Life with the Hoff's: 2011

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Holidays!

We hope you all have a splendid holiday and that the new year brings you new adventures, great stories,

happy memories, and amazing times.

We will be moving back into our house over Christmas break, so we are ready for whatever God has in store for us in 2012.

We've come to find there isn't much that we can't handle together. The big guy and I make a pretty great team.

Love, Chad and Brit

Friday, November 25, 2011

Updates

Here are some updates!

More to come in the new year!

Most of these are to be read from left to right in progression of Pre-Flood until now.

Front of house...

Back of house

Living room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Hallway going downstairs or out to garage

Upstairs Bathroom--the top will stay white, and there will be brown wainscoting again on the bottom.

Master bedroom

As you can see we've come a long way since June 22. I don't have pictures of the 2nd bedroom upstairs on here because we didn't change much and we aren't painting it just yet. I also did not put any pictures of the basement because we are not finishing that until our hazard mitigation goes through and is completed--so you'll just have to wait to see those!

This is what we have been spending almost every weekend doing the past 5 months. We want to be in our home. Our goal is to be in by Christmas, which is going to happen!!! Could be in a bit sooner, depending on when the flooring arrives and same with cabinets.

We have worked hard to get back in our house and yes, we have had to make some sacrifices--like not going to see family as much as they might like us too or going to visit friends out of town. We've chosen to rebuild our lives, so that we can move on to the next adventures. We bought a house to live in it, not to live on the front mud pile in a FEMA trailer (which the electricity bill is HUGE because they are NOT well insulated and the heat is running constantly to try and keep up!!!--another reason to get into the house quicker!!!!)

The huge garbage pile we had is finally gone; it is just a small stack now of some leftover drywall. Things are starting to look up. We've had quite a few setbacks along this adventure, but the light is shining at the end of the tunnel and we can both see it.

God has a plan for us.........

even if we don't always agree with it, unfortunatly.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Long night

Here are a few pictures from the last few

weeks. I'll post some of the finished drywall

as soon as they are done!

The neighbors tree is SOOO pretty!

We moved the hot water heater into the furnace room so that the washer and dryer can be moved to this wall....space saver =)

New electrical box!

Insulated and plastic up!

New door didn't quite fit, so we had

to resize the header!

Attempt #1 to fix the gutters......

New tub is in!!

ooooooooooh drywall!

Woops! forgot to take into account the soffit when we ordered cabinets. Just had to cut out about 31 inches so that the new pantry will fit....the rest will work out.....thankfully!!

The drywallers should be finished in the next day or so, then they will spray the texture and primer. After that we can start painting! Cabinets will be going in in about a week, then flooring the following week....which means just trim work and finishing the plumbing! The kitchen counter top will arrive near the end of December or beginning of January, so until then I'll just be using some plywood I think! Then we can move our stuff back in and live in our house!!!!

Things are getting better. I still have days when I leave work and just want to cry (and I usually do). I'm sure Chad has these days too, however he tries to be tough. Like so many others, I just want to go home. I want to live in a place where I have a seperate kitchen and living room...I want to live in our house!

I was able to make our first ever house payment on our property in October. That was really exciting; all the rest were made in the camper. I can't wait for the day I get to make a payment in our house!

Chad and I have just really been working on the house. Last night he blew insulation into the attic; the garage is still left because the drywallers haven't gotten to that part yet, so there isn't a ceiling in there. I have parent teacher conferences this week and Chad has a holiday open house tonight. We are ready to be able to come home and just relax.

We received about 6 inches of snow of Tuesday morning....made for a long trip to school with all of the car crashes there were.

There's so much I'd like to post, but I know I shouldn't because, well, it's my raw emotions. I've had complaints even after a few posts, so, sorry for the generic. I'll keep to my journal for those raw "posts."

Have a great night! and weekend!!

Monday, November 14, 2011

until then...

I haven't uploaded pictures from the camera for a few weeks....

So, until I get around to doing that (so you can see the transformation) I'll leave you with this...

The protector

And "man who sits in chair for first time in MANY months"...this was about a month or so ago

Friday, October 21, 2011

My weekend...

What did I spend most of my weekend doing??

Loving on these two little munchkins!

Brand new baby Ethan!

Big sister Lily!

We had a slumber party while my sister and her husband were still in the hospital!

Chad wasn't able to come with as he had to work, but from the sounds of it, he had fun playing pool with a co-worker.

Have a great weekend!!

Pizza, pineapple, and games!

I had the privledge of hanging out with our friends little guy on Wednesday night! He's such a hoot! Between eating pizza, pineapple, and playing games, I don't know who had more fun, us or him!

Halloween time!

It's Halloween time! Chad has started decorating the outside of the FEMA trailer =) He did this the other day.....

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Mundane Monday...err Tuesday

No new pictures today, just a quick howdy do.

The HVAC is pretty much all the way in. Just waiting for a few things to finish up with that. Electrician should be coming soon...we are apparently next on the list.

It's been rainy, crisp, fall weather here...except today. It was over 60 degrees (I'm not complaining, I had recess duty and it was AMAZING).

We moved the king bed into the trailer on Sunday...We've slept hard the last few nights, thinking why didn't we do this before???

The caterpillar I caught at the trailer has now cacooned (I don't know how to spell that). I brought him to school so we have been observing him the last week. The kids named him Hairy Henry and he's in a bug cage now.

Chad's going to see an oral surgeon next week to talk about removing his wisdom teeth and I get a crown set on the 20th..

I've also got some ear tube issues going on...the chiropractor pulled my ears yesterday...ever had that done by a doctor of any sort?? Ouch and amazing all in one.

Sorry for the mundane post....If you'd like some excitement you can check out my class blog here. I'm 2 posts short of having the same amount of posts as this blog...yikes.