Settling In

Well we have really started to settle into our new home after a little over a week. The beagles are adjusting pretty well for the most part. They still hate their doggy door so we may be replacing it with a little more user-friendly type of dog door. They don't seem to mind their little doggy area of the garage where we keep them when we leave the house. They do have the two old couches from the trailer though - so I think they like those.

We continue to slowly unpack things at our house. Key word - slowly. We seem to be able to spend money on the house at a very rapid rate, however. Seriously, buy stock in Lowes, Target and Walmart. We are almost single-handedly keeping those places open! ;) All part of home-ownership, I realize!

Last Sunday, we went to the T Wolves/Nuggets game at the Civic Center, which was fun! We have some pictures from it but with the camera we have now, they didn't turn out very good (any sort of motion and less than bright lighting usually causes blurry pictures). Hmmm...think it's time to invest in a new camera - this one is about 6 years old I think!

Last week Monday I had my first trial as an attorney at this law firm - and it went pretty well overall. We were able to get our clients to agree on about 90% of everything before hand so the issues were limited at trial, which helped. I'm definitely getting some good experience in front of judges lately! Exciting and nerve-wracking all at once!

This Saturday we went to Taylor's v-ball game at the Y. There was a time during one of the games where the other team kept serving at Taylor and she kept hitting it back over and scoring on them. Jay said if he were coaching the other team he would have called a "time out" and told her not to serve to Taylor. He also explained to me that it was that "Gerving domination" showing through!! Maybe just a little bit of a proud uncle shining through already!

In other news, we have purchased our Halloween costumes! Those of you going to Nick & Lyndsey's on Friday evening will see what they are then...otherwise, you'll just have to come trick-or-treating at our house to see what we came up with!

Today marks Bailey's "2nd birthday" with us! In other words, 2 years ago today is when we adopted Bailey from the pound! Since we don't know how old she is or what her birthday is, we consider our day of adoption her birthday! She still has issues with people she doesn't know (gets scared and goes to hide whenever people come over) and we've had our challenges with her over the years, but I can't imagine life without the little squirt!

Other than that, it's just another "manic Monday" and the start of another work week. Jay and I have been carpooling to and from work each day, taking turns dropping each other off. It seems to work quite well and we're saving on gas money overall by not having to drive the Durango except on special occasions. Plus, that gives us probably 30 minutes of quality time talking to each other while we drive with each other each day! ;)

Have a great week everyone!!

Moved in...and it feels so good!

We did accomplish the task of moving into our new home this past Friday (which happened to be Jersey's 6th birthday - lucky dog gets a new house for her birthday). With the help of friends and family the moving in process went incredibly quickly and smoothly. We couldn't have asked for better weather as well! We really appreciate everyone's help!

Now...the unpacking part might take awhile!! However, on Saturday my mom and Val W. came over and helped me unpack and put away everything in the kitchen, which was such a huge help to us! Jay got stuck with putting things together that day - which I could tell he thoroughly enjoyed. Just ask him about how much he likes putting together the barstools I bought! ;)

The beagles made it out to the house for the first time on Saturday evening. The first couple hours consisted of them sniffing the place up & down until their little noses just about fell off! Bailey had to have a couple "time-outs" in the kennel to get her settled down but we survived the first night. On Sunday they really started to settle in - until we had to leave them for the first time in the garage while we went to the Timberwolves/Nuggets exhibition game at the Civic Center last night. Overall, they are doing a good job adjusting though which is nice. We were a bit worried about the transition for them and how they would behave!

We will continue to try to get everything put away and then will make plans for a proper housewarming party sometime soon! :)

For now, we feel very happy and blessed to be able to be in our beautiful new home!

T Minus 5 Days

Just a few pictures as we head into the last week before moving into the house...

We're set for closing on Friday at 11:00am. We'll start moving in that afternoon/evening. Let the moving and unpacking festivities begin! :)

Have a great week everyone!

One week to go!

Well we have one week go to until we close and move into the new house!

I have posted some pictures below from last night. As you can see, some more flooring was done along with other work. Things are going on schedule, which is great!

Laundry room:

Guest bath:

Living room fireplace (obviously top of the mantle and the cap piece for the bumpout weren't in yet):

Master bath:

As we were leaving last night, our cabinet guys were starting on the crown moulding on the cabinets:

When we arrived home (Mom, Dad, Jay and I), I opened the door to find that the beagles had pulled off yet another canine caper. This time, they absolutely blew up the garbage at my parents' house!! I had to take pictures - there was no major damage done but it was quite a mess to clean up! Those dang dogs!

Other than that, we are just SO ready for this work week to be over!! Jay will leave later this afternoon to go pheasant hunting in GU. My dad is leaving as well to go to Pollock for pheasant hunting and fishing for about a week. My mom is going with Tom to Minneapolis today. So, I will be home alone for most of the evening, though my aunt will be coming to stay later on in the evening. I plan on spending some time this evening vegging out and getting caught up on Days episodes that I have DVR'd! ;) I'm sure the beagles will be more than happy to join me - they are the ones that have to watch Days after all! ;)

I may post a few more pictures of the house that I saved on our computer at home at some point. I'm going out today to meet with a window covering guy to get an estimate on some blinds, etc. I am pretty sure that our cabinet guys finished up their work last night so I may have more pictures of the completed work as well to post later on today!

We're excited about our big day next week (and a little nervous about the whole thing). I know we'll have lots of help moving and putting things away!

Let the countdown to the weekend begin! T minus 9 hours...

Mad Dash

Hello to all...just a quick post on house updates as they occur...

This past weekend, Jay, Tom, Dad and I managed to finish the hardwood flooring in the master bedroom and a few rows down the hallway with the flooring we had available to us. We are happy to say, the flooring installation for us is now over - with the guys from the flooring store set to finish it up this week.

Here are a few pictures of the bedroom that we finished:

My dad also had to get a picture of me using the miter saw. Jay said any dad would be proud to see his daughter using power tools like that. I think he was right!

"Nothing to it" :)

As for the rest of the week - it's a mad dash to the completion of work on the house. All flooring should be in by the end of the week. The whirlpool tub should be tiled as well. The cabinets and fireplace mantle, etc also are scheduled to be done this week. Our exterior pillars should be done in the next couple days. Baseboard trim, the rest of the lighting and plumbing fixtures, and other odds and ends should also be done this week or early next week. October 17th is still a possibility for the closing/moving in date, but we might just make it in by the skin of our teeth.

A lot of things hinge on whether the ONE part for the whirlpool tub arrived today. That's what it comes down to. One part! This is the part that has supposedly been on it's way for weeks now. I'll believe it when I see it!

I'm hoping that any pictures I post at the end of this week or weekend show this week-long flurry of activity that is supposed to happen. We'll cross our fingers and hold our breath until then....

Besides the house...yikes, work is kicking my butt right now! I just keep saying, wake me up in two weeks. Tomorrow I have a Supreme Court argument. It's probably best we're very busy with house stuff or I would probably be way more nervous than I am right now! I have gotten the opportunity to argue in front of the Supreme court here in ND once before, when I interned with the State's Attorney's office in 2005, but it's been almost 3 years. Then, I have my first trial on my own (since working for this firm) scheduled for Oct. 20th! I may be a bit anti-social until my two big court dates and this house stuff is done!

Have a great week everyone - I'm done with my break and gearing up for a few more hours of preparation for tomorrow!

Cabinets & Countertops!

Just a quick update to the blog tonight with some pictures of the cabinet/countertop installation as of tonight. They should be finishing up at least almost all of the work by tomorrow night on this.

We'll start in the kitchen (crown moulding yet to go on):

The island will have an eating bar which will be put on tomorrow. The pantry door will also match the cabinets & will be installed soon as well.

Master bathroom:

Guest bathroom:



They have not done the laundry room yet but that will be the same cabinets & countertop as the guest bath.

Now, if only the rest of the workers were as effeicient as the Fesers have been with helping with flooring and doing our cabinets!!

The rest of the wood flooring will not arrive until next Monday so we are either going to have Carpet World finish the installation (if they will do it at no cost) or else we will have to finish the installation next week/weekend, which would probably set us back on the closing by a week or so. Not the biggest deal in the world but it was pretty disappointing and frustrating that the flooring was supposed to be there TODAY!! Ugh!

Oh well, focus on the positive, right? The cabinets & countertops and hardware looks awesome, as far as I'm concerned! It really feels like it's more like a real house now! :)