Recap of 2011

2011 has been an amazing year!! When I stop to look back at everything that has happened this year I am blown away!

First up I started and finished my last placement of grad school at Kettering Hospital. It made me realize that I love working with adults and the elderly. While some days were rough overall I had a great experience there.

Then in May I graduated with my Masters and had my job lined up for once I received my license (huge blessing)!! A few weeks after graduating we went to Colorado to visit family and show Matt how beautiful the mountains are. It was great to spend time with family and go sightseeing.

In June I started my job. While there are days I may not want to go to work, I really enjoy what I do. I love the people that I work with, we have one of the best rehab teams anywhere!! I love seeing my patients progress and helping them get back home. 

In September we had our offer accepted on a new construction house that they are working on building now. It is such a fun progress to drive by everyday and see the progress. It almost doesn't seem real that it is our house. I can't wait to see it once it is done and ready for us to move in!!

November was a bitter-sweet month. It was a relaxing first part of the month since most of the stuff for the house was done we were just waiting on them to get permits and break ground. The Friday before Thanksgiving we found out that Matt's grandma was back in the hospital. We hoped and prayed for the best. That week was tough for his family as her health continued to decline. The week-end following Thanksgiving he lost his grandmother. While I can't imagine the pain his family went though it was so hard for me to see people that I love so much going though that pain. She was a wonderful person who loved everyone and always had a smile on her face. She is greatly missed by everyone that knew her.

December has been an exciting time with the house as they broke ground and we now have a basement and lumber for them to start framing any day. We both have December birthdays and then there is Christmas which makes for a busy month. My Dad came up for Christmas this year which is always nice. I love being able to spend time with him. We went over to Matt's family on Christmas day and spent some time with them. It is so fun to watch how excited the kids are for Christmas! Then we went back over to my mom's to spend time with my dad and my grandparents.  I am so thankful that my grandma was able to come up for Christmas this year. It truly was a great Christmas!!

 So if you made this far reading congrats!! I can't believe how much as happened in one year and can't wait to see what the new year brings! Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!

Walls and Floors

So this post is a little overdue, but I figured I better catch everyone up since the holidays are over.
On the Friday, 16th, they had the forms off the walls and this is what I saw. All the basement walls are done!

That Sunday the 18th, we went back to house so Matt could check out the progress. He was looking in our basement windows.

On Monday the 19th they waterproofed the basement and put the metal things around the basement windows. As you can tell they just made small progress over these days, but I was just happy to see that something was done.

On that Friday, the 23rd I decided to drive by the house. When driving up to the house I noticed that there were steel beams. So I decided to get out and get a better look at what all they did, and guess what?? We have basement floors!! This is one big step closer to framing :)

While my Dad was in town for Christmas he wanted to see the lot so we drove up on Monday. While nothing else was done on the house we stopped in the model home and talked to the sales rep. She said that they expected our lumber to be dropped off sometime that week. All week I drove by the house to see nothing there. Well today, Thursday, Matt was working near the house and let me know that they poured the garage floor this morning. After work I drove by and we have a garage floor and lumber!! I just had my iPhone with me so the pictures aren't great, but here is a pile of our lumber. I am not sure when they will start framing. I am so excited for it to start looking like a house :)

Progress on the house

Since my last post they have been busy doing a little something almost everyday. On Thursday, 12/8, this is what I saw. They put down wood forms to pour the footers.

The next day they poured our footers. It was kinda rainy that day so I just stop by, saw more straw, and left. On Saturday we went up and realized that all the extra straw was to cover up our footers. Here is me in our basement :)

Not much happened over the week-end. On Tuesday we went by and they were laying down some black tubing and putting our sub-pump housing in. I have pictures but they aren't on my computer yet. Wednesday rained some nothing was done, even though I still did my daily drive by to check the progress.

Today after work I drove by the lot expecting to see little to no progress. Well when I turned the corner onto our street I saw concrete trucks by our lot.  Then I saw the tops to forms for our basement walls. As I drove closer I was surprised to see that they were pouring our walls. Since they were busy working I just took a few pictures and left. I will go back tomorrow to get a better look at everything :)

We have a hole

We were supposed to break ground on Dec. 5th, but thanks to the massive amounts of rain we had in Ohio it got pushed back to an unknown date. While our sales rep, Tammy, said she would let us know when the backhoe showed up, I still drove by the lot everyday this week. Yesterday I noticed they had broken ground on a lot around the corner so I was hoping today would be our day. I never did hear from Tammy, but I figured I would drive by the lot just in case.

To my surprise as I came around the corner I noticed tons of dirt sitting on our lot. So they officially started on our house today! While I was tramping though the mud the backhoe driver showed up and started to level off the huge mounds of dirt. All I had was my iPhone so the pictures aren't the best but I plan to going back tomorrow during my lunch to get some better pictures. I love working so close to our future house!!

 The basement

The mid level dirt is for the rec room aka man cave

 One of the piles of dirt