Making A Memory

This is the first and hopefully last house that B and I will live in.  We never had serious discussions about our goal in life being building a house, living on acreage, and having a shop that he could build cars in.  We would drive through the acreage developments and think, oh how nice, but we could never afford that; it was never a serious, one day we will live here.  When we found the Clarkson house, it was amazing, we were newly married, moving from townhouse living to "big kid" house living.  It was perfect, we could see our children running in the backyard, playing with friends in the cul-de-sac; couldn't imagine anything more.

As most families do, we had kids, the house seemed less roomy, the garage was bursting, we did what we could to make the house fit our needs, but our beautiful house just no longer seemed to fit our family or our long term goal needs.  We got older, our priorities changed, and our house just didn't seem to be the house that we thought we would live in forever.  That was a hard realization for me to come to; we brought our children home to this house, but I knew that we would run out of room at this house, and I didn't want our family to be moving to a house that fit our needs better when the kids had become established in school.

I knew that I wanted to do something in our new house that would be there for life - that when this was no longer our house (long after we are dead, not because we had to move!) there would be some sort of time capsule that gave every homeowner after us a sense of who we were as a family, and that we built this house with love, blood, sweat and tears.  That this house was our dream house.  A few people suggested the hand prints in the patio concrete, eh, people have been there and done that, and yes, it will be there, but I didn't want it glaring at me, or any other owner.  I wanted it to be a surprise for the homeowners when they found it, not an annoyance to them.

Then I got the idea to write a saying on one of the beams in the house.  It will be covered by drywall, so it's not glaring in your face everyday, but if for some reason, the drywall needs to be replaced, the next people can see it.

We decided on the beam above the french door in the family room.  I found a saying that I felt was appropriate for our family and our life.  Then I decided that I wanted to do the kids hand prints next to the saying.  I must say, writing above your head on a huge beam is not as easy as it looks to make sure that tings are the same size and centered!  Not perfect, but neither is our family, and honestly, I think it turned out great!  The kids had a blast painting their hand and then daddy holding them up above his head to put their hand print on the wall.

Sorry there's no "during" pictures, but kids and non-washable glitter paint don't match while being held above daddy's head!

Here is the before shot of the beam

Here is the after!  Like I said, not totally perfect, but great for our family!

The saying says:

Having someone to love is FAMILY

Having someplace to go is HOME

Having both is a BLESSING

So true and so perfect.

Stuart Construction ~ Week 15

Week 15 - February 25 - March 3, 2013

Yea!  More exciting visual change this week!  The guys dropped off and began insulating the house this week!  It's amazing to see what a difference even just putting the insulation in the walls and ceilings make!

Our Bedroom

Foyer and Study

Family/Great Room

Kids Play Room

Towards the end of the week, the weather finally cooperated enough for the stone guys to come out and start putting the stone up on the house.  B and I found the stone we liked and after ordering a few samples and stewing over the choices, we picked the irregular stone pattern over the linear pattern.  From the little that was done this week, I am already in love with our choice!

Photo on L is the family room wall on the south side of house, photo on R is the study on the front of the house

Photo on the left is the study on the south side of the house, photo on the right is a further back picture of the entire south side of the house.

I realized that I didn't put in a picture of the roof on the last post, so for your viewing enjoyment (because the color of my roof is the highlight of EVERYONE'S day, and you couldn't live another day without seeing it!) below are a few pictures of the roof.

Word around the construction site is that drywall is supposed to be delivered sometime soon and that is supposed to be going up next week.  I can't wait to see that happen!  I think when I see the drywall it will start to feel more like a house and less like a bunch of wood nailed together!

Taking The Plunge

B's work is HUGE into the Special Olympics.  Every year his work does fundraising with clients and they plunge at the Special Olympics sponsored Polar Plunge.  They have done this for years, and to make it more fun, they all wear penguin costumes.  The costumes are hilarious!  This year we were able to go and support his co-workers as they took the plunge into Aurora Reservoir.  His office was nice enough to purchase penguin costumes for the kids, so they became the penguin chick mascots!   It was hilarious and so adorable!  We will continue to go and support the office as mascots and photographers, but I am going to pass on plunging!  It looked cold and miserable!

Here are some shots from the day!  If anyone is interested in donating in honor of Waring Associates for the Special Olympics click here to go to their page.  What a fantastic cause to donate to!

Stuart Construction Weeks 13-14

Week 13 - February 11-17, 2013

Week 14 - February 18-25, 2013

So, there has been a lot of change these last two weeks, but not enough for them to have their own post.  For the most part, the electrical, HVAC, plumbing have been put in, and YEA!  The roof was installed these two weeks too!

We love the color of the roof; we didn't really spend a lot of time picking out the color, but are so happy how it turned out.  I love the darkness of it without it being black, and B likes the variance of it as well.

Happy V-Day!

As most people know, I like to make my own birthday invites, cards, and of course, Valentine's Day cards as well.  Last year, I really outdid myself, so I decided with all that has been going on, just to find something simple to do for the kids classes.  Behold, the Valentine's Day cards for the kids class!

 This year, my work schedule allowed for me to be able to take off and volunteer in H's classroom for her Valentine's Party.  What a chaotic crazy awesome time!  I give MAD props to her teacher, working with 24 5 and 6 year olds on a daily basis is a lot of work!  I was ready for a nap after just an hour there helping!

This picture was the insanity of passing out the Valentine's to all of the friends.

Kindergarten Concert

All four of the kindergarten classes at H's school put on a Valentine's Day/President's Day concert.  It was on the 13th, and all of the kids did fantastic!  The classes sang about 12 songs wearing patriotic clothes and George Washington hats.  

H leading her class in one of the songs!

 H's teacher Mrs. Frankenfeld

Stuart Construction - Week 12

Week 12 - February 4-10, 2013

There wasn't a ton of visual changes at the house this week, perhaps the most shocking thing for B and I was walking up to the house and seeing that almost ALL the windows and doors were installed!  We were shocked at the progress for that one day!  It was amazing!  The siding guys were there as well and had a lot of the north side of the house sided!

It is fantastic to see the windows in, the doors in, and just how much light and air we are going to have in our house!  I'm so excited!  They also finally put in the stairs to the upstairs!  I have been waiting for almost two weeks to have stairs to walk up and down and I love the way that they look!  One more step towards the house getting done!

This is the kitchen looking out at the eat in space

 Photo on the left is family room.  Photo on the right is family room but is a shot of the huge french doors!!

 This is looking from eat in space out over the family room to the stairs

My stairs!  Yea, I love them!!

Photo on the left is the window in the master bedroom, the photo on the right is the french doors in the master bedroom

We don't have much time to go look at the house in the daylight since we get home later from work and the sun sets so early, so usually B and I head to the house after the kids are in bed.  That means that it is pitch black in the house and we look at things by the light of B's I-Phone flashlight.  We were out the other night looking around, and were standing in the garage area when we saw a car, without their lights on come flying down the cul-de-sac.  Although we haven't lived there, we know our neighbors in that area and their cars already, so we were both taken back by this car coming so fast down the street; until we caught the shape of the car in the neighbor's porch lights.  Someone called the cops on us!   Once we realized it was the police, we started walking towards our car that was parked in the driveway, and were greeted by not one, not two, but five officers!  Must have been a quiet night for them and possible thieves in a construction site sounded like a lot of fun.  After clearing us they suggested that we not come to the house at night anymore.  We are so happy that our neighbors, all of them that we have met and haven't are looking out for us and our home!