2013 Resolutions

2013 is fast approaching and I need to think of what resolutions I would like to make.  I know that some people, probably all of you, that read this don't really care about what my resolutions are.  But it helps me to write them down so that I stick to them.  This post is mostly for my benefit.

1. Do a full 90 days of P90X.  This is something that I have never accomplished, but I have always wanted to.  I want to stick with it for the full 90 days.  No slacking.  Since I still have about 15 pounds that I would like to lose, I figured I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone this way.  And by doing this, I can lose the weight and get toned and in shape as well.
2. Read more classics.  I made a resolution last year to read more, which I did.  I ended up reading 6 books.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but it was a big accomplishment for me.  I now want to focus on reading more classics rather than any old book.  It's going to be hard, but that is why I want to accomplish it.
3. Have a better attitude toward life.  I like to consider myself to be a positive person.  I am pretty optimistic about life and people.  I think that everything happens for a reason and that everything works out the way that it is supposed to for you at that time.  There are somethings and people, mostly people that I deal with at work, that I could have a better attitude towards.
4. Make new friends.  This one sounds silly I know.  But with us moving to a new house and city we will not know anyone around us.  I would like to make some new life friends in our new neighborhood and ward.
5. Have a smooth transition into owning a house.  We move in 29 days.  That is not a super long time from right now.  I would like for everything to go smoothly with the mortgage lender, moving itself, and getting a yard and fence put in.  I am going to keep a positive attitude and put my #3 resolution into effect starting now.

That's all I have thought of for now.  I hope that you all come up with great New Year's resolutions and that you are able to stick with them though out the next 365 days.  I hope that the new year brings happiness and a feeling of accomplishment for everyone of you.

I wish you all the best and hope that you have a. . .  
Happy and Safe New Year!

Tape and Mud and a Litte Bit More.

Yesterday was a fun day.  My sister, Ami and her family came down to Provo to spend the afternoon with us.  It ended up being a lot of fun.  First, we took them to our house so that they could see where we were going to live, and the progress that has been done to it.  Once we got there we had to track through the 8" of snow that were on the ground.  We were hoping that we would find sidewalk while we were doing it.  Don't worry though, the snow hadn't quite hardened the dirt, so we found a lot of mud instead.  We got up to the porch, turned the knob on the front door, it was locked.  We couldn't believe it.  Chris tracked his was around the house to the garage, but it had been sealed off to keep the cold out so that things could dry better.  So he went around back to see if the sliding glass door in the back of the house was unlocked.  It sure wasn't.  We saw that every window was slightly cracked open though.  That gave me an idea.  Ryan and Chris lifted me up through one of the front windows so I could unlock the front door for everyone.  Breaking into our house for the first time. . .  Check.

Tape and mud is all done.

Even the ceilings are completed.

But it looks like there was still some work to be done.

 After we were done breaking into our house, we moved on to our next activity.  We decided to try this new place in Provo called, Color Me Mine.  It was actually a fun place to go.  Chris and I already want to go back and paint more things.  What you do there is pick out a ceramic sculpture, dish (cup, plate, etc.), different kitchen items, vases, you get the idea.  They have a lot of different options for you to choose from.  Once you pick out what you are going to do, you paint it anyway that you want.  They have a ton of different colors, and stencils, and different things to help you make your creation awesome.  After you are done painting it, you leave it there for a few days and they fire it for you.  Once that is done, you go and pick it up and it is super shiny and protected so that you can use it in your everyday life.

Ryan and Tyson were painting a basketball piggy bank.

The end result.

Kenlee chose to paint a dog.

Her end result.

Ami chose a really cute giant mug.

Her end result.

Chris and I chose a giant mug as well.

Our end result.

 We had a lot of fun painting our creations.  We are excited to go and pick them up to see them not so chalky.  After that we went to a new pizza place, well new to us.  It is call Malawi's Pizza.  It was really good as well.  In the end, everyone seemed to have a good time, and everything yesterday turned out fantastic.  I had a lot of fun and I hope that we can make Donio trips a regular thing.

The cute Donio family.

We had a great time.

A Completely Different House

On the journey of going to see our house yesterday, we didn't expect a lot to have happened.  We were still waiting for the inspector to come and look at everything to make sure the electrical and HVAC was up to code.  Boy, were we wrong to think that hadn't been done.  There has been SO much that happened in 2 days.

We got a text from Julie on Wednesday saying that they were delivering our drywall.  On Thursday, she sent me a text letting me know that there had been no progress on the drywall front.  We were a little bummed, but not shocked.  Chris's dad deals with city planners and codes and all of that stuff for his job.  He said that Springville was notorious for moving slowly in that regard.  We didn't expect any news or updates until after Christmas.  Which was fine for us.  They had already been moving super fast, so we didn't really care.  On Friday, we got the picture from Julie saying that our house had been wrapped and the outside was going to be started soon.  But she also said that she hadn't checked on the drywall progress that day, so she didn't know if anything had happened.  We still went down on Saturday with Chris's parents because they wanted to see the electrical and HVAC system.  When we pulled up to the house we had a pleasant surprise with 3 workers in our garage.  We were confused since it was a Saturday and normally they worked Monday - Friday.  We walked in the front door and our entire house had the drywall up.  The workers were in the garage putting up the last 3 or 4 sheets of drywall for our house.  And I have to say, there were moving very very quickly.  The house was a mess, but that was fine because they had put up everything in 2 days.  Plus I knew that they would clean up after themselves.  When you move that fast you can't be concerned about cleaning up your mess during the process. 

With the drywall up, it looks like a completely different house.  It's weird how every step makes it look like a little more like the house we picked out.  From here on out it's only going to get more and more "Gardner".  We'll be able to start seeing all of the details that we chose.  We are very excited for the next 5 weeks/37 days.  I know that the time is going to go by really really fast.  We are now on excitement overload.

I am not going to put up all of the pictures.  There are a lot of them.  I am just going to put up the ones that are the most interesting.  If you would like to see more of them, and have a full tour, you can click here and look at my Facebook album titled 'Building a House'.

{We have really tall ceilings}

{Our extra bedrooms and the main bathroom are on the left}

{The living room}

{The kitchen}

It's There. . . Just Not Started

The inspection is done.  Yesterday we had our drywall delivered.  They should hopefully get started on that soon.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that it will be before Christmas.

Hooray for drywall.

It Doesn't Look Like A Lot. . .

Since we were in Springville 6 days ago a lot has happened.  Even though it doesn't look like much on the outside, a lot has been done on the inside.  When Chris told me what the next steps were going to be, I assumed it was going to take about 2 weeks.  Silly me.  When we went to go see the progress yesterday (which was only 5 days after we last saw the house) we noticed a lot had been done.  As said in my last post, we have shingles on the roof, we have all of the electrical done, and we have the HVAC system in as well.  Side note:  Chris had to educate me on what HVAC was.  So another lesson for those of you who don't know what it stands for. . .  Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning.  That means that they got the all done in 3 1/2 days.  Because we went down around 2:00 yesterday afternoon and the only people that were there were 2 men sweeping our sidewalks.  I can't believe how quickly these men work.  They must have an incredible system down in order to work this fast.  That is the only explanation for it.  Chris wasn't too surprised.  He said, "If they can frame our entire house in 4 days, why wouldn't they be able to get all of the other stuff done in 3?"  Good point.

This is the door knob on our garage.  We are thinking this is what our hardware will look like.

The can lighting in the kitchen.

One of vents.  I get excited over little things.

Our HVAC headquarters.

This means that dry wall will be going up soon.  We are thinking next week.  I can't believe we have most of a house.  As another side note:  Tomorrow we will have only 45 days left.  We are now half way.

We Have Shingles!! But The Good Kind.

We no longer have a naked roof.  Yesterday it got its clothes put on.  And I have to say. . .  It looks amazing and super cute already.  Don't you think?

The adorable front.

The back.

Now we just have to patiently wait for the rest of the outside to get put on.  But that won't be for a few more weeks.  We are thinking probably about 3 weeks.  This waiting thing is hard.

Our First Walk Through

Today when we went to go see our house, we were able to walk though it and see all of the wonderful progress.  I will post all of the pictures at the end, and there are a lot of pictures, so bear with me.  I apologize about some of the shots, there was only so far back I could stand before I fell down the stairs, or I ran into a wall.  We have all of our windows both upstairs and downstairs.  We love that there so many large windows.  It is going to be great for all of the light that will come in. 

We noticed that all of the plumbing is done too.  Next on the list is the electrical, heating and cooling, and our gas lines.  We are hoping that that will all be able to be done by next Saturday when we go and see it again.  We had our door from the garage to our house in and our front door had been delivered too. We started getting ideas on where to put things once we move in and can start decorating.  I am loving this part of the progress.  Being able to walk through is making it all feel so real.

The front of our house.

The garage side of our house.  The small window is for our bathroom.

The back of our house.

The front bedroom that will be Chris' office.

The second bedroom.

The main bathroom. . .  With a tub.

The kitchen.  The door on the right is going to be the pantry.

The living room.  The room in the back is the master bedroom.

The walk-in closet in the master bedroom.

The tub for the master bathroom.

The master bedroom.

What all of the doors will look like.

The front door.  When it is all finished it is going to be black.

Starting to Look Like a House

I think that there is enough said in the title.  Our house is starting to look like a house. 

The house is covered.

There will be another pop-up over the garage windows.  But for the most part, that is what our house will look like structure wise.

Put A Lid On It

As of yesterday our house is now starting to look like a house.  The trusses are on and we have most of a roof.  When Chris and I went to see it on Saturday it was only the outside walls that were up.  There were no inside walls framed at all.  That means that yesterday they framed all of the inside walls, including the garage, and they put on our roof.  Well, they put on the most important part of the roof that is.  They did all of that in a day.  I know that they say Rome wasn't built in a day, but I am not so convinced now.  If these guys were there building everything, it is total possible.  They move so quickly.  From the start of framing our basement to having the trusses put on was only 3 days.  That's it!  3 days!  I didn't know that was even a thing that was possible.  

The start of our trusses.

Only a few more to go.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know what trusses are.  They are things on the top of our house. . .  Okay, a little more descriptive.  They are essentially the framing for the roof.  A lot of people also call them the A-Frames.  That is something that I didn't know that they were called, trusses.  It sounds so fancy.  I am learning new things everyday with this process.  It's awesome.

Walls to Keep the Bad Things Out

Today Chris and I went to Springville and we had a wonderful surprise. . .  WE HAVE WALLS!!  It is starting to look like a house!  That is something that we did not expect to have up so soon.  They started the framing on the basement on Thursday, so we expected that to be what that they got done this week.  The construction crew have been busy little bees.  That means that they put our walls and floor on all yesterday.  How crazy is that?  Fast busy bees.  It was a wonderful and unexpected surprise for us to see.

The front of our house.

The front bedroom and front door.

The second bedroom and bathroom.

The kitchen on the left.  The living room on the right.

The master bedroom, bathroom, and closet.

The back of the house.

As we were walking around we realized that there were a few things that we didn't know we were going to have.  They may have been added on without us knowing, or they were on our options list and we just don't remember.  Either way we consider them great upgrades.  We have GIANT windows upstairs and downstairs.  And in the front bedroom and the living room windows we have 2 windows rather than just the one.  We also have a small window in the master bathroom.  I don't think that bigger windows and more of them is something that anyone would complain about.  Another thing we noticed is that we have a pop-out on the master bedroom in the back of the house.  That is something that we don't remember having in our plans, but again, we are not complaining about it.  It is going to help with the look of our house for sure.

I am excited to go down again on Tuesday.  We are hoping that they have the roof started.  The trusses are there on our lot, so they must be planning to start that part soon.  We are going to keep our fingers crossed for sure.