Formal Walk Through

Friday we meet with the foreman for our home. He took us on a tour of our home and allowed us to point out anything that did not look right, such as chips in the wall, painting errors, carpet issues, missing screws or faceplates. He also explained how everything within the home worked. Jaynee and I are now experts on controlling the A/C and heat within our home, as well as the water controls, electricity, and even the garage door. We will meet with him on Tuesday one last time to review the work that they performed since this walk through to ensure everything was repaired and then we are off to go and sign for a home. I guess it is a little late to have buyer's remorse. I think this feeling will last until we are out of our little apartment and into our new home so we can finally see what we actually have in all the boxes that are everywhere. All that is left is for the appliances in the kitchen to be delivered and installed. That will happen early Tuesday morning.

One More Week Left

In just over one week, we will be closing on our new home. Over the last week, loads of work have been done: The brick on the front was laid; kitchen cabinets installed; first layer of paint on the walls; bathroom cabinets and countertops installed; lights hung and bulbs inserted; driveway poured; toilets and plumbing installed; water heater hooked up; and the final electrical work completed to include all outlets, switches, and plugs.

This next week should be the carpet, tile, wood, and bathroom floors; final layer of paint; kitchen countertops and sink; AC units installed; door handles placed on all doors; landscape the yard with sprinklers, grass, and shrubbery; final clean; and any other minor item that we have not mentioned. We hope you like the updated photos.

For the 4th of July, Lee ended up getting off of work early on Thursday, so we traveled to Alabama to visit Lee’s brother, Dennis and his family. Dennis just recently returned from an oversees assignment and will be moving to Kansas in August. This is the first time Lee and Dennis have spent some time together since they were both in Iraq a couple of years ago. This is also the first time Emma got to see her cousins in person rather than through a webcam.

Friday morning we went to the local pool and relaxed there before the day started to heat up. Then there was a local firework show that night with loads of fun activities and lots of displays before the fireworks. On Saturday, we spent the day doing some shopping and then eating at a pizza place for 3 hours. It is a lot like Chuck E Cheese’s but there were very few people there. Emma had a great nap while we were there. That evening we just spent time relaxing and enjoying time with each other. Lee and I returned home early Sunday morning so we could teach our primary class, but we were lucky enough to bring our little niece Katelyn home with us for the week. She has been such a great help in watching and taking care of Emma. Emma sure loves to have other children around.

Less than 2 weeks of work

Two weeks ago our home consisted of a slab of cement on the ground. So much has happened over the last two weeks: house framed, roof placed on home and shingled, siding completed, electrical and plumbing installed, heater/AC installed, insulation added to the walls and attic, sheetrock hung and mudded. The next couple of steps should be the brick the front of the home, sand the mud off the sheetrock, and lay the tile in the kitchen and laundry room, paint the home, and prepare for the cabinets and carpet. Our home should be ready in 2 weeks and in 3 weeks this blog will be updated in our new home. We hope you like the pictures.

Chilling with a Good Book

We bought Emma a little couch because they were on sale and we had a 15% off coupon (gotta love those coupons). She likes to sit on it and look at her books. She use to just look at the front cover and the back cover. She is now finally starting to look at the pages. It is neat to watch her just sit on her couch for several minutes looking at books. She gets into her basket full of books and pulls one out and looks at it then when she is finished she gets another one. I hope that she continues to enjoy looking and eventually reading books.

Emma also likes to throw balls, crawl after them, pick them up and then do it all over again. She is definitly growing up and is becoming very mobile.

Our New House

As you know we are building a new home. They say that it will be done by July 20th but I have some reservations about that. As you can see they are not even ready to pour the slab. I am worried. The only thing that gives me hope is that when I went Friday to look and see what they had done some lots were ready and had the cement trucks there pouring and when we went on Saturday those slabs were poured and framing was being done. So it can be done quick but I hope they hurry. We are so excited to move into a home. We have new neighbors above us and the kids think that they hall way is their personal runway. It will be nice not to have common walls and Emma wont wake up when people jump and run above her room.

What a Month (really the last 3 weeks)

Things have been a little crazy for us over the last month. We were not sure if Lee was going to get the job in Augusta, so we decided that we would look into moving to Missouri. Since Lee had orders to go there in July, this would be the safe bet. This way we could understand the area and determine what we want in a home. So over Memorial Day Weekend we took a short trip (14 hours) to Missouri. It was a really disappointing trip at first, because there was nothing we liked. Finally on the last day we came across one home we really liked and a neighborhood we would love to live in. The rest of the week Lee was dealing with the last week of his Captain's Career Course, which ended on Friday with his graduation Ceremony. Lee finished 5th overall in his academic class ranking. Sorry, but his graduation ceremony is on the video camera and Lee has not reinstalled the software since he crashed my computer.

On the day of Lee's graduation we get an e-mail from the realtor in Missouri that the house we liked dropped another $10,000 in their asking price. This made things rather rough for me. What are we supposed to do? Lee has not had a chance to interview, and we have all ready lost one home we really liked.

Lee started his next class this last week; S6 course (it is supposed to teach him how to be a Battalion Signal Officer) and he got a call letting him know his interview for the job in Augusta would be later in the week. After some last minute changes of time, Lee finally got to interview. As it turned out, he was the only interviewee because unless he didn't want the job, it was all ready his. That evening we went to visit the developer in the area we previously looked at and signed for a home. We will meet with the mortgage broker on Monday to finalize and then our home will soon start to be built. We are told that it will take about 30-45 days to complete our home.

News about Emma is pretty dull. She had a 9 month checkup the day after we returned from Missouri, and the only concern the doctor had was her progress of how she is growing. She grew maybe and inch over the last 3 months, and the doctor is worried. He thinks it may be because she was measure incorrectly during her 6 month visit, but to be sure it is not a thyroid problem or anemic he wanted to draw some blood from Emma. Lee couldn't be there because of some school things, so with the assistance of a nurse and the lab tech, we were all able to hold Emma still enough to attempt to draw blood on the left arm. After failing to draw any, we moved on to the right arm. Success but she really made the three of us work for it.

Emma's latest trick is to play peek-a-boo with herself. She will grad a large cloth or blanket and cover her head up then pull it away to show herself to anyone willing to watch. She loves to play this game. She is also learning how to walk along the front of the couch or any other piece of furniture that she can stand in front of. We will work on getting a few videos up this week, once Lee installs the software I need.