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Jul, 13{Life Lately} week 9
This past Saturday we ventured over to Arizona Tile in Denver to pick out our granite slabs for our countertops. What an adventure! Their warehouse is huge, complete with a breathtaking gallery and massive warehouse that extends out to a huge courtyard. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. We had to wear cute little hard hats for safety reasons, but I have to admit, if one of those slabs fell on me – well, let’s just say that I would need more than a hard-hat. Eek! We chose the Barcelona because the coloring and pattern was clean and even. It’s going to look wonderful paired with our dark espresso cabinets and floors.
After we chose our granite countertops, we grabbed some lunch, ran a few errands and then went to go see the progress of the house. We usually go on Sundays, but after leaving Arizona Tile, we were just too excited to wait! The top story is framed and more walls are starting to take shape. I found our front door in the garage, and hope to see it up soon! I forgot what color it’ll be painted, but I don’t think it will stay that tan color. It also looks like they plan to put in the staircases this week, too, so I look forward to see that!
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Jun, 13{Life Lately} Week 8
This is our future staircase… a bit dangerous at the moment, but it should be in soon. I’m hoping by this week.
And the pantry is located perfectly in the corner of our kitchen. I’m so excited to stock it up for the winter!
Here is a view of the staircase from the basement.
Wow, I can’t believe that we are already into week 8 into the build. It’s amazing to see the house go from a hole in the ground to having the main floor framed. We still have a long road ahead of us, but we are well on our way to our new home. Smiling from ear to ear. In other news, I’ve been managing to squeeze in some more social time with friends and family. I get so caught up in work, that I have to remind myself to go play once in a while. This week I’ve met an old and lovely friend for coffee, had a mom-daughter night, had a father-daughter night, and have a girls night planned with some lovely gal-pals. I’m so blessed by the people in my life. Next week I plan to get busy and work my tail off again, so I’m enjoying this time off. How has your first week of Summer been treating you?
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Jun, 13Momma
I just wanted to give a shout out to my amazing momma. She’s truly the most loving, generous and talented woman that I know. She makes me laugh harder each time and I enjoy all of our mother-daughter days together. It’s an amazing feeling to have someone who understands you – completely. And I can tell her anything! I love you momma, and thank you for being your lovely self! ksks (haha we were blowing kisses to my brother in this picture while he was on a mini vacation. I’m sure we embarassed him!)
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Jun, 13We Went Caaamping
This past weekend we went camping at Green Mountain Reservior, near Silverthorn, CO and it sure does live up to it’s name. We camped, fished and took the boat out on the lake.
I loved that this stream came right through our campsite. I have to admit, Ron and I both had nightmares the first night of us getting flooded out, but all was good after that. The sound of the stream constantly flowing made me so happy.
Ron caught a 12 inch trout the first day, but glady released it back into the wild lake because he knows my love for animals. I grew up fishing, but can’t do it anymore. I cry when they are caught and swollow the hook. This little fellow was hooked in his lip, so it was easy to let him go. Ron only keeps them if they can’t be saved. I’m so happy that this little guy could be released – isn’t he the cutest?!
I stuck to the caterpillers and butterflies…
I had to share this picture. I was using my iPhone as a mirror (like any modern gal would), when Ron quickly snapped a photo. I love it! We returned on Sunday to spend Father’s Day with my pops. It was a lovely weekend and we hope to take the pups next time. How about you, any summer camping trips planned?
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Jun, 13{Life Lately} Weeks 6 + 7
Weeks 6 + 7 of the build have come and gone so fast. I haven’t seen tremendous progress from week 6 to week 7, but I know it’s coming along fine. The garden level basement is being framed, along with the floor boards for the main floor. Above is a view of the north side of the house.
And here is a view of the back of the house. Can you see those nice big garden-level windows?
Although not the best quality of iPhone photos at times, I love that we’ve been taking a picture together each week!
Pulling up last Sunday (week 7) we found our two staircases laying in the front yard. We also noticed that all three fences are up now, too.
I know we’re going to love the 9-ft ceilings in the basement! Ron plans to put a dojo down there to train, while I have plans for a lighting studio.
When we go back this Sunday for week 8, I hope to see even more progress! Oh, and we got the call to go to the gallery to pick out our granite countertop slabs – complete with hard-hats and all!!! We hope to do that this coming week, so I’ll share when we go.
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Jun, 13
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Jun, 13Work With What You Have
As I was packing last week, I was thinking about how I’ll adapt my blogging and crafting to my new atmosphere. The majority of my studio is packed into boxes and stored away, including my lighting kits, supplies and desks (yes, I have more than one – ha!). I’ve made a plan to pack everything from my studio in the front of the storage unit, so if I need something, I can easily access it. Originally I wanted to take my entire studio to my dad’s house, but later decided that it would be better to keep things as simple as possible. I have all of my computers, Wacom tablet, and cameras with me so that I can continue blogging – of course. I’m guessing that this experience will make me be even more creative and force me to work with what I have.
Now that I’m settled, I plan to focus more on blogging both about Chickiedee and this new adventure that we’re on. Ron and I have made it a Sunday tradition to go and visit our new home site. Why Sunday, you ask? Well, we signed on the house on Sunday May 5th – Cinco de Mayo! We took our first photos of the site right after signing and have been back every Sunday since to capture the progress. Within the first week it went from a shallow dirt hole to a concrete foundation. Two Sundays ago they filled in the large holes around the foundation and filled the garage floor with dirt. This last Sunday they laid the pipes and filled in the garage floor and basement with concrete. Then I snuck over on Wednesday and saw the framing supplies in the front yard!!! It’s making progress.
I’m also excited to work on a few projects that I’ve had to put on hold when we started this new house venture. One is just about ready to launch with the exception of a few minor details. It was scheduled to launch in April, but when the house selling and buying fiasco picked up faster than expected; I chose to push the launch date. I didn’t want to launch knowing that it wasn’t completely ready. Quality is the most important part. I’ll give you a hint on what it is: it’s a website that once was private and now will be open to the creative small business community. Are you excited?! I know I am!
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Jun, 13{Life Lately} Week 5
Well, we’re wrapping up week 5 on the home building process. I drove by this week to find all of the framing materials out front. How exciting! I’m hoping when I go check it out this Sunday that the framing will have already started. It’s pretty exciting to watch the process, but it makes me wish it was built so that we can move in already!
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May, 13House Closing
{Dining Room // I’m going to miss our metallic gold stripes!}
{Backdoor // You can’t see Brutus, but all three of them had one last run in the old back yard before we left.}
{Kitchen // Our kitchen was small, but got the job done…}
{Stairs + Front Door // Well, not much to say about them… they did their job. haha!}
{Hallway // Ron’s office was to the left, my studio in the middle and the laundry room to the right. The bathroom is out of view. I loved how open the hall was.}
{Master Doors // I will miss the open-feel of our old french doors. They were the best!}
{Master // Our master bedroom was HUGE! We actually got pretty spoiled and found it very difficult to find one that even compared in size.}
{Master Nook // This is probably one of the hardest things to let go. Our cozy little nook was one of my favorite places to be. I’m sad that I didn’t get more time there, but I do have photos to look back on.}
{Front // With a freshly painted exterior.}
Monday at 10:08pm, we packed up the last of our things, loaded up the pets and drove away from our old home. I took one last round of photos and we called it a night. What a bittersweet feeling. We’ve spent the last 7 years (nearly to the day) of our lives in this house and it was our home. So many great memories were built here and each one will be with us forever.
Tuesday at 4pm, we closed on our house and it is officially sold. I had no idea that our old home would sell so fast, but I’m relieved that it did. We met the buyer and he seems great. I’m sure he will love it just as much as we did, if not more.
We can now check this off of our list and wait anxiously for our new one to be built. The countdown has already begun. But in the meantime, we are nesting with my dad and we are so grateful to have a roof over our heads for the next few months.
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May, 13{Life Lately} More Packing
Above are the latest photos of our new home. The foundation is in and dry! We plan to visit the site each week to take photos of the progress. It’s become our Sunday tradition since we signed the contract on Sunday May 5th. It’s moving along smashingly.
Then, I just got a new wire in my braces on Wednesday and bought some moving boxes to continue packing. I spent part of Wednesday evening calling around for free boxes. It’s a lot harder than I had thought. Most stores want you to come early in the morning, before they compact the boxes in the recycle bin. My mom and her friends have been gathering boxes for us, too. I’m so grateful, because at this point, I feel like there just aren’t enough boxes in the world to pack all of our things. Sheesh.
Today is a bittersweet packing day. I’m at the point were I’m packing all of the little knickknacks as well as our photos. The walls are becoming so bare. I’m going to miss so much about this house. I’m going to miss watching the fireworks from our back yard every 4th of July, our raspberry bushes in the back yard, our hot tub, our HUGE master bedroom complete with a cozy little nook, among many other things, including the fact that this has been our home for the past 7 years! This was our first home that we bought and we built so many memories here. At the same time, I’m super excited for the new memories that we will create in our new home. I have tons of photos from our current home to add to our new home. I’m such a sap!
Since our new home won’t be ready for a few months, we plan on staying with my dad. He lives super close, so it’ll make moving there easy and it’ll be an added bonus to save a bit more money before the big move. My biggest concern right now is how I’ll be set up to continue crafting without my studio for the next few months. Once we move in, I’ll figure it all out, but I know that I probably won’t be able to spread out like I do at home. Ha! I’m excited and a bit nervous to see how it will all work out. We haven’t lived with anyone else in nearly 9 years!
