Our Dream House

About a year ago, Wayne came home one day and said he just slapped down a big ol' chunk of money as a down payment on a lot on the far south end of Lethbridge. Now you have to understand that this was a complete and utter surprise to me! We had discussed it (briefly) and even went around town looking for ideal lots to build our eventual dream home. Little did I know that Wayne would snowball the whole idea and move things forward about 5 years faster than I had been planning!

So before we knew it, we were the owners of a 3/4 acre lot right on the edge of city limits. There is very little out there other than farmland and the airport further down the highway. On a clear day, we can see Chief Mountain, but that is about the only interesting thing to see.

They broke ground in October. Any normal builder would have had an entire house built by now, but not our builder. He happened to own the lot we wanted, so we had no choice in who built our house. It has been 7 months and we just got the basement framed! We know a lot of people who have had this same builder and they all say he is painfully slow, BUT he does build an exceptional house. So that is what we have to keep reminding ourselves!

This is the house we will probably die in...I am NOT moving again. It is our dream home! Wayne and I first saw this house about 7 years ago when we lived in Utah. We were checking out a bunch of showhomes and absolutely fell in love with the floorplan. Unfortunately, the original builders don't sell their blueprints, so we had the basic floor plan and had an architect re-create the house for us. The pathetic thing is that we could buy this same house in Utah for about 1/3 of the price that it is costing us to build. We joked about "buying" the house in Utah and having them ship up the frames and trusses and assemble it here. The really sad thing is that even if the shipping was $20 000.00, it would've probably still cost a fraction of the price. Oh well, it's a good thing Wayne is also known as my "sugar daddy" now! (10 years of post secondary schooling is finally paying off!)

After almost three months of very little happening on the house (February-April), May has brought some renewed excitement. If Wayne wasn't constantly on the phone to our builder, nothing would be happening! We finally got some windows, in-floor heating in the basement and garage (a necessity with our Canadian winters!), concrete poured in the basement and garage and framing in the basement. There is even some dry wall in some places! Woohoo!



It has been raining for a week straight and there are pools of water around the house, there is pigeon poop everywhere, we still don't have all the windows in but things are moving along. Our builder says he is still aiming to have us in by July or August, but I'm thinking it will be closer to October or November.

I've been busy trying to make choices on flooring, cabinetry, colours and fixtures...so much to think about. I'm glad that this will be our only build and final house...it is way too stressful. With the new house on the horizon, I'm really noticing just how cramped we are in our present house. We've definately out grown this house and we all are anxious for more space!

May Long Weekend

Over the May long weekend, we took a family trip up to Edmonton. Wayne was supposed to do a fireside up in Spruce Gove, but it was canceled. We decided to go anyways thinking it would be a fun family holiday. We decided to get some family portraits done by an old friend, TJ Aneca, who now has a home-based business doing portraits. TJ sang on Wayne's first CD "Closer to Heaven" 10 years ago! She has an amazing voice and is now an amazing photographer.

We stayed with Wayne's cousin, Daina, the night before and then met TJ at her husbands' dental office (this is where her studio is set up). But it wasn't without some drama.... Azia woke up saying her tummy hurt and chose not to eat breakfast. She got showered, dressed and ready for pictures, but then felt really ill. Parker was occupying the bathroom that we were using and Azia got sick all over her pants and on the floor at Daina's house! LOVELY! Thankfully, she didn't get anything on her shirt and she had packed an extra pair of denim capris. We got Daina's floor cleaned up then headed to our shoot. On the way there, Azia got sick again. Luckily, Daina sent us with a bucket! This is NOT the way I had pictured our day going.

Azia bounced back pretty quickly and we did our shoot. It's so hard to know how these pictures were going to turn out with 5 fairly young kids. Parker was all too happy to pose, Cardiff wanted nothing to do with sitting still and Sawyer was sleepy, then hungry, then sleepy and not wanting to smile for the camera. When it came time to do some individual pictures of the kids, Parker had his own ideas of how he should look in the pictures. "TJ, how about this pose?" "TJ, what if I do something like this?' "TJ, take a picture of me now!" TJ was so great to accomodate his requests...she was excellent with all of the kids!

So a couple of days later, TJ posted some of our pics on her Facebook group and on her blog:

So far, I'm very excited from what I've seen! Can't wait to see the rest.

The rest of the day was spent at the World of Science centre and West Edmonton Mall. The kids were exhausted by the time we got to our hotel. We had been telling them all day that we would relax with a nice swim when we got to the hotel, however, when Wayne checked us in, they informed us that the pool closed an hour before. There was a YMCA across the street, but they would be closing in 15 minutes and the pool at Grant McEwan was closed for the long weekend. Needless to say, we were all a little bit upset! We convinced them to go to the hot tub for a short time and we would try to go swimming when we returned to Lethbridge. We had a very late supper (10pm) at the hotel's restaurant. Our server brought us some warm rolls to eat while we waited for our food. They were warm, but they were NOT fresh! They were as hard as rocks. Emmy would almost tip out of her chair after each bite as she yanked on the roll to get a piece off. Cardiff just ate the middle and left the shell! We were all laughing pretty hard...good times! I sat back and watched everyone laugh and have such a good time together just sitting around a table talking and I realized just how blessed I am!

After our very late meal, we finally got to relax...in our 2 different rooms! I booked the hotel using our Airmiles, but they only had 2 separate rooms with 1 king-size bed in each. Oh yeah, one of the rooms was a smoking room too! When we got to the non-smoking room, it was not a king-size bed, so they ended up giving us a cot and a crib to use free of charge. Wayne graciously took the smoking room with two of the kids and I stayed with Sawyer and the other 2 kids in the non-smoking room. It WAS a very nice hotel with the most comfortable hotel beds we've stayed in! We headed home the next day.

It was a fun weekend! I'm so glad we decided to go and spend that time with our sweet kids! I figure there will be lots of time for Wayne and I to take trips together, but the kids are only young once. I'd rather spend time with them on these fun, family holidays and make these memories now because they grow up way too fast. I'm sure there will be a time when hanging out with mom and dad won't be at the top of their lists!

I've caved...I'm now a blogger!

OK, so anyone that knows me, knows that I'm an avid journal writer. That is partially why I've hesitated getting involved in blogging. There is something about a personally kept history in your own handwriting. But I can't deny the benefits of a blog either. Pictures and stories can readily be shared with friends and family around the world in an instant. So, in addition to my 18 years of journal writing, I'm going to try to keep up with this blog. So, WELCOME!!

I'm sure it will take me some time figuring this all out, so please be patient and check back often. I will try to post something fun and interesting in the next few days. Until then....