It's hard to visualize that in exactly three weeks, it will be Christmas Eve, and we'll be in our new home! We took our traditional Sunday trip to the house, and took new pictures.

We now have hardwood flooring in the kitchen and dining room, but they aren't done installing hardwoods - it still needs to go in the half bath, entryway, and hallway from the front door to the kitchen.





They've also installed the vinyl flooring in the master bathroom, guest bathroom, and utility room. We could have chosen different vinyl for each, but I used the same pattern for all three. Looks pretty gorgeous to me. :)

23 days and counting, almost 22! :)

We met with the mortgage guy today, at the subdivision sales office (a whole half block away from our new house), so we took the camera with us and snagged a couple photos. He also realized that our "closing" date was the business day (friday) before Christmas, so he's going to move up the closing date to 12/20 or 12/21, to give the documents time to record. So, it is looking like we'll be signing documents by the 15th, at the latest! And the blue tape inspection should be coming up the same week we sign, so they can fix issues ASAP.

The fireplace tile surround!


The master bathroom tile counter (no grout)

26 days and counting!

We went to the house today, but nothing has been done since the contractors left on Wednesday. We admit it, we went to the house on both Wednesday AND Friday, plus today......the interior walls have been painted, and all but one cabinet has been installed (and the crown molding above the kitchen cabinets is installed).

Today, we went to Fry's, Delta Park, Jantzen Beach, and the World's Largest Christmas Bazaar (at the Expo Center). Phew! I'm almost as tired as I was on Friday after all that shopping. Gym? Who needs a gym? :)

No pictures today. Next week, I promise there will be pictures... :)

28 days and counting!

I admit it, I'm one of "those" Black Friday shoppers.... :)

I was up at 4:15 this morning, and at Fred Meyer's by 5 a.m., meeting up with my friend Dana. We started there, hit the scrapbook store shortly after 6:15, whirled through Michael's, breezed through Macy's, and tag teamed Joann's. By far, the longest we waited in line was at Joann's. As soon as we got to the store, we got in the line (not quite out the door, but all the way around the store). I stood in line with the cart while Dana shopped, and then she stood in line while I shopped. I think it took us an hour to get up to the cash register, but the time flies when you talk with the others in line.

After shopping was over (at 9:30 a.m.), we picked up my husband and went to breakfast at IHOP. We dropped Dana back off at her vehicle, then drove over to the house to check it out.

They've painted the walls since last Sunday...they've also installed all but one cabinet (the one over the fridge). Once that cabinet is installed, I think they start the flooring and the countertops.

We'll take pictures on Sunday! Have a good weekend!

32 days and counting! :)

Here's the kitchen cabinets:





And a look at the loft (and woodwork trim that has been installed):

I love this week's sketch challenge by Rachael Giallongo at the Digi Chick. I was inspired to create this layout from pictures at the Rose Garden from August. I used Marsha Zepeda's "Cranberry Blush" kit.

We went to the house today! We have to use a key now, they've installed a temporary front door lock and the garage. Our interior doors and our woodwork trim are stored in the garage. The walls are finished and textured, but not painted.

The front view, now that the pillars are there:


The interior doors:


The back view, with garage door installed:


View of the craft room doors (entrance and closet doors):


The living room fireplace and alcove:

Wow!

I was just asked to become a member of the Creative Team for The DigiChick.
I was thrilled and honored to be asked. I hope I can live up to their expectations. :)

Progress is a bit slow on the house, but that is to be expected now that we've hit the drywall stage. Everyone warned me, so now I"m warning you. I will updates with pictures every Sunday. :)

Here's the front porch - we have our pillars now! :) We also have our garage floor.







And oh yeah, I won 3rd place in the CK layout contest at CKC Bellevue this past weekend. :) That is, I won 3rd place in a contest at a scrapbooking convention in Bellevue, Washington. :)

Okay, okay, I've been negligent in updating the blog! :) Trust me, I haven't wanted to bore you.

They started drywalling on 10/25. Almost all the drywall is up, but the seams are not mudded and it's definitely not textured yet. :) Some of the light fixtures downstairs need to have drywall removed (they are marked to remove, except for one - we emailed the field manager on that one).

In 2 weeks, we'll need to have a key to get in. So in the next two weeks, we'll see the following happen:

- garage floor (cement) poured
- drywall, texture, and paint completed
- garage door installed
- locks installed
- hardwood flooring installed downstairs (i think)

What happens in two weeks, you ask? Well, that's when the cabinets arrive (kitchen, bathrooms, laundry), so the garage has to have a garage door that closes AND locks, so someone can't just drive up and steal all of our cabinets. And after that, all of the sinks and other fixtures start coming in, so it will be "secure time"...

Here's a couple of pictures from 10/29/06!

From the master bedroom, looking at the entry double doors (left) and the master bathroom door (right):



And from the larger lots/houses part of the subdivision, this is the model's home carpet and wood flooring. We didn't realize until a month ago that we'd picked the EXACT same carpet/color and wood flooring, so here's a sneak preview of what ours will look like:

Ah, quizzes....

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 90% Green Lantern 65% Hulk 45% Superman 40% Batman 35% Wonder Woman 30% Iron Man 30% Robin 20% Catwoman 20% Supergirl 20% The Flash 10%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

The siding on the front of the house is finished! Also on both sides, but not on the back of the house. The siding on the back won't be finished until all the drywall for the 2nd floor has been delivered through the craft room window (which still doesn't have a window installed because it's a delivery point). Once the drywall has been delivered, the window will be installed, and then the siding will be finished.

This is the standard non-painted color - we do have paint colors picked, but it will be a couple of weeks or more before it's painted.

We have a front door! :) It has been installed at long last!

We briefly chatted with a worker packing up (notice those two guys on top of our roof in the 2nd picture), and they said that the garage floor will be poured on Friday. They also said the siding probably won't be finished until they get all the sheetrock inside, which won't happen until after our "pre-drywall" inspection on Friday. This is where we basically approve all the outlet and jack locations before they put the drywall up.



And the front, with siding on the side and halfway up the front:

It's really starting to look like a house! :) We have siding on one side of the house, and they poured our front porch yesterday. We have our pre-drywall meeting with the field manager on Friday morning. After that, drywall baby! :) Then the serious interior work starts. And once they install the front door (hopefully this week), it will only be a matter of time before we'll need a key to see our house.

When my husband talked to the field manager yesterday, he said it sounded like the manager just got my email yesterday (I sent it last Thursday), and had not been aware that our front door (and our patio door) had not been installed. He's also going to get one of the extra ports moved, it was installed in the wrong place.

We might even get a garage floor this week - all the houses around us got one poured yesterday, but our garage was full of "stuff"....like they'd emptied out all the garages around us into OUR garage! Of course, our patio door is still in the garage as well, so the concrete pouring may be tied to getting that door installed first.

More appliance info:

Cooktop
Oven
Dishwasher
Microwave

:)

By special request, here's a couple views of the front of the house, both straight on and at a slight angle:

So, we finally ordered our refrigerator, washer, and dryer.

We went to Standard TV and Appliance (we visited them in late August to get an idea of products and prices) on Saturday.

This is the washer.
This is the current dryer, although that may change because of changes at Maytag. If we can't get that dryer, we'll get this one.
This is the refrigerator.

It will be so hard to live with the appliances in this apartment. I know, I'm whining, but I can't believe how used to our old fridge we were...and the fridge in this apartment is like going from "premium" to "subpar"....yecch!

That darn Valgal...

She tagged me!

I have to list 5 weird things about me and tag 5 other people...

1. Only my head peeks out from the covers when I'm sleeping. Especially in the winter, I tend to "cocoon" and tuck the covers around my shoulders. That's because...
2. I'm a stomach sleeper. At least, I can only fall asleep that way.
3. I have a routine for drying off after I step out of the shower. *blush*
4. I *like* fruitcake. :)
5. I still eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a regular basis.

Okay, now to tag folks:

Becky
Diana
Shirley
Meghan
Trudi

"Remember" by Josh Groban, soundtrack of Troy

Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me,
in your memory

Remember
when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
Just remember me

I am the one star that keeps burning
so brightly
It is the last light
to fade into the rising sun

I'm with you
Whenever you tell
my story
For I am all I've done

Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me
in your memory

Remember me
I am the one voice in the cold wind
that whispers

And if you listen
you'll hear me call across the sky
As long as I still can reach out
and touch you
Then I will never die

Remember
I'll never leave you
If you will only
Remember me
Remember me...

Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory

Remember
when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
I live forever

Remember me
Remember me
Remember... me...

Here's a look at my guy. He hated wearing the hard hat, but it was required to do the "structured wiring" around the house today, because folks were working on the house while we were there (normally we show up after they are gone for the day). :)

That was then (09/14/06):



This is now:



Don't know if you can tell the difference, but in the bottom picture, the door frame is wider. My husband and I realized this weekend that there was NO way there were going to be able to do the front door with our "upgrade" with the way it was framed, they had done it wrong. We promptly talked with the sales agent, who sent an email off to the field manager (on a Sunday, no less). Monday morning, when the field manager saw our email, he took a look and promptly had it dealt with. Of course, we also saw our front door (with the upgrade) sitting in the garage - I think they might have realized they had a problem when that arrived if we hadn't noticed it. :)

This is what our front door looks like. The old "frame" job was for just the door, and not the windows around it.

We have a ROOF! :)

No real good vantage point, but I tried! :)

At heart, I'm just simple when it comes to breakfast. Give me some cereal and some nonfat milk, I'm good to go. I just don't the bulk of my calories at the beginning of the day - I need some to get me started, but lunch is where I do a lot of eating (and is my downfall when switching to a healthier lifestyle).

How about you? What do you eat for breakfast?

TAGGED! My friend Diana (she's one of the links to the right) tagged me!

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to."

I'm listening to:

1. Celine Dion/Il Divo: "I Believe in You" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q_pjkuX7lA
2. Chicago: "Why Can't We?" from their latest album, Chicago 30
3. Lindsey Haun: "Broken" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlwMQBzfmc4
4. Christina Aguilera: "Back to Basics" album
5. Gladiator Soundtrack/Score
6. Natasha Bedingfield: "Unwritten"
7. Charlie Daniels: "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

I know, an odd selection. :)

Now to tag 7 folks....

Becky

Not much new on the house, although the roofing supplies are on top of the roof.

We met some of our neighbors tonight, and they just happen to have a great view of our house right now, while the house next to ours isn't more than concrete forms. :) So here's a view of our house from their master bedroom balcony (theirs was our 2nd choice floor plan).



And the view from the street over.


Oh, I have a funny story. We're standing there in the middle of the street, chatting it up with the neighbors we just met, when a city police officer in a truck slows down and stops to chat with us. His first question, "So, standing around waiting to carve your initials in the wet cement, eh?" or something similar. We all profess innocence....although we may have thought about it (who hasn't) we would never do it. We had a nice chat for about 5-10 minutes, and then the nice officer continued his rounds around the neighborhood.

Ah, my 2nd post. Lots of stuff going on!

Up through Friday the 22nd, both my best friend and I were planning on heading to a scrapbooking retreat in Hood River. Yeah, she'd had some pretty serious ovarian pain, but she was of the belief that since it had taken them so long to get around to the pelvic ultrasound, it wasn't going to be likely that she'd be whisked into immediate surgery.

WRONG! Ultrasound was on Wednesday, Thursday she got the results: one cyst on the right ovary, and a indeterminate "mass" on the left ovary. So, she had an appointment on Friday at 5 p.m., which I went to her with (along with her husband and two kids). We surely thought that they'll set up surgery (if required) for next week.

WRONG!

The doctor did a quick look/see/feel, listened to her family history (her sister had problems with cysts and required a hysterectomy at 27), and said, "Surgery at noon on Saturday. Prepare for the worst case, that we'll have to do a hysterectomy."

Not what we expected to hear. I went to the retreat by myself, arriving at about 8.

That in itself was an interesting experience. I've been to scrapbook retreats before, but never held by this company. A good 90% of the scrapbookers (everyone was paper scrapper except for me) were Creative Memories scrappers. Wow. It's been a long time since I've been around that much CM stuff. Two ladies completed 65 pages each! I think I mystified them with my style...and my laptop. Lots of questions about that! It didn't help that I was smack in the dead center of the room, so everyone could see the laptop and the external hard drive.

I completed two mini-albums, except for journaling. Page layout, pictures down, embellishments down. All total, (32) 8x8 pages with no journaling. :) I did mostly complete one digital layout (I really did expect to complete more, honest), but PSCS2 was just way too slow on the laptop.

This is the first of two posts this evening. :)

We visited the house today after I got home from my scrapbook retreat (that's the next post).

Since last Thrusday, we have windows installed in every room that is supposed to have one, except for my craft room. Our guest bath shower/tub combo and the tub & shower for the master bathroom are sitting in the garage, just waiting to be installed. We still have no roof shingles. They've also installed insulation and some white covering over the installation where the showers and tubs will go. Oh yeah, they've framed the area where the fireplace goes downstairs, so cool!

Here's a couple of pictures to tide you over:

We have a roof! No shingles yet, but we've got a roof and roof line. :)

Tomorrow, I'm headed out of town with my best friend to a scrapbook retreat. I'll be taking both paper and digital supplies, as I plan on doing lots of layouts for the two creative teams I'm on (Marsha Zepeda and Yvette Sanders), plus cards and maybe a couple of mini albums. Lofty goals, I guess, but you can never have enough pictures. :)

We have a 2nd floor! :) No roof yet, although I'm pretty sure they'll do that in the next day or so.

:)

The first floor is framed. Wow, it's going so fast!



And here's our front door, with my husband in the entryway:

We have flooring! Sorta... :)



Here's a closer look at the floor:

We stopped by the house today. We have FOUNDATION! :)

Some images from our Labor Day weekend vacation (Friday - Monday).


Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach


A seal yawning at the intertidal pool at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area.

We drove by the house again tonight (hey, it's been five days!) and they are just about ready to pour the concrete, as you can see from the concrete forms here:



I am so excited. We'll head back on Thursday evening or Friday morning to see if concrete has been poured and if the forms are off. We plan on going twice a week to keep up on progress.

Look what I did last night from the photos I took this weekend:



Rachael G. has posted the next sketch challenge at the Digi Chick:

8/29 Sketch Challenge

Join us and post in the sketch gallery here.

This is what our lot looks like now:



This will be the vantage point I will be taking blog pictures from, right in front of this "light pole" you can see in the bottom right. Cool, eh?

Looks like they are ready to put in the frame to pour the concrete for the foundation.

I'm off of work tomorrow, I'll be volunteering as a race official for the 25th annual Portland to Coast walk relay. On Saturday and Sunday, I'll be working on a couple of proposals for next year's STC conference.

Good news!

I made the creative team for Yvette Sanders, who sells kits at The Digi Chick and Scrap Outside the Box. She actually let us know on Friday, but didn't release the information publicly until today, so we had time to do at least one layout with her kits at TDC. Here's the first layout I did with her latest kit, Fresh Florals.




In other news, my friend Becky is back among the bloggers! I'm going to put a link here, but she'll also be a permanent link in the blog section to your right! :)

This is the last time our lot will look like this:



Tomorrow is the ground breaking, and by the 25th (Friday) we should have a foundation.
Yes, I will take pictures and keep everyone up to date.

This is what I've been listening to in the last week:

Chicago 30

I've seen Chicago in concert three times, once with Peter Cetera and twice without.

I honestly can't remember if anyone opened up for them the first time, right after Chicago 17 was released. It was 1985 and it was my first concert without my parents (my first concert was with my parents, Elton John's "Too Low for Zero" concert tour). The date of the concert is indelibly printed in my mind, as it is also the date I got my braces on - April 16, 1985.

The second time I saw Chicago, it was at the Oregon State Fair. They were on a double bill with Hall and Oates, and my husband and I had 4th row side section tickets. Unfortunately, they were also 5 feet in front of speakers... :) My husband will tell you I have HORRIBLE speaker karma...doesn't matter how good the seats are, the speakers will be right there (either above us or in front of us, or line of sight). The concert was still fabulous though, even though there was no Peter Cetera. I didn't know what to expect before seeing them, so it was all good.

The third time I saw Chicago, it was at the Clark County Amphitheatre in Vancouver, Washington. Fabulous show, lousy location. Horrible parking, sucky entrance policies (no umbrellas allowed but they only *ask* you whether you have a weapon), extremely expensive food and drink, plus some heavily intoxicated folks sitting right in front of us.

I'm helping out a friend in need.

A good scrapbooking buddy has been diagnosed with Stage 4 GI cancer. The local scrapbooking community is hosting a fundraising event called "Croppin' Out Cancer" and will have a flyer in the next week.

In the meantime, you can see the information here about why we are doing the event.

Rachel

Okay, okay, sorry, I've been a bad blogger! :)

My boss has been gone since last Friday, so I've been busy. We were supposed to go out of town last weekend, but we ended up just staying home. One of our cats has kitty acne, and that requires twice a day antibiotics (you try pulling the cat out from under the bed to give it medicine) and warm compress on the chin with medicated water.

On Sunday, we saw a few friends, went out to breakfast, met a couple of friends at the mall, helped one of them shop for clothes, and that was the extent of our socializing.

I'm getting together with a couple of friends this Friday to go scrapbooking, so I picked up some pictures I uploaded to Costco. Thinking about a theme album or a tag album...something like that. I picked up Memory Makers special issue on theme albums to help me out.

Congratulations to StaceyD and HaleyW, who answered the most trivia questions correctly last night in our Sixteen Candles Chick Flick Chat! :)

Next event:



Go to Digi Chick for more information on Friendship Day events: trading cards (ATCs), a scraplift challenge, and MORE!

Ah, it's Monday. :)

That means tomorrow is the Digi Chick "Chick Flick" night with the movie Sixteen Candles. Come on, you know it's a guilty pleasure and you probably watched this movie at least once when it originally came out... :)

I lost 1.5 lbs this week! Woohoo!

In other good news, my MMM entry is out the door! I always forget how much time doing that supply list can take. :)

Well, I finished my final MMM entry layout last night! Promptly uploaded the layouts to Costco, and will pick them up this afternoon after work.

Then my evening is full of idea forms (one for each layout), model releases (one for each child used in my layouts - only 2), supply lists (one for each layout), and packing it up for shipping.

It will go postal tomorrow.

In other news, the heat has leveled off and it's almost, but not quite, normal Oregon July weather.

Don't forget, watch Sixteen Candles this weekend and participate in our Chick Flick Chat at the Digi Chick on Tuesday!