Building a House; The Beginning

We've been looking for a house.  Literally for years.  We knew we wanted to be in a different school district by the time Kari was in middle school, and our time was running short.  After we spent Christmas at my parents house in Florida, where the kids played in the neighborhood all day, we decided we needed to change our priorities.  And, when we did, this opportunity kinda fell in our lap!  I guess it goes to show that when you are looking for the right things, the answers will be easier to find.  Not necessarily the solutions, or the process mind you.  But this literally was dumped into our lap.  And as we walked through the neighborhood, and were trying to decide which lot to build on, I felt like I should take this picture, because it could be documenting the beginning of  our story.  It may be hard to tell, but that is hubby and the realtor, walking the lot with a tape measure.

 And, after fighting with ourselves basically, we ended up putting in an offer to build in a nice neighborhood, for a house that is huge, that makes me feel hoity toity even though I am not.  Right around Dylan's birthday, we got to do all the fun stuff like picking colors and stuff.

 And that is when the hard part begins.  Because then there is a lot of waiting involved.

 But we told the kids what we were doing, and set off on the path of least destruction :)

 It took over a month to get all the permits and stuff before they broke ground and started actually making any sort of visible progress.

 And most nights, after we took the kids over to see the progress, there would be some 'splaining to do when we got home.

 And there were bumps along the way.  Man were there bumps.  The first among them being when they poured the foundation wrong and it had to be torn up and poured again.

 But the kids loved going over to see the progress and to imagine their new life there.

 And sometimes, it seemed like they made huge leaps and bounds in making progress.  And sometimes it seemed like they had done nothing at all.

And there were stressful times, and homeless times, and inconvenient and difficult times. But....  the finished product is really quite lovely, and it makes me feel kinda special to be in it.  So....  I guess that is cool :)

Its official!

And then, it was time to officially put it on the market.  It was crazy, but it was time.  These are the pictures the professional photographer took of the house, that were listed on the website.

Back yard

 Blue, hallway bath

 A detailed artsy, fartsy shot.

 The one time in their life that the bathroom was clean.  And I have photographic proof!

 My front porch!

 Dining Room

 From the other direction

Then you can move right into the kitchen from there

My poor dishwasher looks so dirty in this picture!

The family room!  It is magical how the pictures don't show how old and dirty the couches really are....

Then we move upstairs to the bedrooms.

 Dylan's room.  Poor kid was still in a toddler bed until we moved this summer....  Crazy!

 The girls bedroom.  So purple!

And who doesn't love an owl shower curtain?!?!

 Kari's bedroom, with all her green!

Another detail shot of her cabinets.

Downstairs, you have the master bed room.

And the master bathroom.  You guys, this is seriously on of my greatest designing achievements....  I could actually "see" this room before it came together, and I really liked how there were accents everywhere of the dark, chocolate brown and copper :)  And our built in bathroom cabinet?!?!  Like, to die for!  Hubby made that.  With his own two hands!

 Back out to our fake fireplace....  That doesn't function, but I guess is a nice center piece to the room.

 You can't have a pool table room without stools!

 The red really sets things off so well! 

 Plenty of room to play pool with the fishes!

 And, of course, ever house needs a laundry room!

 Front porch! 

 And the exterior money shot!

The kids and I took an extended trip this summer by driving to Utah, then to Virginia.  I knew I wanted to list the house before we were gone.  What better way to keep the house clean than to not live in it!!!  We listed it the day before we left on the trip.  And it sat there, unlooked at, for a 3 weeks.  I kid you not.  There was not one showing in the house for the three weeks we were gone!  About 2 days before we were going to drive home, the realtor called and asked if she could show the house, and I said OF COURSE!  And, they offered and we accepted!  It only took one showing ladies and gentlemen, but it was a long time coming, and a lot of nail biting and worrying!

Blue Bathroom Reveal

Fast forward, oh, a bazillion months since our Florida trip, and here we are in our new house.  But to get to our new house, we had to list and sell our old house.  And to do that, we had to finish a few projects.  The first one being the blue hallway bath.  The cabinets had been installed and function for a few years at this point.  But we could never get the door and drawer fronts to work the way we wanted to.  Apparently, the door profile I envisioned made the door pretty difficult to make.  We had literally tried 3 different times to make the doors, and they kept either breaking, or turning out wrong.  And, as I came to realize, by the time we were going to list it, it really didn't matter if the doors looked exactly the way I wanted them to.  Because, I wasn't really going to live with them.  So, we modified my idea, and made it a little bit easier. 

 I wanted to carry over the wainscotting from the wall, and use it as the insert into the door.

 So here are a few before pics...  Cabinets are totally functional without doors!

 And the linen closet behind across from the sink.

 Once all the doors were installed, and properly placed, you need a model to truly get the feel of the bathroom :)

 Because no one could possibly understand the function of bathroom doors without a photobomb.

 I primed and painted the doors in place because it allowed me to paint both sides at once.  Then I just had to let them dry :) 

The drawer fronts I painted downstairs.  Then all you do is install them!

And wonder why on earth you didn't do this years ago!!!

Pinewood Derby Track

 Before we moved this summer, hubby thought it would be a good idea to take on one more, rather large project: to make a pinewood derby track for our ward. Ironically, by this time, the scouts had already had theirs (they had to borrow one), but the adults wanted to have a crack at it.  And we had a few different classes, so the dads could really go all out when designing and making them.

  There was so much cutting and sanding and grooving going on.  The saw dust was crazy!

 And then, and I have yet to figure out how it happened, I got roped into the finishing work.  First I put a coat of polyurethane on the flat backs.

 Then I had to tape off each individual lane so we could paint them.

 We wanted some way to differentiate the lanes so it would be easier to identify winners.  Enter: primary colors!

So much dust guys!

 Then it was onto a coat or two of polyurethane to protect the front.  I really like how it makes the colors pop and the wood look so rich!

 And here is the final project!  It may not look like much, but there was much involved my friend.

Even Snapchat approved!

Hubby followed a pattern he found online, making a few modifications of course.  And he has plans to make a travelling box for it when he gets everything here at the house set up.  What do they say about God-given talents?  Use them or loose them?  I guess its a good thing he is using his :)