Rrrr. Stinkin somethin.

So I can't seem to upload my latest batch of photos from my camera to the computer. This is the first. I'm not sure what the problem is but hopefully I'll get it goin soon though. In other news... I've put an ad in the local paper (or should I say stapled pages - hehe!) for childcare. I'm officially on the hunt for a job! It should be convenient timing - I'll be able to take care of my own kids while having evenings and weekends free for family time:) There's aparently a real need for childcare around here anyway so I hope it goes well (please God, no brats, please!!!). Also, Kevin is back at work, after much ado... 5 months of ado. That sure took a long time didn't it? Who'da thought building a house would be so much work?? ;) As for our morgage, it is still being "re" done. I've thoroughly enjoyed not being able to talk to our broker about it b/c we don't have a landline hooked up yet. It's been nice not thinking about finances and focusing on getting the house together and settling in. It is SO much working unpacking an entire house by yourself while watching a toddler and a baby. WOO! Remind me not to do this again any time soon. Anyway, thanks for all the cheery compliments on the house:) Much appreciated! Kev has done a fantastic job hasn't he?!? I'm so proud:)

OK here's a few early shots.

Unpacking is still underway but here's a few current pictures anyway: Pic #1 We're enjoying our (still kinda smelly) new fireplace for the first time:) Pic #2 Kendra's still unpacking the kitchen (yet to find the pots!). Pic #3 Kitchen/construction zone Pic #4 Appliances are in and working - woohoo!!

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home - or something. It's more like home sweet chaos and crying kids;) Yes well those are the breaks for moving into a house before it's complete I suppose. This has been the biggest move yet considering we've got 2 kids instead of 1 now, thus I can't seem to get anything organized throughout the day... it more just gets shuffled around instead of put into place. Ha ha. It's the end of Day 1, I've had a cup of coffee (decaf, to allow some sleep tonight) and watched 1/2 hour of TV (cable!!) to unwind from the days nonstop events. I've got the kitchen in place (although my pots have mysteriously disapeared somewhere), the bathroom has its essentials and the kids each have a days worth of diapers and one outfit they'll likely wear again tomorow until I can find their clothes in the stack of boxes downstairs. Tomorow includes a massive grocery shopping trip which I'll attempt to do alone so Kevin can have some space (and peace) to do some finishing. I never thought I'd say this, being in our brand new beautiful little home, but I sooooo look forward to getting out of the house!!! It is WAY to chaotic right now. I'm relatively calm about it all but Kevin seems to have lost his head, along with half his tools, in the mess. So I think he'll accomplish more without the 3 of us around;) I'm hoping to leave a mess and come home to (yet another mess) a finished floor, fireplace and a door on my bedroom. We'll see;) As for the kids, Atalie has adapted incredibly well to her new surroundings! She's been to the house as often as I have while it's been under construction so she's familiar with it, but I didn't expect she'd sleep so soundly in a new room that she's SHARING WITH HER BABY BROTHER!!! That's right, so far so good. She sleeps through his crying to eat at night; however he wakes up when she does... hmmm.. hopefully he adjusts to that one soon. Aiden seems to have started a trend a few months ago which lead him to waking up every 2 hours at night INSISTING on eating! It's exhausting to say the least. When he hits the magical age of 6 months I'm going to consider letting him cry... after considering the consiquences of possibly waking his sister up with all that crying. Nothing else has worked so far. Huuh. Anyway, that's the update. Any of you who have tried calling and not succeeded in reaching us, we've got a new phone number (not connected yet) and are currently still using Kev's cell. So try that. Sorry, no pics yet. Really, it's all just "stuff" to look at right now anyway. Give us a week and we'll get some goodies on here.

Atalie dances to "Feist"!

This was taken about a month ago:)

Moving Day

Well tomorow has approached rather quickly - meaning it seems as though it's already here and yet there's so much to be done yet! It's clean-up day at the house today but there's some things we didn't get to finish, like the floor, fireplace stone (which creates a horrible mess), trim and some other small things... like not getting an occupancy permit - ya, our inspector told us to "call anytime on Friday" but failed to answer his phone all day... I guess he won't mind making a trip into town on the weekend. Kev will be home at least another week, possibly two, trying to tie up all the loose ends so we can close this dang mortgage. It's been a rollercoaster in many ways, the mortgage that is. We decided to finish the basement, contrary to our original plan (and budget) b/c we knew that we'd only be living here for a couple-few years and would very likely not have the cash to finish it in the near future. Now I'm not extremely picky when it comes to living spaces, as long as they're mostly clean and somewhat organized. Infact, 6 of the 8 (yes, 8!) places we've lived in up until now have been under 900sq.ft. However, not finishing the basement meant 1: cramming 4 people and everything else into that much space for the next few years and 2: appealing to a completely different crowd of buyers than we have when the time comes to sell - the area we live in is mostly inhabited by vacationers who buy (and build) places which are conveniently "ready-to-go". So the plan was tweaked "slightly", or so we thought. I don't know why we thought that finishing the basement wouldn't cost very much... hmm... but it did. So our fabulous mortgage broker is working his art at financing and we'll be signing for a much bigger dollar sign pretty soon... oh, and Kendra will be getting a job. More about that last detail in the near future (stay tuned!) :) I wanted to try and post one more lot of pictures before shutting down and packing the computer tonight, however I realize now that the batteries for our camera are packed away... so Kev may not be able to take any (sorry Mom and Dad!). I'll be posting some pics as soon as things settle down a bit in the next few days though!

Finishing Touches... and messes

What chaos! This week we are attempting to move, do the finishing carpentry, repaint a couple rooms, install/hook up plumbing fixtures (hired out), tile the shower downstairs (hired out), put the stone up on the fireplace (again, hired out)... meanwhile the laminate floor isn't in and our appliances aren't anywhere to be seen. The house is a MESS!!! I can't even say it's "organized chaos", as my messes tend to be. It's just plain chaos. Plus, my carpet is loaded with sawdust and woodchips (the basement is currently the woodshop, from the looks of it). There are three more days to finish all our projects, big and small. Friday will be a cleanup day and Saturday is moving day. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I'm not sure if I'm more stressed or excited (a little bit of both I think). Kevin's probably more stressed than I am... anyway, here's some pretty pictures to take our minds off the mess for a moment:) Master bedroom re-paint is more brown and less purple. The dark colour is the entire room and the light colour is the closet. Kids room has a fresh coat of green (more grass-like, less puke-like!) Main floor bath has working fixtures!!!!! Kevin was more excited about the toilet going in than anything else (HA! no more trips to the grocery store). Basement bath still needs fixtures installed. Trust a carpenter to have nicer trim than the carpet beneath it! The mess: Above: Kitchen/Living area (I think...?) Fireplace in Living room awaiting a bit of stone. Office in basement is storing our shower doors. My personal favorite: the temporary workshop in the basement... carpet and all. Ug.