Weekend House Update

It looks like we'll have lots to update from now until the house is done!

They got the desk stained:

The color on the dining area wall:

The beadboard painted and the wall color in D's room:

The vinyl guy came back and has just about got the dormers and final trimwork done:

It's really beginning to be exciting to see many things being finished each day. The painter said they should be done by Friday. He also said that he overheard that the counter tops should be in this week too.

I'll keep you posted!

A little update

Not anything to update on OUR adoption front.

There is good news out in adoption land, though, for Debbie, a good friend of mine and I look forward to hearing more about her wonderful news!

Last Friday we got an updated e-mail from our agency saying that the accreditation paperwork is still in active review, but no official word yet as to being complete.

In new house news, the staining is finally complete as well as the prep-work on all the walls and trim such as caulking and filling in all those hundreds of little nail holes. They’ve got all the windows and doors and cabinetry all covered up with plastic now and have done a primer coat on D’s beadboard. We just stopped by and they were painting in my closet and prepping doors for painting. I am so glad they’re finally moving forward on the actual painting part. It took a long time for the staining and prep-work. Over two weeks for that phase. I wonder if I can dare to hope that they’ll be done with painting by the end of this week??

As I type this, we are on our way to a larger town about 1 hour away to go to Kirkland Home and see if we can find mirrors for the girls’ bathroom and the powder room. I love Kirkland Home! They have great decorative items at a very reasonable price.

I got some photos of the new desk yesterday before it was stained, but now it’s stained and covered up with plastic wrap, so I’ll have to wait to get more photos of that later. I also took some up close photos of the front porch after the railing was painted. Maybe by the time I’m able to post this to the blog, I’ll have some colorful photos of the new paint.

The outdoor shutters were delivered last week, and I’m anxious to see those put on. I think it will really make the outside look more complete. Of course we’re still waiting on the vinyl siding guy to come back and finish the dormers and the trim work over the front porch. I hope he comes soon!

I ordered the cabinet pulls last week, they should be in soon. I was so surprised how expensive those things are. I ordered 75 of them and will do some from L@wes or H@me Dep@t for the girls’ bathroom and the laundry room.

I am anxious to see the colors on the walls. I’m so afraid that the main color I chose is going to be too dark!

Blah, blah, blah.

I feel like I’m sitting here talking about cabbages and kings. Inconsequential things. Pretending the elephant is not sitting right in the middle of the room, or blog in this case.

I so very badly wish I had some adoption news to share. I’ve been kind of down about it lately. It’s just taking a ridiculously long time no matter how you look at it. I guess since we’re coming to the end of the house building it is becoming more evident that we still don’t have our child home.

Good grief! We’re waiting for an already born child (according to our dossier age range!), it’s not like we’re waiting for a child to be conceived and gestated! And here, during this time, we’ve built an entire new house and still haven’t managed to bring this already born, waiting for a family, child across the world and home.

Ridiculous.

Updated pictures of the house

I've got a couple more new pictures of the driveway and sidewalk. Not too extremely exciting, but OH so nice not to have to wade through the mud and the muck! In the top picture, see all the garbage in the background? They finally hauled it all away yesterday, halellujah! You can see the new improved yard from the picture today!

The computer desk was delivered and installed today from the cabinet maker. Now it has to be stained as well. At first we'd decided not to have it built in, but we shopped around and couldn't find anything in the right size for that spot that fit our needs, so we had the cabinet maker build it. It took him a while. I forgot to take a picture of it today, I'll add it in later.

Oh! And they also got the porch railing painted, you can just barely see it a tiny bit in the second picture, I'll have to take a picture of that too and add it in. It is satin black on top and bottom rail and the middle spindles are white.

** It looks like we're about a month away from completion!! We're hoping for the week after mother's day. Hubby has taken that week off for a vacation week. The 13th of May is our 13th anniversary. Maybe we'll get a GREAT anniversary present this year!!

More House Update News - No Adoption News

Well, at least there is good news with our house progress. I guess there will be lots of activity from here on out now that we're down to the nitty gritty.

Yesterday they began the forms for the driveway, sidewalk and patios!! This was a huge surprise to us. We went to meet with the stain guy first thing in the morning and the cement guy was already there. We had a huge mud puddle in the morning and these nice neat forms by evening!

Front Sidewalk form.

Back Patio form.

The first coat of stain on the kitchen cabinets.

Cabinet doors and drawers with two coats of stain. Next comes 4 layers of laquer.

They added the front porch columns and railing and although you can't see it very well, the top of the porch now has its arched detail

They added the attic pulldown in the garage.

My bathtub was finally removed from its box and the plumber got it installed! He had to move the drain pipe. They had installed it in the center and this tub has a side drain, so the cement had to be jack-hammered.

The beadboard detail was added in D's room:

So much progress on the new house

The last couple of weeks have been very busy with the new house.

• Early last week the brick work on the outside was finally finished.





• Then they moved inside and finished the fireplace rocks and placed the mantle.





• Next the cabinets were delivered and installed.


The cabinet maker came on Saturday and delivered and installed the corbels to hold the island counter top. I really like them, not too foo-foo, not too plain.



• Next the finish carpenters arrived and installed all the interior doors and trimmed them out.





• Baseboards were installed.





• Monday work was begun on the closet shelving and little extras inside there.







• Yesterday they trimmed out all the windows and did the window sills.







• Today they were installing the crown molding.







• The painters came yesterday and began the caulking and prepwork before painting begins. This will take longer than we expected. Probably the rest of this week.




• We met with the painter this morning and told him the colors we want and he will bring us some cabinet stain samples later this week. He says that on a house this size their part of the job will take about 3 weeks.

So, we're getting to the end things of the house. It's coming together quickly. We'll probably be in the house in about 5-6 weeks! Hallelujah!

Oh my, please pray for this family

If ever I think we've had it hard . . . I should never whine again!

Please read this blog and pray for this family.

http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

The lead singer of the contemporary Christian group Selah, and his wife are set to deliver a baby tomorrow- she has no amniotic fluid. They have a memorial service planned already for this week.

Pray for this family- Sure would be great if God would let this baby live as a testimony to the world, but if not- whatever may come- this family needs prayer!

**update Wednesday - Baby Audrey Caroline was born Monday after noon at 4:31 and the family was blessed to have a little over two hours with her before she left this earth and went to Heaven to be with God.