Pelican Shores Easter Egg Hunt

Andrew, the developer of Pelican Shores, invited our family to an Easter Egg hunt at the property on Saturday.  All invitees provided 12 filled eggs for each child participating.  We didn't have a huge area for hiding, so many of the eggs were just sitting on the lawn ready to be picked.  I suppose it was probably the most fun for the three and under crowd.

The adults even got to participate in a harder hunt with fun prizes--gift cards, $1 bills, and the hard to find $100 gift.  I was holding out for the $100, but sad to say, did not find it.  I had to settle with $1.  Chris was working on the house because his time was limited, so he didn't stay for the party.

It seemed like the start of a fun new tradition.

House Progress - Apr 20

We were at the house for an Easter Egg hunt on Sunday afternoon.  Happy Easter!  Just wanted to show a picture of the interior wall color.  The painters painted a few of the second floor rooms.  They will come back and tape off all of the trim next and paint it white.  I could never be a painter full-time. 

Answer the Phone

Kristen was receiving calls from grandparents wishing her a happy birthday. When I received the second call, I handed her the phone and, of course, it took so long for her to answer that the call went to voice mail. Chris, in frustration, said, "You could be the last person on the planet and you still wouldn't answer the phone!!!" Misha, without missing a beat, deadpanned, "Who would be calling?"

House Progress - Apr 19

The painters worked at the house for some time on Saturday.  They are going so slowly.  Granted it is a tedious job, but speedy is not in their "MO".

Chris and I were at the house for some time working on Saturday.  We got to paint the storage room floor one more time because the people sealing the beams and underside of the floor oversprayed on to the freshly painted floor.  Yay!

Amy thought she would test the tannability of our new deck.  It passed the test.  She's not likely to be thrilled when she sees this picture.

House Progress - Apr 18

There are some days when lots gets accomplished at the house and other days when I have to check to see the progress.  Today the progress was fairly visible as the stone guys worked on the front porch.

The stucco guys added more to the trim in the basement windows.  I wasn't expecting to see that, so it was a nice surprise.

The pillars were poured for the deck overhand and stairs that will be added soon--I hope.

Moving

After six weeks of showings, and two failed contracts, the rental house finally sold.  We are moving on April 30/May 1.  Sadly, our new house will not be done.  We had many kind offers for a space to live.  We have chosen to stay with our Bishop and his family.  They have a basement space complete with a kitchen area.  We hope to be as unintrusive as possible, but know that will be hard to achieve.  There will be lots of back and forth driving to school which I am not looking forward to, but it will only be for two weeks.  Chris will be traveling a lot during that time.  Let's just hope that our house is finished by the 16th when our rate lock expires.

She Can Tie

It has taken Kristen until she was almost nine, but with velcro-latching tennis shoes, she hasn't seen a need or felt motivated to learn to tie laces--until today. She was home sick from school again and had a pull tie in her capris.  She asked me to show her how to tie as she got tired of trying to figure it out on her own.  It only took a few tries and she had those bunny ears tied.  Course, she had to pick some of the stinkiest shoes for practice.

Art Show

Both Misha and Amy had art submitted for the district-wide Art Show at the Boulder County Fair Grounds.  We went on Wednesday to check out their projects and to see the talents of the many other students in our district.  Amy wasn't to thrilled to pose with her project, but Kristen and Misha were happy to comply.

Misha was happy to see that the middle school she will be attending next year has a Photography class.

House Progress - Apr 17

I forgot that the deck was to be expanded to accommodate the stairs.

There are some decisions that seem to really stop my progress.  The paint color for the exterior and then the interior were two such points.  The back splash design another challenge.  I think I finally came upon a solution and found a metal decorative wall plaque at Hobby Lobby.  Actually, I have two choices.  The space above the stove top is 30x30.  I found one plaque that was 14x14 (black) and another that was 18x18 (brown and green).  One of them will have to be painted for sure.  Just need to make a final decision.

House Progress - Apr 16

The bathroom sinks have arrived.  Chris and I purchased the kitchen sink in February from Costco.com and it has been waiting patiently for install.  All sinks will be picked up by the granite craftsman soon so that holes can be cut.  Joel, the granite guy, came to the property last week to template the counter tops for the granite.

Here is a small sample of our granite selection--Bianco Antico.  I am glad that I picked it up because it helped me to see that our back splash tile does not match.  As well, I was able to make a final decision on the paint color (the larger sample) Pavillion Beige.

Kristen

Kristen has been pretty sick over the last couple of months.  Her latest round started last Monday the 7th.  The school nurse called to say that Kristen wasn't feeling well and suggested that I should come and check on her.

When I arrived, Kristen was laying on the lounge in the nurse's office and complained of being cold.  I wrapped her up in her jacket and sat down to figure out what was going on.  She complained of being cold, having a headache, and dizziness.  I felt her forehead and she was burning up.

I packed her up and brought her home.  As I tucked her in to her bed, she immediately rolled over and went to sleep.  And thus began the routine of the next few days of body chills, sweats, and headaches.  She laid in bed with a cold cloth on her head most of the time as she was feverish even when she felt chilled.

I guess it was the flu minus the stomach troubles.  She headed back to school on Wednesday through Friday, but you could just tell she wasn't feeling too great.  Chris and I dropped by on Friday afternoon to watch her field day events and could just tell by looking at her eyes that she wasn't doing well.  She was feverish again.  I checked her out of school and again she fell asleep as soon as we got her home.  Poor girl.  She did make her last frisbee shot though.

I sent her to school on Monday after a weekend of laying on the couch trying to take it easy.  When she told me that one of the 'paras' had taken her to the nurse's office again to check for a fever because she was hacking up a lung, I decided to keep her home a few more days.

I finally took her to the doctor on Tuesday the 15th.  Apparently, she had a viral infection last week and extra little bugs seem to have jumped on board.  We now have her on some cough syrup with the codeine to calm the coughing.  I don't think she had a full night's sleep in over a week and a half.

Last night she came to get me because she couldn't stop coughing.  I gave her some more cough syrup and laid down beside her for awhile.  I am grateful that no one else has caught her lovely bugs.

House Progress - Apr 15

The deck facade was created for the stone pillars on the deck.

We were happy to see that the Trex decking material was being added to the master deck.

The cement footings were poured for the final section of the deck and stairs.

The stone on the house looks a little better now that it is grouted.  The painter needs to return and finish the paint on the eaves.

Misha's Art Work

Chris and I went with Misha to library as our Family Home Evening last Monday.  Kristen didn't come because she was resting and Amy was doing homework.  We had a small group!  Her artwork was posted in the teen section.  It is a work showing a realistic and abstract version of a calla lily.

As we were walking out of the library, Misha kind of murmured to Chris and I, "Those are my friends behind us.  Don't embarrass me!"

Seriously!

House Progress - Apr 13

The niches are finally trimmed out.  Julio has done nice work on the install.  He speaks limited English but we seemed to be able to get our point across on most things.  I liked that he was willing to share his opinion if he thought our ideas were a little weird.

House Progress - Apr 12

Chris and I were happy to meet Manuel on Saturday as he was busy installing the hand rails and newel posts.  He started in the basement and worked his way up to the second floor.  Chris and I were adamant that we wanted only one railing on the stairs.  The plan was to have a railing on the wall as well that would be continuous.  That would have decreased the width even more when we had tried to make the stairs wider to begin with.  It required a few twists and turns of the railing, but it turned out great.

I also noted that the pull-down stairs for the attic access on the second floor had been delivered and were sitting in the garage.

House Update - Apr 10

And here's the finished product on the front porch.  It is ready for some underlay and wire mesh before stone is applied.

The upper window trim is finished.  Sadly, Julio (our trim guy), pointed out that another of our upper small entry windows was broken.  Good thing we opted for the replacement warranty.  We have three windows with broken glass and a few others that have some mechanical problems.  Not terribly impressed with Milgard.

House Update - Apr 9

Blaine, one of the workers, started working on the wood structure for the front porch so that the stone guys could finish applying the stone.

House Update - Apr 8

The stone was finally started on the exterior of the house. 

Here's the final grade from the vantage point of the deck.

The built-ins along with the mantle are coming along.

And the painters have begun taping off windows, caulking, and filling nail holes.  A few rooms have been primed, but it is a slow process.  One of the painters, George, made a point of saying that they were moving fast and suggested that the trim guy was the one holding up the process and slowing things down.  HMMM.  I think you all are!

House Update - Apr 7

The final grade.  The final grade.  It opened up the backyard quite a bit so that the view is even more beautiful.  We'll have to shorten that green sewer pipe sticking up.  That would make for quite an eyesore!

Our trim guy Julio has spent hours working on the window trim, baseboards, and built-ins in the living room.  He has to make a few changes to accommodate for tv size.  It is not my favorite place to have it above the fireplace, so I let Chris make the changes that would best fit.

We finally got the extra tile for the master bathroom "versaille" pattern.  The tiles that were initially ordered were impossible to make work, so I had to spend some time coming up with a versaille pattern with the tiles that we had.

Spring Break - Thursday

Misha was just as happy for me to leave her home again today, but I pretty much made her go swimming.  Amy had her friend Allie along, and Kristen's friend Estee joined us.  I tried to convince Misha to invite a friend, but she was anti-going to begin with and wasn't in the mood to concede.  But...she had fun.  I know because I was watching for that smile on her face.

We drove down to Broomfield to the Paul Derda Recreation Center.  The slides and pool area were most impressive and the girls spent most of the time tubing down the slide.  They would switch back and forth from the slides to the lazy river to the hot tub.  Once they got tired of that, I pulled out my underwater camera and the fun began again, because how cool is it to take selfies while tubing down the slide?

So, not sure what kind of pictures I've got as I am just uploading them now.