Our Home-Finally!

You’ve all been patiently waiting for this post that we have been putting off for weeks.  Much like the now never ending projects we still need to accomplish before our house is finally at a point where we could say it’s finished. 

                     

So, in the words of Maria Von Trapp, let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. 

November 8.  Kaela and I get keys to our very first HOUSE!!!  We are so freaking excited that night that we run over to bask in the glow of home ownership.  Turns out that that glow made for some very ugly lighting inside the house, a pale yellow to be exact.  Gross.  Our first home improvement project was running to Home Depot (the first of many trips) to replace all the light bulbs in the house.  Our neighbor Paul Hansen came by to introduce himself and welcome us to the ward.  I think he was as excited to have neighbors as we were to have our first house.  He’s opened his home to us by offering food, tools, knowledge, and his sons’ strong backs to help us move furniture.  I’m very grateful to have him for a neighbor.  Turns out his daughter and I attended the same singles ward in Orem, and his sister was my manager for Aflac in Logan!  Smallest of world out there.  

(an example of  some of the lighting before and after)

When I called my landlord of the basement apartment Kaela and I were renting for the last year and told him we had bought a house.  He asked how long we were going to stay before we moved.  I looked at the calendar and decided that we could remove floors, prep for paint, paint, install new flooring and move in about 12 days.  Looking back on this, I wish I had given myself more time.  In the world of amateur home renovation projects one should always plan for extra time. 

 

Nevertheless, we started out that Saturday November 9, ripping out flooring through the whole house.  A big thanks to my Mom, Dad, Mariah, Ryan (bro-in-law), Nikki Rawlins, Travis, Dennis (for lending the sledge hammer), Craig, Paul Hansen, and Morgan Hansen (for making the yummy sandwiches) for coming that first Saturday and ripping out all of the flooring through the whole house.  We got out all the old, wet dog smelling carpet out.  Then we busted up all the tile and removed the laminate that the last owners had laid down that wasn’t going to match the new décor.  Having the extra hands gave us a sense that we would have all the work done in no time.  Once everyone left, the work slowed down drastically.  

(some of the before shots)

Over the next 3 days we prepped for paint.  My mom was able to stay down with us during that week and help us out.  Her knowledge of home projects was invaluable as we got ready for painting.  I borrowed a paint sprayer from my friend and sprayed the ceilings, bead board, cabinets, and doors white.  If you can spray to paint an interior of a house, I would strongly encourage you to do so.  It was so fast to spray the house when we compared it to rolling the rest of the walls in the bed rooms. 

(in-progress shots)

A week after owning the house we had a painting party.  Thanks to Shana, Alyssa, Becks, Deborah, and Aunt Marsha for coming and helping with painting. 

We ran into a few problems along the way.  Once we had the carpet up in the master bedroom and exercise room we discovered that at some point there had been water damage that caused the subfloor to rot between the two rooms.  Thanks to Craig, my Dad, and videos from youtube, I learned how to replace sub flooring between two rooms.  I love learning how to do these sort of projects.  I hate not knowing how to fix things first of all, and I hate even more to pay to have someone do something that, if shown, I can reasonably do myself.  The floor was one of these projects.  Once we had the floor cut out and the new floor cut to be installed, we found that the wall had sagged and our piece wasn’t slipping under the wall.  I remember a saying that my grandpa Rawlins used to use while farming.  “There’s not many things you can’t fix with a large hammer” I grabbed the sledgehammer and went to town on the end of the board and little by little slipped it into place under the wall. 

A second problem we had was when we took off the back splash from the kitchen it took off a lot of the drywall behind it.  I really didn’t know how to fix drywall, I figured the kitchen wall would stay crappy for a while because it wasn’t a project I knew how to do.  I was telling my friend Eric about it at church he volunteered to come over the next day and show me how to replace drywall. 

I just want to pause and take a moment to reflect on the amount of blessings we received while doing these projects.  Eric helping me fix the drywall, Craig helping me fix the floor, Travis doing a bunch of electrical work.  The service that friends and family were willing to extend touched my heart in way that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give back.  It’s funny, November’s theme of the youth lessons were on self-reliance.  As Kaela and I worked on this house, we realized that self-reliance does not mean that you must be independent or solo in all of your projects but instead that you need to be willing to be served as much as you are willing to serve.  It was hard for us to ask for help, we always felt like we were a nuisance when we had projects that were beyond our capabilities and we needed some help. But we were so grateful when others wanted to give of themselves to help us build our home.  To all of you, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. 

Painting was tough to stay on track with.  We had a few nights where we stayed up till 1, 2, and 3 o’clock in the morning, all while having full time jobs during the day.  We stayed on schedule well enough to have flooring guys come on the 18^th-20^th to put in our new floors!  Hardwood laminate in the kitchen dining room and living room.  Soft and comfy carpet in the bedrooms.  While floors were going in, we packed up the apartment and got everything ready to move.  Thanks to all those from the Lakeview 8^th ward who came and helped us move along with Jeff and Jessica who drove down from Bountiful to help.  Also, a big congratulations to Jeff and Jessica on their announcement of their first baby! 

That Wednesday, November 20, 2013 we moved in to our new home.  Coincidentally it was also my birthday and I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday gift than to have a new home with my wonderful wife.  In 12 short days, we accomplished a lot more than what we have done in the 30 days since, but once we got in we had to take a deep breath. 

There are still a lot of projects to do before we can say that the house is “done.”  After talking to other people I think it’s safe to say that I don’t think a house will ever be “done,” just at a different state of ‘done-ness’. 

 

If you are in the Orem area, and want a quick tour, please come by.  We love having guests and even have room for you to stay over if you would like.  In fact, just last week we put the doors back on in their frames!  So you’d even have some privacy. 

Thanks for reading!

Another blog post soon to come about other things that have happened in the last month and a half that are non-house related.

Thanks again to everyone who helped with the labor, lending tools, bringing us food (Matt and Steph), helping us pack and move, and being good neighbors before and after. And don’t worry, if you are still missing things you lent to us, you will get them back soon. Really.

 We'll put up more of our 'after' shots after we are back at home and can take them. Until then, here are a few before's next to their mostly done counterparts.

 

The Secret Is Out

No we are not having a baby. Don't worry, we'll let you know when that happens too.
We're having a house! We have been looking for an apartment/townhouse/house off and on since last October when we got engaged. We put a few offers in, but nothing quite worked out. In February we put in an offer on a short sale we really liked in the north part of Orem. We were hoping for something further north with Darrell's office being in American Fork and me working in Draper, so we kept looking. In June our offer moved into first place and we started thinking more about that house. Eventually we decided to just wait around for the bank to actually move on it since we never found something we liked better. And they did.
It's a 4 bedroom, 2 bath brick rambler. We have some work to do on it so even though we are closing on it on Wednesday, we aren't expecting to be moved in until about the 22nd. It looks pretty dismal right now but we shall try to keep good track of before and after photos to put up.
We're stoked/stressed and probably won't be super social the next few weeks, so don't be offended. If you like to clean/paint/haul away old carpet/move furniture/bring us food so we eat something warm, let us know. Darrell and I both have a really hard time asking for help, but know we really are going to need some so we can hit our deadlines.
But if anyone needs tips on where to get appliances, paint, flooring, etc in Utah county, we are somewhat knowledgeable about good deals.
We're going to miss our ward and our neighborhood a lot, but glad we are going to finally be putting money towards a house instead of just rent every month. And it's going to be cool to have a place of our own. We just haven't told the cat yet... She should be okay though considering she gets  new yard and roof for her fluffy self to play on.
Hope everyone has a good week! Watch out for pictures soon. And we're going crazy in one of the rooms so if you have an opinion on whether we should do yellow or orange walls, let us know. And don't worry, it's going to look good. I promise. 

His & Hers

So this week (mostly making up for the lack of post last week) is a joint endeavor. Now two weekends ago, I went on our annual girls' trip with my mom, Brandaige, and Shaili in Branson. Darrell couldn't stand the thought of being home alone without me-understandably, so he went with on an overnight camping trip to Goblin Valley with some of the youth in our ward.
I shall go first. 
First of all, there were actually six of us on the trip because Brandaige brought Elsie and Shaili brought Gaia. Good thing they're girls. But really, they're adorable. Thankfully my mom was taking pictures the whole weekend because I only have pictures of the nieces.
We went to a show our first night in town. They claimed to be the oldest show in Branson, but a sign two blocks up the road said that another show was the first show in Branson. Yeah. The next day we spent at Silver Dollar City, an amusement park for those who have never sampled the goodness of Branson. We went on some rollercoasters by juggling babies and thankfully left the park just as it started raining. We unwisely went to a Golden Corral next door to our hotel. (Don't get it? Branson=the destination spot for the newly wed and nearly dead aka lots and lots of senior citizens who love buffets.) I actually took a picture of the line to send to Darrell, so there's that. We went on a train ride on Saturday. Yes, I have now been to Arkansas. Then we hit up a restaurant on the river we'd been to before, dropped by the Five & Ten store we loved when we were kids and visited, and then stopped by the outlet mall. We ended the night at a fudge shop for ice cream, where they sang for us surprisingly. And I got hit on by a sixteen year old and didn't realize it until after we left and Brandaige and Shaili caught me up. Guess I've transitioned to the whole marriage thing pretty well.
It was great trip and I came back more relaxed than I've been in a long time. Work and life has helped to get me back to my normal state in the last week, but I only have to make it to next year! I'm so glad my mom is an awesome planner and puts these trips together every year. I think this was our twelfth year?
Spiritual experience of the trip: we stopped by a sacrament meeting before we all had to head to the airport to fly home Sunday. I was finally almost over a bad headcold I'd had all week, so I decided to skip watching the primary program and spend our hour at church in the bathroom with food poisoning. Now, this presented a problem as you can imagine. Flying doesn't usually bother me at this point, but I did not want to spend two flights and a layover in that state. Didn't sound too doable in my mind. So we had a lady pull her husband and son out of the meeting to come give me a priesthood blessing. Ten minutes later I barely even could remember being sick. By the time we got to our layover in Denver I was eating Quizno's and peanut butter M&Ms. Guess what? The church is true.

 Golden Corral

 Elsie

 We get in trouble a lot when we spend time together.

 The girls loved each other.

Gaia smiles more than any baby I've ever met.

Now for Darrell's turn....

Two week catchup on blogging 

Happy Halloween everybody

Sorry for the two week delay.  Here is a catch me up blogging post, complete with pics, stories and other miscellaneous nonsense.  About two weeks ago, Anberlin was back in town and we went to the concert.  We met at their concert last April which put us down the path of marriage.  We love listening to their music and they put on a great show.  

I hope everyone enjoyed watching a traditional Halloween movie this weekend.  Ours was The Nightmare before Christmas.  For some reason neither Kaela nor I had ever seen all of it and it was playing on a giant outdoor screen at Sundance Resort which had set up Halloween theme lift ride.  Below the ski lift were various Halloween themed scenes, zombie crossing, witches hut, car accidents, ghosts floating in the air.  It was kind of cheesy and wasn’t very scary unless you were close to the ground where you would normally get off the lift.  You were close enough to let the volunteers have a chance to jump at you or invite you to have your face carved off or something like that.  Mostly it was just a nice chair lift ride in the cold mountain air.  If you decide to go and do something like that, take a blanket, we were glad we did.  Also make sure you secure all your belongings.  Once we got back to the car I reached into my pocket to pull out the passes that I had borrowed from Infotrax only to discover that they were missing!  I think I remember hearing them fall but didn’t think anything of it at the time.  I talked to the lifties and the ticket office and they said they would look but it might wait until Monday before they could really do a good looking.  But, the passes were reserved for the very next day!  I had to get them back.  Fortunately, the passes had one free reprinting in case of this very situation.  Hopefully, no one else will lose them this season, and thank goodness it was something easily solved.  When I was talking to the ticket office people there was another girl who had her cell phone drop out of her pocket!  #biggerproblems. 

That was a start to a good weekend for us.  Saturday, Kaela and I did a bunch of browsing for flooring options at some local stores to get an estimate for our house. 

For those of you who don’t know, we are about two weeks away from closing on our first home. We haven't done a good job publicizing it so far but details on a house warming parting will be coming. 

Anyway, it’s good to get a good estimate on the flooring so we know what other things we can do now and what will be a later project.  Hopefully we can get it nice for us to enjoy for the next few years. 

We also did some mountain biking and went to the temple for initiatories.  Perfect weather for mountain biking right now.  Too bad it gets dark so soon now. 

It’s been really nice to have a weekend with each other here locally.  We are always running around doing different things.  For example, last weekend Kaela left for Branson, Missouri for her annual girl’s trip with her mom and sisters.  I went with the scouts to Goblin Valley with the scouts.  I’m proud to say that my ward and leaders are not the idiots who made national news a week ago by knocking over an ancient goblin.  I think it’s so irresponsible that leaders, who are supposed to be examples of what to do for the youth, are the ones initiating a vandalous act at a state park and feel that they were justified in their actions.  I’ll stop my rant, it could go on for a few more paragraphs but I’ll spare everyone. 

We played kick the can and capture the flag in the goblins under a full moon that was so bright you didn’t need to use a flashlight.  The next morning we hiked a slot canyon called Ding and Dang.  The boys did great at climbing up and over the obstacles.    We got to turn the hike into a teaching opportunity for the kids to practice leadership principles by making the boys be responsible for getting everyone over the obstacle instead of relying on the leaders.  I’m amazed at what these kids can accomplish.  It’s been so much fun being in this ward’s youth program. 

On the way home, the car in front took a wrong turn on I-70.  For those you familiar with I-70 in central Utah, there is nothing out there and we got stuck going 100 miles out of the way across the state before getting to an exit that would take us home.  I was beautiful country, but an unnecessary detour.  I learned that it’s important to have a map in your car of the area you are going to be traveling in.  Sometimes you just can’t rely of having cell service when you need it the most.

  

Back to me for the finish.

We'll try to keep up blogging the next couple weeks even though it will be crazy for awhile. We may have to settle with mostly pictures of what will be keeping us busy-cleaning, moving, painting, etc. Either next Sunday before the madness sets in or after we get settled we'll give a little more detail about the house. At this point it doesn't seem too real yet. Pretty sure that will be changing soon. Prayers are appreciated in the meantime to help us not go crazy. This is Darrell's busiest time of year, and as you can imagine I have already used my time off for the year with all of our trips. This is the kind of thing that makes me really grateful I've got my best friend by my side. Wouldn't have it any other way.