House Build Post 6

Mobile blogging again tonight...man I love technology even while I curse it.
Lots has been happening but I want to start off updating the house build. We finally have been getting some quotes coming in and I have been fine with some of them and amazed at others. Never before have I considered the amount of money it takes to light up one's home. Now I know. And I'm over budget on that. Thankfully some good news came in today about the flooring for both floors of the house and we are under budget there. Even with my subway tile backslash in the kitchen. I'm still waiting for the cabinet quote to come in and so far for the main floor the last count was at $14,000 and change. There is still a bar and double vanity to figure in there along with the pantry. We still have wiggle room as well as some budget left so I will hold my breath until Monday when the quote comes in.
And I'm not stressed out. Yet.
Part of that is because I had everything written down that I wanted and researched to get the most for our money. I'm thinking that any stress I may experience will be if something goes horribly wrong, such as the wrong carpet being installed which happened to a friend of mine.

Ghosts and Goblins and Wintery Cheer??

Oh my Lord, I'm so far behind on my blog. And with my scrapbooking.

I have no idea why, other than the excuse that by the time my children decide to get to bed and stop coming out of it to "just ask me something", it's always after 10:00 pm and all I want to do after that is snuggle up to Mike and do nothing.

Winter has officially arrived, like, three weeks ago.  All I feel like doing is hibernating in my cozy Alpaca socks and my sweatpants.

So tonight I decided to catch up the blog, update my background to something more suited to the season, and drink me some tea.

I know most of my readers are local Saskatchewanians living along Highway 16 like me, so I don't have to go into details too much other than say: "Holy Snowballs, Batman!"

I have no idea how much has fallen since the week before Halloween, but we estimated the amount of snow accumulation tonight to be somewhere around 22 cm and counting, as it is still falling as I type.

Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year, and getting out into the snow with the kids is great.  I even like shoveling.   But the roads have been so horrible and there have been a lot of accidents and that I don't like.  Halloween felt like a bit of a bust with the wind making noses and little fingers so cold that we had to quit after a half an hour.

Brandon and I went back out after we warmed up around 7:00, and went until 8:30.  The wind had died down and other than being super slippery we had a good time.  Then we went through all his loot and he put into a big bowl what he didn't want (7 pounds worth) and we bagged it into one pound portions to donate to a local dentist's office.  They were doing a draw for an iPad and each kid who donated would get a ticket for each pound they brought in.  Brandon happily entered in his 7 tickets, and is patiently waiting for them to draw his name.  If you're wondering what the dentist is going to do with all the candy, they are going to donate it all to the Canadian Military.  Last I heard they had over 180 lbs of it in 8 large garbage bags.  Insane!!!

Charlie and Jacelyn both had fun at their school Halloween parties, even though we had to change Jacey's costume from a devil into something a bit more "friendly" for school (they go to a Catholic school).  As long as she got to wear her horns and tail for trick or treating, she was alright with it.

not impressed with the slimy pumpkin guts

"eeeewwwwww"

scary spiderweb woman

Brandon's 7 pounds of loot

Since then we have had another dump of snow, which stopped us from going anywhere on the highways and which also blanketed everything again in heavy, wet snow.  And tonight yet again after a few days reprieve.  While it fell so early, it sure makes people in the Christmas spirit.  On November 1st Mike and I were surprised at the amount of lights on around the city, as well as trees up in the windows.  At least there is comfort in knowing we won't be the only ones who like to decorate early!  Although I'm pretty sure Mike has more Griswold in him than most and so our yard will boast our North Pole theme with pride.  Not this year, but next year! :)

I've been making Christmas ornaments out of gingerbread for the last while and finally finished up yesterday with a large popcorn string to drape around the tree when the time comes to decorate it.  With this house being so little there is no room for our rather large tree.  We bought a 4.5ft potted pre-lit tree last week and so will decorate that up with a gingerbread theme...our decorations are all packed away and to make the gingerbread was almost free.  Bonus: the tree should smell pretty amazing whenever we walk by it!

Jacelyn's take on "Gingy" from 'Shrek'

The kids and I decorated them up at the end of September, and they've been drying ever since.  I made a tree topper out of felt and decorated it to look like a big, stuffed gingerbread star.

After starting on our Christmas shopping to the beat of Christmas carols over the loudspeaker it's starting to feel like the holiday season.  

Bring it on!!!!

And finally some more things have been slowing happening over at the house; the concrete has been poured for the garage grade beam and the framers can start soon.  I'm hoping that by next week we will have more than just a box in the ground and start to see the house get some shape to it.  The entire basement is enclosed and there is a small furnace down there to get things nice and dry and warm for the concrete to be poured and set.  We are excited to see more!

House Build Post 5

Last night Mike stopped by the house to see what's been going on, and was happy to see the basement cleared of all the snow (a back breaking job for the builder and the bobcat got stuck and had to be pulled out by a fork lift).  He stepped into the basement and took this shot above his head...yay floor joists! And teleposts!!
In the upper right you can see the opening for the L-shaped stairway.
We stopped by the appliance store at the beginning of the week as the cabinet designers needed specs and measurements for cabinet openings.  That was fun, but easy, as we had new appliances a year before we moved here, and I was completely in love with them so we ordered the same Whirlpool Gold series.  Mike stopped by the store again last night and bought them all as well; the sale of 25% off was way to good to pass up when we were dropping thousands on appliances!  That was a nice bonus to be able to take that big bill down a notch.
I'm slowly ticking to do things off of my list, and that's a great feeling.

Scrapbook Corner

QP: Trixie Scraps

Stitiches: Shabby Princess Harvest Spice 

It's still snowing.  Not alot, mind you, just enough to accumulate and piss me off.

So I decided to take Chuck out for a big sleigh ride, and a romp in the snow fort, before playing around on the computer with some digital layouts.  

Now, for the laundry!

Snow Day

The view out the back door this morning was a bit discouraging in the way that Mike knew he'd be busy once again.  We were out with the shovel a total of seven times during the day, just to keep up with the snowfall.  It was worth it because man, was that snow ever heavy, and I would have hated to do it all at once when it was all over.

Brandon has a winter time job of shoveling the neighbor's sidewalks and ramp, for a whopping $10.00 each time, and an extra $5 when it snows extra hard.
He's pretty excited, and has done a good job so far.
He's been saving up for an X-Box 360, as mom said she wouldn't get him another gaming system as we already have a Wii and he'd have to buy one himself.  That aside, Brandon just loves to please people and wouldn't have been able to say no had the neighbor asked him rather than the other way around.  He is a very good boy, and he makes me proud.

I've been waiting to make something special for the kids, and with today being a perfect day to have the oven on for a while I went ahead and tried these Pizza Bites.
They were the yummiest, kid friendly things I've ever made them, and it was silent at the table as they munched away.  I served the bites with homemade marinara sauce and everyone is happy that there are lots left for school tomorrow.  Even though I made them with the kids in mind, Mike and I couldn't help saying "Mmmmm" as we tried them out too.
Give them a try!  I'd even try filling them with cream cheese and pie filling sometime.

Pizza Bites

1 package of pizza sub meat (ham, salami, pepperoni) or whatever kind you want on a smaller scale
1 package of fresh mozzarella, cubed into twenty 1 inch cubes
2 cans of Pilsbury Biscuits (10 per can)
Parm cheese to sprinkle
Italian seasoning
Melted butter
Garlic Powder

Flatten out each biscuit and place a piece of meat, then a cube of cheese, then another piece of meat.
Don't be afraid to mix it up by adding pineapple and bits of green pepper too.
Fold up the dough and gather in the center, making a package.  Pinch to seal and place seam side down in 9x13 greased pan.
Brush on melted butter.
Sprinkle on parm cheese, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning.
Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Serve with warmed pizza, marinara or garlic sauce for dipping.
Honestly this recipe is so easy and so insanely good.

House Build Post 4

Think this could hold things up for a bit??
What a snowy weekend.  Mike went and swept the snow off the joists so that they could be dry for the builder this week.

First Snow

First snow;

Heavy, white, wet.

Leaves, still on trees,

Hang limply under cold blankets.

First glimpse out frosted windows

Starts the stirs of exuberant shouts

In the early morning's quiet.

A mad dash;

Mittens, toques, winter jackets

Take their first breath of winter-y air

After a long year of waiting.

Snow forts,

And rickety, feeble snowmen 

Fill the yard among the slushy footprints

Left by little boots.

Glittery snow angels

Spread their wings and fly,

Each one special,

Each one unique.

A call from the front porch

Brings the shouts inside;

Boots off, ski pants scatter wet, clinging snow.

And happy voices 

Reminisce the mornings excitement

Over steaming mugs

Of hot chocolate

before starting all over again.

               - Natasha Dewing

House Build Post 3

Here are the final color choices we just decided on this afternoon.
We went with Maple cabinets, but if the price comes in too high for our cabinet allowance with the builder, I'll go with Alder as the stain looked great on either.  Alder is just softer, that's all, which means more dings over time.
The colors we chose are Espresso for the main cabinets and in the 3 bathrooms and the wet bar downstairs. The island will be done in Irish Cream, which has a natural glaze on it so I can skip that step (and price upgrade!). Also the butler's pantry will have this color.
The counter tops then are the same ones I picked over a year ago, as are the colors of cabinets, but it was nice to see them all together to make sure they tie in nicely.  I'm doing a  deep walnut quartz stone on the island and in the pantry, and the cream quartz stone on all the dark cabinets.
Then in the picture also are the actual samples of the flooring, minus the vinyl which was loaned out to someone else, and the wall color with the darker trim and door color butted up against the carpet in the middle.
I have to say I'm so excited right now to have these choices out of the way!  I had every sample and color variation in my "Bible" and most of the designers we've seen can't believe how organized I am.
Well, that's so that I don't go crazy when the time came to pick out the actual product!  I needed to focus on the end result, and I can't do that with thousands of variations of the same colors staring at me.  We had everything chosen pretty much before we thought about building!  And now I can start to relax and just let it all happen.

The Bible

House Build Post 2

We drove by the lot last night to see what progress had been made, and the gravel has been spread and the walls of the basement are starting to go up.  The walls are 9 feet, as you can see with Mike standing next to one.  I know this will make the basement seem huge...but I'm thinking the house itself will seem so much taller with the extra height.  This extra foot means we go from a bungalow to a raised bungalow, not to be confused with a bi-level I'm told. :)

Monday, October 15

The kids running around picking out their bedrooms.

Standing in the future family room.

Tuesday, October 16

We also went to pick out the flooring today, and the vinyl sample below is  the actual color, but the Birch hardwood and the carpet are just samples of what we chose, not color.  I left the store feeling happy with our selection, and will need to go back there with my "Bible" of samples and ideas that I forgot to take today.

                            

House Build Post 1

The hole is in, the hole is in!
We're pretty excited to finally get going on the house build.  I'll post when I can, and don't want to bore you with the minute details that make homeowners ecstatic but the general public yawn...I'll just hit you with the highlights.
The hole was finished being dug on Tuesday the 9th, and now we will just play the waiting game, although the builder is shooting for a May possession.  Sounds good to me!  Now that the house plans have been worked out we can start picking out the interior design elements; just what we've (and by that I mean me) been waiting for!

Utilities being dug

The kids are pretty pumped!

Mike was pretty happy to have things finalized and ready to go.