It's the Holiday Season

We have been in our house for a month now and we love it! It's nice when the first decorations you put up in your home are for the Holidays. If nothing else, it gives us a little more time to decide where everything should go.

Thatcher has been a busy boy exploring every room - and lucky for him, where ever he goes, we go. He loves to be on the move but still needs support for balance. And although we sometimes wish he could do it on his own, we are not in any hurry for him to get too independent too fast - he's still our little boy (10 months old now). The best part of his immobility is that he cannot get into trouble yet.

We're gearing up for a busy Christmas week. Work parties and gatherings with family & friends will lead us right into our Christmas celebrations. We can hardly wait to watch Thatcher as he experiences his first Christmas, but we're almost certain that his favorite thing will be eating and shaking paper and boxes.

From our home to yours,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Giving Thanks

THANKS!

We have so much to be thankful for this year and so many people to thank for all of their hard work. We were able to move into our new home on November 13th and have enjoyed every minute of finally living here. Although we still have a few unfinished projects and some decorating to do, we have found some 'normalcy' and have all been able to sleep peacefully.

Everyone, with the exception of Deacon (on occassion), have found it easy being here instead of at our home in town.... Deacon has graced 3rd Avenue to visit his old territory a couple of times - unfortunately that means we get calls to go pick him up or have him escorted home from the local law enforcement. We are hopeful that he will soon decide it's great here and only explore town when he is with us.

Here are some new pictures of our new home. Come visit for the full tour!

The sun room floor went in this morning. It looks beautiful!

Thatcher's room.

The front entrance.

Our bedroom.

The kitchen.



And Thatcher! He seems to love his new digs.

Packing begins

The past few weeks we have really been able to see what our new house is going to look like. Paint, tile, flooring, pine walls, cabinets, countertops, landscaping, you name it - it has been very busy and full of excitement. That being said, we have also started packing our belongings - a little each day - in anticipation of a move in the next couple of weeks.

Here are some updated pictures of our progress.

The sun room walls are mostly in, top row of windows should be installed this week - weather permitting.


The floor, vanities, sinks, towel bars, and toilet have all been installed in the master bath.



This is Thatcher's bathroom (our main level bathroom). You can see the bathtub in the mirror.

The laminate floor was installed last weekend. Now's its covered with paper but it is beautiful!

The kitchen - WOW -

The countertops went in today and they are perfect. Lots of good meals and good times to come...

It's a house.

The rule was that we wouldn't call it our house until the roof was completed. Now that we can call it our house, we are looking forward to calling it our home.


The last couple of weeks have been full of siding, tiles, paint, landscaping, and many other fun projects. Here are a few pictures to get you updated on where we are in the adventure that is 'building a house'.



This is the sun room wall overlooking the lake. The lower level of windows are in with the upper windows to be installed next week sometime.




Both bathroom floors are tiled - one grouted, one more to go. We rounded up some extra help for tiling and painting and are very satisfied with the results (the help and tiles and paint, of course).

Last weekend we were able to get some outside landscaping done. Edgers, rock and plants have been added and we even have a little bit of new grass making an appearance.

Deacon and Indy have already found the slab where the kennel will be and have been able to make theirselves at home - both were napping until we took the camera out, at which point Indy raised her head.

Last weekend we also planted a tree for Thatcher. We recieved a gift certificate when he was born and used it to buy a River Birch. We are very excited to see it grow and provide a little shade for us. It will also serve as a reminder of our crazy year that started with our little guy.

On a side note, Thatcher is 8 1/2 months old now. He's been working very hard on growing teeth lately and has two to show off right now. He's also getting very strong and ready to move but has yet to figure out anything but rolling. (I think maybe we're lucky that he is immobile while we're working on the house.)

Cabinets!! We are very happy with our delivery this week. The kitchen cabinets are beautiful. Soon we will also have the top row doors (waiting on the glass) and countertops.

The Sherlin boys sitting in the soon-to-be living room. I am so lucky to have two smiling boys to live with!

We are planning another eventful weekend and hope to have another update to you soon.

Progress, Progress, Progress

To start, I must apologize for my lack of posts lately. Some would say I have been slacking but actually that couldn’t be farther from the truth. We have been so busy with projects at the new abode we haven’t had time to keep you all updated. That along with the fact that we shut off our internet earlier this summer and our neighbors connections either have security enabled (who wouldn’t trust us?) or don’t have a super signal that allows us to connect for more than a few minutes at snail speeds. I am actually writing this on word and sending it with Breanna so she can post it at work tomorrow. Since our last post so much has happened I’m sure I will forget to mention some of it, but I’m going to do my best.

Along with more ridiculous amounts of rain, we did have a couple dry spells so the guys were able to finish the roof and, at this point, it is nearly shingled. Only the south side of the garage and part of the sunroom peak are left to be completed. We have steps and a landing into the house from the garage, and more importantly, we have steps up to the bonus room in the garage. Our electricians were rough in the entire house – which was exciting to see where lights and switches were going to be. The plumber also came in and got the lines and drains roughed in. Along with life, during this time we were busy sanding and varnishing doors, door jambs, bi-fold closet doors and window jambs. We were able to procure some help for this project: Finishing by Jim is the name of the gentleman’s business. He does fine work and for mere cups of coffee he’s willing to put in many hours. The beauty of this project is that we are fortunate enough to use Grant Hustad’s airplane hanger, which provides us with ample room to set up our work area to complete our projects. We will be moving on to trim and tongue and groove later this week.

I was able to talk Breanna into splurging a little bit on our insulation after getting some quotes on spray foam. We decided to foam all our exterior walls upstairs and our walk-out wall downstairs. It was really neat to watch this process. It only took them one day to complete and while the price was higher the savings in heating and cooling will pay for itself (we hope) within seven years. Along with the higher R-Value it also adds strength and rigidity to the walls.

Last week the house really started to take shape. After rounding up a little help from Tim, we hung plastic sheeting on the ceiling of the house and the garage as well as the garage walls. This is a vapor barrier for moisture. We didn’t have to do this on the walls of the house because the spray foam acts as a vapor barrier as well as insulates.

The sheetrockers started early last week and were able to hang the main level and the garage and start on the tape and mud before the weekend. This week the house received the final coat and the walls were even textured today. The garage needs a little more time dry so it is a little behind the rest of the house.

We also got two of our three garage doors last week. There was a mix up when the ordered the doors but luckily for us there was another mix up somewhere else so we were able to snag two doors from that mix up, which are actually a better quality and better insulated doors than we had picked out. The best part is that we get them for the same price as our original choice (so we caught a nice break there).

The ceilings in the house are getting textured tomorrow so there is a chance we will be able to prime before or during the weekend and get to the painting next week. Last week I also framed in our walk-in shower and started hanging the cement board. All we have left there is to waterproof the walls and floors and start with the tile.

Probably the biggest change, aside from the sheetrock, happened today. The excavator came back today and finished moving dirt around. We no longer have large piles of dirt and sand all around the house but can see what our yard will really look like. Now if we can just get some grass started…

The Dog's View

We've often wondered what Deacon and Indy are thinking but this post is not about their view on the world but their view from their new kennel location. The kennel is not yet up but Friday did mark an important day - the cement slab for the kennel was poured. We're not sure but think it would be fair to ask for rent since the view from their new home is amazing. Not only will they have a look over the lake, they will also have the option to be inside the garage or outside with the addition of their new dog door. This will definately be a change in our routine, as we are very used to moving the dogs from inside to out and outside to in, depending on the weather, time of day, etc.

Other big events at the Sherlin lot since the last post include continued work on the roof - it is almost completely constructed and much of the sheeting is in place. Another day or two and it should be entirely set and ready for shingles. Many hours in the afternoons and evenings have been spent working more on rocks and backfill. This weekend we put up the mailbox and we were able to "mostly" complete the rock wall on the northeast side of the house, near the porch. We also filled in many gaps between the boulders. It's amazing how one little hole can take so many rocks to fill - often times we had repeat trips to fill the buckets because we found that the gap was really a tunnel to the bottom and needed to be filled all the way up. We are very fortunate, however, because we were able to get rocks for filling (no scavenging this time) from our neighbors. This saved us a lot of time and effort. A few more days of rocks and we should be ready for the next project. We may even do some planting, which will make Breanna's day.

The dormers were added to the main roof and everything is getting sheeted.

Our new mailbox (the closest one) was put up on Saturday.

The rock wall on the northeast side.

Rocks Rocks Rocks

The Great Wall of Trophy Lake is nearly complete. We figure it to be about 85% done with all the major lifting complete. The remainder that has to be finished is nearly all smaller rocks (when i say smaller that is in comparison to the huge boulders we have been moving that past few weeks). None of this could have been done without help from our rocking placer extraordinaire John. There are still a couple smaller walls that need to be put up along the other side of the house but nothing near the magnitude of this wall. It feels great to see it up and know that the hard part is overwith. The guys also got some more rafters up at the end of the week as well as some sheeting on one side of the garage roof.

Saturdays progress

The wall nearly complete

Bonus room above garage

Sheeting on garage roof

Rafters

The guys got started with the roof yesterday (between showers). They have all of the garage finished and will start on the house tomorrow and hopefully finish up setting them the middle of next week. If all goes as planned it should be sheeted by next weekend but that depends on the weather of course (not our best friend during this process).

Garage

Well with the exception of a 4 foot area in on corner the garage is framed and sheeted. It looks much bigger now that the walls are up. Tomorrow they start with the roof as long as the rain holds off. There is a decent chance the rest of the week but hopefully the guys can get some work done. Hopefully more pics tomorow of the roof.

View from down the lakeshore


View from across the lake

I Have Gas

Many of you may already know this title to be true but the future Sherlin household now has gas as well. It was put in late last week. The rafters were also dropped off Thursday of last week. Just in time to sit through a 5 inch rain overnight and into Friday. We had some wash out and a bunch of water in the house but after much sweeping I was able to get it cleaned up and everything was dry by late in the weekend. We had a setback on the rock wall due to a skidloader issue (it wont start...fairly large issue). We did get a bunch more smaller rock moved into position and were able to get a few of the larger ones in place Sunday. The guys were back on location today and nearly finished framing the garage. That as well as the sheeting should be completed tomorrow so we will post some pics of that when it is all complete. After that its on to the roof, should be a fun and busy week.

Thatcher Update: The big guy was into the Dr. last Wednesday and weighed in at 19lbs which put him in the 77th percentile. He was 26 1/2 inches which was in the 54th percentile and his head circumference was 18 1/2 inches which puts him in the 99.4th percentile. So that being said we hope theres a bunch of brain in there and not just emptiness like his dad.

Rock Wall

Construction of the Great Wall of Trophy Lake was continued this weekend. It doesnt look like we made a lot of progress but it sure felt like it when were we done for the day. We probably completed about 20% of this wall and there are two smaller ones that we will need to do at some point as well. It was also a big day because Thatcher had his 6 month birthday. We have another week without carpenters but hopefully that will give me some time to continue with the rock walls. Things should really fly when they get back next week so ill be sure to keep the posts coming fast and furious.