The fireplace.

So I had a little surprise of my own for Gregg while he was gone.  I worked so had trying to get little projects on the house finished up, I sometimes had up to seven contractors at the house at a time doing their thing.

One big project left on the house was getting the fireplace rocked.  It is kind of a focal point of the entire main floor {and of the upstairs also}.  Gregg was so worried about the rock not looking good, or that he would not like where the masons put a rock, or the color, etc.  I knew I could manage it without him and I really wanted to surprise him.  They originally told me it would take two full days - ha - more like an entire week and a filthy house!

 These guys did a great job and better yet Gregg loved it and loved that it was finally done.

The larger lighter pieces casing the fireplace opening and creating the hearth are limestone that we had specially cut.

First Snow.

We had our first real big snow storm of the year last Friday night and Truman could not be happier.

All morning he wanted to go play in the snow.  I kept trying to convince him to wait until after breakfast so I could find the snow gear - my sister reminded me the kids are kids and that I should let him try it out without snow clothes {she was right, why was I trying to be so controlling - he would see quick enough that he really did want snow clothes on} - Truman was after all trying to convince me he was tough enough without snow clothes.

So out he went, in his PJ's - lesson learned - it was cold!

Bodie was perfectly happy to watch from inside where it was warm!

Our first snow.

It was like he was examining it trying to remember what snow was like.

 My little snow kid.

Bast aunt and uncle of the day for going out with him to play and make a sledding hill.

The Move. Part II.

The Move Part I is back here.

My family was so, so sweet to come help us move for the weekend.

Because we sold all our furniture from our other house and everything we could store was already here at the new house in our storage room, we didn't have that much to move.

Mostly we needed help finishing last minute things - and cleaning!  I can not believe how much cleaning I have done, my finger tips are raw.

Bodie and Jean cleaning the master shower!

My friend Tami had about an hour to come and help so she came and cleaned this shower {after Bodie and Jean!} - it was so nice of her and such a big help!  Thanks Tami.

My mom cleaning out drawers.

I don't usually clean with clorox whips but I have gone through 9 bottles of them getting this new house ready to live in.

Truman was in heaven to see his toys again.  We had packed most of them away, he and Enoch stayed busy playing.

{sorry they are blurry, I was running around the house taking quick iphone pictures to capture the memories}

The girls in the fort.

They were actually a huge help cleaning all the baseboards.

Addie in the basketball court picking up the trash from the lights being installed.

We haven't figured out the exact details on how we are going to finish the court.  About two months ago we decided to just leave it like this for now and focus on getting the rest of the house done - then we will do our research and figure out exactly how we want to finish it.

 Dallin has been a huge help at the house, he has come up from BYU a few days to help work on it.
This weekend he and Becca worked on installing door hardware.

7 kids at my bar, I love it.

Dinner.  We ordered in pizza and the kids were happy.

First night.

First night in the new house was a success!

Landscaping.

This truck showed up today!  Hurrah, grass.

To tell you the truth it has been a little over-the-top stressful to also be trying to figure out landscaping while building.  Many times I have wanted to call it quits on the landscaping and deal with it in the spring, but the reality is I will be very grateful next summer when my kids have a yard to play in.

I took this picture for my brother McKay who is on a mission, it was taken from my dinning room {McKay wanted to see the snow already on Timp}.

Trees.

And more trees.

It happens to be the best time of year to buy trees.  It's the end of the season so everyone has them on sale and the trees actually do really well being transplanted this time of year.  Good new for us - it actually means I bought more trees then originally budgeted.

And more trees!!!

The only bummer was that the fruit tree selection was sparse.  I picked up a few very small fruit trees for cheap so we will see if I can baby them along.

This is why subs don't get along!

The facia and sofit guys want the exterior to themselves - those are all their ladders - and our landscapers want the grounds to themselves.  Instead they are learning to work around each other.

Although the trees were actually a really good size they look kind of small against the house - I literally walked around and "placed" each tree where I wanted it then went in the house to see from inside how it looked.  We only had to move two or three to get it just right {Gregg and I both feel like the landscaping should be an extension of the architecture and house}.

This is the back of our property, we wanted to line it with trees so that eventually it will feel more private.  There will be bark where the white fabric is although I made the executive decision to wait until spring to get the bark - so until it snows it will be white fabric!

The sandbox {which is not getting sand until spring}.  I saw a poured concrete sandbox a few months ago and fell in love with the idea.

The back left corner of our property has quite a big slope - we decided to build it up with a big rock retaining wall {which you can't really see in this picture} and then we added some rock steps down to our raised bed gardens.  I have 5 boxes in all, I am going to really have to work on my gardening skills :)

And off the right of our property we did this outdoor fire pit.  You can see the cantilevered red rocks that will be places to sit or tables for food, then there are three larger red rocks that are long and narrow for seating in front of the fire pit.  The steps off to the right lead up to the house {although the house you see pictured is our neighbors}.

The driveway.

Oh, where do I start.

Today was not my best day ever.

I was home with the boys when I got a call from Gregg {who was in SL} telling me I needed to rush over to the new house because a dog {who shall remain nameless} had run through our wet cement.  

Unfortunately I was not surprised by the news - "the dog" has been a problem at the new house the entire building process.  In fact Gregg had called the owners yesterday to let them know we would be pouring our driveway today and asked if they would please keep the dog inside/leashed up {by the way it is Midway City law to always have your dog on a leash}.

 My father-in-law met me at the house as my 'back up' since he saw the incident and I didn't have Gregg there to help me figure things out.  I also called the HOA manager and animal control on my way over.  I was so upset - to put it mildly! 

It has been SO wet and rainy here that it has been hard to get our driveway poured, and at this point it has started to hold up other things like landscaping and exterior finish work.  Once the rain finally stopped we could not get our flat-work guy to call us back and schedule a time to do our driveway, stairs and sandbox.  Finally about a week ago I started asking around for recommendations for a new contractor.  After meeting with and looking over bids we hired a guy from Park City to come do the work for us and he graciously squeezed us into his packed schedule.

I say all that to give a little perspective to how happy we were to finally be getting our driveway poured - then this happened.

Our cement guy came over to try and "work out" the paw prints.  The dog was 'ticketed' by animal control and I cried.  I know, silly thing to cry over - it was just such a long time coming {the actual driveway}, so many other subs have been backed up because of it, I am tired, and pregnant, and the drive way cost almost $10,000 - now I have paw prints in it - and we don't like dogs.

 Truman made this sign while listening to me on the phone all afternoon with the HOA, animal control and Gregg.  He knew I was upset and was trying to help out.

I love his picture of the dogs ... with 6 legs and an "X" through them.  And that he wrote "No Dogs"

He asked if we could hang this sign on our driveway!  GLADLY!

At Gregg's request I had already made this sign and had it up at the end of the driveway along with caution tape.

Later today I found this cute note from Truman - I think he felt my pain today.

House Update.

The wood floors in the house were installed over the weekend.  The main level is almost all wood floors with a little wood upstairs between the kids bedrooms and the guest master bedroom.  They are a 9 1/2" European white oak. 

We spent a big part of the day cleaning the floors and then covering them.
I gave Truman a roll of tape and put him to work covering the floors by the front door, he did a great job and was entertained for hours.

We also had our cabinets installed and I am thrilled with how they look!

Pictured above is the kitchen.  I did a custom white kitchen with a dark island.  I thought for sure I knew what white I wanted to do but when my cabinet guy made a sample door for me it looked to creamy.  I took that sample everywhere with me to see it in all different lights - I finally decided it wasn't the right white.    I also wanted to make sure I didn't get to bright of a white - then my cabinets would have looked like plastic melamine.  We ended up naming this white "Truman White" and I love it.  {The other white was called "Camille White" and I think we might end up using it in my parents house}.

We knew we wanted a dark island for two main reasons, first to add some contrast and second because the island takes a beating {with little kids sitting up to it in bar stools} so we wanted a color that was easy to touch up.  This is a dark brown-gray with an almost black rub over it.  

 Master bathroom {Gregg's vanity} - I am glad he let me do a white bathroom!

 Here is the master shower all tiled and filled with construction stuff {which kind of makes me crazy}

 We have the best finish carpenter - he is doing all the base and case, framing out the windows and doors and all the casings that lead into different areas of the house {like around the piano room}.  He also built my stair case and all my closet systems.

Office cabinets.

This is a hospitality bar down stairs in the family room.

The exterior was also painted last week.  We have had so much rain {which is so unusual for this time of year} that almost nothing happened on the exterior of the house for 10 days.

The color turned out darker then I was picturing.  I am sure it will grow on me.  They also started painting the trim around the windows {see the windows on the far left} but the color looked purple to me and although purple is my favorite color I was trying to match the bronze windows!  I lost a TON of sleep over the purple looking trim color.  After running around ALL day Saturday trying out new paint colors I finally decided I wanted the color changed - I felt really bad making the guys redo their work.