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!

Finally and UpDate!

OK, OK! I know it has been a while since my last post, but a ton has happened in the past few weeks and there just has not been time to make updates... but anyhow...
First off, last week I was in Buffalo for training at the NEDA Conference (Northeastern Economic Development Association). It was very nice, Buffalo is a beautiful city! While I was gone in Buffalo, Mike finished up some last minute wiring and pluming that needed taken care of, he is such a hard worker! This past week has been pretty rough for our family, my Great Gram passed away Monday evening. She had fallen and broke her hip about a month ago and has been fighting getting better. We love her and will miss her very much but we know that she will always be with us.
This past week we had soffit and fascia delivered and Mike and my dad got all of that installed, it makes the house look so much cleaner and finished! I love it! Yesterday we had siding delivered and Mike started putting it up as well, my dad and grandpa were there keeping their eyes on him making sure he did it right! I must say Mike took it upon himself to pick out the siding, I admit, I am extremely impressed and pleased! I was overly excited about how beautiful the color is; the pictures don’t do it justice, please please please stop out and see it! Also this week, are you ready for this...??? Mike and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary! I can’t even believe it has been three years; time has gone by so quickly! I was in Harrisburg today working on a state financing program and when I got home there were beautiful, red, long stem roses in a box on my bed with a card. It was really cute and the flowers are beautiful! Pop, this is where I tell you how lucky I am! HAHA!

This is what the siding is starting to look like! I love it!

The guys hard at work!

Some of my Anniversary Roses that I put in a vase! What a Sweetie!
Soffit and Fascia! Looks Great!
More Soffit and Fascia

The Boys took a break on Sunday and made some Homemade Apple Cider!

Windows, Check! Electrical & Plumbing, Check, Check!

I am chalking this up as the toughest week to date... Construction has not been bad, but Mike has been away. As I am sure most of you are aware, we had one heck of a wind storm Sunday Night/Monday Morning, courtesy of Hurricane Ike (all I have to say is that the people that chose to stay behind in Texas are nuts, the wind here was bad and it was 4x worse there!). At any rate... Monday morning at about 1:00AM, Mike’s cell phone goes off... it was work and he was to report for Hazard duty! Monday he worked local, but on Tuesday he joined the crew and left for Ohio to help restore power there. It is now 5:00PM on Friday and Mike is still in Ohio! So needless to say, very little got done on the house this week. My dad was kind enough to finish the electrical and cable wiring (with the help of his MVA (Most Valuable Assistant) ME! Ok maybe I was more in the way than anything else, but at least he had company. He also finished the drain plumbing. The rest of our windows were delivered yesterday afternoon and Chuck and crew were there to put them in this morning. WOW! Did the circle top windows ever change the look of the house! I was totally excited when I came home! I am hoping Mike will be back Saturday night or early on Sunday. I am leaving for a conference in Buffalo on Sunday afternoon and will not be back until late Tuesday night.... So until then... Have a great weekend everyone!

Front view with circle top windows!

The window from inside my office looking out!

Back of the house with circle tops!

Scott thinks he is moving in! HAHA! I would probably enjoy it if they did, I can't stand quiet!

What Is It, What The Heck Is It?

So, I got home from work yesterday and Mike greets me with, “Babe, I don’t think you are going to like the chimney.” So what do I do, I jump in the car and drive straight up to see what in the heck he is talking about! Much to my surprise it looked like someone had built an “Outhouse” for lack of a better term, on the back side of our house (see attached picture). It was awful! So I panicked all night about it, then the next morning Mike went up to the house and told Chuck that I really didn’t like the outhouse look and asked if anything else could be done. Chuck thought this was pretty darn funny and said that it is what it is. So I stopped out this morning on my way to work to drop off donuts and there is Chuck, up on the roof fixing it up! It looks 100X better now. This week Mike was off work and between him, his dad and my brother, they were able to get just about all of the electrical wiring completed. Penelec came and hooked up our power, so we now have electricity to the house too! My dad and grandpa did all of the back filling this week so no more holes to fall into! Next week is plumbing for Mike and crew and Chuck and gang will be putting in windows! I am going to Lowe’s on Sunday to finalize my kitchen plans and get that ready to order! It is really starting to feel like home.
Also in pictures below I started to add some of the interior, you will have to use your imagination on the rooms! Please stop out and see us, I actually have something to present now!

This is the "Bad" chimney that I think resembles an outhouse.

This is the new and improved Chimney that looks much much much better!

This is a view of the back of the house.

This is the front view, YAH for windows next week!

This is looking into the kitchen/breakfast nook area.

This is the master bedroom! Lots of Windows!

This is from the far end of the family room looking toward my office.

This is the family room looking toward the fireplace.