The House That Built Me

We're getting pretty fancy here, with the video and all.  Hopefully it works, if it doesn't, PLEASE let me know!

I am typically not a big fan of country music, but occasionally I will listen to it.  The workers at the house generally have the country station on while they are working.  The other day when I was there, this song came on.  It's called "The House That Built Me" and it's by Miranda Lambert.  She's pretty awesome. 

Anyways, the song is about a woman wanting to go back to her childhood home and soak in the memories, because, whether we like it or not, so much of a person is tied up in their past.  I almost had to leave the room because I got pretty emotional listening to it.  And yes, if you know me, I have the tendency to get emotional pretty often, but this is different.  This woman wanted/needed so desperately to go back to her roots.  It hit me for two reasons:  

1. In a few short (and rapidly approaching months) I will be leaving my childhood home.  The house that literally has my blood, sweat, and tears in it.  The house that my parents have lived in for 23 years.  Where they brought two children home from the hospital.  There are so many precious memories here, that the thought of leaving kind of breaks my heart a little.  It won't me mine anymore.  This bedroom will belong to another kid, who will make the walk every morning up to Tillman.  Who will have their own playground in the backyard.  Another family will sit on our front porch, and pull into the driveway that has our handprints at the end.

2.  As weird as it will be to leave this home and street that in so many ways made me into the person that I am today, I get to go to another home that holds just as many memories for my family.  We lose a home with many fond memories, but we get to make a home that is so much a part of the history of our family all ours.  It will be our name on the door now.  Those stories we tell of Grandpa always being so sweet to cut the grass before we used the slip-n-slide in the backyard (resulting in so many grass cuts), and the beloved address I knew before I knew my own home address.  It's ours now.

Two houses helped built me, and my brother, and my sister, and my mom and dad.  And while I can't even begin to imagine how hard it will be to leave one, we get to continue the growth of our family in another one.  The idea that our kids will get to go visit "Grandma and Grandpa" in the house where I got to spend so many loving memories with my own Grandma and Grandpa is the neatest thought of all.

Here's the video, and if you're anything like me, have a few tissues (or a whole box) ready!

**UPDATE**  If you click on the video it will say that it cannot be played, but there is a link within the message that will lead you to YouTube so you can watch it.

New Closet

Inventive title, I know.  Well we only have a few pictures today.  They made the frame for the closet in the little hallway from the garage to the kitchen.  It's kind of hard to understand/see it from the pictures, but I'll at least post them.

Like I said, it's a little difficult to see.  The closet ends at the second black line on the wall.  It'll stay open like that so we can display stuff on top.

The view from the garage.

From the garage again.  You might be able to see it a little bit better from this angle.

There are two more pictures as well.  The first is of the new furnace and the second is of all the wiring in the basement.  The electrician is (I believe) coming next week.

The new furnace in the basement.  There's a second furnace for the second floor as well.

Kind of fun and crazy looking photo of all the electrical wires.  Soon we'll have real lighting in the house!

The Eye is the Window to the Home?

Ok, that title was really lame. I'll be the first to admit that.


You've probably been wondering, why haven't there been any posts lately? I haven't posted in a while, not because I'm too busy with school, but because there really hasn't been much to take pictures of and update.  A lot of what has been going on the past few weeks was putting in air ducts and starting to do the wiring.


That all changed this week.  We had windows delivered, meaning that you can actually SEE a change in the house.  The other thing I should have updated on but didn't have pictures for *cough cough, parents* was the new roof.  The new roof shingles are on the new construction.  You'll be able to see it in some of the pictures.  The old roofing has not been torn off yet, meaning the new roofing has not been extended to the whole house yet.  


Here are the new pics:

The framing for Brian's closet.

The new window in my room.  Brian has the same window in his room.

The landing at the top of the stairs.  To the right is the hallway to my room.  To the left is the alcove and doorway into Brian's room.

The two new windows in the hallway from the garage to the kitchen.  They have built in blinds. Pretty fancy!

Mom checking out the plan for the soon-to-be kitchen island.

Another new window in the back room.  The GIANT sliding doors aren't even in yet, and the room is already so much brighter.

Windows overlooking the backyard.  

The doors to the backyard.  I think they're something like 8 feet tall.  Really big.  We'll put it this way, you know it's a big, heavy door when it comes in a wood frame with handles on the sides to make it easier to carry.

Since the kitchen is against the wall that used to be the outer wall of the house, they had to add framing in order to attach the cabinets.  Just a little important. 

The happy home-owners enjoying the new basement. 

The second floor.  The big box thing over the stairs the furnace.  It's nice because it didn't have to take up space in anybody's room, and surprisingly it isn't noticeable when you're walking up the stairs.

From the front room, through the dining room, into the back room with the new windows!

The hallway from the garage to the kitchen as seen from the outside.  Hopefully for those of you who have been to the house before, you can get a better understanding of it from the angle.  The black part of the wall and the white wall on the far right are the ends of the garage.

The windows in the back room.  The big wood square on the side is where the sliding doors will be.  

I think that's all the excitement for now.  It rained a lot this weekend so I know the workers finally got a day off Saturday, and I'm not positive if they were working today.


At this point it is going to keep going at this pace of really fast then really slow.  I love the really fast parts because then I get to show all of you the updated pictures.