The house is ours!! Plus, halloween and some other stuff ...

Here it is ... the (almost) finished product. As you can see, we still need grass. We closed on the house on October 26th which was two weeks ago. The following day was full of excitement ... movers unloading our PODS, new bedroom furniture delivery, new mattress delivery, the Directv install, and Laclede Gas locking out our meter followed by tracking down a plumber to verify there was no gas leak resulting in him busting the lock off (which I think he took pride in doing). Just your normal moving day!

Just in case you've never seen a PODS container loaded or unloaded on the delivery truck, here's a picture of ours. Those things are pretty cool and came in handy for all of our belongings. In total, we had three of them full of our junk ... which I am so happy to have back!

The apartment we rented was furnished and very nice for a short stay, but you just don't realize how much you like your own stuff. Sitting on my couch after the movers brought it in was like heaven.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any inside pics when the house was empty. I guess I was just too excited with the walk through and closing to think about it. I'm not posting any now, because it's still a mess with boxes. Give me a little more time to unpack and clean it up. It won't be too long since I'll want to put the Christmas tree up on Thanskgiving weekend.

So, that's the house update. We're in, we love it, and life is getting back to normal. Right after move-in weekend, Halloween was here. We did some trick or treating in our neighborhood with Henry's friend, Nathan, along with his parents and some other neighbors. Our part of the subdivision is still pretty empty so we only hit a few houses which is still plenty of candy for the little guy. Here's how absolutely adorable he looked dressed as Woody from Toy Story.

Did I say things were getting back to normal? Well, they are ... in addition to preparing for a new baby! Yes, we're pregnant and due to have another little Singler at the end of May. We're all pretty excited ... including Henry. At first, he said "no baby." Now, he's decided he wants a baby brother so they can be like his favorite cousins, Robbie and Adam. It's very cute. We won't know until sometime in January if Henry will get what he wants, but we'll let everyone know as soon as we find out.

Well, I just wanted everyone to know that we're still around. We really didn't have anything to post while we were at the apartment and the move to the new house has kept us busy. I'll get those inside pics up as soon as some boxes disappear. Hope everyone is well.

I'm working on those change of address/phone cards too. Maybe I'll get them out before it's time for Christmas cards!!

Finally .. that house update I've been promising!!

I know I've been promising a house update including pics. I'm finally hiding out in the basement while Henry watches "Scooby-boo". I have a TON of pics, but I didn't think you'd be interested in various views of stud walls, drywall, and our wiring. I'll try to limit this to major milestones.


First, an update on our current situation. We sold our house even with the market being so slow. We close on Sept. 28th. Hooray! Unfortunately, we don't close on the new house until Oct. 26th. Now, we considered going to stay with Mom, Cindy, Mike and the boys but decided we didn't want to drive from E'ville everyday and ruin everyone's routines (including our own). It was best said when mom asked my BIL, Mike, what he thought and his reply was, "That's a terrible idea." It's not as bad as it sounds ... he agreed with our assessment of the drive and privacy/schedule disruption of our little family. I still love him!! So, beginning Sept. 26th, we'll be spending 30 days in a one bedroom, furnished apt in St. Charles not too far from our new place. We're calling it a vacation. After all, the community has indoor and outdoor pools, a sport court, fitness center, clubhouse, media room / movie rentals, billiards room, and office center. What more could you ask for?

Now onto the pics. I'll start right at the beginning and give you the big updates ....

This is a quick look ahead. Our house will look very similar to this one in style, but we have a 3 car garage on the right-hand side of the house. Our colors our neutral also, but they aren't the same as these.

Back on June 9th, this is what we had ... an empty lot with a sold sign.

But, by June 19th .... we had a big hole in the dirt.

Ten days later, some concrete had been poured ...

After that, things came to a halt for while. I left town for a few days at the end of July, and when I came back ... walls!!

This one was taken on Aug. 1, and the second floor was taking shape.

5 days later .. the beginnings of a roof.

By Aug. 9th, they had delivered shingles. I was pretty excited about this part because once the house was "under roof", the builder would give us a two week window on our closing date. It was a big milestone.

Just about a month later, this is how the house looked. We have windows ... all but one. (Our master bathroom window wasn't anywhere to be found. The others had been in for 2-3 weeks at this point. Luckily it showed up and was finally installed earlier this week.) This pic also captures the next big outdoor milestone which was the hope for some brick. Those piles in the yard are brick/stone, mortar, sand, etc.

Here are some inside pics. By Aug. 23rd, most of the wiring, plumbing, and duct work had been done. This is a shot from the kitchen looking toward the breakfast room & family room. (I lied about showing you wiring ... those wires hanging from the ceiling are for the surround sound and the stuff above and next to the fireplace is for our TV/satellite, etc.)

Here's the kitchen from the other direction.

Two short weeks later ... here are the same shots, but we have drywall now. It looks like a real house!!

Tuesday of this week ... garage doors were installed, and the brick guys set up scaffolding to start work.

Today ... the brick is done except for 3 rows at the top of the porch. We're happy with the color which is good because you have to pick it from a 12x12 inch square sample. Hard to imagine what it would look like on our house. I think it looks great! The 2nd floor/front gets shake-shingle siding, and the other 3 sides get regular siding. Who knows when that will happen, but I'll update again as soon as I can.

Bye for now ... I'll try to get back to you before another 3 weeks go by!!

A quick update ....

I know I'm behind in my promise for a house update and pics. I'm too lazy to go to my home computer right now and upload pics so I'm just going to offer a quick update. The first transition to our new home came today .... Henry started attending his new daycare. It was a ROUGH day. He had a little bit of trouble during the drive to St. Charles, and he hit 100% meltdown when we turned into the parking lot. He refused to eat and drink while he was there, but he did nap. He was definitely happy to see me when I arrived to pick him up. He told everyone goodbye, and even said "Goodbye school, see you tomorrow" as we pulled away. Within 20 minutes, he informed me that he was not going back on Tuesday. Like he has a choice! Well, he ate all the way home and we went out to dinner for some french fries. Poor little guy.

The house is coming along. Mike made a visit today to finalize our surround sound, satellite, and phone placement. He said the place was full of activity. That's all I'm going to tell you until I load some pics! Maybe tomorrow or the next day.