Rise and Shout the Cougars are Out...

Out of the picture that is!! Oh what a great day to be a UTAH fan!!! Thanks to my fabulous uncle and a few last min tickets, Aaron and I were able to join the masses at the Utah V BYU game and bask in the glory of five interceptions and a fumble leading us on our way to slaughtering BYU, conference title and a BCS bowl game!! We had great tickets and an even better time. Thank you a million uncle Keith for the tickets, and to all you "cougar" fans out there, better luck next year!! GO UTES!!!!!

It's been a Wire...

I know what its been a while since our last post. Since construction on our house began I've been meeting myself, and Aaron coming and going. It feels like all we do is sleep, go to work, go from work to work on the house, come home between 9 and 10pm. Stuff food in our mouths quickly and then go to bed so we can wake up the next morning and do it all over again.

Oh sure it started out all exciting and everything was happening so fast, the framing went up in a week the plumbing was done in two days, and even the HVAC guys had their part done in record breaking time.... and then came the wiring... or in other words the sweat equity portion, you know, the portion that the home owners do because they're too cheap to pay someone else to do a job that they feel could be done just as well by themselves.

Let me just say these two words... NEVER AGAIN. Don't do it! Just fork out the money and pay a professional to do the job. (there's a reason they call them that apparently...) Here is my top 3 reasons why you would NOT wire your own house.

1. It is not a learned skill you will ever use again, and I mean EVER. (Trust me by the time your done you will never want to see another wire, hammer, staple, or drill again)
2. By the time you buy all the supplies, new tools you'll need to complete the job, use the gas to run the the nearest Home Depot at least 15 times, and then purchase more supplies to fix the things you screwed up you really don't end up saving that much money.
3. It takes at least triple the amount of time to do it yourself, and it is absolutely not worth the amount of blood, sweat, tears, arguing, and frustration that goes into it.

So here's to you Aaron for all of your patience, kindness, hard work, and willingness to help me wire in the freezing cold and the dark.

And to all of you out there who are as stubborn and cheap as we are, if you ever take on such a task, you know where to find every drill bit known to man and a really good first aid kit!!

Remodel Update

Well folks here it is! Yup the second story is up and running.

It looks amazing thanks to our friends and family that have helped us get this far

This is the main level. Instead of a crammed living, kitchen, bath, laundry and bedroom, we only have a living room and kitchen on the main floor. This photo is the entrance.

Overwhelmed...

So, I have been feeling incredibly overwhelmed as of late. Aaron has taken and started and new job, life at work has been incredibly demanding, and we had to completely demolish all of the interior walls and roof of our house by Sunday to have it ready for the framers to come today.

While knocking down walls of a house that has been somewhat of a horror since we bought it is deeply gratifying and very therapeutic it has a tendency to lose its thrill in about ten min. ( which is approximately the amount of time it takes for your arm to decide it doesn't like swinging a sledge hammer over and over.) Needless to say we were in WAY over our heads (more than just being covered with insulation) with this demo thing.

But the past few days I have mostly been overwhelmed with a very deep and profound gratitude to those of you who have shown us such an out pouring of love, support, and sheer man/ woman power. Gratitude to those of you who gave up your weekend and braved the cold, the dark, the snow and rain, the itchy insulation and all the dust to help. Gratitude to neighbors who let us borrow their power because we had none, to those who called the city planning commission in our behalf, and for putting up with our "mess."(however I think that you would all agree that disaster is a more appropriate description.) And gratitude for your spouses who I sure sacrificed their weekend plans as well.

I don't think I can possibly describe, how grateful we are to all of you. So I will leave you with this. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts, you were truly and answer to our prayers.