Kindergarten!

Evan's day starts off with the playground. We drop off and pick up here. I think this is such a wonderful idea. The kids run and play, keeping them very distracted while mommy and daddy leave.

This picture was taken on the drive home on Friday. Kindergarten is tiring stuff! Dean is sleeping, too.

I need someone to tell me how to arrange my pictures. I enter them, then they appear in a random order. Like, this picture should be last.....

Me and my big boy. So proud of this boy! He is very ready for Kindergarten! I love the smile he wears around taking on this new challenge.

Dean meant to be hugging Evan, too. But the playground is too much fun!

Love this picture. This is taken on the steps of our rent house. We call it the "Bungalow". Evan has his Star Wars back pack and lunch box. It's sure to be a great day!

Framing

This is our view off the front porch. The dirt road will become a caliche road when the house is done. There are beautiful sunsets behind this hill. The view made it clear to us that this was just the place for the house. The Texas Rangers Company E had a campsite on our ranch to protect frontier settlers against indian attacks in the 1800's. This oak tree is 150 to 200 years old. Maybe they enjoyed its shade.

Side view of the house. The large oak trees on the other side is the site of our engagement.

Framing in action. I can't ever stay around long to watch when the framers are up that high.....my nerves can't handle it.

Decking @ Husband's Request

Underneath the house aftering the decking was placed. Trey still has some plans for under here. Big plans. Just be warned when you come visit this house, you will be expected to go under here and check it out. Whether you want to or not.....please be working on your excited responses. You have about 6 months to work on it.

Beams and decking being placed over the piers. The square in the upper right if where the fireplace is going.

I think the kids are all saying "House!"

In this picture you can see the metal circles on top of each beam. Trey had his friend, Clay make them. They are termite shields - keep the little destroyer's from getting up to the framing. The wood beam in between Evan and Andie has a "U" shaped one on the end of it. Also for termites, but it will also act as a moisture barrier between the concrete and the wood. Apparently concrete is thirsty, or something. Technical explanation, I know, I can feel my husband's head shaking right now.

Stressin'

It's been a challenging past couple days. When people say building a house is difficult, I have never agreed. It's an annoying statement to me. Building the house isn't difficult - selling a house, finding an interim place to live, and figuring family life with three young ones are the difficult parts.

This time yesterday, we did not have a place to live after we close on our house next Friday. Turns out a family of 5 has to live in a 3 bed apartment. And a 3 bed apartment is hard to come by. The rule is no more than 2 people per room. We thought we were going to get to move to a rent house close to our ranch, but the current renters will not be out in time. And the home had some safety issues anyway.

Friends came to the rescue. We are going to live in a rent house that a man from our church owns. It is tiny, but nice. And we can have it today. We have always considered our current home small, but the rent house is almost 1/2 it's size! It's really going to make our newly constructed home seem HUGE!

We are craming as much as we can get into our Go Mini (like a POD). And some wonderful friends have agreed to furniture sit our dining furniture. We are thankful for the rent house, friends, and a faithful God. But I must admit, I've had two rounds of Excedrine and two pieces of strawberry cake to help me get by today.

Pier and Beam

Well, here's a look at our pier and beam foundation. The beams will be put in place tomorrow, so really, here's a look at piers and porches. This is a look from the side of house. The garage is at the lowest part of the picture. To the far left is the front porch. The concrete square in the middle is the base for the fireplace. And the far right will become the back deck when decking is placed over the large opening.
Here is Trey performing a little Karate Kid trick on a pier.
I am standing on the front porch where the front door will be. Come on in!

Sold!

Well, under contract anyway. Two weeks into placing our house for sell, we signed a contract yesterday and will close in 3 weeks! My prayer was that the house would sell quickly. OH! I am so thankful it did! It was a lot to put the kids through. Really, it was a lot to put me through, which in turn is tough on them. We had packed up a huge majority of the toys and of coarse were constantly cleaning. Well - we are definitely having a celebratory cleaning strike today!

Anyway, the plan had been to move to an apartment, but there might be a change in plans. We are now trying to rent a house that is about 4 miles away from where we are building. This will allow us to check on the house whenever we want - we are over 30 miles away currently. And most importantly, it will get us very close to Evan's school. He has to be there at 7:55. So, the idea of having everyone ready and out the door by 7:25 5 days a week is such a stressful thought. So we are praying this rent house works out. We were told we can have it. The current renters still live there, and a set move out date is not nailed down. We're gonna check the place out on Monday. I'll have to have Evan do some Jedi mind tricks to convince them to "move out, move out".

So we're still working on finding a place to live till February, but for now we'll celebrate being under contract.