Lots of house progress and pictures from our vacation

As some of you may know, I was gone for two weeks on a road trip with the kiddos. We left on Friday, May 13, and returned home on Memorial Day. We visited:
Grandma and Grandpa at the mountain house
Laura, John and Alex in Milwaukee, WI
Karen, Andy and Brunson in Chicago, IL
Michael, Rachel, Everett and Rory in La Crosse, WI

We also visited to:
the Betty Brinn Children's Musuem
Safe House restaurant
Milwaukee County Zoo
Chicago Children's Museum
Shedd Aquarium
and the Rainforest Cafe in Chicago with my friend, Pete
Chicago Nature Museum
River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, IA

It was a very busy two weeks to say the least. We spent one week in Galena, IL at a rental house with my parents, brother's, sisters-in-law, niece's and nephew as well as my aunt Karen. The kids loved seeing their cousins, aunts/uncles and of course, Grammy and Grampy. There are lots of pictures of our adventure in the slideshow this week.

Keith stayed in Maryland and worked on the new house. In those two weeks, he finished the majority of the siding, had the septic installed, finished the soffit, trimmed out the porches and dug out the corner of the basement foundation to fix a leak.

A wonderful weekend

Well, we had another very busy, and productive, weekend at the Merranko house. It all started on Friday with a wonderful Mother's Day celebration at the kid's school for mommy. The kids were very excited to give me their homemade gifts as well as eat the cookies that they made for mommy :) Then, it was home for Andrew's third birthday celebration. He had a great birthday filled with lots of loud toys and cake and ice cream. Perfect for a three year old boy! Saturday was spent playing with lots of new toys while Keith, Ronnie and Craig worked on finishing the siding on the north end of the house by the kids bedrooms. Sunday again filled with more tractors for Andrew during a special birthday outing with Grandma and Grandpa where he managed to bring home another toy tractor :) While he was busy testing out the merchandise at Tractor Supply, Julia and I went to survey the progress at the new house. The three men made great progress on the siding today and finished all the plank on the west side of the house. Next weekend will be spent putting up the shake on the gable and moving to the next side of the house. Finally, we had a wonderful Mother's Day celebration at Lorraine and Bob's house, made even more wonderful because I didn't have to do a darn thing!

Garage doors-check, porch celling-check, siding and trim...in progress

Well, we now have spiffy garage doors where we used to have plywood! That sure does make life easier for my husband. He can now open them up with a handle, rather than screwing and unscrewing the panels when he needs to get in the garage. As you will see in the slideshow, Andrew would also like to open them-or at least hang on the hardware for awhile. In addition to the drywall that was finished this week, Keith and Craig also got the screened-in porch celling up. I think it looks great and I look forward to many afternoons lounging on my chair staring at that celling before I take a nap! :)

They also worked on putting-up more siding, trim, and freize board(and yes, "freize" is actually spelled that way). The siding and trim is taking more time than Keith is used to since vinyl goes up so quickly. That being said, we like the way the finished product is turning out. For those of you who are wondering why there are white spots on parts of the lap siding-do not fear. It is just the cement residue dust and it will be washed-off when this is all installed.

A well, drywall and a very happy Easter!

Well, despite several days of rain this week, we were able to move forward leaps and bounds by getting the well installed, and getting drywall up in the house. It sure does look more like a "house" to have actual walls everywhere. Although it does make it more inconvient now that you have to walk through the doors, rather than where ever you wish :)

We had a great time with Grammy and Grampy who were visiting this past week and helping with the house. In between the hard labor they were subjected to, they enjoyed playing with the kiddos, dying 36 Easter eggs, and watching them hunt for the eggs at the new house. Apparently the Easter bunny knows all about our move and found the screened-in porch for the baskets. He also did a very good job hiding the eggs throughout the house, keeping the kids (and their parents) very busy.

Moving right along

They say a pictures is 1000 words, so I am going to keep my words short this week and let the images do the talking.

A lot was accomplished last week including getting all the insulation in the house and passing the inspection. The Hardie fiber cement siding was delivered on Friday and my dad, Keith and Ronnie started putting it up on Sunday. Over the weekend they were also able to start triming the windows on the exterior and hang the celling on the front porch. Today they did a lot of work on the soffits, and the drywall guys started hanging the boards. By the end of the week we will have finished walls, a water well, and more siding. Moving right along. And on that note, I am going to move right along to bed. I told this post would be short :)

We have power!

If we had nothing else in the blog this week, THAT would be noteworthy in and of itself. The power company came out (and we paid them) eight weeks ago. Our electrician thought it would be a week or two. So it was great to finally see the pole in this week and know that Keith can stop lugging the generator back and forth every weekend to the house. We also passed our wall check inspection on Tuesday. This is great news, as it went even more smoothly than we had expected.

Keith spent most of Saturday prepping for the insulation guys to come in this week. We stopped by after Julia's swim class for a quick lunch break and for the kids to do some housekeeping. As you can see from the pictures, they are quite enthuastic about using the hand broom and dustpan. Check back in five years for an updated progress report on whether that is still one of their favorite past time activities!

Sunday Keith and Ronnie got the plywood up in the front and back porches. They also put in the subflooring in the bathrooms and laundry room. We have siding, well, drywall and garage doors all being installed in the next couple of weeks. So stay tuned for lots of progress pictures to come in April!

The house is finished! We are moving in next week.

Belated April Fools :)

We may not be done just yet, but we are still making lots of progress. The week before last, we got all the doors in and Keith boarded-up the garage so that the house is completely secure. Now that the electrical and plumbing are finished on the main floor, we needed to ensure that people didn't have easy access to items that are easily stolen and resold. Keith also mounted a camera on the side of the house for a little extra security. I like how the camaflodge looks against the housewrap! Good thing that we are not trying to actually hide it from anyone.

Last week Keith also framed-up the garage doors, and we picked out which ones we would be using. This past week the plumbing and electrial was finished on the main floor and we passed both of the inspections. Keith worked on sealing the roof valleys and framing the stairwells over the weekend. He also finished parge coat for foundation and the truss bracing. Both of those items were to finish any outstanding work we need to have done before our rough-in framing inspection this week.