Floors, Walls and Window's.....Oh My

We are starting to see the walls of our new home addition! Yay!

Blake said he knows I'm going to get giddy over this part of the project because it's visual! It takes my brain which lacks visualization and gives it something tangible to SEE! I love it!

A few pics from the last few days. The floor joists were laid- this took 2 full days since there was so much detail that had to be done to install these.

Then, as you can see, plywood was nailed down and the walls started coming up. Unfortunately, our carpenter is alone working today without his usual sidekick so I think it'll go a bit slower but as long as we're moving forward...I don't care!

The walls will continue to get installed....so more pics to come. The big open spaces in the pic show the big glass doors we'll have that open out to a small deck. I had a moment yesterday where I got pulled away from work to act as General Contractor and make a few decisions on windows. OH THE PRESSURE! Spaced x or x amount apart, extra stud here or there....Just gave me a glimpse at how much stress Blake has on top of his extremely busy and consuming job.

We are plowing ahead!

In other news.....everyone is doing great. Twins are busy learning body parts, new words, new moves (Harper LOVES to walk backwards these days and Hudson loves to jump, or try to jump). I'm just about 37 weeks pregnant (on Saturday) and have a Dr appt on Monday to see how things are progressing.

I'll do a seperate post in the next few days about details for when the baby decides to come. Just where we'll be, etc.

And I'll leave you with a pic of our two junior General Contractors, on a recent trip to Home Depot. These two love going out into the "new house" and checking the day's work with dad when he gets home from work each night. They're keeping all the workers on their toes as they watch the work through the glass sliding doors all day!

Life Lately

Ok...someone stop time for us please?

Time is absolutely FLYING by!

And we are SO excited to meet this baby....I can hardly wait to see what the baby is, who he/she looks like, and feel and smell that sweet, brand new baby skin.

But we need a leeeeeeetle more time please. We're just not ready....
But just as this mystery baby's existance was a bit of a shocking surprise, he or her enterance will happen when it's supposed to and so who are we to try to control things?

So, yeah we're at about 1 month and counting ;-)

House stuff.....framing starts tomorrow. We have bundles upon bundles upon bundles of lumber in our yard and waiting to tended to. Very excited.

And the twins....what's an update without an update on our beautiful H & H? Life with these two....hilarious. They love to look at each other lately and giggle uncontrollably. I wish I knew what was so funny, but I also love that they have this little secret thing going on that the rest of us are oblivious to.

They've both been trying to say all kinds of words. Ba, Da, Ah Da, Uh Oh, Dada, Mama and Hi are just a few words that we hear ALL day long here. Which stand for (Ball, Dog, All Done)

They are just so much fun. Loving books, loving their new retro kitchen their daddy lovingly put together piece by piece, and loving those pups. Harper lately has liked to cuddle up to them and prop herself on their belly and lay. Hudson lately just has to keep track of where they are at all times. If they are outside.....he is guarding the window watching his puppies.

This series of pics below....priceless!

Starts out like this: "Harper, can you give Hudson hugs and kisses?"

Good girl, leans in and plants a wet one on her big bro
Whoops.....then she topples over on to him
And then the giggle-fest begins. They rolled around just laughing and laughing. The pics are cute, but oh it would have been awesome to catch it on video. So incredibly sweet...these two are going to be a very loving pair to their new baby brother or sister!

Foundation Station

Guys finishing up the walls- brick by brick

Walls complete!

Ground is prepped and ready for concrete!

This morning, this HUGE truck casually pulls into our backyard (my poor pear and apple tree are taking lots of abuse from these big trucks invading our yard)

Big slide (no clue what this is called) is ready to begin spitting out ugly grey concrete!

Here we are peeps.....it's FINALLY foundation day! This is big!

This is basically our LAST day with our friends at the concrete company who have been here at the wee hours of 6:45 mostly every day for a month. We are extremely fortunate to have understanding and patient neighbors!!!

Yes, we have a huge addition which required lots of time, manpower, dirt, digging, concrete blocks, backfilling, rock, large footings, etc.......but we won't be sad to see these guys go.

With our original timeline sort of out the window......we'll be bidding these concrete dudes farewell with a big smile on our faces.

As soon as this concrete foundation is finished it'll sit for a few days before we can haul in steel beams, have lumber delivered and begin framing out the 2nd floor.

As I rapidly approach 35 weeks....this puts me into a state of panic as there seems to be SOO much more to do. However, as my General Contractor/Husband/Baby daddy says....the framing is much more visibly gratifying. You can see the progress. With everything that is required to build a house on a rock solid foundation...it's a lot like sitting and watching paint dry (or concrete harden).

Soo....what's a going on today here! Pregnancy and H & H update to come!

Wrapping up July...

Can not believe it's August 1st today! The good news is that I can finally say I'm due "next month" which I believe will lessen the shock on people's faces when they do ask when I'm due since I am HUGE!

Seriously, I feel like I'm not much smaller at this point, than I was with the twins. I'm not sure how this is even possible but I feel very, very big.

And uncomfortable.

And hot.

Enough of me complaining......on to fun stuff.

Blake and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversay over the weekend. We decided to celebrate in Duluth since that's where we were married.....great fun!

What a difference 5 years makes?!?!
Took the kids to the boardwalk to people watch, see the lift bridge, watch the boats come through and see the beautiful city. Then Gramma Kookoo watched them on Saturday night so we could go out to dinner and celebrate 5 amazing years.

We had a big playdate with cousins and 2nd cousins at Chester Park Playground and I kid you not....we saw a black bear!!! It came out of the woods and walked down the center of the small road away from the playground and just about gave me a heart attack. No one could think straight so we didn't get a picture. Unreal!

House update.....concrete blocks are almost finished. This means foundation should be poured tomorrow. Here's a pic from the end of last week. It's starting to get easier for me to visualize the space!