Outside updates!

Here's another peek at the outside of our house!  

Two years later and we are finally BETTER than we were pre-flood! 

(which by the way, the 2nd anniversary of the sirens sounding was on June 22 @12:57 p.m.)

YAHOO! 

HOLD UP! 

Let's go back down memory lane....

Pre-flood

 I couldn't find a full shot of the front of the house pre-flood.

June 2011

When we first were able to get back into the house after the flood....

July 2011

July 2012 (weeds make for a nice plush green lawn!)

And 2 pictures of the PRESENT
JUNE 2013 house....

Grass looks WAY better....

My sister and I planted some nice flowers in this planter while she was here on HER mini vacation. 

(thanks for the planter Ma & Pa Hoff!)

This is the other side of the house... 

We did not have this little area tilled/leveled and hydroseeded.  We will complete the project on our own.  We are still debating whether to seed it, gravel it, or just bite the bullet and pour some concrete here.

 BEEP BEEP! Back it up again for the backyard!

Pre-Flood June 2011

I don't have a whole picture of the backyard preflood that I can find right now.  

However to the left there WAS a shed...

Backyard July 2011 right after the flood

this is panned a little more to the left....

We had been working on the house for about 3 months by this point...

June 2012

And currently! June 2013

This lovely little indent is over by the big egress window. 

Possible kennel area for the dogS!

Looking out from the indented area....

This is one of our big projects for next summer.  

We will be leveling it out, adding some rock, and building a "built in" above ground fire pit.

Progress has been made! 

Hoping to get a shed back up in the fall in one of the back corners!

Friday

We tried to play outside in the grass last night with Chad but the mosquitoes were HORRIBLE!  

Not even worth it.  

So, we went out today after lunch!

Sadie enjoys being in her yard and getting to lounge and eat grass to her hearts content.

We have a lot of these in the yard from the vacant houses and lots surrounding us.  Soon the fence will be up and or lawn will be sprayed for weeds!

far away

closer up

"Hey mom, this blanket is the best idea ever! Now I don't have to touch that green stuff!"

I know, horrible mom here.  But he tried to turn around to find Sadie and fell into the grass.  Didn't hit hard, but that dang grass touched him.  And it was too cute not to take his picture. 

Busy Busy Weekend

Before...

During

Big helper

Sleepy guy

Sadie loves being outside

and she loves her new front lawn

After! Minus the gutter back up and the wooden planter

New mailbox and curb appeal

trying to tame the bees!

Seriuosly, pull out the camera and this is what the kid gives me. EVERY.TIME!

 This is his new favorite way to sit.

FIRE FIRE FIRE

Seriously?  We were woken up to the our fire alarms beeping and screaming "Fire Fire Fire" at us this morning around 2:30.  Don't worry though, there wasn't a fire...just a SPIDER!!  

Chad went running around the house looking for a fire, smelling for smoke, feeling the walls for hot spots, and checking in the attic...NOTHING.  We now know that our hardwired smoke alarms work well....and we know how to shut them off more quickly (apparently the light on the one that gets tripped turns red).  Poor Chad ran around for about 10 minutes taking down all but one of our detectors to get them to shut off.  After about an hour of them being plugged back in he went back to bed (I was up for the day, yay!).  

So, after all the excitement he still got up this a.m. and has been doing stuff outside.  He tried something new with the gutters to see if it helps and has been working on painting the trim on the house.  He's so great.

I've been confined to the house to get as much rest as possible to try and get rid of my head/chest cold before mister decides to arrive.  I feel horrible I can't be out there helping him do stuff.  

Thanks Chaddy.

Weekend Shenanigans

Chad's dad and mom came up this past weekend to help us out.  The exterior of the house needed a little facelift.....

 Right after.....

October....

July 2 =)

Still have to do the trim (except all but 2 windows were done when we got the new casings for the windows put on!)

It's pretty much the exact same color as it was before.  How did we manage that?? We don't know.  We picked a color that looked nice and we thought it might be a little darker and more gray, didn't hold it up to the outside...and voila, we picked a good replica haha.  They taped, plastic the windows, and sprayed the whole house in one day!

Chad's mom tackled the garage. Swept the whole thing and re-orgazined the piles! I don't have a before picture...maybe they do.... They got the board off the window and the pane that was broken out was replaced  with a board for the time being and some insulation got put up in the walls too!  As soon as Chad finishes insulating a few other spots he can put the shelves up that his parents brought up and he can start REALLY organizing his piles =)

On Sunday after a nap and some lunch Chad and I tackled painting Baby Hoff's room!

We have a few blankets and other things to pull out of there still, but the painting is done!  I got the white inside trim I wanted (which is what I wanted all throughout the house) because we couldn't paint the caulking that was used to seal the window....

After seeing it Chad did agree that it looked really nice with the white trim on the inside of the window!  HA!

Next project: Painting our room and working on the white trim on the exterior!  Then it's just a little touch-up paint on other parts of the house and decorating! 

Construction Zone!

The house is still under construction =)  Texturing is next! We have about a week or two until the basement will be finished and we can clear out the the clutter!  YAHOO!  I think I am more excited to hang clothes in the closet than I am to clear out the clutter.....

Chad is out shooting blackbirds (or crows...some type of black bird) right now with Travis.  We spent the morning getting our closet cleared out and Chad went grocery shopping again (bless his heart). 

The backyard will soon be taken care of.  Our landscaper's dirt guy broke his leg! So we are waiting for him to heal up and then we will be back on track!  We have no problem waiting for this guy because they came in with a mid range bid and were so personable and just so easy to work with!  He asked what we wanted, gave us some suggestions, and TOGETHER came up with a plan. 

Now, to get started on those deck plans.......I suppose if it hadn't been raining all weekend we would have been able to go out and stake it out....hopefully tomorrow night Chad will get off at a decent time and we will be able to do it then! 

Chad cut down the big apple tree in the back the other weekend.....here's a during and after lol, somewhere I have a before..maybe I'll find it before I hit Publish =)

          Before/ May 2011                                       During the cut down

  After the cut down! The other little tree is still there--just not in the camera view =)

Here are a few pictures of the basement in it's current state:

Bathroom has new glass blocks, a full tub/shower, and a closet now!  Before it was just a shower and no closet....and the new glass block window lets in SO much light!! It's nice to have two windows!

Spare room.  The closet got moved to the other side of the room and the window looks amazing with the drywall wrapped!  We did not replace the glass blocks in the bedroom, we had that opening cemented in because we had water issues pre-flood with that window well =)

This is the laundry room....out that door is the family room, next to where I was taking the picture from is the smaller storage room with the sump pump, and below is the other side of the laundry room.  We aren't rocking that wall until we get the plumbing moved and all fixed up so that the washer and dryer can be moved to the furnace room wall =)

 And lastly, this is the family room with new glass block windows and the stairs to go upstairs!

All of our tile and carpet is in and I think the trim also, so, construction should be finishing up in the next week or so!  The only things left will be to repaint our bedroom and to paint the nursery, trim work in the nursery, our room,  I think one wall in the dining room and one wall in the kitchen!  So ALL construction will be complete before baby Hoff arrives....THANK GOODNESS!

To see any pictures from preflood to now just go to the archives =) April 2011-the present you can see photos from when we first bought the house, through the flooding, cleanup and rebuilding.