New House - Trim and Doors

I haven't posted much about the house lately, but they have still been making some progress. They are still working on paint, flooring has been started, and they started the trim and doors just this week.

Here is the tile flooring in the mudroom. They have also completed the powder room tile and linoleum in the basement bath and kids bath.

Here are some pics of the doors, trim, and stained handrails that will be used on the stairs going up.

Youth Medal Nights

This weekend was the Wood City Classic basketball tournament in Cloquet. On Friday night Olivia got her medal for participating in girls basketball and on Saturday night Jack got his.

They were both pretty excited and I was surprised Olivia was not scared to go out there. When Jack was that age, he refused to go out on the court.

Christmas

Christmas was very busy, as usual, going back and forth between so many places. This year it felt like the movie Four Christmases because we literally were opening presents for 4 days in a row. Sunday we had dinner and opened presents at Steve's parents house.

Monday night we went to my parents for dinner and presents...

On Christmas Eve, Steve had the alumni basketball game in the morning and then we opened our presents at home.

After, we drove up to Two Harbors to the same hotel we go every year to celebrate the extended Battaglia family Christmas. We ate, the kids opened presents, and then the adults did their gift exchange. We left there are about 6:30 to head back to my Grandpa's house.

On Christmas Day, we went back to my parent's house for the extended Johnson family celebration. Again, we ate, opened presents, and visited. In the afternoon we went back to Steve's parents for his mom's side.

QOP Christmas Program

Today Olivia had her Queen of Peace Christmas program. There are only about 10 kids in her class, so it was pretty small. They sang 4 songs so it lasted less than10 minutes and then they had cookies and juice for all the parents. Olivia was still shy this year, but much less than last when she stood with her arm over her face and then jumped off stage half way through.

New House - Painting

The painting has finally begun. This is where it gets fun as the colors start to show throughout house. I say this even though all the paint colors are pretty neutral.

Updated move-in time frame...3rd week in January, which means we're delayed from the original timeline by about 6 weeks.

Home for the Holidays

This weekend was the Santa's Home for the Holidays weekend of events in Cloquet. My work co-sponsors the entire weekend of events, so I am very involved with the planning. We ended up canceling the parade because we had extreme subzero temperatures, but we still hosted the indoor events at MCCU.

Santa is one of the visitors...

Olivia asked Santa for a baby set and Jack asked for an Xbox.

New House - Sheet Rock

So here we are with another week of sheet rock. Apparently this takes much longer, especially when you only have one guy working on it. Every day we see progress, but it just doesn't seem to be moving fast enough.

Glensheen Christmas

This year one of our Christmas parties for work was at Glensheen. Spouses were able to attend and Steve just happened to have a basketball game that got cancelled, so he was able to come. We were able to do a self-guided tour, which was fine since I've been there several times and then we had dinner as group of about 25.

It was the start of the first big snowfall of the year, which made the grounds very picturesque.

Olivia's Holiday Dance

Last week at dance class, Olivia's group was practicing for the upcoming Home for the Holidays parade in Cloquet. Olivia didn't know the routine very well because she is unable to be in the parade, so hasn't gone to the parade practice. Regardless, it was pretty cute some of the moves she picked up (especially at the end).

New House - Sheet Rock & Thanksgiving

I literally didn't take on picture of our family on Thanksgiving, but I did take picture of the house with the kids in it. So, Happy Thanksgiving!

This week they started the sheet rock and within a day or two had most of the upstairs completed, and half of the main floor. Upper left is the kitchen, then front entry, the man door in the garage, then looking into the master bedroom closet. (moving forward I'll try to remember to label the pictures)

In the upstairs, we have the bonus room, the stairs going up, Jack's room, and Olivia's room.

They have also put a temporary heater in the house, so it's a bit warmer for them to work until the actual furnace is hooked up. Our contractor told us last week that he still thought we'd be in before Christmas, but that seems impossible. I know things can move fast, but there is just no way it could go that quickly.

New House

Each week we are getting closer to some more interesting pictures - I hope. Sheet rocking was supposed to start this last week and it's been placed in each room, but nothing on the walls. All the insulation is in and the ceilings have been sprayed and sealed off. Both fireplaces have also been put in.

You can see in this upper left picture the door is still not stained and won't be until after it's installed. Hopefully that is something they can do if it's really cold and snowing.

Also, our front porch cement was poured, but you can't really see much since it's under the tarp.

Dentist

Both kids had dentist appointments recently and they both did very good. Last time Olivia went she screamed in their face and refused to open her mouth. This time, she was like a little angel and even let them do a complete cleaning.

No cavities for either this time.

New House - update

This week has been another boring week in the build and there isn't much to show.  They poured the garage floor on Monday, but you can't see it because they have tarps covering it. The kids shower is up in the bathroom and it looks like they finished the duct work and electrical. On Friday, they finished framing in the large closet in the bonus room and framed out the basement fireplace. One mistake we made, which will have to be changed this week, is we had the electrician put the outlet and cable connections above the basement fireplace...and this is what it looks like -

There will clearly be no room above the mantel for a TV. Oops!

Otherwise, the front steps are supposed to be poured this week and they should begin the siding. I'm excited for that part to see what the colors really look like.

New House - Shingles

This week it was very cold out and I sort of felt bad for the guys shingling our roof. Monday afternoon they got rained out, but came back in the evening and shingled our roof in the dark with huge spotlights. Now that is impressive!! We had some other minor snow delays, but they finished by Thursday.

Our contractor said things would be boring for a week or so and now that it's dark out when I leave work, I didn't even pay that close attention to the changes this week. Then today we went for the electrical walk-through and there were a lot of changes inside. All the plumbing and pipes were into the bathrooms and kitchen, all the duct work was completed, and all the basement rooms were now framed in.

With the electrician we were able to make changes to outlets, switches, or make any special requests. We made sure to add outlets in the mantel, island, at the base of the stairs, and even made sure to put one underneath the basement steps. We will have the perfect space for this inspiration picture.

Olivia will love having that little area.
Here is a picture of the house with shingles. Part was not complete in this picture, but close enough.

I've also been spending a lot of time this week planning out some more of the decor items, lights, etc. I finally broke down and ordered these two lights for above the island and in the dining room. Love them!

I also spent some time today pricing out window treatments and trying to decide whether to go with blinds, roman shades, curtains, or a combination or all of them. That part is really overwhelming to me.

New House - Windows

This weekend we were in the cities and unable to drive by the house for a few days, but we were pleasantly surprised when we returned.

Steve headed down Thursday night for a basketball conference and then I drove down Friday morning for some shopping before meeting up with him, his parents, and another coach for dinner. This is the 3rd year in a row we have done this basketball conference weekend and we pretty much have a routine now.

Steve and I stayed down an additional night to celebrate our 9 year anniversary. We did some shopping for the house and then went to dinner.

When we got home this morning we met the kids over at the house for a walk through to see the changes. Every time we see different things and the kids love running around.  On Friday they had been at our house finishing up the roof and putting in the windows. The house is pretty much closed up now, except for the shingles that will be done early this week, the front door, and the garage doors.

 On another note, the pictures of the front of the house didn't turn out because the sun was shining directly onto my phone. We get much better pics of the back when we are there.

Here is a picture of the dining room with the sliding glass doors.

And of the living room showing where the fireplace will be.

Halloween

Last night Olivia had her normal dance class, but this week they were able to dress up in their Halloween costumes. Normally the parents aren't allowed to watch the dancers, but for this we could stay and take pictures.

Today I dressed up at work as a hotdog.

And tonight, we made the rounds to the grandparents, great grandparents, and briefly around the neighborhood. Our "temporary" neighborhood is very different from our old one. I bought about 500 pieces of candy because we always run out...and we got 4 trick-or-treaters this year. Maybe the rainy, drizzly weather had something to do with it, but now we have all this candy sitting around.

New House - The Beginning of the Roof

We have started to see more outside progress this week even thought the weather has been kind of dreary. It snowed very lightly most of the day yesterday and today it was a steady drizzle, so I'm glad my usual drive-by after work has given me some excitement.

Here is a picture of the kids on the stairway going up to their bedrooms and the bonus room. They were so excited to see where each of their rooms would be and their bathroom. It's also very cool for us to get a real idea of the size of the rooms and how we've visualized things for so many months.

Here are few pictures of the front now with the roof and the peaks that were added today. You can see in the top picture the large area over top of the garage is the upstairs bonus room.

This is a picture of the back with the roof now.

New House - 2nd Floor

This past week they've made more progress inside the house that is hard to see in the pictures. They've been getting the actual rooms framed on the main floor, the basement stairs are now in (so you can walk downstairs), and they have most of the second floor framed in. The kids like driving by now because they can see where their bedrooms will be. We're really hoping to have a roof by the end of this week, so we'll cross our fingers that the weather cooperates.

 

New House - 1st Floor Framing

It was nice to see after another delay they were back at framing our house today. It's so exciting each day to see the progress they make.

Here is a view of the back corner of the house. You can see the windows on the main floor are huge. It will be great to look out there towards are side and back yard. That being said, we're definitely going to need some window treatments ASAP.

Here is Jack standing just in front of the front porch and door.

Can't wait to see the rest of they'll do this week.

New House - Basement Framing

Again we've had some delays and it's pretty frustrating. It looks like at this point we will not be in by our expected close date of December 8th, but we should know more once the framing is complete. Yesterday, they started framing the basement and it is amazing the progress they make in 1 day. Too bad they can't get a string of days to keep at it. Our biggest delay is being caused by 2 other houses that are using many of the same subcontractors. They happened to start their houses first, so each week it's just another waiting period. They probably won't be back to framing our house again until next Monday, so stay tuned...

Steve and are really liking the lookout windows in the basement. They seem so big and we're really hoping we get a lot of natural light for that area.

Family Wedding

This past weekend we had a family wedding for Steve's cousin Joe. Both the wedding and reception were in Duluth and the kids came along to both. They especially loved the dancing part, but then Grandma Cheryl came to pick them up because they were so tired by about 9:00.

Jack Soccer - U8

This year Jack played in the U8 soccer league this year and it was much more entertaining. They had refs and actually played games against other teams. They changed it up in U8 for the first year and it's no longer coed. I also think that was a good decision because the boys are much more aggressive at this age.

New House - The Yard is Beginning to Take Shape

I stopped by today to take some pictures because we had heard from our new neighbors that things were looking much different and I hadn't been by in a few days. The retaining wall of rocks is complete which will allow for the lookout basement as well as having a patio off the back sliding doors. The way the lot is graded it would have difficult to have both without this slight wall you can see in the left picture. The picture on the right shows where the driveway will be.

New House - Excavating

This week they've just been doing some dirt work and making the yard look much more like a yard. They cut our the curb to define where the driveway and also put some insulation around the basement walls. They are supposed to start framing later this week or early next, so I'll get some more pictures then.

New House - Basement Walls

After putting the forms up on Tuesday, they poured the cement yesterday and had 4 trucks there at one point. Today took the forms down leaving us with basement walls! Yay!

As you can see in the picture the walls are much higher on the far side since there will be window along the this side. The part that sticks out closest to us in the picture is our living room.

New House - Forms for Basement Walls

Next update - today they placed all the forms for the basement walls.  There was no rain today, so it looks like they are completely ready to pour the basement by tomorrow or Thursday.

The forms look huge and makes our basement walls seem like they are going to be really high. We know they plan to build up the yard around it somewhat, so we know not all of that will show. We're excited to see what they'll do because 2 of our basement windows are lookout windows in the back corner.

New House - Footings

And today they spent all day putting the footings in. It seems like things are starting to move, so every day is exciting!

New House - Breaking Ground

Today, after 1 month of waiting patiently, they have finally broke ground on our new house. The basement was completely dug today and tomorrow they are supposed to put in the footings. The kids and I went over to the land after supper and the kids climbed a few of the dirt hills and we checked out all the huge rocks they uncovered.

Back To School

Back to school week is going pretty well so far. It seems to busy and crazy with figuring out the new schedules, rules, homework, etc...but both kids seem to love it so far.

Jack said his first day was "more than AWESOME" so hopefully things continue to go well. He is liking being at his new school, Washington Elementary, and all the new friends he is meeting.

Olivia is back at Queen of Peace preschool and with it being her second year in the same class - she seems like a leader this year.

New House - Stakes

It's getting a little disappointing, but apparently everyone in the world is starting to build their house at the same time and we are having some delays with digging the basement. At this point, we have the stakes marking everything. They are supposed to break ground tomorrow or Thursday, so we'll see.

WI Dells

This last Sunday we left for WI Dells and this year took both kids. It was the first time Olivia has come since she was too young the last few times. The drive was a little long, but the kids did well stopping for lunch in Eau Claire. Once we checked in we headed to the water park so the kids could spend some time in the water.

Olivia was a little hesitant on the slides at first, but once she got the hang of it - she loved it. Monday we spent the majority of the day hopping between water parks within our resort. In the evening we decided to go to the Tommy Bartlett show and then took the kids to ride the go carts.

Tuesday, the weather was really nice so we spent again all day at the water parks. In the evening we went over to the outlet mall and then out to dinner at Monk's.

Wednesday was just the drive home and it was a bit long for the kids.