We're still here... and still working away

Wow – it has been a year since we became home owners! It is so hard to believe, and yet by the progress made on the house, it has come a long way. We know we’ve been blog neglectors over past months. There has been a bit of a lull in project completions as of late, but now that it is summer again we are back in high gear.

Remember This?

This summer it became this:

Which is turning into this:

Granted, at this point we have one wall done, so there is more to go, but even that has made a WORLD of difference. So excited to have an all new kitchen.

Also on the docket for this summer is air conditioning (yes – we’ve been suffering without it the past few months!), a new kitchen floor and refinishing the hardwood floors. Our goal – by the end of summer have the main floor of the original part of the house done. Stay tuned – we promise to keep you better up to speed with the progress.

Picture Problems

I'm in need of some technical help. We've got a great picture on our camera that we'd like to share you, but problem is the little guy is shy and doesn't want to leave the camera. When I view my pictures on the camera's view screen, the picture is there. However, when I hook up the camera to the computer the picture doesn't show up. I've also tried putting the memory card into another device to pull up the picture that way, and it doesn't come through that way either. I know that there is still room on the memory card because I've taken pictures sense then, and I can get those off.

Any suggestions on what else we can try to get this picture off?

Not all fun and games...

Remodeling an older home is .... well.... not all fun and games. We've gotten use to taking an extra trip or two to Home Depot / Lowe's for each project after we're sure we got everything the first time. We're getting use to whenever you're ready to call a project done there is always one last streak of paint that needs to be sanded down. Sometimes it does feel like its more of one step forward and two steps back, but what we were not at all prepared for was what we found in our basement last weekend.

Ogden has had a good amount of snow thus far this winter. The snow wasn't a bad thing. What did us in was the two days of serious RAIN that we got last weekend that melted the snow and then over saturated the ground. There was a crack in the exterior wall, and it just couldn't take it.

It spread throughout the man-cave and into the hall:

And ran along the footing on the north wall of the man cave to take over the utility closet.

Fun, huh??

As the water was seeping under the tiles, all of the tiles were ripped out so there wouldn't be any mold issues. (no worries, those tiles wouldn't have stayed with us regardless).

Removing the titles didn't stop more water from coming in though.

Fortunately the rain turned back to snow on Sunday afternoon so we got the water under control. Terry then took to digging outside on Monday and Tuesday to figure out what was going on. That is when the crack was found.

Before this came up, we were about half way done with laying tile in our front bathroom. Its looking great, and when that is done we'll have one room complete! Exciting room reveals are now taking a back seat to stopping water damage. This house is nothing if not and Adventure!

Merry Christmas!

Hi Friends!

Yes, it has been nearly 2 months since we've updated our blog. We've been working like crazy on the house and traveling a ton between UT and ID. Between it all, keeping you current via this site has taken a back seat. We apologize.

Our Christmas was amazing, and one of the biggest reasons for that was our house was ready (enough) for us stay in. YES! We got to spend our second married Christmas together in our very own house.

Since we last updated, much has happened - painting in hallways, built-ins and kitchen, got a fridge, and started adding furniture where we could.

While we wouldn't trade our Christmas in the house, we can't quite call it done yet. We still need to tile the front bathroom, and have the floors done (hardwood or carpet depending on the room). Some may say we're more camping than living in the house. No TV (satellite/cable), no Internet, no real bed, no functioning dishwasher or garbage disposal. But the air bed is comfortable enough, the heat works, we've got season 4 of 24 on DVD, and the kitchen is fully functional even though some of our gizmos and gadgets are still in Boise.

Here is a look:

Bedroom -

Kitchen -

Even Gary has settled in nicely - as seen here with his Seal he got for Christmas from "Grandma" and "Grandpa" McBride.

Its amazing to think that Christmas last year we had no clue that we'd spend this Christmas in a house of our own. Its crazy to think of how far this house as come in the past 6 months, and we can hardly comprehend what it will look like next year. All we know is that we are exciting for the adventures ahead. We look forward to officially moving back to UT. And we appreciate all of you friends and family who follow along with our adventure via our blog.

May 2009 bring you all of the best!

Happy New Year!

On the Inside

While a lot happened on the out side of the house, a WHOLE LOT happened on the inside as well. We finished painting the living/dinning/office. We found a light fixture for the living room. And we had a party as we pulled up the nasty carpet to reveal the beautiful unfinished hardwood floors. The pad under the carpet was... not much of anything. We had some discussion if the pieces of pad looked more like corn flakes or gram crackers, but after we swept it all together we decided in we actually had a sand box in our living room.

And in the end it was beautiful!

You're just going to have to trust us that the pictures do not do the blue justice - it really looks great.

But WAIT... There is more!!

We also got paint in the front bed room.

It is amazing what a coat of paint does to make these look clean and new. It is a great feeling to have most of the behind the scenes work done so we can keep moving forward with tasks that at the end of the day you see progress with. We're getting very excited about what's happening in our dear home.

On the Outside

Lot's happened at the house on our last trip to Utah. Thanks to a dedicated and determined mom, we found a great and affordable concrete guy who redid our walk way, and we also got the front steps cleaned and painted. We're so excited about the improvement in curb appeal!

What is left to be done outside? On our next round of pictures we will have the hand rails attached. We also still need to paint the main door. Next summer we'll go big with landscaping and all of that fun, but that is still a ways away.


Our big debate is what to do with the remaining two bushes that line the door. Do they come out now, or do we keep them until we decide what we want to do with landscaping in that area? We'd love your thoughts on if they should stay or go now? We also welcome any suggestions of what plants would be great there that we can look into next summer.

What is that??

On the first weekend of October we had a bit of an adventure that we've been meaning to share. It all came about out of the desire to be out of our storage unit in Boise. Our trip to Utah coincided with Conference weekend, and as many of you know, VERY rarely is there a Conference weekend in October that does not include rain in Utah.

Rain - what's a little rain when you're moving stuff from ID to UT? That's what tarps are for, right??

Our plan was to leave Friday night after securing our load. However, after it took 3 hours and 2 trips to Home Depot to get enough tarps and clamps to feel good about the covering, so we decided we'd get some sleep and head out first thing in the morning. 5:00 on Saturday morning we hit the road in the dark and in the rain. 45 minutes outside of Boise Mary looked in the rear-view-mirror as a semi passed allowing her to see something flapping in the back of the truck. We pulled over to discover that ONE corner wasn't secured enough and our tarp was shredding!!!

To our good fortune there was Wal Mart in the town and 45 minutes, 1 additional tarp, 1 towel, 1 waste basket, and a 20 piece bungie cord set later we were back on the road.

And it only took us two more hours than normal to make the trip. But along with that we will never forget listening to the first session of Conference on the radio and learning that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is building a temple in Rome.

For all of that effort, here is what our final carefully wrapped load looked like.

What, you may ask, were we transporting that was worth all the effort? The Bear Lake Monster? A dragon our friend Haggrid left to our care? Or maybe a couch and an elliptical machine. :) If you ever need help packing furniture to move in an open bed truck in the rain - just give us a call. (or learn from our lesson and PICK A DIFFERENT WEEKEND).