The Brittons

There has been a lot happening in the past couple weeks. I'm not going to go into all the details, but here are a few pictures. Since I took these, there has also been a lot more progress. It is hard to keep up, but at the same time, it seems like there is so much more to do before we can move in. The kids had a great time trick or treating! Green Bathroom! Owen's room Gracie's Purple Room (She is very excited!) Owen wanted to help Living Room Dining Area Daddy's Little Monster The Unicorn is excited about all her candy Little Monster (aka: Owen)

Gracie and Owen in their winter coats Stairway with with walls Back of house with finished siding Covered porch Front of house This will be brief...We were supposed to be to the point of painting this past weekend, but the drywall did not dry as quickly as they had hoped. So hopefully we will start painting this week. The gas has been hooked up, so we have a heated house as of last Wednesday. The cabinetry is supposed to be delivered this week and they will install as soon as we paint. The trim boards should also be delivered this week sometime, as well as our garage door. After that, not much is left but the flooring and plumbing/electrical fixtures. We also still need to have water hooked up. Other things are cement for the driveway and sidewalk and gravel for the drive. Gracie was sick over the weekend and I'm taking her to the doctor this afternoon, but of course she is doing fine today, so the trip will probably be worthless. I took her to the ISU football game on Satu...

Dining area looking out the back door Front entryway with open staircase Future basement bedroom with daylight window House with roof Starting the siding There has been lots of progress on the house since my previous post. All of the interior trades are pretty much done. The insulation is almost done and the septic was done this week. The electric was trenched to the house, the roof is finished and the siding has been started. There is a furnace and the gas lines have been run throughout the house. The master bath/shower is in and the upstairs tub/shower is in. The drywall will start either tomorrow or Monday and will be complete by the end of the week. They drywall team will to texturing and priming, then we get to paint all of next weekend. We are supposed to have the painting done by Monday so they can install trim and cabinets. Things are moving along! The anticipated move-in date is November 20, which would be perfect! The next month will be busy, busy, busy! Out for Ann...

Front view Front View Back View This corner will be the kitchen This will be the living room Owen in his room Gracie in her closet...do you think it's big enough? There has been a lot of progress in the past couple days. It looks like the roof and sides are sheeted and maybe ready for shingles. Some of the windows have been put in already and exterior doors are there, but not installed yet. I was so excited when we went out there today to see everything. It's really starting to come together! The cabinet lady was out there measuring today and they did the electrical walkthrough yesterday. Nick also met with the carpenter who is building the front porch yesterday. All this makes me want to start packing up the apartment right now!!!!!

Gracie in her new booster seat for the car Owen in Gracie's old seat Nick and Gracie on the dirt bike They like each other!!! The past few weeks have been busy, as always. There seems to be something every night. Owen had his one year check up with the doctor two weeks ago and he is doing well. He was 24 lbs and 3 oz. He is doing everything he is supposed to be doing except talking. He doesn't say many words yet, but points to things like he wants you to tell him what it is. He is trying. He has learned to sign some words, though. He knows "more," "please," and "all done." We are working with him on "thank you" now. He is starting to use them without being prompted by us, too, which is good. It is so much better than him screaming, which he still does once in a while. Owen is climbing on everything and trying to pull himself up onto whatever he can. He wasn't sleeping very well for awhile and I'm not sure what the pro...

Looking from the garage side of the house Back of house Here are some different perspectives. The top is taken from southeast of the house. The garage will open from the side and there will be a covered porch across the front of the house. The front will look like a ranch house, but we will have 2 beds and a bath upstairs. The second picture is the back and shows the house looking from the northwest. You can see the upstairs windows and back sliding door entry. There is a daylight window that you can see in the basement which will eventually be a 4th bedroom. There is one other egress window that you can't see, just to the left of the door and window. Our bedroom will have a sliding door, too and we will eventually have a deck all the way around the house.

Basement floor is poured 9/9/11 Basement is framed in 9/15/11 Starting on the main level walls 9/21/11 Main level walls are done and trusses started 9/23/11 Second level started and garage trusses done 9/24/11 We finally have something that looks like a house. There was a lot of progress in the framing last week, although we are still behind. Framing was supposed to be finished by now and roofing was supposed to start today, but that did not happen. It probably won't tomorrow, either, but hopefully by mid week. The plan is still to move in by the end of November, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! They have done a lot in the past week and it's looking good. We have picked out our kitchen and bathroom cabinets and will get those ordered as soon as the framing is done. We have also looked at countertop. Nick is supposed to do an electrical walkthrough with our contractor on Wednesday to pick out locations for switches and outlets. I hope they have enough of the interi...

Gracie's new My Little Pony castle Gracie holding Jaxson, her newest cousin Owen riding Zeus with Tony Gracie getting a ride on Bullseye Gracie's ice cream cake! Owen's cake It didn't last very long Gracie in her new pink hat and pink sunglasses Owen sitting in the new Iowa State chair Gracie driving the skid loader The birthdays happened a couple weeks ago. Sorry I haven't uploaded any pictures until now. We celebrated at Gramma Deb's and we are so happy that everyone could be there. They both had a great time. Gracie loved all of the stuff that she got and toys are all over our living room in our apartment now. I can't wait until we have a house again! If you notice in most of the pictures, she is wearing the pink sunglasses. Those were a pretty big hit and she struggled with parting with them during school the first week she had them. Owen is also enjoying all of the new toys, but mostly likes to play with whatever Gracie has. Go figure. Thank y...