Skiing and Drywall

The skiing crew- Kate was awesome!!

Drywall- Office

Lucas's bedroom

Master bedroom

Kitchen/nook

Kitchen/pantry

Nook

Front door

Playroom/sewing room

Kate's Preschool Ballet Recital

Click here to see Kate's Christmas ballet recital!

Starting to look like a house again!

Kate and I were out in San Antonio again this weekend to check out the progress on the house. With much of the insulation up, the rooms are becoming more defined and it is starting to come to life!

Here is the main room

                                                                         
                                                                              Office

                                                                          Entryway

                                         Main room looking down the hallway to the bedrooms

                                               I just barely fit between the studs:)

Newly painted door

                                                     Kate helps by decorating the studs for us

                                                               Kate's claim on her room

                                                                  and baby Luke's room

Kate was also in a Christmas program this week. It was adorable!



Windows and doors, plumbing and foundation

Lots of work on the house these past few weeks! Loren and Kent discovered yet more problems with the back wall and decided to remove the entire exterior wall. 

 Kate is now an expert at trips to Home Depot.

Back yard view from main room

 And she has her very own measuring tape that she carries on her hip and goes around measuring everything.

Kids bathtub! Loren insisted on the cast iron tub. (since you know, he takes lots of baths???)

 Master bedroom window

 Master bedroom sliding door

 Main room French doors

 Back wall, now filled in with siding and doors and windows

 Plumbing

 Breakfast nook. Wish I would have requested taller windows here...

 Front with new windows

It is coming along!!!

House update

Starting to re-build instead of tear down!!

Kate's bedroom

 Entry/Office

Entry/office from other side (new hallway)

 Master bathroom

 Great Room and Kitchen/nook

Back wall of great room/bathroom

More news

So the big news of this month is that we bought a house in Boerne, TX and I officially gave notice at my job. I'll be leaving in Feb. and moving to San Antonio, where Loren has been working for the past few months and has recently been permanently assigned. It will be SO wonderful to live in the same town as a family again!

The house we bought was a foreclosure, with LOTS of problems. Definitely a "fixer-upper." But we got a really great deal and already have it pretty much gutted! Loren's parents came out last week to start working on it. We figured out a general plan and they went to work on demolition.

Some interesting finds so far:
-the house does not have a foundation (oops, minor building oversight)
-it is completely infested with fleas
-there was a dead raccoon under the master bathroom

So that gives you a bit of an idea of what we are up against!

It was really really gross to start with and was totally random. There were rooms added on in a maze so you never knew where you were, and random things like a hot water heater in the middle of the master bedroom (literally).

We've had a great time planning what to do. We are moving walls, rewiring, redoing plumbing, adding bedrooms, etc.

Here is a shot of the original layout:

And the new plan:

Here are a few before photos:

Front of the house

Master bathroom

Kitchen

Living room

Bedroom #1

Here is the link for the rest of the before photos.

So now, many walls have come down, drywall is down, all fixtures have been removed, and it is basically a shell. They tell me the foundation is next, then framing for exterior doors/windows.

So here are some new photos from this weekend:

Kitchen and living room (with bedroom #1 walls and kitchen wall gone)

Taking a break

Kitchen with playroom in back

breakfast nook

Living room/ bedroom #1 with walls gone

Hallway to kids bedrooms

Kids bedrooms

Here is the link for all of the recent photos.

Big changes!! We are very excited. A million thanks to Kent and Debbie for all their work and to Jim and Sarah Hewitt for their extended stay facilities:)