Kalee's birthday party

Oh my...that is all I can say! I don't think I'll be doing that again! Kalee had a great time, but Rich and I are still recovering! We had 3 girls that were very well behaved and respectful and 2 that were a little wild - and those 2 wore me out! Good times!

Wii Bowling

The girls also played Perfection, Connect 4 and OperationThey dancedAnd finally, they ate!

The Basement now has a floor & it's Kalee's birthday!

Today is Kalee's birthday! It really just blows my mind that she is 7! It doesn't feel like I was just pregnant, but it does feel like she was just a little girl...she is growing up way to quick.

The house, in the meantime, can't go quick enough! Now that it is started I am ready to move in! I can't wait until I don't have to share the bathroom with Rich and Kalee in the morning! The basement floor was completed yesterday (they were out there until 11:30 last night).

We snapped this pic on our way out to dinner tonight - the truck with all the wood for framing and trusses had arrived and they were unloading. The builder, Tony, said they might start working on the framing tomorrow.
We got a Wii a couple weeks ago. Kalee played Wii Ski with Rachie when we were in FL for Christmas and it is all she has been talking about...so, it made a perfect b-day present. She was super excited, as you can see!

More House...

So, not too much is new...We now have a Permit box and the all important Port-a-Potty!!! Upon seeing it Rich immediately said "We are going to tip that in the middle of the night"!!! Ya, good times! The third picture is of the garage...we can actually drive onto it, now. The last 2 are of the completed grading of the land. It looks really nice. Tomorrow they are pouring the concrete floor in the basement and framing should start on Monday.

A visit from Crystal & Charley

Crystal and Charley came over to check out the progress on the house...lucky us! Crystal took Kalee out shopping for her birthday, so Rich and I got to babysit Charley for a little bit. The video's are of Charley laughing at my parents...the quality isn't the best, but you'll get the general idea of how cute this baby girl is!!!

Kalee picked out a mask for one of her presents...Aunt Crystal also got her a super cool gemstone rock thingy and a cool key chain...she was in heaven!!!

The best part of being in FL is visiting with Andrew...he is soooo super cute! We pick up the AC equipment tomorrow, then will be heading home

Basement Walls...

They poured the basement walls today - everything looks really good. Kalee is getting excited because she is starting to see how it all is coming together! Tomorrow they will water proof the walls and then will back-fill around the walls on Friday.

They laid out the first layer of gravel for the driveway...very exciting!We will be taking a quick trip to FL this weekend to pick up air conditioning equipment...our friend Donnie is in the AC business and was able to get us a great deal on it, and we are SOOOOO appreciative!

Footers, Power, Wood Flooring and Tile!!!

They completed the footers today and the basement walls go up tomorrow! I missed all of the excitement, today, which is kind of a bummer - it would have been interesting to watch! The power company also installed the power box, so we now have power and water! What more do you need?! ha!

We have also purchased the tile for Kalee's bathroom and the laundry room, and have found some wood flooring that we REALLY like! We have samples coming for a 2nd floor, that we have only seen online, so we are anxiously awaiting its arrival so that we can compare the two. The second flooring choice is $2.oo a sq ft cheaper, so we are hoping we REALLY like that one just a little bit more! Rich is going to install the floors himself...everyone around here keeps telling us how simple it is! Our builder used to install floors himself, so he told Rich he will help get him started, and Rich is going to take a class at Home Depot this weekend. Tile for Kalee's bathroomTile for the Laundry Room

More Basement pics

Brrrr....It's cold outside! 30 degrees...oh, and GO GATORS!

They should be here at 10 am to start the footers.

Digging the Basement

They dug the basement today. It ends up that it was pretty much solid rock in the area where they dug the basement, so we ended up having to dig a hole on another part of the property in order to get fill dirt. Now they will fill that hole with some of the rock they pulled out. We ended up having to pay a little extra to rent the big dumptruck, but what can you do?!

So, the grade of the back yard is a little more severe then we all expected...the video below is of the big dumptruck trying to make it up to where the basement will be, to drive over the dirt to pack it in a little. I didn't think about taking a video until the end, but it was quite comical. Near the end of the video you can see one of the other tractors helping to push it up the incline!

This picture is a little dark, but it shows all the rock that is in the walls of dirt. Rich says "at least our house won't settle too much!"

Tomorrow they lay out the footers and the walls are scheduled to be poured on Monday. Things are moving right along...

Clearing the land!

They started clearing the land on Monday. There have been a few bumps, but nothing major. We've had to shift the house around a little, they found a lot of rock - which thankfully can be broken up by the equipment and doesn't require dynamite...at least so far, and they took out the one tree I didn't want to lose. But other than that they are making progress!

This was the one tree that I did NOT want taken out...but, the slope of the land is greater than they expected and it was this tree or spend up to an extra $20,000 for fill dirt...so, they took the tree!

Kalee and Ally (who is our builders daughter) played while the guys supervised the clearing.

Rocks everywhere! They dug out a test hole and went down about 6 ft and found rock, rock and more rock! Hopefully they will find a little more dirt, so that we don't have to truck it in (and pay for it!!!)