Keeping It A Surprise

Riss and I grew up with fairly different perspectives on the building of a house.  She grew up with new rooms being constructed, walls brought down, repairs being made to drywall, and a variety of other construction projects in her family's house.  For me, we didn't really do all that much structural changes which meant I never got to see framing constructed, drywall go up, floors get laid, etc.  To say the least, getting to see all of this happen step by step has been incredibly fascinating for me.  Our house has reached a point where all of the aesthetic features we chose out (cabinet layout and color, stone choices, paint color, etc) are now going into the house and its becoming exactly what we had imagined.  This last visit was a huge change from the physical structure vs. the things that begin to make a house a home.

The next time we see the house, it will be for our structural house inspection and everything will be almost completely done! We are going to TRY to hold off visiting it until then...

Almost completed fireplace

Cabinets

Dining and living room with lighting

Glance of mill work around doorways

The "Un" predictable Future

I feel it, fall is here and I love it. The only reason why fall is not my favorite season is because it is too short. That makes it the runner up to summer, but it's okay, the two are almost tied. Darn you fall, but thank you for bringing so many of my favorite things! 

When I started this blog, I didn't intend for ALL of it to be about our house, but alas, these things happen and it seems to be the topic of many of our conversations. We DO have other things going on, I promise. For example, Danny started his second quarter and it is already proving to be harder than the last. That is partly because he is taking two classes, but also because they are both more intense than the last class. I opted out of this quarter, I knew the motivation was not there, at all. So I didn't do it. 

Work has been steady and Danny is traveling to Japan in October for about a week. We have plans to visit Leavenworth in late October with some friends and if you have never been there, I highly recommend taking the adventure. It is a fun little mock German town with gorgeous mountains, fun festivals, good beer, and great food. There is also a lot of outdoor stuff if you are into that. In fact, we went rafting on a river near Leavenworth about a year ago- tons of fun!

Many of you who know us well know that Danny is the planner in this marriage. To the "T". He plans most things. He makes excel sheets of basically everything, strangely accounts for EXACTLY how much time it will take to get from A to B (no joke, he is good, it's weird, but awesome - I rely on this a lot), and always examines the process of things. He is fantastic about keeping the calendars updated.

I however, am not a planner. At all. This is probably the same reason that I would have failed any attempt at becoming an event planner for my career (which I did consider). I would have been great for about a year, and then not. I am getting better though, and in some situations, I really enjoy it. Google calendar is pretty cool and Danny just got me away from the old school calendar on the fridge thing. 
So where does this lead? As with many couples after they get married, and especially when they buy a house, the question most married couples get or at least the one that is on everyone's mind is, "When are you having kids?" The assumption by many is that since we have a house (almost), we must be pregnant. That is not the case. We DO want kids though, we promise. But first, we would love to take one last big trip to Europe, Asia, or South America, but we will see where life leads us. 

The kiddos are in our future. While we may not be able to tell you a precise time, when that time does come, we will be so very excited, loved, happy and know that we have the best of family and friends surrounding and supporting us.

Stay tuned! Also...as a side note: Danny and I are terrible about taking pictures of anything but the house. We are hoping to get better at this so we can post some of us and other things.

Walls up, siding done!

The annual Schlaich camping trip over Labor Day Weekend was a blast and an appropriate subtitle encompassing the weekend would be "Dogs Gone Wild."  To say the least, having four different dogs in one campsite, two of which were less than a year old, made for some entertainment. We were definitely able to feel fall in the air as nice sunny days turned into chilly nights. 

We also had the opportunity to meet Matt and Bri's exchange student from Thailand. She was very friendly and we hope she had a good time! It was her first weekend in the U.S and I am not sure camping is what she had in mind, but it is how we live and it is  great opportunity. She later commented on how Americans eat a lot. I would have to agree...but in some fairness, camping is not the best example. It does make us think that so much of our culture revolves around food, as do many cultures. Danny and I try to eat healthy, and eat less, but we are not perfect. The fact is, we ENJOY food, and we like to eat, but because of that, we are more careful of how we eat, when we eat, how much, and what it is. I will never say no to dessert, put simply, it is delicous and I enjoy it. But I account for it in my meals and what I eat all day and am careful to not overeat. At some point, I will write more on this topic on a different post.


Moving on to the house :)
As has been the trend, we have continued to visit the house twice a week but there hadn't been much visible change (mostly electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc).  Well... we made a visit on Friday and were surprised to find all of the siding up and drywall done!  Talk about really seeming like a house now, not being able to look through all the walls anymore.  Here are some of the pictures from that visit.  Whether it's because of all the nice weather or just everything going smoothly, our closing date was moved up from Nov. 15 to Nov. 2.  We will be doing our pre-closing orientation walk on the 19th which means we are only 30 days from seeing it all finished!

View of pantry and kitchen area

View of family room and fireplace

View of formal dining room / living room

View of top of stairs, spare bedroom, master bedroom door