House update

It's been awhile since I've done an update on our house! A lot has happened since my last post. For one... it actually looks like a house now! 😂 It's all framed and enclosed. We got that done just in time for the snow. And I mean literally just in time.

 Pouring the garage floor

Conference weekend (October) laying all the floor trusses and putting our main floor on!

 Starting the main floor walls

Date night!❤

Front porch 

Back porch/walk out basement 

 Garage Trusses✅

Side view 

 Back view with most of the Trussses finished.

 Starting our deck

 Deck finished✅

Underneath the deck (walk out basement)

Front view.
This is pretty much what it still looks like.. except no snow on the roof and it now has shingles! Very disappointed in Al's choice of his trailer placement because it makes it impossible to get a decent pick of the house. 😉😄

 The back view

By looking at the pictures you probably noticed that the house is built out of steel instead of  traditional wood studs and it's a long story as to why. Alek is the one to ask for all the details but, I can definitely give you the short version. We compared prices and found steel to be cheaper. It is also 10x more sturdy, everything is perfectly straight, and it's fire resistant. Again, Alek is the one that knows way more about this. The house itself has a main floor and a basement. 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, and an open floor plan. I was very picky about the floor plan and changed my mind almost daily. But, now that it is framed, I am very happy with the way things have turned out. In my opinion, it is completely perfect. I tell Alek probably 80 times a day how much I love our house. I'm a little bit obsessed.💓

January was a rough month. Especially for me! Our house was stuck at a standstill forever and I felt like nothing was progressing. It was so depressing!! We needed to pass our 4 -way (framing, electrical, plumbing, and hvac) inspection by the County. They were not used to dealing with steel framed houses. It took a lot of paperwork, phone calls, meetings with engineers, and 3 different inspections with 4 different inspectors counting. every. single, screw in the house. 😖😖 I was getting so frustrated and started to lose hope that the house would ever be finished.

But, FINALLY last Wednesday (2/15/17) they passed us ✅ It was the happiest day!!! We had everything ready to be pushed forward. Now, we are flying! Insulation came the next day and sheet rockers came the day after that. The whole main floor should be completely sheet rocked by Thursday. The exterior siding should be here anytime this week!

Originally, we were hoping to have it done by March but, OBVIOUSLY that isn't going to happen. Now, I'm hoping for the end of April. (Fingers crossed.)

This has been the most stressful project we have done. But, even though is has been stressful, I can't help but be grateful for all the memories we have created. Especially with the boys. Jenson loves to go help dad and asks to go up to help almost daily. I love that both Jenson and Briggs get to grow up seeing our house be built and that they are learning that hard work is important. They have the best role model in their life. Their dad is the hardest worker I know. He's super smart and talented at everything he does. I am forever grateful for him for building our family a home. It's definitely going to be weird when it's all done.... what are we going to do with all of our free time? 😁

I am getting more and more excited and it gets closer and closer to being finished. We have been so blessed and we are so thankful for all the help we have received.💗

Here are some pretty sweet drone pictures of all the different angels of the house.

 Hopefully, the next time I post an update, the house will be all finished! 😁😁 Wish us luck!

Bitter Sweet

Instead of just focusing on my house and getting in there as fast as possible... this week I've been trying to changed my perspective.I've been coming up with things I am really going to miss about living with my parents. Here's a few things I've come up with:

• Adult interaction: Al leaves before me and the boys get up and usually doesn't get home until 6-7pm at night. That's a LONG time for me to only be talking to a 1 and 2 1/2 year old. It's been nice to have my dad there in the mornings and Syd and my mom there in the afternoon. Gives me a chance to feel like an adult. ;)
• The ward. Although I don't know much about the ward we are moving into... I am really going to miss going to the Nibley 3rd ward. I love going to Sunday school with Alek and then Relief Society with my mom. I love that my family entertains my kids during sacrament meeting, and helps try to get Briggs to sleep. Plus, I'm really worried about transitioning Jenson to a brand new nursery.😟Hopefully it will be about the time Briggs will be going into nursery and they can have each other for a little while.
• I'm going to miss the big grassy yard. I'm afraid we won't have grass for awhile in our yard, so it's going to be a lot harder to go relax outside during the summer.
• I'm going to  miss wearing Syd's shoes, jewelry, having her do my hair. 😁
• I'm definitely going to miss not having to worry about dinner every single night. Haha
• I'm going to miss having another female in the house to make sure my outfit looks good. 😉
• Having other people there to help play and entertain my boys.
• Always having a babysitter when Alek and I decide we want to get out of the house last minute.
• Having the grocery store, Ridley's, 2 seconds from our house for all those last minute needed items.
• Also, having a few different parks all within 5 minutes from us.
• The cool canyon breeze in the summer.
• The river in the backyard.

Gahhh.. There's just a few reasons... :) My family seriously helps us out so much! We are so grateful for their patience and for everything they do for us. It's definitely going to be weird when we move out on our own. But, I'm sure they are looking forward to not tripping on toys all the time, the house being a little more quiet, and being able to sleep in on Saturday morning. Heck, maybe I'll just stay?! 😉

Will you be mine?

Valentines Day.... This is going to be mine and Al's 8th Valentines since our dating days. Crazy right? I've been thinking a lot about our first Valentines day and wanted to share it. I have already written a post about it a couple years ago so, you can just click the link here to read it. Even though I wasn't totally crushing on him at this point, it's fun to think about that Sweet hearts dance. It was one of the funnest dances I ever went too because I was completely myself. I wasn't worried about what Alek was thinking and was very comfortable with him. It allowed Alek and I to become best friends and created a perfect foundation for our eternal relationship. I love thinking about our high school dating days and all the memories we had. I wish we could go back and re-live them. 💗 Happy Valentines Day!