Another Winter Weather Weekend

Jim snowblowing our long driveway.

Out front on our sidewalk

Well another weekend has almost past, and along with another batch of winter weather. We got about another 4 to 5 inches of snow on Saturday. Luckily the wind didn't pick up as much as they had anticipated and we were able to get our sidewalk and driveway cleaned out this morning.

We had hoped to celebrate Christmas this weekend with Jim's family, but the weather sure didn't want us to do that. Dave & Jodie were able to make it here Friday evening, but were forced to head out early Saturday afternoon due to the weather. We were able to enjoy a big meal, some quality time on the Nintendo Wii, and of course open a few presents. Thanks again for the great presents!!

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!! We know its early but we don't know if we will get time to post again before the 25th. Hope everyone stays safe and enjoys their Christmas!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Well as you can tell some winter weather has arrived in our area over the past few days. While it really isn't fun ever to get snow, Jim has been happy as he finally has been able to try out our new snowblower!

As you can also see in the picture we did do a little bit of decorating for Christmas on the outside of the house by putting some lighted garland and some bows on the front porch. Hopefully next year we can do a little more, but we mainly focused on getting decorations on the inside of the house this year.

We have been keeping super busy (as you can tell by the lack of posts on here) over the past month or two. We managed to get our holiday baking done this last weekend so we have been loading up on goodies. Jim continues to stay busy doing some work on the side for Superior Auto Auction & Staples Motley Basketball.

We are looking forward to Jim's family coming this weekend to celebrate Christmas here in Wadena. We hope everyone has a safe and joyous holiday season. We can't wait for Christmas to get here, and then we can't wait to go where it is warm in February...hello Vegas and California!!!

We Took Dancing Lessons!!.....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Quick Update

Just a quick update to share with everyone. We thought we would share a couple photos from our trip to Maplewood State Park a couple weekends ago. The fall colors were starting to come out there, but weren't quite to peak yet. They were still fun to look at though. Last weekend we made it official and we closed on our house. We now have joined the crew that has 30 years of debt to repay :-)

This weekend we are going to the Twin Cities for a quick weekend vacation to relax now that the house work is all done for a little while. We hope to have a few pictures to share with everyone. We are also starting to look forward to the holiday season and our trip to Las Vegas in February.

North Shore Fall Colors Tour

Polar Bear @ Lake Superior Zoo

Overlook of Canal Park in Duluth

Jay Cooke State Park

Two Step Waterfall @ Tettegouchee State Park

Well as you can see from some of the above pictures, the fall colors were in abundance this past weekend along the North Shore. We camped in Jay Cooke State Park over the weekend with Jenny's parents and were able to vist many different places along the North Shore. On Friday night we made sure to visit the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory to get a good collection of chocolate for the weekend! Saturday we went to Canal Park, Gooseberry State Park, Split Rock Lighthouse, Silver Bay, Tettegouchee State Park and part of the North Shore Scenic Drive. Sunday we went to the Lake Superior Zoo, a drive through Jay Cooke State Park and even tried our luck at the Black Bear Casino. I won't elaborate on the casino part as that didn't go so well. All in all we had a lot of fun over the weekend, but we still enjoy coming back to our house!

On Friday afternoon we had our brand new kitchen table and chairs delivered and we couldn't be happier with the way it looks in the house. This coming weekend Jim's family plans to come visit and we hope to go over to Maplewood State Park and check out the fall colors there. Hope everyone is enjoying their fall!

Our House Is Finished!!!

Well since it has been about two months since we last posted something, we figured it would be best to bring everyone up to speed. We have officially moved into our house now and we couldn't be happier with the way everything turned out. There are still a few ongoing projects over the course of the next year that we will tackle like the basement, "man cave", landscaping and yard. The other big project we hope we can do next year is put a deck on the back of the house as you can see from the top picture where that will go.

If any of you are ever in the Wadena area be sure to give us a call or swing by and visit. We also have planted our first tree in the front yard about 2 weeks ago. It is a weeping willow tree and Jenny couldn't be happier as she always wanted one.

Hopefully now that we are moved and settled in we can update our blog a little more often than once every two months :-). We do plan to go to Duluth next weekend and check out the fall colors so we should have some pictures from that trip to share. Other than that lets hope the weather stays like it is and the snow stays away :-)

House Update - July 20th

We just wanted to share a few quick pictures with everyone on how our house is coming along. The were able to begin siding the house on Friday and hopefully they get a nice week of weather to complete it this coming week. Also, you can see that the interior work has been going good. The texture and paint should hopefully begin to go on later this week. We hope to share some more pictures later this week when things continue to progress. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!!

Our "Sandpiper" siding begins to be put on

Looking into the living room from the stairway landing

House Update - July 14th

Things have been pretty crazy for us the last couple of weeks. We have been busy with the house and trying to find time to still enjoy the summer. We were able to have a nice weekend at Maplewood State Park over the 4th of July weekend camping with Jenny's family. As you can see from the picture above things continue to progress with the house and we still hope to be able to move in by the end of August. Be sure to check beck every now and then for more updates on the house and what we are up to.

Also, Happy Birthday to this fella today!

House Update - June 26th

We just wanted to post a quick update since it has been a little while. Things have been pretty busy for us as usual. During the last week some inside work has been done by the plumber and electrician. On Tuesday night we went to Menards and picked out most of our interior lighting and we are happy with what were able to pick from. Jim has been in Minneapolis the last couple days for the Minnesota E-Health Summit, so that has kept him out of trouble! :-) This weekend we hope to wire the house with coax, cat3 (telephone) and cat5 (ethernet). Thats all we know for now!

House Update - June 20th

As you can see from the pictures below, we now have our main front window in. We couldn't be happier with the way this window looks and turned out. The interior walls are now are in place also for all three floors. We put up a few sheets of plywood down in our mechanical room and painted them tonight so they would be ready for all the elec / plumbing / heating & cooling work to be mounted to. Enjoy the pictures!

Front of the house (window is in master bedroom)

Garage view showing window for room above garage

View from the stair landing looking out one of the dormers.

House Update - June 19th

Here are a couple pictures we took last night of the interior of the house. We should have some more pictures tomorrow hopefully. All of the interior walls are pretty much built now on all three floors so we are getting a good feel for what all the rooms are like. Next week it looks like all the interior work will begin. For now enjoy the couple pictures, and tomorrow we should have some more of the inside and the outside. Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather finally!

"Man Cave" above the garage

Stairway in the basement (looking from the family room)

House Update - June 15th

There has been quite a bit of activity in the last few days at our house. The shingling of the house and garage is pretty much complete except for venting at the peaks on the house. This coming week a lot of interior work will be done such as the walls and staircase. This will allow our plumber, electrician and heating crews to get in the house next week and begin their tasks. Our garage floor has the in floor heating in place and the cement floor is set to be poured tomorrow morning. Hopefully if all goes well with the weather this week, we might just see some windows get put in by the end of the week. For now enjoy the updated pictures, and Happy Fathers Day!!!

Front Yard

Northeast Side Of House

Back Yard

In Floor Heating For Garage Floor

House Update - June 10th

So far this week the weather has been on our side, but it appears that is about to change for the rest of the week with rain/thunderstorms coming our way. The building crew has been able to finish sheating the roof over the house, and begin the shingling process. The back of the house is fully shingled, and the front of the house is about half way done. They hope to have enough breaks from the rain to finish the shingles on the house and then move onto the garage by the end of this week. After that we should be able to see the soffits and windows go into place. Enjoy the pictures for now and try to stay dry!

House Update - June 7th

Even though it wasn't the nicest of weeks weather wise, the building crew did a remarkable job on getting the rafters placed and most of the decking put on the rafters. They were able to finish putting up all the rafters the end of this week, and get the dormers built and into place. Hopefully they can get some reasonable weather this coming week and get the shingles in place so that we can get the windows in and start with all the other projects. Enjoy the pictures and we hope to have some more updates next week for everyone!

House Update - June 4th - House Rafters

Even though it did rain AGAIN today, the builders braved the elements and were able to place the rafters on the house. They got a little bit of decking onto the rafters on the rear of the house, before starting to work on the rafters over the master bedroom. Hopefully, they can get a little bit more done tomorrow, before it appears that the rain will end their progress for this week. Enjoy the pictures!!!

View from the County Road

View from the driveway


View from the front yard

House Update - June 3rd

We'll the weather held up just long enough for us on Monday for the builders to be able to set the rafters over the garage area. As you can see in the following pictures it is quite a steep pitch roof we went with on our house. We both really like the look and options this gave us with the house. As you can see when looking at the pictures, due to the steep roof, we were able to put a nice 14' x 26' room with a full 8' ceiling above our garage. The rain held off most of today again and the builders were able to get all of the sheeting/decking on the rafters over the garage and prepare the rest of the house for the rafters to be placed tomorrow morning. Hopefully later tomorrow night or Thursday evening we will have some pictures to share showing all the rafters in place besides the dormers of course. Hope everyone is staying dry during this rainy spell!

View from the front yard.

View from the back yard.

House Update - May 30th - Then There Was A Garage!

As you can tell by looking at the pictures below, the frame of the garage is now in place. The schedule for next week is for the rafters for the garage to be placed on Monday, and the rafters for the house to be placed on Wednesday. This is of course rain and wind pending, as that can change the schedule drastically. Hopefully at the end of next week we will have a picture that will show the outside of the house for what it will look like in the end. It is exciting to see the house coming along more and more each day.

North side of house & garage

South side of house & garage

Busy Busy Busy / House Update - May 28th

Well there has been plenty going on for us over the past couple of days. On Sunday we went to Milnor to attend Darci's (cousin of Jim) graduation party in Milnor and visit with Jim's parents. On Monday, along with Jenny's Dad, we backfilled the house. Last night, we broke out our tar skills again and put tar on the garage area. Tonight, we were able to go to Hannah's (our niece) 5th birthday party. On our way over there we swung by the house and got some updated pictures to share with everyone. You can see in the pictures that they have the main walls of our second floor in place so that they can place rafters starting next week if the weather and wind are kind enough to let them do this. The plan for the rest of this week if the weather is nice enough is to build the walls of the garage and the stairway from the basement to the second floor. Hopefully, if all happens to go well, in a couple weeks the outside of the house will look like the finished product, and we can begin the work on the interior. Stay tuned for more!

House Update - May 22nd

Well we have to hand it to our building crew. Not only have they done a huge amount of work in only 6 working days, but they have worked so fast that they have made the lumber yard run out of material and earned themselves a 5 day weekend. The good part is though, the house won't be sitting still during these days. Today the in floor heating tubing in the basement was to be installed, and the concrete basement floor is set to be poured over it tomorrow. We hope that then on Monday we can backfill around the house and prep the garage area. The plan for next week by the builders is to finish off the second floor, the staircase, and the garage. The rafters are set to be delivered and placed on June 2nd, along with the roof being shingled the rest of the week following that. The windows are also set to be delivered/installed on June 5th so things are coming along nicely. We also gave our custom cabinet maker the go ahead to begin his part of the project today so we are getting further and further along each day. We have included some pictures here to show the builders progress thus far. We are showing the house from each direction starting with the west side, then the south side, east side, and finally the north side. Hope you enjoy!!

House Update - May 17th

Today we put on the old clothes, and along with Jenny's dad we placed tar all over the treated plywood that was put in place on the basement walls. Let just say that by the time we were done it would seem that one of the buckets of tar was dumped on us. It was quite the experience for both of us, but we didn't mind doing it especially since we know it only saves us money in the long run! :-) Enjoy a few pictures of todays work. In the pictures you can also see that the garage foundation has been put in place, and that the floor joists between the basement and first floor are now set. Here's hoping that mother nature can keep the rain away this coming week so we can get more work done on the house!

Just starting the job on the south side of the house.

North side of the basement full of tar.

South side of the basement full of tar.

Basement Walls! - House Update May 14th

As you can tell from the above pictures we officially have our basement walls in place on the house. The building crew along with Jenny's dad were able to cut all the boards needed and put them in place today. It is extremely fun to be able to walk in there now and get a feel for the size and dimensions for everything that we had picked out. The plan for tomorrow is to put the supporting wall for the garage and the floor trusses in place between the basement and the first floor. We plan to hopefully be able to tar and waterproof wrap the walls this weekend...nothing like some good sweat equity!! The first picture shown is looking in one of the basement bedrooms (NE corner of the house). The second picture is looking to the east as in all the previous pictures in older posts. Stay tuned for more pictures later this week!

House Update - May 11th / Camping

On Thursday afternoon our footings were poured for our house. On Friday the forms were removed and you can now really see the basic layout of the house. The goal for this coming week is to get the basement walls created and placed. If things go really well we might be able to see the floor trusses placed on top of the walls, but we will just hope for walls. The picture above is standing at the garage and looking to the east with the master bedroom in the top left corner again.

This weekend we were lucky enough to get away and do some more camping with Jenny's parents. We went to Mantrap Lake Campground and enjoyed the weekend there, except for the snowfall on Saturday night (thankfully it didn't stick around). On Saturday we also went to Itasca park and went to the Mississippi headwaters as the picture shows. We tried our luck at fishing on Saturday and Sunday a little bit and all we had to show as a small Walleye and small Sunfish that Jim caught and gave back to the lake. That is all that is new with us!

House Update - May 7th

Well today there was some more activity on the house. The concrete guys along with Jenny's dad put down the forms to lay the footings for the house. From looking at the forms you can get a general layout of the house. The very bottom of the picture is where the garage is, and the top left of the picture is the master bedroom kickout. They expect to resume work tomorrow morning and put down the rebar and pour the concerete into the forms. The walls of the basement should begin construction next week, and the in floor heating and basement floor should be in place shortly after that. Not sure what we will get for an update here in the next couple of days as we plan to go on a camping trip for the fishing opener this weekend in Minnesota!!! Stay tuned......