March 3rd, 2010 -- Posted in hill to haven, scrappy / stampy |
* in case you missed it, the first part of the New House Construction album layouts were discussed in this entry.
My scrapbook of construction photos of our new home is now complete! The album covers 24 pages and the time span of July 2008 to April 2009 – from the time we started shopping to the time our house was built and we got the keys! I do have other photos that continue the story (our first days, weeks, months as new home-owners) but I’m thinking I’ll do another album for those.
So these layouts have all the pictures from our last couple months leading up to the completion of the house. We had two inspections before taking possession (that’d be why there’s a picture of my spouse and I wearing silly construction hats), so there was ample opportunity to go through and take lots of pictures of everything. I left out many of the “boring” but very essential pictures: such as pictures of little flaws that needed to be fixed. One of the perks of buying a brand new home is the warranty, but it only goes as far as you can show the problems were due to construction faults, etc.
I’m glad to have all of these photos of our house in (near) “mint” condition… before the kids got at it!! They have managed to flood a small room *each* (our son the laundry room and our daughter the kids’ bathroom), so it has definitely lost it’s shine a little. No matter; we are all in the process of making it a home, our home, and that involves a little destruction here and there I guess! It is also a good “Before” reference for visitors who will see our newly decorated home and paint jobs. Which, like I said, will be the subject of a whole other album! For those I’ll be waiting to make sure we indeed get to keep our house… Sadly, the resulting financial difficulties from my car accident and the disabilities that it caused may force us to sell this beautiful dream home. I hope I won’t be looking at these pictures with longing and regret though, but with fondness and nostalgica as the years go by and we build many memories here.
A couple fave layouts from this section of the album:
To see the layouts, visit this album OR if you’ve already seen the first batch and want to start off at the 2nd batch, you can skip right to this picture.
TFL! 
February 8th, 2010 -- Posted in hill to haven, pics, scrappy / stampy |
I created this album to tell the story (through pictures and a little bit of journaling) of the construction of our new house. After we bought this home in summer 2008, we stopped by at least once a month to check on the progress as it was built from the ground up. It was very exciting to see all the pieces come together – the foundation, the walls, the roof, the inside wiring and plumbing, the counter-tops, the flooring, and all the decorative fixtures and features we’d picked out.
Part 1 of the album has been uploaded to my Scrappy & Stampy Gallery…
Click on the picture to see the gallery album with pictures of each layout. Unlike the other albums in the gallery, these pics have been placed in ascending order. Try a slideshow; it’ll be almost like flipping through the pages for real. 
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Here are a few favourite layouts from the first half of this album…
Most of the cardstock and other materials used to create the album were Stampin’ Up items, but I also dipped into my stash and pulled some papers and things from my CM supplies as well as papers from Michaels and Costco. I used almost all of the paper I had left in the Washington Apple paper pack that I’d used to create our change-of-address cards back in the summer.
Throughout the album, there are also lots of silver rub-on flowers and flourishes. Other embellishments include buttons, brads, punched cork, ribbons, hemp thread, gemstones, staples, velum, and felt flowers. The journaling in printed in a dark brown on white cardstock. For techniques, I did a lot of paper-piercing, inked edges, punched shapes and stamping.
Part 2 of the album is currently in the works (albeit slowly, especially the journaling component) so stay tuned for when I upload pics of those pages!
Happy Scrappin’!
December 2nd, 2009 -- Posted in house to home, pics |
Other than the home decor projects happening inside the house, I haven’t updated this category much in the past little while, so here’s an update on how things are coming along with our new house…
* we got our grass by the end of the summer
* in October we got our first tree
* in November, our driveway was paved
These milestones were exciting, although alongside them there came problems that had to be fixed! It seems our house somehow experienced what we jokingly refer to as the “Great Silicone Shortage of 2009″… nearly everything that should’ve been sealed with silicone seems to have been overlooked for this important step! Some of these areas were easily sealed up before any damage could be done (e.g. the powder room sink). But other areas were only discovered after there had been serious leaks, including the master ensuite shower and the kitchen patio doors.
Both of these two areas have taken many many many visits from the builder and their sub-contracted companies to diagnose the problems and fix them. Our shower was repaired earlier this fall (after several weeks of having it dismantled!) only to have the leaking re-appear because the shower door was not installed properly even the second time around! So presently we are waiting for it to be installed a third (and hopefully final) time. After escaping the “pleasure” of sharing a bathroom between all members of the family for more than a decade, it sucks to have to go back to it again. But I’ve been very thankful to have a back-up bathroom on the same floor because the bathroom renovation in the last house (with the only other bathroom in that house being in the basement) was just miserable for me.
It’s all a balancing act over here, and I try hard to remember all the positive aspects of having a newly built home. I enjoy them when things are going OK and I appreciate them even more when the negative aspects enter the picture. Sure the big construction trucks tend to shake the walls. But when I hang a picture on those walls, it’s a totally fresh canvas with no existing holes. And yes it feels gross to use your bathroom after so many tradesmen have tromped through it, but no less so than spending years showering in your apartment bathroom where who knows how many people have been over all those years.
Overall, I vote that a newly built home is still worth it! And I continue to hope and pray that things’ll work out so that our family is able to keep our dream home that we waited and worked so hard for!
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