Floor Joists for the 2nd floor

With the 2nd story floor joists on, it gives us a nice perspective of the layout. It is amazing how the perception of size changes so drastically as each stage of the construction is reached.

Our 1st football game at the new house

In all of our good fortune, cousin Clinton Stickel flew in for a short visit. He is a Pilot for United Express and had a 16 hr layover in Peoria of all places. We enjoyed getting to see him, and the girls were so excited to spend time with their cousin. Clint treated us to our 1st game of football at the new house. Marina went out to see the construction with Clint and Don, and packed the football. She is just like her mom - always thinking and planning.


As we drove out of the neighborhood, we got to see some wild turkeys in the neighbor's yard.

The 1st floor

Here is an update today with photos of the 1st floor going up! It really makes it feel like a home now! We can totally visualize the floor plan - and picture our selves sitting back - sipping on a cold coca-cola. Of course that is a ways out, but it seems realistic now----instead of just a dream.

The floor goes down

Today they framed in the stair well opening and completed the sheeting of the main floor. With the sheeting on the 1st floor the space in the basement seems bigger than it used to...which is an exciting feeling.

After a brief rain delay....we're running again.

Of all the times to have a rain delay, it turned out to be a pretty lucky one. Don was in Japan on business, and as it turns out he didn't miss much due to the weather. Today they laid some floor joists.

And....they're off!!!

Yippy Skippy! The lumber is going up! It feels like it's taken plenty of time to get to this stage...but I can see many many many decisions looming right around the corner now. When you are looking from the back - the right side will be the guest room and the left will be the family room/playroom/art room/workout area etc etc etc :) I'm sure I can think of something else it will get used for!

We have a back yard and a walkout basement!

View from the back yard

Looking into the walkout basement

From the east corner - looking out to the back yard

From the garage - across the basement and into the back yard

We went out today and saw the progress of the backfill. They pushed some of the extra dirt around to the back to make a "back yard". Now we can finally start getting a good picture of how our yard is going to look.