Missouri Weekend

We left Denver Thursday evening and hopped a jet plane for Missouri, arrived about 10pm that night. Friday morning we had breakfast with Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Bob at our absolute favorite breakfast cafe - Neighbor's in downtown Lee's Summit. We hit the road about 9am and drove 3 hours south to Richland to spend the afternoon with Granny Gray, Great Grandma Powers and Kay Powers. We had lunch there and share photos of the house. From Richland, we drove about an hour and a half to Republic. 

In Republic, we celebrated Chris' birthday with Stuart, Julie, Katie and Kendra - BBQ and ice cream cake! We headed back to Springfield and slept at Granny's house that night. Saturday morning we parted ways and Chris played 9 holes with Stuart, while I spent the morning with sorority sisters for "Preferance Day" ceremonies (it's the day where the freshman decide which chapter they would like to join.) It was such a great time seeing friends that I hadn't seen in more than a year!

Saturday around 3 pm we headed out into the country outside of Springfield for a friend's wedding being held outdoors at the brother of the groom's  home. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and we were able to see 20 of our closest SIFE friends from college. 

After the wedding we drove around Springfield in a shuttle we rented, and enjoyed more quality time together! Sunday morning we hit the road around 8 am and drove to Warrensburg to see Mollie's new apartment and to see some of Central Missouri State's campus. She just moved there, after completing her associates at Longview, to finish her bachelors degree in art education. Her apartment is just perfect for her! From Warrensburg we drove to Lee's Summit for lunch with Megan and John Hobbs at this great new restaurant called B:2. After lunch we headed back to my family's house to celebrate Chris and Charles' (my sister's husband) birthday with family and friends including mom, dad, Christine, Charles, Aubri, Alayna, Mollie, and several family friends. These are some fun pictures of my 2 year old niece Alayna.

Chris flew home Monday morning at 7 am and went on to work, and I rode back to Colorado with Dad to keep  him company across Kansas! We had a wonderful, very full weekend and enjoyed seeing everyone. We're very very very tired, but know we are fortunate to be able to see so many friends and family when we visit Missouri.

Happy Birthday Christopher!

He's reached a quarter-century landmark, and doesn't look one day older. We celebrated with Chad and Michelle in Colorado Springs at Solos Restaurant - the only restaurant with a full size airplane inside!

This is the airplane connected to the restaurant.

We even got to sit in the airplane to eat our meal!

Pilot and copilot, don't we look great?

Bluegrass Fest in Breckenridge

We had a great time in Breck on Saturday at the annual Bluegrass festival. We spent the night in Dillon on Friday and then met up with Chad and Michelle for the festivities on Saturday. It was a great and much needed mini-vacay away from the house. 

Dad is now back in Missouri for a rest, and Chris is in New York for work. I'm gearing up for our annual conference at work, so I have things to do to keep me busy while the men are away! Not many house updates for the next week or two, so I'll try to get creative with my posts to keep our readers entertained! Hang in there, more house photos to come!

At the 7 week mark...

Most of the work this week has been electrical and plumbing, and well that just isn't fun to take pictures of. Some fun electrical work though, is the addition of coach lights on the front of the house. We've decided it has a bit of a nautical feel, so we'll be adding a buoy, posts with ropes,  a life preserver, and a seagull statue to the deck. You'll also notice that the house is now one color! Dad and Chris painted the entire house in this color as primer, and we'll decide on a color scheme for the stucco and siding at a later date.

Dad found this card from mom in one of his boxes of tools, so he hung it up with a nail on a stud in the entry way. Very cute! Dad is headed home for a quick break away from building, and I think mom has plans to put him to work at home.... not much of a break!

And we're wired.

Dad worked on electrical wiring last week. Here is an example of his art.

The wiring is running from the existing house to the new addition via the existing house's attic. Here you see the break between the existing house's roof/attic, and the new addition, directly above what once was the front door. The yellow cords flopping over the insulation are what is brining us electricity to our new addition. It's a lot less complicated than I realized. Dad spent a day or two constructing the spider web of wiring, it's looking great!

Can lights in the bedroom, bathroom, and bedroom closet. It's for the mood lighting dad says! We are all for the mood lighting!

Going to work in the bathroom

This week was mainly spent in the bathroom doing plumbing and electrical work. The sinks are now in and the plumbing connected, ready for faucets. There will be a lower vanity top between the sinks, with a little place to sit and blowdry my hair in the morning.

The bathtub is now in and has running water! Dad connected the plumbing and sewage from the existing house, so the spot for the toilet is also ready to go (there to the left of the tub - there will be a short half-wall between the toilet and tub).

Plumbing behind the sinks

The cabinet between the bathtub on the left and the shower on the right, will be for linens and such. The plumbing for the bathroom is hidden behind this cabinet, and comes down from the existing house's attic. You can see behind the cabinet is where the old window was, in the existing house, in our current bedroom.

Dad also installed the framework for what will be a pocket door from the bathroom to the bedroom. The tub is scooted over in this picture - won't actually be there against the wall, the toilet will be there.

Working it

As you can see, today was a day of work.  In the post immediately prior to this, you can see Bill's morning, finishing up the exterior.  

For the afternoon, Bill moved indoors with the saws all.  Our east facing bedroom window is no more!

Here is the window that was removed, now for sale on craigslist for anyone who is interested.

As the evening approached, Bill couldn't resist going up top to install some attic vents.  

A little perspective of the heights.

The virtual inspection

Bill has been working some ridiculous hours in the relentless heat to finish up the exterior.  As he approaches the finish line, we thought it would be a good time for a virtual walkaround.

This is a shot facing west looking down the south-facing side of the house.  This is where the new and old will come together and Bill is seeing to it that you won't be able to tell where.  

This is a piece of the stucco board bridging the gap.  The siding will soon follow up top!

After about 10 days of looking, Bill found the perfect centerpiece for the eave in the front of our house. He framed it himself so that it opens for ventilation in the attic.

And finally, a close-up look at the difference between Bill Duvall and some general contractor.  We leave for work in the morning with simple 90-degree corners on the house, and come back with works of art!

Remember when?

Remember when our front door faced the street? And we lived in a tiny 1-bed, 1-bath 670 square foot home?

Now our front door faces the side, and we officially live in a 2-bed, 2-bath 1070 square foot home, exciting! Today dad moved the front door, so now the new addition is officially sealed off and part of our home! Please excuse the poka-dot decor on the addition, it's putty to cover the nail holes. We'll be painting sometime in the next week or two, and next week begins the work on the inside of the addition. Up on the to-do list: framing inspection and approval, plumbing, electrical wiring, dry wall, flooring....and more!

The outside is beginning to look complete!

Blues and Brews

We had a night out on Pearl Street, enjoying some blues and brews with dad and some good friends from Springfield. A great time was had by all, and it was so great to see Keri and Will - who were just in Denver for the night - they are getting married in Breckenridge this fall and were finalizing some wedding plans over the weekend.

Holiday Weekend = Ice Cream, Deck and Rocks

We had a great holiday weekend with mom and dad, and we were even able to squeeze in some delicious Little Man Ice Cream! My personal favorite - Salted Oreo.... yum!

The deck is now 99% finished - dad is going to do some trim pieces around it tomorrow. It is absolutely BE-AU-TI-FUL! This is a view of it from the front of the house. 

 

And this is a view of the side of the house.

Rewind a few days and this is all the rock that mom (mainly), Chris and I shoveled from the front yard. When the front loader dug the hole for the foundation, we realized that our house is built right on top of the old Platte River bed so all those beautiful, smooth, round rocks you're seeing are from the river that once ran right where our house is today. Needless to say, those beautiful rocks quickly became a pain in the rear, since they covered our yard after being dug out of the ground. The entire front yard had to be shoveled into a wire mesh netting, sifted to separate from dirt, and then wheelbarrowed and dumped under the deck - for safe keeping :) Mom did most of this - and to her we are forever thankful! Below the entire deck is about 6 - 12" of rocks - whewwww! Thats a lot of rock.

I've never been so happy in my life....

... to get new windows! Aren't they adorable? They crank open so you can still have fresh air on a rainy day, and, they add an extra artistic flare to the wall decor!

This photo is for Carrie - our front door will be on the right/north side of the new addition. You'll only see the front of the house and the deck from the street, then you can walk up on the deck and turn into the front door. You can see through the new door opening, the old door still on the old part of the house, which was on the front of the house.

The Gilstrap Vineyard

Good news - our neighbors have grape vines! We're legitimately considering crafting our own wine and bottling our own vintage.... and we could be a winery, with a tasting room, right here in the middle of Platte Park neighborhood! Not sure yet what kind of grapes we have - so we'll let you know when we announce our new label! 

(For those of you who know us well - I'm only partially kidding here....)

The trashbags you see are what's proof of mom and I's work all day Monday - full of tree limbs, dead grape vines, shingles, wood and.... whats left of our irrigation and sprinkler system after it saw its last days because of the front loader.