and I worked all day on the retaining wall as the kids went to daycare. We are exhausted but feel very good with the progress.

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Retaining Wall

Here is a picture of the retaining wall in the daylight...

Outside

Eli's favorite place to be in the whole world right now is "OUT"....."SIDE" he repeats this over and over until he is there. Every waking moment, he wants to be out. We have to be very careful because he can open the door to the garage. He ended up there a couple of times by himself. He gets one thing on his mind and he is determined to make it happen. He loves sitting in the dirt playing with cars and trucks. His new words this weekend are "dirt" and "rocks" He also loves to say "car-ee" and "truck-ee" For some reason he has been putting the "ee" sound at the end of many words like car, truck and milk (milky). We are not sure where that came from.


(yes, that is dirt around his mouth. He only tried it once!)

We spent all day Saturday and Sunday outside working on the retaining wall. The weather was perfect for outside work so we put all other things aside and took advantage of it. We worked on the second retaining wall. Evan did an unbelievable amount of work today. He shoveled gravel and moved dirt like you wouldn't believe. He told me it was going to help him when he has to wrestle the bigger guys. A couple of times, I caught him looking (flexing) at his arm muscles to see if they had gotten any bigger! He was working so hard today. About an hour or so into the work, he said to me "I wish I could just play." I felt terrible! We weren't making him work, he just wanted to! I told him he better be done working and go play! Poor kid, he will probably go to school and tell his friends that we tortured him all weekend and made him work. He actually loves to help out and work. He told me he wanted to be "just like Dad" What a little man!

This is a "final" product of the weekend. I didn't get a good picture of it during the daytime, so I ran out there tonight and took a quick picture in the dark. We are ready to fill in with dirt. The sidewalk and steps can be poured anytime and we can start seeding the front yard.

MUD

Ben studied the weather all week and learned that the rain was not supposed to hit until after midnight on Friday. With that, he decided that he would rent a trencher to bury the eaves and run them to the street. He picked up the $200 machine on Friday night, and by 6:30 p.m. the first storm was rolling in. He did not get as much done on Friday night because of this rain that was supposed to come later. He worked in between rain storms all night Friday and all day Saturday. Surprisingly, Saturday it really only sprinkled throughout the day. As you can see from the pictures, we have mud and that is the main reason he has been working so hard on the yard. We need to get it ready to see. The next step is to bring in dumptruck loads of dirt, level it off and plant grass seed. The machine also dug holes for the 26 trees we are planting as a wind break.





On the inside....
Eli figured out he could stand on his toys and watch the boys. He was pounding on the windows and laughing when they responded to him. While the boys were outside, Eli and I hung curtains in his room. He was just dying to go "out". He kept saying "coat" "out" "walk" "go"...he was desperate for me to take him out there. Not this weekend, buddy.

New brick

The brick on the front of 9our house was completed this weekend. It really finishes it out nicely. This was the last of the contractor's projects...the rest is up to us to get done. The retaining wall will completed this spring when things dry out and we have a massive amount of yard work to be done! Ben is going to tile the master bathroom this spring or summer as well as many other little projects that we hope to get finished up.

More....

Evan is a great worker when he gets focused on something.


Everyone needs a spot for their hammer.

Teamwork

Our yard is a mess. Today was a great day to work on the retaining wall. Ben and the boys got the lower wall done, all it needs is backfilled and the caps on the top. Maybe in a few years, we can even get some grass to grow! What a big job!

Look at poor Eli, stuck up on the steps!

We're home...

Finally, we are home! We spent last night (Saturday) at our new house. We have the water hooked up, so we are able to stay here. Slowly, but surely we are getting things put away. The boys are so excited to have their toys back! I think it is finally hitting them that this is our house. This morning, Evan said, "this feels like home" He is exactly right...our stuff is here and this is the house that we spent so much time planning and talking over and making decision after decision...it does feel like home and we are very excited to be here. 

It was so fun to wake up this morning and be home...in our own beds! I had forgotten how comfy it was! 

Busy

We had a very busy weekend. We got all of our furniture moved into the house and set up. It actually looks like a home now. We also got a lot of our storage shed stuff there too. Only a few more truck loads. If all goes well, they were going to turn the water on today and get things up a running. We are planning on moving in next weekend. We just have to bring our stuff from Clarksville, which includes our clothes, the boys' dressers and Eli's crib and dresser. We are almost there and it is very exciting! It is going to be a rough week I think....neither one of us are prepared for school this week! We are both tired from working all day on Saturday and Sunday.

The kids were so cute yesterday. They get so excited every time we bring a box of toys up. It is literally like Christmas morning over and over again! Even Eli was pretty excited to play with a tub of toys he had never seen before. He loves the Fisher Price Little People stuff. 

So, our to do list is getting shorter and shorter!

-measure windows and hang coverings

-get kitchen countertop in....then the sink and dishwasher

-finish emptying the storage shed

-move the dressers and crib and clothes

-get appliances in the house and set up

I am sure there is more, but so far, things are looking good!

HOUSE

Master bedroom (door, walk in closet and bathroom)

Master bedroom, walk in closet and bathroom

Master bathroom

Master bathroom

HOUSE

Shared bathroom

Shared bathroom

Looking into the kitchen

Looking into kitchen from the back entry (windows are living room windows)

HOUSE

Living room looking from kitchen

Living room (stairs to basement)

Eli's bedroom

Evan and Isaac's bedroom

HOUSE

desk area and pantry closet

Looking at the kitchen from the back entry

Laundry room

Kitchen looking from the dining room

House update

Standing at front door. Living room windows, stairs going down and red dining room wall. 

Looking at the front door and stairs going down. 

Front door again, closet, and Eli's room. 

Built in desk area. 

dining room wall (red), pantry closet, built in desk area. Through the doorway is our bedroom.

Our bedroom (almost painted) hallway door, walk-in closet door and bathroom. 

Our bathroom.

Eli's room.

Evan and Isaac's green room. 

They should be laying the flooring today. The carpenters were going to work on trim and start on the kitchen cabinets. We are hoping to be in SOON! It is getting so hard to be patient the closer we get.