transition

I was just going through my brother's blog, watching old videos of my neice (and I say old videos Jude because you haven't posted any new ones in ages) and I realized that I should start doing the same. I keep waiting to capture awesome tricks, but as her tricks consist mostly of rolling, I don't have a mind blowing video yet. But this is the cutie helping me out in the kitchen a couple weeks ago. What I chef I tell you.

still in shock

So it really happened. Nate and I weren't pouring all of our resources and the resources of others into a blackhole, only to keep giving and giving with no sign of an end. No folks, that was not our fate. We live in that house that Nate started back in the end of May by tearing up the ground with a bobcat.
What's it like? Shocking. Amazing. Speechless. If you were to ask someone who has talked to me about my place since I've moved in, they would most likely describe me as "giddy". I have a hard time putting it in words. I mean I live in the same house as my husband, first off, and he comes home at like a normal time! Unheard of. and Eedee and I don't need to pack up at anytime to go work on a house, we are already there and I can dilly dally around as I need to.
But less about me, and more about the house. Last time I posted, this place had the bare bones, but lacked the personal aspect, those lovely details that you can obsess over.
Nate finished the counters, staining them a beautiful dark brown, and then polying everything he could find. "It makes it so nice and shiny" to quote him. Meanwhile I painted the place. I let Nate know early on that I may be a mother, a wife, and a home owner, and by every meaning of the word - an adult - but that does not mean I need to be an adult about the colors I put on my walls. I refuse to look at any color above the halfway line on the color strip, if you are going to paint color, paint a freakin color. My small child self screaming inside of me came out on our walls. For this reason Nate and I came into agreeance on colors that are not for the weak hearted. We make statements, and they are absolutely beautiful ones.
The most exciting item that we moved into the home is our couch. I believe we bought this couch back in April perhaps May, because we knew we wouldn't have any money by the time we moved into the house, and so we better get something right then. We were so right.
So now we are just relishing our lives. No serious work will be done until spring, just touching up new spots, adjusting things, and waiting for spring. But mainly just breathing this all in. We are finally just another family living in their home.

impressive my fine fellow

So I have been holed up in Debs this past week; car troubles, cold weather, and not having the urge to leave. I arrived here at our ever changing abode to find Nate has nearly finished our cabinets. He is amazing folks. Amazing. While I cozy up to the woodstove with a crying child, Nate cuddles with his various saws and creates a kitchen. Many pine boards and a couple boxes of screws later, bam you have yourself cabinets.
We have learned to not lay out dates for when we will be moved in. We've eaten our words one to many times, and folks they taste bitter, very bitter. But I will pronounce that our move in date is getting nearer every time Nate uses one of his various tools. I must admit I am getting very excited. I express this by sorting my craft materials and getting rid of excess clothing. Nate expresses his excitement by working on the house until midnight each night. How does Eedee appreciate this you ask? She doesn't. She expressed herself very clearly the other night when she awoke at 3 a.m. happy to have one of us watch her chew on her various body parts. After spending the time between 5 30 and 9 with dad, Nate had to head to work. She promptly started screaming as soon as the door closed behind his back. We will relish the day that she gets to see him at normal hours.

and it continues.

I will just start out apoligizing that I don't have any pictures this time. I keep finding myself with internet without a camera. So I have decided to just post anyways.
This new year has brought much progress for us. We have spent the last two weekens putting the ceiling up. As I am typing Nate and Grandpa John are putting up the last couple boards. The gracious Papa Miles has spent the other three days with Nate doing this task. I must admit I am glad to just cut boards for the boys, and not be the one with my hands over my head for three or four hours at a time.
I have also been able to do some staining around the house; the window wells, railings, that sort of thing. Nate passes his time putting things together; like the bathroom and dining room area. Each ay just gets us a little closer to the finish. We are pretty pumped about that.
Ms. Eedee has been staying content also. Her an I spent our first evening hanging out in the house yesterday, while we waited for Nate to finish his paid job, and it was pretty awesome. I can already tell Eedee loves it, even though her room is filled with chicken wire, paint, and power tools. But I think that's every little girls dream.

Umm... okay Nathan, we'll wait.

The house project is now at a point that I haven't much to say, because I haven't been able to participate in a while. That doesn't mean that nothing is happening, it just means that what is happening is far beyond my capabilities - and Eedee's.
Nate has been working on sealing in the place so we can hook up our woodstove that waits patiently in its little nook. This has included putting up our large, hand-made garage doors, putting up the soffit (soffet? I don't know), and stuffing insulation into cracks around the ceiling.
But then Nate realized he had the inspiration to do the electrical, so he's off and running on that project. He tells me he only has a couple more circuits to run, I nod my head and say "that's great!", meanwhile hoping that really is great, and that two circuits isn't code for "I actuallly have a whole house still to wire!" So I think this means that Nate is almost done with the electric... I don't really know.
So you ask what have Eedee and I been up too? Oh we are surely bonding. Eedee does her exercises, you know rigorous stuff like lifting her head, standing on her legs, flapping her arms. And I guess I am her trainer. This means I also have to be in great shape, and I can promise you I am. I have been lifting my head for the most of these last 23 years, and consider myself a pro. Though I do feel my apprentice could beat me in any arm flapping competition. But I redeem myself through my ability to stand on my legs by myself. Go me.

getting in the guts of the place

So the main structure of the house is complete. We have walls, the walls are covered in mud, the roof is on, and the floor has been there for awhile now. The insides are getting formed now. Nate has framed in little Eedee's room, the utility room, and the bathroom...really the only rooms in the house that are going to have walls. Nate also dug the well this past week. After pounding in a pipe with a 80 lb pole pounder for an hour and a half, he informed me he would never volunteer for that job... and I can barely lift the pounder, so hopefully we never have to get a new well.
I finished putting up rock in our wood stove room, and I think I am done working with lime for the year. Pretty sure I am pumped about this. My hands and lips are thanking me for not drying them out every other day. I will hopefully finish with that room tonight when I wash it down with acid- don't worry Eedee will be at Grandma's for that project. Nate and I figured we will already mess with her head enough, we probably don't need to add any chemicals to it.
But the project is moving forward, and getting closer to being done every day. Painting the floor, putting up the ceiling, and doing the electrical are the three big things standing in our way. But hey, those seem minor after how much work has gone into it thus far.

oups

So what could have kept me from my blog all this time? What could have distracted me and consumed all of my time? Lia says while trying to bounce a crabby baby on her knee so that she can have ten minutes to write this post that she has already deleted once by accident.
So Nate and I have brought into this crazy world an active baby girl named Ms. Eedee Aliece Larson. She came in at a strong 9 lbs and 10 oz, stretching at 22 1/4 inches.
But don't worry, she has not distracted us from our house goal. i mean, I went into labor putting on the first coat of mud on the outside of the house. Then I returned four days later to help finish up that first coat that we got distracted from. Eedee is a real trooper riding around in her front carrier or being passed between the grandmas.
Four weeks later, we are proud to announce we have finished the mudding of the outside AND inside of the house. It's quite amazing. Nate put in the windows and the ceiling insulation this past weekend, and it's starting to look like we could possibly live there by... by some date.
So I am sorry this post doesn't have more details - like I guess we could say that the mud is made from a mixture of lime, portland, sand, straw, and water... and it's slapped on the walls with your rubber gloved hands... and my family was dragged into this experience, and have all come to the conclusion that they will never build a strawbale house. But Nate and I are not detered. We just look forward to the next step, which brings us closer and closer to the move in date. Imagine - living in your own house and not having to spend every weekend on the same project. It sounds like a dream come true.