Wreaths

Well, well, well.  I had no idea it had been so long since the last time I posted.  There really haven't been all that many updates.  The roof on the garage is done. Other than that, a lot of the stuff that has been done lately is wiring for electricity and stuff that would be pretty boring to show you pictures of.  


We would probably be further along, but we had a little set back with the back doors.  First, when they were delivered there was a big dent in one of the doors.  Pella recognized that it was their mistake and ordered a replacement.  That's where the trouble really started.  They ordered the wrong side of the door.  Remember, these are two sliding doors each of which are about 8 feet tall - meaning it was a custom order.  Well when we realized that they sent us the wrong door, Mom had to call Pella and reorder the door again.  As you can imagine, this situation was a little frustrating, because the door had to be reordered, we can't start on drywall, flooring, or siding.  They're kind of big parts of the project to work on, and kind of lead to THE WHOLE rest of the house being finished.  Evidently, the sales man at Pella did not learn as the rest of us did, that the customer is always right.  When my Mom (righfully) called to complain, the guy working at Pella was for lack of a better, appropriate word: RUDE.  He was kind of indignant and overly reluctant to 1. offer an apology 2. show that Pella cared at all about our pretty substantial business.  Long story short, we reluctantly got a little bit of money back.  Any money back is awesome, but in the grand scheme of things based on how much the door cost, and how much we spent with Pella in general, it really wasn't much to show any appreciation of our business.  Honestly, if I were ordering windows again, Pella wouldn't be high on my list after how rude this one man was.  Obviously one person can't ruin an entire company, but as someone who works in retail, I would NEVER treat a customer that poorly.

Anyways, moving on from that little venting session, since I don't have many pictures of the house to post (thanks again, Pella) here are some pictures from Christmas.  For Christmas this year, Jessica and I made Mom new wreaths for the new front door.  We got most of our inspiration from Pinterest.  I think I've talked about Pinterest before, but just in case I haven't, Pinterest is kind of like an online inspiration board where you can organize pictures from all over the internet in one place.  It has been super helpful in getting ideas for the new house.  Here are the pictures of all the wreaths.

I think Mom was a little confused about all the presents she had to open.

January.

February.  The whole wreath is wrapped in yarn, Jess and I both did one like this.  It took FOREVER!

March.  This was the other yarn wrapped one.  It's hard to see in the picture, but it has a big "V" on it.

April.

May.  The mini-bunting says "Welcome"

June.  Playing Cards.

July.  Black and Blue felt and ribbon w/pin wheels.

August.  It wasn't really a wreath, but how can you NOT use an old tennis racket in this household?!

September.

October. It's hard to see from the picture, but these are all candy corn.  Jessica can attest to the fact that I burnt myself a lot making this one.

November.  Again, it's a little difficult to see in the picture, but that is all different colors of tulle.

December/Christmas

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.