WE ARE MOVING IN!!!

Did you read the title of this post? In case you missed it, WE ARE MOVING IN!!! This will be the best Valentine's Day ever! We are so excited we can hardly stand it. The inspector was out today and he said everything looked great and went ahead and signed the occupancy permit!!! Woo Hoo! We have some final finishing touches to take care of this week and the plan is to start moving Friday afternoon (Mike and I are both off work and we are going to get a lot of our little stuff, clothes, etc... moved) then the BIG move will take place on Saturday morning! So this weekend Mike and I will become permenant residents of the new house!

Stop and See Us! We are so excited to show everyone the house!

Pictures!

Finally, I have found a free moment to get some pictures uploaded! We have been extremely busy this week getting rooms completed and preparing for trim (which is what the Mike and Mike show are working on today!). The kitchen is almost complete, with the exception of the crown molding that goes on top of the cabinet, it has not been finished yet. All of the painting is done, all of the floors except for the ceramic tile in my bathroom and carpeting, is compelte, plumbing is almost complete and electrical, minus two lights (I still have the buy) is done. We are moving right along. Unfortunately this was suppose to be move in weekend, so then we bumped it back to Super Bowl, we will not be in by then either. So our new move in date (pending anything else popping up) will be Valentine's Day weekend. So at least we can spend Valentine's day in our new house! Stop and see us! There is a lot to see now.

The baby's room, complete with Monkey's! Thanks Amanda!

Spare/Baby Bathroom

Master Bathroom, the tub was set.

1/2 Bath- All that is left is trim!

Master Bath Vanity, built by Mike Barr, the picture does not do it justice!

My grandparents let us take their wood burner for in our basement,

it is nice and tosty down there now!

The Light is Getting Brighter!

An Update! Everyone has been begging for an update and to be honest, there are just not enough hours in the day! HAHA! As most of you can tell from the ticker at the bottom of this page, we should be moving in next weekend, however, we once again have missed our deadline. The plan is to be substantially complete by February 1st, Super Bowl Sunday! Then to move in the weekend of Valentine’s Day, what an excellent Valentine’s Day that would be. I actually believe that this is an obtainable goal. So here is the 411 on where we are at:
· The kitchen cabinets that were damaged were delivered yesterday; two of the pieces are still not correct and have to be returned. Third times a charm right? They were very quick in replacing the parts this time, so I am hoping for a quick turn around again.
· The countertop was ordered on Dec. 31st. We were told two weeks, but again find ourselves waiting at the mercy of something we cannot control. We are hoping for it to be here next week and installed. Once that is completed and the rest of the cabinets are installed the kitchen will be completed with the exception of appliance delivery.
· Mike and Joe completed the fireplace last week. It looks amazing. I have no pictures to post at the moment but will take some over the weekend and post them.
· Mom and I touched up paint this week and painted the half bath, it was the only room that had not been painted. Other than that, all the rooms are complete as far as paint is concerned.
· Dave and Chris have been out over the past several nights as well. They have been helping with the staining and varnishing of trim, window and door jambs, etc… Pregnant ladies are not allowed to be around stain and varnish because of the fumes and harmful chemicals they contain. So this has definitely been appreciated!
· Mike and Joe completed the hardwood floor in the dining room and kitchen. Wow! Is all I can say. The floors look great.
· The gutter got hung during one of the few breaks we had in the weather. This pretty much completes the outside with exception of grading, which will not get done until spring.
· Almost all of the receptacles and lights have been installed. So the house not has light without the use of contractor lights!
· Carpet has been ordered and will be here and installed on January 30th. So as you can see it is crunch time to get everything completed prior to carpet coming. I don’t want carpentry still going on and getting my new carpet dirty.
· The vinyl tile for the half bath and guest bath came in yesterday and my dad picked it up. That is getting installed tomorrow along with the fixtures. My bathroom is getting framed for the tub this weekend, cement board in place and possibly starting tile on Sunday if everything goes smoothly!

Well that is all I can think of at the moment. Check back over the weekend for new pictures!

There is Light at the End of the Tunnel!

Yes, there is finally light at the end of our tunnel! Happy 2009 Everyone! Lets see, we have a lot of updating to do... First of all, the drywall guys finished on December 17th, so we got the go ahead to start painting. Gabby and I primed the kitchen on Friday night of the 19th. Then on Sunday the 21st we had one heck of a painting/priming party! With the help of my mom and dad, Mike's mom and dad, Gabby, Amanda, Aunt JoAnn, Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks, Pop, Aunt Kathy and Joe, we were able to get the entire house primed and one coat of paint on all the ceilings! We are extremely greatful to everyone for all of the help, we could not have done this without you! I have been on vacation since December 19th, so the following week Amanda met me out at the house and her and I were able to start getting some color on the walls, Monday evening of the 22nd mom, dad, Mike and I, hit her hard again and were able to get all of the ceilings and closets finished with two coats of paint. Tuesday I decided I was going to get a terrible head cold so I stayed in bed all day, trying to fight it off before Christmas. Wednesday dad and I were both off, so we got mom's house ready for Christmas Eve, cleaning and cooking! Thursday (Christmas Day) we decided it was time for a break, haha! Actually it is best we did, we did a lot of visiting on Thursday and we were tired from all the running around. Christmas was very exciting this year, as I am sure most everyone already knows, Mike and I were able to announce that the Straub family will be growing in 2009 by two little feet. I guess what they say is true, New House, New Baby! Baby Straub is expected to arrive around July 24th!
We have been keeping busy since Christmas as well, we have just about every room painted, the only room I have left is the little half bath off the kitchen, and I was waiting to see what paint I had left over before starting it. Mike and Mike Barr installed the kitchen cabinets on Sunday afternoon/monday morning. We had to send a few of the cabinet doors back, two had the wrong profile and one was damaged. Not a big deal, the new ones should be here in 2 weeks. We had the countertop people come and measure for our countertops and they should be in within the next 2 weeks. My brother has been hard at work installing all the recepticles and light switches, once we get a room painted, he moves right along and finishes the electrical. What a team we have! Well thats it for now, below are some pictures of our painting party!

Everyone took a quick break for Lunch!

Gabby and Amanda, I am not sure if they were painting or talking wedding.... HAHA!

Joe hard at work on the ceilings!

Everyone hard at work!

I couldn't resist, Mike and I had our first Ultrasound on Tuesday!

We Have Green Heat!

I know, I know, the title sounds a little silly! But the good news is that the Geothermal System is now up and running and keeping the house at a nice 67 degrees! Below is a picture of the finished system, not much to look at (or at least to me...) but it is working wonderfully.
Also, this week the drywallers finished up and I have been given the go ahead to start painting. So this weekend we are planning a painting party and I am hoping to get the entire house primed and at least one coat of paint on the kitchen so that we can get it wrapped up and get the cabinets installed. The fireplace was installed last week as well. It looks great and I can hardly wait to see what it looks like with stone.

The Geothermal Heat System

The Fireplace!

The shower floor in the master bathroom, the walls will be getting tile.

The kitchen with finished drywall!

Quick Wintery Update!

Just a quick update. Yes, we have snow, and no I am not liking it! What a mess it has made of my driveway! Oh well, such is life. The drywallers got all of the drywall hung and they will be back on Monday to start finishing it. Mike and my dad got the thermostat hooked up, so we have heat, the bad part is that the heat is electric, at least until the heat guy gets the rest of our geothermal system finished. Chuck's guys were out on Friday and they installed the outside pillars on the front porch! I absolutely love them, they really make the front of the house. The inside of the pillars (under the porch) still need finished, but from the road they look amazing! Mike and I are really happy with how they turned out. We are hoping this week brings a fire place, we need to get the hole for the fire place sealed up and Mike needs to start planning for how he wants it finished.
It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It is a definite known fact that we will not be in the house by Christmas. As much as we were hoping, it is just not in the cards. I am really pushing to be in toward the middle of January, so Mike and I can plan a Super Bowl party! HAHA!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

The Pillars have been installed! They Look Awesome!

The Completed Product! Woo Hoo!

Walls!

The pictures are starting to get really exciting now! The rooms are being delineated by drywall and you can see the form of the interior actually taking shape. No more standing on one side of the house and seeing through to the other! HAHA! I am overly impressed with the drywall guys (Doug Long, for anyone looking for a great drywall team!), they started on Tuesday and said that all of the drywall would be hung by today! So that means they will start spackling next week! There is a slim possibility (depending on how the fast the spackle dries) that I could be painting the week of Thanksgiving, I am doubtful though. It looks more like the first week of December, so Mom, Chris, Aunt Kathy, Nikki, Aunt Amy, Linsey, Aunt JoAnn, Aunt Janet and all of you wonderful ladies that said you would love to help paint, I will be calling you for the painting party!
Our pillars came in yesterday for the front porch and Chuck went to pick them up only to realize they were not the right pillars… they were suppose to be vinyl or aluminum so they wouldn’t need painted, but they sent ones that would require painting and maintenance. So needless to say they got sent back! The garage doors also came in yesterday, from what Mike has told me, Kip and Brad (Chuck’s crew) will be installing them today! So we will now be able to lock the house up entirely!
Next week the dozer will be on site to do the final grade work. However, we are waiting for him to spread the top soil until spring, there is no way grass will grow this time of year and we would be wasting some perfectly good top soil if we spread it now. Also next week Chuck and crew will be installing the fire place insert and getting the flue hooked up. Mike already informed me that we need to get our stone ready for the fire place so that he can be working on that while I am painting!
All and all, everything is going pretty well. Mike took some much needed vacation time this week and was able to go hunting and enjoy himself. He shot an 8 point on Tuesday, this is his first buck with his bow (actually, now that I think about it, this might be his first buck since he met me! Yikes!). If you haven’t noticed, we changed the ticker at the bottom of the page for our move in date. I was really wishing to be in by Christmas, but this is simply not going to happen. It looks like we should be in sometime toward the end of January. I sure hope so!
Stop and see us!

Front spare bedroom.

Spare Bathroom.

Dining Room looking into the Kitchen.

Dining Room from the Kitchen.

Master Bedroom, Hoyt's nook!

Looking into the Kitchen from the Garage.

Master Bathroom.

Spare Bedroom looking toward the closet.

Quick Weekend Update!

Just a quick weekend update! Mike and I didn't get a whole lot done this weekend. Friday we felt it was important for us to get away for a few hours so Mike took me to Luigi's for dinner and then to Lowe's to pick out interior lights. It was nice just to spend a little time with each other! Saturday I drug my mom to Brockway to look at appliances. It is starting to get so exciting to think I will be ordering my appliances in a few days! We are going with pearl black (high gloss black) they are very nice looking! Then on Saturday after I got back from Brockway I went up to the house to help Mike and to start cleaning up for the dry wallers! Mike and my dad ran out of siding so we have to order a little bit more to finish up and my brother installed our exterior lights. Then last evening we went to a birthday party for Mitchell and Cohen (Mike's little cousins) it was very fun! They got a bunch of nurf guns and I think the bigs kids had more fun than Mitch and Cohen! We also got some very, very exciting news yesterday! Mike's brother Steve and his girlfriend Amanda got engaged! We are so excited for them, they are sooooo cute!
Well that's it for now! I will update on Wednesday when I get back from Harrisburg!

All of the back porch is done and exterior lights are up!

Insulation is complete!

LOOK, Do you see what I see? CONCRETE! WOO HOO! Yes, the concrete was poured last week in the garage and front porch! YAH!

Pictures!

Finally, I am posting new pictures! Shame on me for waiting so long! This weekend we worked on insulation, wow! We got a lot done. Mike worked on the ceiling until he ran out of R38, dad, mom and I worked on the walls with R19. As of 1:30 today we were able to get both spare bedrooms, the office, living room, dining room, interior garage walls, master bath and master closet completed. We plan on getting the master bedroom and kitchen done (the walls) today as well. Chuck stopped out yesterday... heres the latest, the cement guy got demoted and Chuck is getting someone new to come in, he said enough is enough. Concrete is scheduled for tomorrow morning! The other half of the back porch will get framed, the fire place insert and flue work will be done this week and ARE YOU READY FOR THIS.... This is a possibility that the drywall guys will be here on Friday! Woo Hoo! If not Friday, then they should start the following week! I am so excited! Well, back to work...

View of the front of the house with almost finish siding! It looks gray in the picture...

View of the back of the house with the sun peaking out!


Our kitchen cabinets got delivered on October 17th, this is them stacked in the Master Bedroom.

On Friday, Mike and I went to Lowe's to get all the insulation.... They were having a sale and rebate program, so we took full advantage! Looks like a lot of work huh?

This is me, after my stapler attack! There was no seminar on how to run the stapler!

If you look closely you can see the holes that the stapler left right above my thumb! Oops!

Mike and I needed to try out the bathtub before installing it, to make sure it was what we wanted! HAHA... We look smushed because there was water in the bottom of the tub from the rain and we didn't want to sit in it!

Busy Busy Busy... But No Excuse!

I know, I have absolutely no excuse for the 20 day lapse in updates! I can tell you that a lot has taken place in the past 20 days. For starters, we welcomed with open arms the newest member of the Orcutt family, Gabrielle! On October 11th, Scott & Gabby tied the knot and became Mr. & Mrs. We are thrilled to have Gabby as part of the family, my brother could not have picked a better girl! So needless to say the first couple weeks of October, I didn’t get much done on the house, due to wedding planning and preparing for the big day! It was a beautiful ceremony!

House wise… an incredible amount has taken place. For starters the siding is almost complete. We just have around the garage to do and the front porch area. We have not been able to side these areas because we are waiting on cement to be poured for the garage and front porch and we don’t want to risk the cement splashing the siding. The cement is a whole other story… we have been waiting almost 2 weeks. The subcontractor finishing the cement is having some difficulty keeping promises to show up… but I do believe it should be finished next week (keep your fingers crossed). Mike and my dad finished the heating, plumbing and electrical this week! I am very, very, very excited to announce that we passed inspection yesterday afternoon! This was the big one, so I am thrilled that it went off without a hitch and we can move forward. So tonight, Mike and I will be running to Lowe’s to purchase all the insulation and we are going to be insulating our butts off this weekend. Once that is complete we will be ready for the drywall people to come in and do their thing! It’s so incredibly exciting! Also this week, my Jacuzzi tub was delivered and I decided to try it out…. I can’t wait until I can actually put water in it and sit back and relax! Also this week, my mom, being the expert painter that she is, took on the project of painting the steel entry doors. She did an amazing job, no streaks, runs or smudges! They look great!

So, you are probably wondering what I have been doing this week… well I took it upon myself to clean the house to get it ready for insulation… WOW are construction workers (mostly Mike) dirty! It took me 3 nights to just get the basement organized and swept. But its done now and we are ready to rock and roll!

As for pictures, I do not have any to share at the moment, but I plan on taking some tonight and tomorrow and will post them tomorrow night. Stop out and see us !

We Are Blessed

Mike and I feel overwhelmingly blessed. We have so many wonderful family members and friends that we can truly count on. Last week all of the siding was delivered and Mike decided to install as much as he could this weekend. So on Friday I started the phone tree... We ended up with so much help, it was all greatly appreciated. Thank you very, very much, Dad, Scott, Dave, Pop, Uncle Bob, Austin, Jordan, Mikey Barr, Joseph, Tom, and Jeff. Mike and I are very grateful for all of your help, we could not have done it without you. I also feel it is important to thank our cooks too! Nana and Chris, lunch and dinner were wonderful, it was an excellent first meal in our new house! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, to everyone, Mike and I love you all very much! Here’s to a successful siding party!

The Dynamic Duo, Mike and Mike!

I am not sure who is in charge of this group, Joe or Pop?

Uncle Bob, measuring Twice and cutting Once!