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

Building a Stairway

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This year was a little strange, given that it was the first year without Grandpa.  The holidays are always a rough time of year when you've lost a loved one, especially when you typically spend the holidays with that loved one.  It really reminds you not only how much you miss that person, but also how important it is to spend time with those you love.  Yesterday we had family and friends over for lunch and games.  It's tough to change traditions, but new traditions are good too.  This year was also a little strange because it will be the last one we spend in our current house.  Again, new traditions are good so we're trying to focus on the excitement of moving versus the sadness of leaving the family home of 23 years.

Moving on from the sappy moment, this is still a few weeks old, but with the Christmas craziness, I have gotten a little behind on posting again.

Since the house is older, the stairways were extremely steep.  Like climbing a ladder almost.  For the house to be up to code after the remodel, the stairways had to be taken out and rebuilt less steep.  So the stairways are not only being "flattened" but are also being widened.  The basement stairs are especially wide now.  And the stairs leading to the second floor did not have much space to "flatten" so there is an extra step into the hallway at the top, and an extra step into the living room at the bottom.  

Here are some pictures of the stairs.  Currently the stairs are temporary so that the workers can get to the different levels of the house, but are a bit narrower in depth than they will be in the end.  Still it is fun for us to see the progression. Here are some pictures so you can see too!  And the best part about these pictures is that you can probably more readily see what I'm talking about than with a lot of the other stuff.

These are the stairs into the basement.  The gap on the left side is how wide the stairs will be when they are finished.

The view of the staircase from the dining room.

Dad showing off how much wider the stairs will be.

I told you it was exciting!

The new stairs going to the second floor.  I guess the picture makes more sense with what I was saying about the step going into the living room.  The stairway will stay open about half way up like it is in the photograph.

The stairs leading up, as seen from the master bedroom

The staircase from below.  You can kind of also see into the basement this way.

The stairs leading up again.

Ok, so lots of pictures that all look a little bit similar.  At least you can kind of get a better idea.