Dogs and Digs

OK, OK. It's been a while since I updated.
So to keep everybody in good spirits, I will start off with a dog joke:
"What has four legs and one arm?"
"A Rottweiler."

This randomly cracks me up! That was the "Dog" portion of my post.
Now for the "Dig" portion. Nothing has happened at the "new" house visibly for a month. However, behind the scenes we bought carpet for the three hall bedrooms, lined up contractors for the A/C, plumbing, cabinets (hopefully), electrical, and roofing. And we finally got our permit. ...Just in time for us to change our plans slightly, but it's all good. We'll just re-draw, re-submit, and re-pay fees. Our architect and the City of Boulder City will love us!

Every house should have one of these parked in its driveway. The world would be a more interesting place. This huge monster pushed dirt all around the backyard and packed it down. I could hear it easily up at the Legacy house during the day.

 Here's the truck bringing the "type-2" dirt that makes the footings and foundation more sure. Kim says it's not required by code, but if it was his house, he'd put it in, so he's doing it for ours. I love this guy!

This shows the trenches for the footings for the new garage on the north side of the house. Notice the type-2 worked into the ground. (That's a joke...you cannot see it!! heehee) Kim tore off all the stucco on that side of the house. There were some yucky creatures living under it. Ewww. Bug man comes on December 17.

 Here's the back of the house with footings dug for the family room that's going off the back. The room will be about 18x23. The addition roof line will follow the left side going 2/3 of the way up (as you look at the picture on the left), then parallel the other roof line coming down. This will not only cover the family room, but also the patio that will be to the right of it. This new roof addition will create a huge attic space that we will transform into a big bonus room, approximately 15x18!! Also Kim's idea. Bright man.

Here's the music room and living room. These are odd spaces, but will be fine, I'm sure.We'll have coffered ceilings, indicated by the double dotted lines, hopefully making these rooms more cohesive.

 Out with the old! This is the old heater from the attic. Be gone with you!!








Below is the basic new layout. If you can tell, you can see the new addition on the right, rear side of this drawing. To the left of that room is the patio. The bottom, left side of the drawing shows the former garage that will now be storage room, craft room, and exercise room. To the left of that is the additional garage.

Here's Kim Fotheringham that makes all this go as smoothly as possible, like magic! He's very good at what he does. We are holding the precious, approved house plans. I am officially an "owner-builder" on this project. Kinda scary.                                        Notice I am in my very attractive walking get-up: headband, exercise shirt and sweats. And notice the fabulous "Mood" work apron which has three pockets to hold my keys, phone, tissue, and water bottle. Very handy.

Those are all the fings I have to say.

What do a wedding and ghoulish gourmets have in common?? Halloween.

Kristi got married on Saturday in Spanish Fork, Utah. She was so radiant and beautiful that day! Dad and I went up and back in one day to be there for the wedding, but we missed the fantastic reception.

Katie, Dez, and Heather in their wedding "black!"

Here is one segment of Kristi and Richard's reception---the whole room was so clever! Grandma Peterson told me people really dressed up. Even the groom was a ghoul! Definitely different and very fun.

Grandpa Peterson is posing with the fake scary guy.

And we got to be with Kelsey and eat at Cafe Rio with her before we headed back  home.

 Sunday: We had Lindsay and Aaron and kids, and Ben and Stacy and kid for dinner today which was so fun. Because it was the Sunday before Halloween, we decided to "spook" up the meal!

These are deviled eggs made up to look like nibbling mice! Notice the 'poo!' (Thanks to chocolate sprinkles!)

Aaron created this fantastic spewing jack-o-lantern to hold their fruit salad.  Mmmmm. And to the right of that is our "moldy" pizza bread made out of English muffins, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese that's been dyed blackish colors. Mmmmm.

Tongues, any one? These "tongues" are made out of meringue colored pink, and sprinkled with pink sprinkles to be taste buds. Appetizing! You bake them in a low oven for three hours. 

Lenna really loved the tongues! Maybe the crunchy, dissolving yumminess was irresistible!

Daniel is showing off his own tongue as he eats the meringue one! He is old enough this year to enjoy the  halloween menu and get ghoulish delight out of it! It was very fun.

Change in the twinkling of an eye!

Today I walked over there with Daniel and Lenna and the wall was gone between the bedroom and the garage! Presto Westo! So this is where the living room will eventually be.

I wanted to show the existing entrance so you know what to reference when it looks different. 

This is the existing side yard, again so you know what to reference as things happen.

And this is the room that will be the living room. Eventually. The facade brick is coming off today.

And Lenna was so friendly with the little "Trick-or-Treater" decoration....until she took a swing and kept knocking her over. And she loved doing that!

Okidoke. Those are all the fings for today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACOB!!

I wanted to give a "shout out!" to one of my favorite people in the whole world: Jacob Hawkins. He is so positive, disciplined, intelligent, willing, easy-going, and just plain good through and through! You are one in a million, Jacob, and I am privileged to know you, truly. Happy 18th birthday!!! (I know it was October 24th, but it took me a while to find photos!)

I like that he is sharing some of his "light" with Joseph through osmosis! 

Joseph, you are so much shorter in 2010!

 I remember (still Halloween 2010) when Elise was Hermoine Granger! You guys made my night!

I

This is one of my favorite pictures. You all look so professional, like you are ready to go on tour! (Dec. 12, 2009)

This was when your family so wonderfully came down 

to listen to Kelsey's oboe recital last March at BYU. Thanks!!

I love your family and value your friendship! 

I've enjoyed this walk down memory lane. Good luck as a senior, Jake. And enjoy the process of preparing for your mission! Wowza!!

And, Happy Birthday!!!

The one constant in life is change!

. Aunt Laurie's cat, Muffin (or something) followed me around everywhere and liked to lick and chew on my sandals if I stayed in one place too long---very odd, and...ewwww. Notice the wood floor.

Here is the fabulous back splash Aunt Laurie made. I'm still torn as to if I want to keep it. I probably won't because it's not going to fit in with the other stuff, dang it.

Remember the big custom-made bar that used to be in the kitchen? History. Kim Fotheringham said it was one of the best things he's ever seen constructed and was a bugger to take out. The fridge you see there is already gone, claimed by the Palmers (up the street) for their basement. Notice the wood floor is also gone.

See the fireplace room divider below? ...

...Now you see no room divider. Kim is like a magician. 

Every time I go over there something major is missing.

 And here is one of 7 or so huge dumpsters that temporarily lived by the house within the first three days. $203 a pop. Notice all the cement and growth still around.

Now notice no growth or cement anywhere! Magic.
Jeff Sargeant is the magician this time!

Here is Jeff's tractor, being commandeered by cute little people. Awwww.

And this is what I made in all my "spare" time.
 I measured, drew, colored and cut out all the furniture in our house to scale (1/4" equals 1'). Then I looked to see what would fit on the blueprint so I know what to take. M&M, you get the rest, if you want! Notice the three beds to the left. There is still room for you guys to come and stay!


A lot of the placement on this blog seems to be luck, but I am getting the hang more and more! Thanks, Maren, for setting up the initial blog so I could get moving. I didn't know where to start!!

Changing houses. Wowza.

We bought a house a month ago. Another one. It wasn't my idea.

But Matt and Maggie are moving back in December (hallelujah!!), and Aunt Laurie got wind of this. She asked if maybe they would be interested in buying her house around the corner from us. Four bedrooms, big yard. Across from the park. Near us. Sounds perfect. 

But Matt and Maggie have six children at home. We have zero children at home. We have six bedrooms here and eight bathrooms. And a 1/2 acre lot with a pool. Hmmmmmmm.

So, WE bought Laurie and Dallas' home because it makes more sense for everybody.

We don't have the slave labor anymore to clean all these bathrooms! We're old. It's hurts more to clean a pool, mow tons of lawn, trim and care for tons of roses, trim lots of fruit trees, etc., etc. Matt and Maggie are young. I will miss my beautiful home here, but I'm happy that Matt and Maggie will love and take care of it. And especially, I will love having them right around the corner from me!!

Below is the house as it looked when we made our decision...with one exception. The tree on the left was green and happy. We decided we would cut it down because it wasn't pretty, and it immediately started turning brown!! Poor thing! It heard us talking!! Notice the big space to the left of the house. That'll be our new garage.

 This is another view from the south. I really like the stairs leading up to a slate patio.

 Aunt Laurie is so amazingly talented. She and Dallas put in all the slate steps and patios. I really like them.

 She and Dallas stubbed it out to put a fountain in, which we will do, thanks to Mooch Huntsman!

 This will be our view of the park from the from yard.

 This is the interior living area and family area in the distance. The little window opening on the right goes through to the kitchen.

 This is the living room, again, looking at it from the front entry.

 Here is the kitchen with the custom made bar made by Laurie and Dallas. It has a copper sink!!

 Here is the backyard from the south (stepping out of the family room door). There's a Sport Court on the far side, as well as a trampoline...and lots of fake grass and weeds.

 Here's the Sport Court view looking at the back of the house.

 Here is the master bathroom. Of course, Aunt Laurie created and made this beautiful mosaic on the wall.That window will be gone when we put up a garage on the other side of that wall.

 Also the master bathroom.

 And this is the half bath off of the living room. The Amazing Aunt Laurie also created this beautiful wall using different tiles that she had sitting around. The little sink doesn't work because it's from Europe and Laurie couldn't find the European plumbing here in the USA. So we'll be replacing that.

In my next post I'll put the changes that are happening. 

This whole blog started because some of you expressed an interest in watching this house process as it progresses. So here you have it. It's taken me pretty well all day, but I'm figuring this out!