A Year In Review

Just over a year ago we moved out of the Paulson's camper and into our very unfinished house.  And here we are a year later and very grateful to be finishing up.

My mom has asked me for a 'year in review' post for a while now, but I've found it hard to sit down and put everything that's happened in the past year into words.  Nathan and I took some time to look through all the photos from the past year and it's hard to believe just how much has changed and transformed.  Over the past year we've watched our house transform from a construction zone into a home piece by piece.  It's been a pretty amazing experience that sure makes you appreciate every part of a home, even down to the smallest aspects. 

We moved into our house in November of last year.  It was getting too cold in the camper.  We had no running water in the camper except for a couple hours each day and it was simply too cold at night for it to be safe for the kids.  So, we moved into our house that had little more than a working toilet, sink and bathtub that also functioned as our kitchen sink for quite some time. 

When I look back at the pictures it's hard to imagine that we made it through to where we are today.  The floors were OSB and I had two toddlers running around and an infant.  There was no insulation in the basement or siding on the outside of the house.  Nothing was in our kitchen other than a fridge and a stove.  And thankfully we also had our washer and dryer hooked up.  A must have.  I had run to our local Goodwill and grabbed every flat sheet that was available to spread down on our floors just to try and make things a little more comfortable.  And it was from there that we began to move forward into turning our house into a home. 

Last night in the camper.

Life when we moved into the house.

the kitchen

the master bedroom

a functioning bathroom with no door

main living area

First order of business was getting the kitchen cabinets installed so the floor could go down.

Nathan took the week off during Thanksgiving last year to work on getting the main living area floor installed.

After the floor was in Nathan finished installing the upper cabinets in the kitchen and the cabinets in the laundry room.

Then we got a makeshift counter on the island so we could temporarily set up the sink.  It was so nice to finally not have to do the dishes in the bathtub.

Then we camped out in the living room while the carpet was installed. (December 2011)

2 trips to town and 2 couches to find the right one for our living room.

first couch was too small

second was just right

Counter tops came, the back counter tops sat there un-installed for many months, the island counter tops were installed.

During the month of January we worked on the master closet and Zeke's closet.

Books were pulled out of boxes from storage and put on the bookshelf in the hallway.

Extra touches to the kitchen cabinets were installed.

February we saw the girls' closet finished.

Then we started the Mid-Way House Tour.

living room

dining room

sun room

And the island lights were installed.

April we started getting started on the Master Bathroom, the final flooring to be installed on the main floor.

Zeke got in on the building action and helped Nathan install door handles on the doors.

All the while the outside of the house remained like this.

May we saw some exciting changes taking place, work once again began on the outside of the house as siding started going up.

Stairs in the entry got flooring installed.

More touches to the bathroom went in, along with some organization.

And problems with the shingles on the roof ensued.  Nathan spent many afternoons patching shingles.

And more siding.

In June we got the garage doors temporarily up.

And still more siding to work on.

In July we say a big change to the front of our house when the pillars on the front porch were installed.

August brought about one of the most exciting finishes, siding on the house was finally completed!

October was a month of getting all the final touches finished on the main floor of the house.  Lots of trim and patching holes... almost finished...

And finally around the second week of November we finally finished!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed the look back over the past year of our life.  Praise be to the Lord, we are so grateful to be on this side of the building process.  And we are just thankful to be done with the main floor!