Ashten's Abilities!

I have not always been an accident prone child.  Growing up I only broke 2 bones.
Collar bone (age 5)
Arm (age 11)


Not too bad RIGHT?
Well the past few months and I have NOT been good to me.
Just before the house was done I had a mis-hap
Item 1: LONG story short, our car died and we had to get a jump before we drove home from the new house.  The car died again on the off ramp... THEN we went to push it.  We started pushing, Chris hoped in the driver side to drive and I hoped on to the side of the car... well I fell off :S
Gratefully there was a car full of girls that stopped picked me up and kept me from being run over.
My ankle (left) got hurt and I scraped my knee (right).  Other then that it was just scary.  After a few days I was back to normal, with just some pain.

Item 2: SUPER long story SHORT. I was painting the wood around my parents garage.  I was standing on a bar stool. I fell off said bar stool straight on to my knee (right). I had a whole pint of paint in my hand that went all over the driveway, and it hurt A LOT.

This time I thought I would be fine. We live about an hour away from my parents house.  By the time we got closer to home, I thought we might want to go by the hospital.  I wasn't sure though, I really didn't want to waste time or MONEY!

Chris vetoed my "not" side and took me to the hospital.  They took x-rays of both last weeks ankle and this weeks knee. NOTHING was broken.  They gave me a leg brace for my knee and crutches.

It hurt and was NOT FUN!!!

I would post the awesome pics, but they are kinda gruesome so I won't.

Creating a Play Room!

PLAY TIME!

Moving In!

Closing on a house is a VERY stressful time.  We were supposed to close on Wed. Sept 3, but due to some timing things we didnt get to close until Thurs Sept 4. Which really wouldn't be that big of a deal... EXCEPT we hired the movers to move us on Thursday, so we had to reschedule it to Saturday!

We both had thursday off from work so we started loading everything into Dan's trailer and got almost everything ready to take to the house.  We took it over and unloaded everything on Friday and were ready for the movers on Sat.

The movers were LATE as always, but only about 30 min so not TOO BAD. :P common people show up on time!  That being said I loved our movers.  They always work hard and get whats needed done.  We had 2 trucks and its sad how much stuff we have accumulated over the last 10 years.  Dan decided he was tired of the pool table taking over his basement so he said  if the movers move it, it can be ours.  It was a PAIN in the A** to move, but it will be really fun once we get the basement finished.

After a very long day we finally had moved in.

I AM SO GRATEFUL TO HAVE 4 WALLS!!!!!!!!!! They are All mine!!

Pintrest: Basement

I love to orginize! Really it should be an illness treated by millions of plastic little boxes!

Ever since I was little I can remember getting rubber made containers for my birthday and Christmas. Some girls love shoes and purses well I love those and boxes!

When we bought our townhouse the most amazing thing about it really was the amazing storage room!

I loved it when I found that Costco boxes fit perfect on the premade shelfs! I love them!!! 

Now that we have a beautiful new home with no premade shelfs I'm on a mission! 

Under our porch is my place to work my magic!!! Or so I think!

We have a large space and I have some fun ideas! 

The plan is to the left will be a nice little wine cellar. We are still working out the details, but I have some good ones. Then to the right is MINE!! The goal here is to have everything we want stored, in this area!

That includes holidays, decore and some food storage (the food might be mixed in with the wine, we will see! 

Here are some of my ideas!!

Numbers!

I am a numbers person! As some would say. I am the nerd in the family! I have my BS degree in finance and I work in that industry.

This makes it both my blessing and my curse. 

Im all about honesty, so I'll keep this real. 

This is our dream house!!! No question about it. However that does not mean it doesn't come with its own set of stresses.

This mortgage will be about double what our last one was, and we have more utilities this time around.

Being the nerd means I get excited and terrified as the house continues to become more livable. 

Chris and I both work full time, and that is the right thing for us. I have many friends and people I blog stock that are SAHM or WAHM I am neither of those. I am a working mom and I LOVE it!!!

Our budget is alittle less >tight< then others, however we do have the challenge of daycare, long nights and EXHAUSTED parents!!! It is amazing how nice a drive through burger sounds after a 10 hr work day + 2 hr OT and a limited 30 min lunch, and a round trip commute of about 2 hours with 9 hr left in the day, including sleep cooking is NOT high on the priority list.... 

But, eating out is EXPENSIVE!!!! 

This month is my go for it, gung hoe we need to save more money!!!! We need to be prepped and ready for our new mortgage!!

Textured walls!

After a nice long weekend with the 4th of July and a trip to Lava Hot Springs we stopped by the house. 

We were happy to see the garage mudded

And textured walls!!!

Master

Main family room!

Kitchen area 

It is going so quickly it is so exciting!!!

Chris is excited for his textured walls I think it will give us a perfect element!!!

Pintrest

Hello, my name is Ashten and I'm addicted to pintrest! "Hi ashten"

I'm kidding, well alittle!

Now that I'm not working going to school, studying, and keeping a big house clean (my little basement is not small but I don't really have any care to really organize or decorate.) I get bored.... ALOT! 

I have made tonZ of boards on pintrest to chorale a few (1.5k) of my ideas! 

I have a few projects up my sleeve that i want to post about and keep up on as we get closer to calling this new place HOME!!!

Yard? Rocks!!!

Today I worked late, yeah for overtime and getting some extra dough for the new digs!! ;) 

I asked Chris to stop by and just let me know if anything was different. When I get home after 8:30pm I'm ready for dinner and bed.

Mid afternoon I get the following picture!

Well so much for not going to the house!!! I wanted to see the yard so bad!!!

As of Sunday (yesterday) it was nothing too fancy, but now look at this!!!

Our yard is amazing!!! 

No it isn't huge! But I think it will be perfect for our little family! 

Outside progress

Things outside have felt much slower since the roof was finished! But will necessary steps! 

Getting ready for some stucco!

WE HAVE GAS!!!

More scaffolding. 

Here you can see the cool wire mesh they put on the house of the house

Back of the house

Official Tile Decission

Time now to officially PICK the colors for our shower.  We chose to add some texture and excitement to the room by adding the rock border.  I love it and we will be picking out the grout color once they install.  I know we want dark grout, and we think that will add the perfect POP to the tile.

We were recommended to go with larger tile since the bathrooms and garage entry will be small the flooring people said the 18x18 will give a good style. 

We need to go with a small style for the floor due to cost and for safety! 

Since we were there it was time to look at flooring AGAIN!!!!

We still cant pick but we have been coming back to the same style. 

OH NO!!! Now we are thinking maybe we should go with darker cabinets and lighter floor!!  TOO MANY CHOICES!!

Sheet Rock continued

WE HAVE FULL SHEET ROCK!!

How is that a house can look so HUGE and so SMALL at the same time!

CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME MESS!

Main room

Mst bathroom

Boys bedroom. It looks so tiny!

Office!


MST shower!

Garage!! I love our checkered ceiling! Seriously,. I think its kinda cool!

Mommy and her little man!

We have shingles!

Sheet rock!

Everything is in and about ready to be covered up.  Lots of hard work ahead of our amazing builders!

I am amazed by how quickly and perfectly they put this stuff up.  Now if only the basement will go this smooth. 

Main room facing kitchen

Main room facing fireplace. 

Just above the stairs

Kitchen 

Insulation 6/12/14

We have 2 sick little boys so daddy stayed home with them. We were trying to decide if we would stop by our house, and I'm glad that we did...

We pulled up and I saw this

Not sure if you can tell, so I'll share! We cannot longer see into our house. We have insulation!!!

All the exterior walls have insulation!! And limited amounts in the ceiling as well!

There is our attic entrence

Basement has insulation and plastic which will keep our home better insulated and hopefully help us get it finished in the coming years!!!

It is amazing what difference a few days work will do! 

Attic Adventure!

We don't watch much tv. And if we do we will not be the ones to pay for it... So in order to make that happen, we need a antenna. 

Since we are now at the electrical inspection time, it is time to instal our antenna. Much better before the ceiling is up and we have insulation to navigate!!

I climbed up on our pantry and climbed through the wall. You can see Chris' feet next to my head 

Here is my honey with the antenna he is amazing and gutzy!! 

This is the view from where I was sitting!! I truly live our house from every angle!!

Sad side note. Our antenna was NOT made to be attached to a 2x4 which is just sad!!!

After all that fun and games, we took the antenna down with us and will try again another day. 

WIRE Weekend!

One of Chris' favorite part about building was getting to do all of his own low voltage wiring for the house.
We would love to have a smart house, but not yet.  We are just prepping for it!
We are so grateful for the family and friend that helped us get our house wiring perfect!  In a matter of 2 days!

These pics dont even show the work justice!
 BREAK TIME


We have 2 cat 6 and 2 coax in each bedroom, and cat 6 in any were that we would one day want to have a smart something.  Ie behind the fridge, the garage etc.

I think the hardest part was that since we have 9 ft ceilings we had to use taller ladders in the basement to get the little holes punched out. 

And Chris is so amazing so he also added 3 zones of speaker wire too.  This will control our stereo sound in our family room and also gives us the option to have sound in our master, main room and patio. 

AND ANOTHER THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gratitude!

I don't even know really where to start!

However I'm feeling so blessed, and I want everyone to know how greatful I am!!!

As you see our beautiful home popping up it is amazing to think of this amazing place we live. With wonderful friend and family!

Really!!! Who in their right mind would let myself my hubby our two boys AND our dog all come live with them for close to a YEAR!!!

That would be the one and only Dan and Jackie barber!!!

Adding too that!! My amazing parents that are the worlds biggest cheerleaders they are so proud of us and it is always a joy to talk to them, when I'm getting frustrated! They bring me back to reality. Which sometimes can be a difficult task!

As we have met some of our neighbors it is such a wonderful feeling to know that God has blessed us! We have an amazing family with wonderful friends and a beautiful home we will be able to raise our kids in!!

AND!! We will have a whole lot of fun doing it!!

Electrical

Its a full blown REAL HOUSE!!!

All the hard wired electrical is in.  

We spent half our day with Ginny picking out where every outlet, fixture and light switch will go.

BEST part of building.  It was so much fun! I think? 

Chris and I had our first "Official" house fight! About the placement of light switches for the extras in the kitchen. Gratefully it lasted about 10 seconds and back to the super fun!!

This is a view of the kitchen lights! 

Flooring Colors!

Carpet

I finally got a list from the builder of where we go to pick out colors.  We know we want dark comfy carpet and that was a super easy choice and decided within 10 min of getting to Kay Riley. 

Now if only all of the other colors were that easy to pick out.

It looks alittle different in each pic. but the first one looks most like what I have. 

Wood Floor

I wish I could say that all of our selections were that easy.  Wood floor was NOT.

We knew we wanted dark floors and we wanted them strong but that was the most difficult decision! 

 

After looking and many days we opted for this type.  It is a dark wood with some texture.  Knowing our boys and dog we wanted to make sure that the wear and tare wouldn't destroy it. 

Tile Selection

We are unsure of what our budget is for tile at this point, but we picked out some basic plain colors at this point and will pick out specifics soon.