Updates

I still feel like I am trying to catch up since finishing the house, we have been up to lots of things.


At our ward Halloween party they had bobbing for apples, all the teenagers were trying unsuccessfully to get an apple and were all soaking wet, we walked in and I was sure the kids wouldn't want to try. Wes said "Ill do it" and he got an apple on the first try, not a drop on him. Mae was a little hesitant but she got an apple on her second try with just a little water on her forehead. Everyone asked if we practiced at home!

Vera says: Mama, Dada, Uh-Oh, Doggy, Lamby, and I-do
She has also been standing on her own, but no steps yet


Wes' new word is above and he uses it in every sentence, except he says "bebove"
I told Wes that even though he is asking Santa for two presents he will probably only get one since there are a lot of kids around the world that need presents too. Now he tells Mae and all his friends that they should only ask for one present. When he sat on Santas lap at the Mall he told him only one present and Santa said "is that it?" The one present he is asking for is sold out around the country right now :(

Mae loves to say the prayer and the first thing she always asks for is to "bless the merica"
Mae also has a lot of mood swings, tantrums, and meal quirks lately....
She also talks to everyone while we are out: the man at the post office, the lady at Little Ceasars, the boy serving us at the restaurant, she tells everyone how she is three now and about her toys and anything else she can think of.
She also cut off all her bangs with a pair of scissors since they were in her face.

I am almost done with Christmas shopping, only two more gifts left...
And we are packing up our house... because we sold it... because a family moving here from texas saw it and made us a really good offer... and we signed it... and now we get to built again!... but this next house is going to be very very different... a little smaller, a totally different style, a very different layout... and ten times cooler even than this one;) We close this week, cant wait.

California in the fall

We took a quick trip to California a few weeks ago and had a super fun time.

House Details

These are a few details I wanted to record about building our house:

I really tried to save money as much as I could while we were building, and I spent a lot of time researching, haggling, and bargaining with local suppliers. Since we were across the country while our house was being built there were still some things that ended up being done that did not save us money but for the most part we were pretty smart.

Like I said before I spent over a year on our kitchen and in the kitchen I spent the most time worrying/planning/searching for countertops. I really wanted Calacatta Gold Marble, which of coarse is the most expensive material you could want. The initial quote for our kitchen was more than we paid for either of our cars. So I looked into just about every material but couldnt find anything that fit in our budget and also had the look I wanted. I ended up finding a slab of calacatta on sale at a fabricators shop that one of their clients decided against, and they wanted to get rid of it. One slab wasn't enough for our kitchen, we needed three. So they called the supplier and they had two more that they wanted to get rid of as well because they were the last two in the bundle. They were about half the price, cha ching! Let me tell you this marble is Gorgeous. So on top of the good deal on the stone, I talked the fabricator down a bit. Then when they came to install they messed up big time, with huge gaps, really visible seams, and crooked pieces, I was super bummed. So I made them come back and fix everything, make and install a backsplash for free and then give me a really big discount. Before the discount I was going to pay about the same as a mid grade granite, but I think I ended up paying about what you would pay for low grade granite, score!

Our stovetop I found on craigslist in California for 1/3 the price

Our other appliances I purchased for 12% off and then had a 10% rebate

I really wanted wool carpet but my goodness, its expensive. So I shopped around like crazy and found a really cute wood blend carpet that was in our budget, and it turned out perfect.

We did trade for a few of our subcontractors in exchange for work, saving us many thousands of dollars:)

I searched and searched for tile for our bathrooms, for months. Our tile budget was next to nothing and I came across this white polished porcelain tile that was super cheap, all the other sizes were discontinued except the 24x24. So our tile guy took the time to cut down and polish each tile, he even cut down really small pieces and laid a herringbone pattern on the bottom of our shower, he did such an awesome job!

I kind of agonized over faucets, which is kind of silly. But to make a long story short I found some great ones that were on the very cheap side that I still liked. I wanted single handle faucets for the bathrooms so that the kids didn't turn on the hot water and burn themselves. I had a very specific faucet in mind for our kitchen but could not find any look a likes that fit the budget or the look. On my way out of the showroom I spotted a faucet hidden in the back that really looked exactly right, and when I found out the price it was even under the budget, awesome.

Our cabinet guy gave me 10% off, and he did a really good job.

I chose the cheapest tub possible that fit in our spot, and it turned out to look pretty good.

I found cheap knock off lighting at overstock that was about 20% the price of the originals

We had just the base of a deck built and we were going to add the railing and bench later since it was expensive but the builder built the deck too high so to pass code he had to install the railing, which we got for free:)

I also spent hours and hours going over every invoice, and detail on bills from subs, which I was able to catch thousands that were overcharged or overlooked.

So There were a few things that we did spend some extra on:

We did a solid wood floor, with a waterbased finish.
We spent some extra and got solid cast bronze knobs on all the doors.
And I had the concrete guys do our front steps with overhangs using fiberglass reinforced concrete, which was not cheap.

Not sure that I would do the knobs and the steps again, but the floors were worth it.

It was a very long year, with a lot of stress, glad its over.

#1

Our master bath turned out to be me and Johns favorite room, we really didn't have any expectations, and have never had a master bath before so we have just loved it. We found this really cool polished porcelain tile for really cheap and had the tile guy round down all the corners since it didn't come with any bullnose pieces. Since its really big and polished it is really easy to clean since there isn't much grout. We were about a week away from being done with the house and I still hadn't picked out a countertop for the bath, I wanted to use the same marble as the kitchen but the countertop place quoted me an outrageous amount so I was looking for a remnant to use. The countertop place called at the last minute and said they would sell me the extra marble and fabricate the counter at half the price, I said no, how about a third the price and they agreed!

We love having outlets in our drawers, I can keep my blowdryer plugged in and put it back in when Im done, our bathroom finally looks uncluttered on a regular basis.
At the last minute I had our vanity light changed from on overhead light to two wall lights and Im really glad, the light is really flattering and makes it easy to see for putting on make up and doing hair etc.
We kept going back and forth about having two or one sink, but I really wasn't convinced that we would use two, and Im glad we only did one, we really dont use our sink much.
When we were planning our house several people told us that or closet was a little on the small side and that we should maybe make it bigger but we ended up keeping it, and it has been the perfect size. Over all the layout and size of our bathroom/closet is just perfect!