New House, Contract to Start of Construction

So we have a contract to build a new house!  This is a very fun and also sort of scary process!  I suppose the only thing that makes it scary is that we haven't sold our current home yet....but I'm sure that will change as we go into 2013 (prayers for help are welcome!)

We made all of our floor plan choices to write the actual contract.  There are a million things on our "want" list, but we agreed that if we could just get the square footage and layout we wanted, we would just work to save and do all of the other upgrade things in time.  This is however, our final home until we retire, so we have years to keep making it better. 

We are building with Drees Homes and so far, the process has been great!  Our Marketing Manager, Jessica, is fantastic!  She has been so excited for us as we have taken each step and she really makes us feel important!  We chose a 4-bedroom, 2-1/2 bath Colonial in Strongsville.  We'll be living right around the corner from our daycare and it's a great neighborhood with a community pool & clubhouse!  We have lot on a cul-de-sac and really think we'll love it there!  Our lot is much, much smaller than our current home, but we've learned that we don't use our yard quite like we thought we would and the lesser space to maintain is sort of attractive to us. 

We were able to do 2 extensions on the floor plan to give us more square footage and we were also able to do vaulted ceilings in the master suite.  We have several upgrades that we did want so we think we got a pretty good deal - by the way, you can totally negotiate the pricing of a new home just like any other home in case you're wondering.  We ended up getting all that we are getting for over $25k less than what the "actual price" was.

We had our design appointment where we picked the outside materials, flooring, bath fixtures, kitchen options and all that good stuff.  That was fun.  It took almost a whole day and at the point of bathroom countertops, I was overwhelmed!  It's hard to imagine everything finished when you're looking at one sample of something at a time.  Here are the pictures of our design selections.

The outside brick, siding, shingles, shutters and paint

flooring, cabinets, granite, paint, tile, countertops

We went to the granite place to pick our slabs of granite....this was sort of a wasted trip as they all look the same!  But the two slabs in the front of the stacks had our name written all over them when we left!

Then they staked out our lot.  That was fun to see....you could see how the house would sit on the lot and step onto the porch (or where the porch will be).  The lot was pretty muddy, so the pictures are sort of from a distance.

from the street

 

from the back yard

up close porch/front of house

Next, we met with the Construction Manager, Nate.  He's really great too.  We did a full plan review where he asked all sorts of questions to make sure he understood all of our design changes.  He also explained how the entire process would work.  We walked the lot with him and anxiously awaited the start of construction.

They started digging last Thursday, 12/27.  I stopped by at lunch time and there was just s small hole, but deep.  By the end of the first day, they had dug all the way to the back of the property.

noon dig day1

end of dig day 1

I went back mid-day last Friday, and the entire basement was dug out.  It looks huge right now!  The next crew were in getting ready to pour the footers.  I did a coffee run for those guys and they sure appreciated it!  I figure I'll have to be nice to these crews so they don't mind me stopping by to scope things out every day that I can!

our basement, by mid-day of dig day 2

 Nate called for our first week's update and by the end of day 2, the footers were poured.  They will be off for New Year's and then will pour our foundation next Wednesday.  They'll be doing some other undergound stuff, like utilities and waterproofing next week too.

2012 recap

Yep, I sort of quit blogging.....but I'm back.
I guess I needed a blog break, and there wasn't a lot I felt like blogging about this year.  It was a tough year, but it has turned around and there are lots of new, good things happening.  Because of that, I want to begin documenting it again via the good ole' blog!

I'll recap the past 10 months.....

The kids took their first airplane ride in April when we went to Spring Break to Hilton Head.  It went really well and we had a nice vacation.

My sister turned 40 in May - wow, 40 - she's getting old!  It's weird how 40 doesn't sound so old anymore, but I can remember my parent's turning 40 so that makes it seem old.....good thing it's still a LONG way away for me!

 

Hannah lost her first tooth the end of May, just in time to make the lost tooth club in Kindergarten!  She lost the second one a week or so later.

She finished Kindergarten and we had a great summer.  Nicholas tried to keep up with the older girls all summer.  We spent a lot of time riding bikes & scooter, swimming in the backyard pool, slip-n-sliding, going to parks and fairs and enjoying summer life!

 

 

Hannah started 1st grade at Royal Redeemer and is doing great.

 

We decided to put our house on the market and make a move to our next home.  We spent some time looking at existing homes and finally decided on this one.

 

In late October, this picture of our new house changed to this one:

 

 

We're pretty excited about this and are really looking forward to the new house....it is so much more than a house to us though.  It is something we're doing, from start to finish together to establish all sorts of fresh starts for us and for our family.  We are really anxious to start new traditions and make this house into a home for the kids to grow up in and for us to get old together in.

Nicholas went through potty training in October like a breeze, much to my surprise. He got his big boy underwear and pretty much went from diapers to underwear in a couple days with really no accidents! It was easy and has been great!

Right before Halloween, Nicholas busted his nose.  It was our first trip to the ER. He fell forward at the playground and hit it just right that his nose instantly spread across his face. Luckily, kids don't have a bone in their nose so it was just cartilage that got banged up pretty good.

 

This episode started a string of really awful events.  Tony has struggled with back problems most of the year.  He has gone through two rounds of steroid shots and a second MRI showed that his bulging disc became ruptured, so surgery was scheduled for 10/30.  A week before surgery, something ever so slight changed, which caused him to literally not be able to move.  He spent the next 5 days lying in major pain in our bed.  He was helpless and it was awful not being able to do much to help him.  We just tried to get through each day as best as we could until his surgery date.
Sunday night before his surgery we got a call at 2 in the morning, that his dad had a medical emergency and we had to rush to the hospital.  Getting Tony out of bed and out of the house was awful, not to mention having to wake the kids and take them out as well.  Unfortunately, Tony's dad had a massive stroke and was unresponsive.  We spent the following afternoon at the hospital discussing the options.  Because of Tony's surgery, we had decided to wait until Wednesday to do anything.

Hurricane Sandy rolled through that Monday night.  I had just replaced the sump pump Monday morning since it wasn't running right, so when the storm came in and the rain poured down non-stop, I knew we'd be OK as long as we kept power.  Unfortunately, we lost power at 1 am.  I was then up all night running the generator to keep the sump pump running.  I let it go too long at 3 am and the basement backed up and started flooding.  I was able to get it cleaned up - thank goodness I tiled the floor this summer!  I got ready to take Tony to the hospital in the dark at 8 that morning.  He went into surgery and all went very well.  He stayed the night at the hospital that night so I could try to get some rest.  I picked him up the next day and we went to Parma Hospital to assess the situation with his dad.  The doctors ran one more test to evaluate brain activity and told us we'd know more Thursday.

We went back to the hospital Thursday afternoon and made the decision to take Don off life support and he passed away a couple of hours later.  Everything happened so fast and so unexpectedly.  We arranged for his cremation the next day and his loss will forever now be in our hearts.  Rest in Peace Don.



picture taken July, 2011



The kids were Mickey and Minnie for Halloween.

 

The following week, my boss decided to eliminate my position from the Organization.  The good news was that I was offered a choice of a severance package or a different position.  Of course, I took the other position since I very much need to be employed with the new house contract in place.  The transition into a different role is challenging but I'm working through it for now. 

Thanksgiving weekend came and then ended with my Grandma Tilton passing away.  She got another infection and this time, she just couldn't shake it and it took her away within a couple weeks.  Mom and Nadine were with her when she passed on Sunday morning and it was peaceful, but we'll feel her loss forever.  She was a great lady and we're very lucky to have shared so many years with her.  Aunt Winnie came to stay with us for her funeral.  The visit with her was nice.  The funeral was Thursday and by Friday, the month of November had passed and we were ready for a break!



picture taken Christmas 2011



 

December was sort of a recovery time.  Tony's back is doing much better.  We did some getting ready for Christmas and sort of chilled out for the most part.  Well except for Nicholas' run in with the corner of the wall at daycare.  That was a fun call to get after the month of craziness.  He wore a nice goose-egg for several days.

 

 

Christmas came and was good. 

 

 

 

The kids had a great day and seeing the magic of Christmas through them is just great!

 

 

Nicholas was sure afraid Santa was going to bring him reindeer poop for being bad.  Hannah just had her heart set on a Nintendo DS.  All fared well - Nicholas ended up on the nice list with plenty of new toys and Hannah got her DS along with many other new fun things!

 

 

 

Unfortunately, Christmas week ended with both kids down with the flu.  Hannah started it with a fever that got to 103.9 on Thursday and Nicholas came down with his the next night.  So we've been sitting in the sick house for 4 days now...going a little stir crazy!  We sure hope to end 2012 with this flu, fevers and coughs going away and have lots of good things to look forward to in 2013!

Some "me" updates

This blog is usually centered around the kids, which is the most important thing to me and usually the most noteworthy subjects for me to write about, however, I felt like posting a little bit of a me update.

So a few months back, I started to lose some of the last of my baby weight.  To be honest, the first part came off through some stress.  Maybe not the best way, but it was a good jump start.  Around that same time, Tony started working out and trying to come up with better eating habits.  So we really focused on eating better, eating proper portions and low and behold, I lost more weight.  More exciting than the actual pounds I was losing, I lost some serious inches and am getting some tone and definition back to my body.  At first, it was exciting to need to buy new clothes again.  But then the progress kept coming and I kept needing to buy new clothes.  This problem started to get a little pricey and it was frustrating to not be able to wear some of the new clothes I had just bought because they were too big already.  I started back to Jazzercise in January and am getting more tone and in some sort of shape again.

I was super excited to buy my first pair of size 4 jeans a month or so ago...I don't think I've ever fit into a size 4! It's not just about the pant size, but it sure feels good to slip them on and they aren't tight at all! I still have about 5 more pounds that I'd like to shed, hopefully without going down too many more inches. My goal is to keep toning up some more and then to sustain a healthier me.

So this isn't the best picture of me, but here I am now, finally under pre-baby weight and still working on being in the best shape of my life - my goal as 40 nears!

 Another exciting thing I did with my "new me" was decided that I just wasn't a mini-van mom.  So about three years ago, I tried to do it.  I really did try.  I drove it for three years and there were good things about it, but I never liked driving it every day.  I always hated how it felt to just jump in it and go run an errand or go to work every day - it felt like I was taking a bus.  Now granted, when we went on vacation or needed it to haul anything, it was super convenient and comfortable, but it was the every day trips that matter most. 

So I had seen a new white Jeep Cherokee driving down the road a couple months ago and it really caught my eye.  Tony loved his old one and so I figured I'd just go check them out to see if I could get into something I'd like better for a good price.  The one thing that I thought I didn't want to fore go was the 3rd row seating that the van had.  Again, we don't use it every day, but when we have an extra kid or are going somewhere that would normally require two cars, it's super handy to have the third row.  Well, the Cherokee didn't offer that.  So the next best thing at Brunswick Auto Mart was to look at the Toyota Highlander.  I really liked it!!!  But it was totally out of our price range.  I had on my super-car buying skills that day and was sticking to my guns on my price and since they were way off, we were going to walk away.  It must have been meant to be because the owner of the dealership was there that day and was making crazy offers.  I declined his first several, sticking to my guns, but then he made me a deal I couldn't refuse.  I got this awesome, white Toyota Highlander, loaded up with leather and heated seats, a moon roof, 4-wheel drive and several other bells & whistles.  I LOVE IT!!!

Now, I did give up a little cargo room, but we'll make due with it.  It still has good space with the 3rd row seats down, I just lost the floor to ceiling space.  But the ride is so great, so comfortable and just what I wanted that I was lacking in the van.  So yes, I'm tooting my own horn and letting you all know, I'm just cooler than a mini-van!!!

2012 Birthday Party

We had another combined birthday party for Hannah and Nicholas this year.  I swore I didn't want to do that, but it turns out to be so much easier.  Espeically again this year - Nicholas still really doesn't know better or really care, but is big enough to do something for.  Hannah is still so very into her birthday and wanted to do something fun with her friends.  We had it a The Jump Yard and invited family and friend and two of Hannah's friends from school. 

Nicholas had fun jumping too, which I was a little worried about.  The last time we went to a jump place, he was afriad, but he had a blast at the party!  So much in fact, he was a sweaty mess and ended up with the worst case of eczma ever after (poor thing).

 Hannah had a Barbie cake:

And Nicholas had a Yo Gabba Gabba cake:

 Here are the girls all sitting down for pizza, cake & presents after jumping

And here we are singing Happy Birthday to each of them





And then finally finished up the day with opening gifts.

And then we got to go home - nothing to clean up, just had to put a few toys away from all our generous friends and family.  And everyone had a great time!!!  This sharing a birthday party is a pretty good thing after all! 

Hannah's 6 years old

Hannah turned 6 years old on January 30th. 
Crazy - she's SIX, so not a little girl anymore - well, still a little girl, but now a little school girl and of course, still my little girl!
Her birthday was a Monday, so it was a school day.  She was excited for the day and took goodie bags for the kids in her class.  We took cupcakes too to daycare and then had spaghetti for dinner - her favorite meal. 
Then we had more cake and presents for her at home.  Nicholas loved sharing in her day and singing happy birthday to her.

She got a couple "big girl" gifts - a watch, a necklace and a bracelet - she loved them!

We went to get her pictures taken too.  I like school pictures, but I still like getting her birthday pictures - to see all of her!  They were cute!

Hannah's doing great in Kindergarten, making friends and is such a sweet girl.  She's so very smart, reading at about a 2nd grade level and starting to improve some math skills now too.  She still loves to wear dresses, loves all things princess and play with dolls - polly pockets and barbies.  She enjoys Sunday School and learning about God and Bible stories.  She has recently discovered Scooby Doo and likes to watch that.  She's a great big sister, a wonderful daughter and the most precious little girl that I have the pleasure of being Mommy to.  I love you, Hannah......Happy Birthday!