First official party at the new house!

Our son Jeff organized a work party at the new house for Richard's birthday party.  Everyone came and worked hard weeding the yard for several hours, working especially hard getting the garden ready to plant.  I bought Subway sandwiches, chips and cupcakes to celebrate.  

Before everyone got there I worked on bucketing out the water in the pond.  I scooped for an hour and had hardly made a ripple in the amount of water.  Shirl, our neighbor, brought over his shop vac to move the work along.  It sucked up the water easily but it was still hard to pull the shopvac to a place on the lawn to  empty it.   Then I was totally grossed out when big clumps of dead worms were dumped out on the lawn.  I finally turned the icky job over to Richard and Richard.  They got out all the water and then scrubbed away the slim and scum.  After it was all clean, they really wanted to see the waterfall and fountains.  With the help of Shirl again, they finally got it going.  It is pretty cool.  We just need to drain it again and paint the pool blue so it will look better.

Everyday I look forward to working at the new home and get so excited to think that we will soon be able to move in.  I love it!

Richard graduates from U.V.U.

 Richard and I attended Richard's graduation from UVU on April 26, 2013.  He graduated from the school of business with an accounting degree.   Richard was accepted to get his masters degree from three colleges, one in California, one in Florida and the University of Utah.  They have eliminated California because the housing was too steep and Richard went to Florida over the weekend to get a feel for there.  They will make their decision shortly.    

Happy to be finally done with no more tests or papers.... at least until the fall. 

Church Service Missionary

In March 2013 I began my one year church service mission at the Bishop's Central Storehouse.  I work on Mondays and it just happens that every Monday there is a devotional for all the employees and missionaries.  So, the second week to my delight who should be be the guest at the devotional.....Jon Schmidt.  He was wonderful, answering questions and playing a few of his songs on the electric keyboard at the storehouse.  It just happened that I sat right in front of his wife and youngest daughter and son.  They were so gracious and so delightful to talk to.  He signed autographs for all the young Elders and took a picture with each one of them one by one.  I took the opportunity to tell him about how his music inspired my daughters to finally learn to play the piano.  

The next week, I was able to meet and go on a tour of the storehouse with Mark Ubank and his wife and daughter.  I forgot to get a picture of them.  They were also very gracious and wonderful people.  So far, I am not sure how to work their phone system and pray that no one will call while I am at the desk.  :)

A little Accident April 13, 20

Alright, so I know that I have old hands so I don't really want to show off this picture, but while helping a new family move into out ward I tripped on the curb and fell while holding a dresser drawer.  I dislocated my middle finger.  Richard took me to First Med, even though I know he was bummed not to be able to continue helping the Coxes move into their new home.    

 I was really glad when they found that it wasn't broken and even happier that they could give me two shots of something to deaden my finger before they pulled it back in place.  In fact, I didn't feel anything and the P.A. had to tell me she was all done.  Cool....no pain.

 This is my finger two weeks later.  On the third Saturday after the accident I went back to the doctor and they referred me to a hand surgeon.  Apparently my finger is not healing correctly.

Some Demolition Pictures

We began the demolition process with the carpet.  This is the sunroom on the southeast side of the house.  It is one of our favorite rooms in the house because of the hugh windows.  I decided I had better take down the drapes too before they were permanently gray.  

 The hallway to the master bedroom.  

 Most of the demolition was in the master bath.  We took out two smaller bathrooms to make one larger one.  That meant that they had to take out two showers, two toilets, a bathtub, 2 vanities and several walls.

 Getting ready to do the R.V. pad.

 The garage is filling up fast with stuff we might reuse.  

 Taking out the fence was nearly impossible.  The concrete on the corner post had so much rebar that no one could take it out with a sledgehammer.  They finally had to rent a jackhammer.  

 Steve and Marlin are great to work with.  They work in all kinds of conditions, freezing cold and boiling hot days.

 When we found that we needed to replace the heating and cooling system, we were able to upgrade to the type of systems that could vent out the side of the house, so we were able to take out this big pipe and open up this wall.

 We are still working on what to do in the kitchen area.  

The plumbers and electricians are now done and next we move onto sheetrock.  We love these big windows in the step down living room.  It has been a month since we began the renovation.

A Big Decision 2013

On March 11th after several months of going back and forth with "should we buy it", or "no we shouldn't", we put an offer on the Larsen's home just a few blocks from our current home.  We have always loved this home and hoped that someday we might be able to buy it.  Four days later we found out that they had accepted our offer.  We were overjoyed and I made the comment that we had just bought the home we would die in.  Other people said maybe we should say, "we just bought the home we would live the rest of our lives in".   I guess that sounds a little bit better.  After all the due diligence and inspections were complete, we signed the contract on April 5th and the home was ours.  It is a beautiful rambler with a wonderful big backyard.  The very next day, Larry our builder and crew began demolition on the things we wanted to remodel.  Here are the pictures of the home as we saw it while trying to decide whether to buy it.  

 Front yard 

 Sunroom, my personal favorite room, although the photo is not the best. 

 Kitchen

 This area is across from the kitchen and we plan to have a large table here.

 Step down into the Living room. 

 Basement kitchen

 Guest bedroom in the basement.

 Big storage room

 Front Entry and stairs to basement.

 Another view of the step down living room.

 We call this the motorhome bathroom.

 Master Bedroom

 Three pictures of the backyard.

Basement family area and fireplace.  Somehow I missed a picture of my favorite room, the big craft room with a full wall of shelves for sewing, painting, and crafting supplies.  Within a week things changed dramatically.  My next post I will should the beginning of the remodeling pictures.  

Park City in March

Dad and I enjoyed a trip to Park City in March.  He wanted to go to the Kimball Arts Center.  We didn't know what to expect, but were intrigued by this artist who used legos as his art medium.  These were not small sculptures, this particular one was 6+ feet tall and life-sized.  Having had legos as a part of our household with all the boys and stepping on them for years, it was fun to see the detail and creativity he put in his art work.  

 All one color block, yet so detailed.  

 The picture on the floor is a self portrait.  

 Another self portrait of the artist.

 After we went to the Olympic Museum near Kimball Junction.  This was set-up for photos.  Dad is holding the Olympic torch.

Cool shot!  Dad skiing down the mountain.