Sunday, September 16, 2007

Drywall


Drywall
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
They also finished the drywall this week. I'm standing in the family room looking towards the entry in this photo. The door to the left of the photo is the door to the study.

Brick Complete


Brick Complete
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
Here's a picture from yesterday. They have completed the brick now. Not sure why the scaffolding is still there, so not the best picture. I'll take another one when it comes down.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

In Loving Memory....


Ryan and Rachelle
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

This photo was taken at the family reunion last month and I'm so sad to say that my cousin Ryan died August 25th.

Another cousin, Stephanie, put together a "Safety Flyer" which she posted in local bars, liquor stores and colleges in Fargo. I'm going to just copy and paste her message here and hope that it will serve as a reminder to anyone who reads it:

We all watch movies or TV, read the news and hear of people being drugged at bars while they are out and think “That kind of stuff only happens in big cities like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles”. We also may think it only happens to risqué people who aren’t careful and that it’s their lifestyle that puts them in the situation. Our family recently has had to learn it does happen in small cities and it does happen to your average everyday girl who loves her friends and family, enjoys life, and is anything but risqué.

Ryan was your normal every day girl. After a night out we’ve now lost her forever. Her friends left and she stayed behind with an acquaintance. From there we can’t tell you what happened for sure. She was not a drug user but PCP was found in her system and caused her to have major heart damage that she could not survive.

Go out, have fun with your friends and live life but please remember safety:
- If you come together leave together
- Don’t ever leave with someone you don’t really know
- Don’t let anyone else in your group leave with someone either
- Always keep an eye on your drink and be sure no one can slip something in it
- Keep an eye on your cigarettes and don’t bum cigarettes - they can be laced
- Be sure your whole group makes it to their car/cab/home before leaving
- And of course don’t drive drunk

It can happen anywhere to anyone. Don’t let it be your loved one!

In Loving Memory of Ryan Marie Dockter 3/19/78-8/25/07

Monday, September 03, 2007

Started Bricking


DSC_0355
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
Here's a photo from this weekend. As you can see they've done quite a bit of bricking on the front.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Vacation

Vacation was pretty great, but could have been longer - of course.

While in ND, Kim (a friend since 1st grade) had a few of our friends over to her house for an evening. It was really nice to see everyone and catch up.

Family had started arriving for the weekend reunion by the time I got to town, so there was family coming and going the whole time. The reunion was on my dad's side, but I also got to see a few members of my mom's side.

The reunion was really nice. It was at my aunt and uncle's lake house and was mainly her family that did all the planning and prep. They did a really great job and we had a turnout of 115 (I believe that's what I heard). It was so nice to see everyone and the lake was a good location to entertain all. The weather was nice also, although I'm sure some thought it was a bit hot. It was upper 80's one day and I believe it got to about 91 the second day. There's always a nice breeze off the lake and there were tents for shade.

The actual travel part of the vacation didn't go so great. Gary had trouble flying in... his early morning flight was delayed 2 hours due to aircraft maintenance and that threw off the whole day. He eventually got in at about 3p. When we left, we got on the plane and were all set to go when they came on and announced that there was a hole in the tire and the plane was not safe to fly. This being Fargo, no spare tire and no spare plane led to the flight being cancelled. It was the last flight out, so we had to reschedule for 5am the next day. When we got to the airport at 4:30 they had no record of me being on the flight - only Gary. Ugh. I managed to get on "standby" and in first class. I don't believe I've ever had so much trouble with flights, etc. Better luck next time hopefully.

Monday, July 23, 2007

A Few Updates

I haven't taken a picture, but the house now has shingles on it. That's the only visible difference from the outside. The brick has not been delivered yet. On the inside, the electrical wiring is close to complete and the AC is in. The wiring for the audio/visual stuff is being done today. We met with the cabinet guy last night. It's getting a little stressful with all of these things coming at us at once and we've begun to get "no, you can't do X" type answers which certainly do not make us happy. We still need to meet with the lighting store also.

We met our neighbors whose home is a bit ahead of ours and they seemed to think we are almost to the point where things are going to slow down quite a bit. They actually said it's going to "sit" with nothing happening. Our response was that would be a nice break. :-)

In other news... I got a new boss. I met him yesterday. He seems nice, but of course time will tell. I've had a pretty laid back boss for a couple of years, so I'm hoping the new guy isn't too drastically different. My current boss stepped down to a Manager role, so he'll now be my peer. That will be a little strange I think, but I'm sure we will all adjust.

I'm flying to ND tonight and I am ready for a vacation!! We have a family reunion on my dad's side this weekend so I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. I'll be able to see friends this week also. Yay!

Friday, July 13, 2007

We have a Roof!


2007 07 12_20_exterior
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
Here's a pic from last night. I'm standing in the neighbors yard across the street. All the windows are in, the sheathing is up and the roof is on. On the interior we have the fireplace installed, looks like most of the plumbing done and the bathtubs in the secondary bathrooms installed. yay!

Dad - you will be happy to know that all the seams on the sheathing look good - no gaps that we saw. Most are vertical, with the gaps on the studs, in places where they had to go horizontal, there is at least 6 inches of overlap. :-)

I got an email from the construction supervisor on the one "change" item that was missing and he said he would get it taken care of. (We added a tiny wall at in the media room and it was missing). I didn't think it would be a big deal.

I expect our brick will be delivered very soon and we'll see some shingles. There are a few places on the house that has siding and that is already up also.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The Inside


2007 07 10_10_Kitchen
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
Here's a shot from inside. On the right side is the doorway to the kitchen from the living room . The opening in wall to the left is the opening above the kitchen sink - looking out on the living room. Above the kitchen is a bedroom.

Looking more like a house


2007 07 10_02_Sheeting
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
Here's a photo from this evening. It looks like they've completed the framing on the interior. There are now stairs in the main entry. As you can see in the photo most of the windows are in. We've only found minor change that was left out so far (which should be easily fixable), so things are going well.

Gary met with the guy about wiring today and that seemed to go well.

This is the exciting part where things move so quickly... noticeable changes every time we visit. Fun, fun.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Framing Continues


2007 07 07_Framing
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
This was taken yesterday. We now have quite a bit of roof and a lot of finishing touches - art niches and arches. We also have one item we've been waiting for - the back staircase. Yay - we were finally able to go upstairs to see everything up there, including the game room and media room. Very exciting! :-)

We went to do our color selections today. I think we were there about 5 hours. It didn't seem like we were doing a lot of deliberating, so I'm surprised it took so long, but there were a lot of choices to make. We still have to meet with the wiring people and the lighting people too.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

More Progress


2007 07 02_Framing
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
This is a photo from last night. They've gotten more of the second story framed.

We have our meeting with the design consultant on Sunday to decide on all our selections for tile, carpet, granite, paint etc.

So we are moving right along. It's so exciting! :-)

Innocence?


Molly July 2007
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
She looks innocent, doesn't she?

Well, don't judge too quickly. I'm working from home today, so as I was sitting on the couch with my laptop in my lap, she crawls up behind me on the couch... and then... just takes a big ole bite on my ear!!?? Completely out of the blue. I would love to know what the kitties are thinking sometimes!! :-)

Friday, June 29, 2007

Framing Has Begun


Second Day of Framing
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
They started framing on Wednesday this week. This is a picture from last night. It hasn't rained yet today so I'm expecting they will have gotten to the second story today. I'll post pics of that when I have them.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

The Makings of a House


2007 06 23_lumber
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
A pile of lumber which will become our house :-)

House Progress


2007 06 23_foundation
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
Yay! We finally have a foundation. It's still been rather rainy around here so we were pleased to see they were able to get it poured. This picture is taken from across the street and that's Gary's car.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

House Status


DSC_0189
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
Here's a pic from 6/12... still no foundation but at least we can see some progress. I'm hoping when we go by this weekend we may have a foundation, but it did rain more this week so who knows.

Monday, June 04, 2007

House Status


House on 5-17
Originally uploaded by rkbk03
Here's the beginnings of our future house. This is from the back corner looking forward, taken 5/17. When we were there this weekend they hadn't done anymore. It's been so wet, apparently they haven't been able to pour the foundation yet. Looks like they passed the plumbing inspection though and some of the trenches have been filled in now.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Busy "5" Months!

Funny that my last post was 'busy month" and now I haven't posted anything in 5 months. I guess it's been a busy 5 months, so here's a quick update.

My parents were here from December to February enjoying the warmer weather...

Went on a cruise and got married in February in St Thomas and everything went well. If you haven't seen pictures yet, check this link...

It seems ever since the wedding, I've been messing around with wedding photos in one way or another and I'm still not quite finished. My sister's boyfriend took photos in a high quality format which needed to be converted to jpg's to actually share with anyone. In doing that, I'm learning photoshop. I've been creating photo albums for my family and for us. I've been collecting photos from others and sorting the best of everyone's so I can burn cd's and share with everyone. It gets a bit monotonous though so I can only work on any of it a little at a time.

We went house hunting and bought a house at the end of February. It's being built and should be done in October. We're really excited about having our "dream" house. The location will make my work commute a bit worse, but otherwise it's a good location. We've been busy figuring out details and working with the builder. We've finally been able to see some progress, but barely. They have forms built to pour the foundation. I think we'll see plumbing go in next and then they will pour. We went and looked at some other houses in the neighborhood this weekend and that got me excited to see ours get to the various stages.

We had a garage sale this past weekend and I've already been working on cleaning things out and packing things I know that I won't need until we move. I figure if I do a little at a time it won't be so bad.

So, that's what's new in my life.

For any ND friends reading this, I believe I'll be coming up at the end of July. I'll keep you posted. :-)

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Busy Month

Well, it's certainly been a busy month so far....

My parents arrived for their winter stay the first weekend in December. They'll stay up until we go on the cruise in February for our wedding.

Of course, like everyone else I've been busy with Christmas shopping and prep. I've also been working on the wedding plans. Today was the deadline for all details to be spelled out with the cruise line, so I'm glad that's pretty much set.

Gary and I have also started looking at houses a little bit. We'd probably like to buy sometime next year, so we decided to start to get an idea of what's out there. That's been fun and exciting.

I'm on vacation this week, so it's been nice to catch up on my to do list.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Winter is Here

It has dropped 20 degrees in an hour and a half... when I left work it was 65 degrees and now it's 45. Thank you Mr. North Wind!!

It's supposed to be below freezing for the next four nights and we are supposed to get sleet and freezing rain tomorrow. Yuck!