No need to worry how the boys are settling into their new, if temporary, living situation. Here's Evan heartily enjoying some blueberries for breakfast one morning at the kitchen table:


Tyler prefers to take a more casual approach to breakfast...

Pretty rich, eh? At least when he spills the Cheerios, he picks them up (or at least tries) while singing the "clean up song" they learned at Bila's!!


Evan is also taking advantage of Mazie's good nature and is being as gentle as he is capable of at 19 1/2 months of age:

The boys love Mazie!! Tyler particularly at dinner - because he likes to feed his food to her! "Here Mazie! Here Mazie!" he repeats over and over again! I have to pretend to be bothered by it (because I want Tyler to eat more!), but secretly, I think it's pretty cute!!


On Saturday morning (after a VERY SHORT nap!), Tyler decided to help Daddy install a proper gate on Fammy's deck (because he had figured out how to undo the one that was there previously). He's at the age where he wants to help with everything - it's kinda precious. It certainly helps that he has the most patient Daddy on Earth methinks!



After lunch, we headed off to Gainesville to check the progress on the house - and to show Fammy! When we drove up, we were thrilled to see that all the windows and doors were in!!


And the roof shingles too!!!


Whilst Fammy, Evan, and I headed for the front door....

Mitch and Tyler went through the garage so they let us in :)!



More windows!!!


The sliding glass door leading to the back yard.

All the duct work and plumbing has been installed too.


The fireplace!!!!!


My tub!!! *Sigh* Isn't it pretty?????


Our master bath shower. And yes, that is a seat. We will have a seat in our shower. How cool is that??

Now this thankfully dead (or nearly at least) creature was found on the basement floor:

It was huge!!! I guess they grow 'em bigger in Prince William County... I made Mitch dispose of it outside - I didn't want it ending up in our drywall!!

We may only be a week away from our framewalk, and they say typically completion is about 30 days after that. We'll see!!

Before we left the neighborhood for the day, we stopped by one of the tot lots where the boys had a blast!

WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


A good time was had by all. Although, I admit, this preggo spent most of the time sitting on a bench in the shade!!


Lots of fun time, lots of rest, lots of chores completed. All in all - a good weekend!!

Happy Birthday Kath!!!

I just wanted to wish my big sister Kathy a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I knew darn well your birthday was today - I even reminded your boys on Facebook earlier this week so they wouldn't forget!! But the day got away from me, and by the time I realized the date today, it was nearly 9:00 p.m. and I didn't want to call so late.

Anyway, hope you got my card - at least I mailed that on time!! I hope you had a great day - and I WILL call you tomorrow!!

Love you!!

Wow!!

Well, we drove out to the house this Saturday, expecting to see a foundation and perhaps a skeletal frame....

THIS is what we saw!!!

We were flabbergasted! We couldn't believe how far they'd gotten since starting the frame only on Tuesday. Here are the sides:

You can see the sloping side yard that leads you down to the walk-out basement.

That bump-out on this side is the gas fireplace in the family room.

Our lot number!!

This is standing in front of the garage looking through to the family room.

We were very excited to find out that we could go inside to look around. We ventured through the front door...

The front steps aren't in yet, so it was a bit of a trick for me to get up there what with 2 strikes against me - being pregnant AND being short!!

This is the living room - on the right just as you walk in the front door. Here is what the model looks like...

But for the columns, ours won't look as fancy! :)

Here are Mitch and the boys in the dining room. Here is the model:

We won't have the big bay window, but we will have the crown molding, and I believe a chair rail (not sure about the wainscoting...)

Here is a model picture that shows the living room, the dining room, and the stairs from the perspective of the front door:

In this next picture, I am standing in the dining room, looking through the kitchen to the family room to where Mitch and the boys are standing:

Here are the big windows in my kitchen extension:

Here is Tyler looking out one of those windows!

Model pic of kitchen:

We're getting a regular stove, so we won't have the double wall oven (extra cupboard space!) and there won't be a cook top on the island (extra counter space!).

This next picture is of my pantry closet. I know it doesn't look very exciting, but I am SO excited about this darned closet!!!

Family room:

Model:

Standing in the family room, looking out through the garage:

Again, standing in the family room, but looking down the hall back toward the entryway, the living room, and the stairs to the basement:

We headed down to the basement first.

Here are Mitch and Evan in the utility/storage room. Again, not very exciting to the outside world, but to us, it's one of the most exciting things in the house!! If any of you are aware of the storage issues we had in the townhouse (i.e., there WAS NONE), then you know full well how happy we are for this storage space, as well as ample closets - including a LINEN CLOSET!! Actually, I'll have TWO LINEN CLOSETS!!!!!!!!! Woo-hoo!!

Okay, let's calm down now and finish the tour...

Here are some pictures of the rec room:

Here is the model pic:

This is the 5th bedroom, or "mom's" room, downstairs:

Big closet!

Window...

Time to venture out the walk-out to see what it looks like from the back...

OMG - it looks HUGE from the back!

Lower left, walk-out; lower right, mom's room; mid-level left, dining room; mid-level middle, kitchen; mid-level right, family room; upper left, Tyler's room; upper middle, master bath; upper right, master bedroom.

Time to head back upstairs...

ALL the way upstairs...

Master bedroom:

Don't have a model pic of this. For some reason I couldn't copy it from the website, unfortunately.

For the above picture, I am standing in the hallway in the master bedroom, where the 2 walk-in closets are, leading to the master bathroom, where Evan is standing, and looking through to Tyler's room, where Mitch is standing.

My tub! Or at least it will be....

This will be the nursery:

If I'm not mistaken, this next picture shows the walk-in closet in the nursery, and the hall bathroom....

And if I'm correct about that, then in this next picture, Mitch and Evan are standing in the hall bathroom:

This is Evan's room:

My laundry room!!:

And Tyler's room:

Here is a front view recap:

Upper far left, master bedroom; upper left, nursery; upper middle over front door, open over foyer; upper right, Evan's room; lower right, living room.

Whew! What a visit. We were so excited to see the progress and couldn't believe we got to walk around inside on all three floors. What fun. After a quick visit to our salesman - a friendly and jovial fellow named Bill, it was time to head home.

But not before one more quick stop.....

Yes, this is about 2 miles from the house. Extremely dangerous!!!

We're told by next week, it's possible all the plumbing and HVAC duct work will be installed, and we may only be a week and a half away from our frame walk! We'll definitely be back next weekend! Such fun!