Under Roof

It was a huge week in home construction! What started as some wood sticking out of the ground on Monday, became a house by Wednesday. The hubby and I did a walk-thru on Wednesday, and I just couldn't believe the immense amount of progress in 3 days. By the time we walked through, all the framing was done. We have doors, and windows, and closets, and stairs. All the scrap wood had been picked up, and taken out of the house. It was amazing! The only problem? The hubby and I are now very impatient, and the hubby has started spending a lot of time staring at the house :)

By the by, this period of about a month before we head out to Oregon is going unbelievably s-l-o-w. I want to go now.

Our lovely house.

Kitchen/Dining Nook/Great Room

Office/Den

Master Bath

Guest Room

We have basement stairs!

Back of the house.

The hubby and I, plus doggies :)

Goofing off :)

In our home!

Hanging out!

Front porch

Can we move in now???

Seriously, we could put a tent in the basement!

Well, of course we won't be camping out in the basement. Too much work has to be done. Yesterday, all the shingles for the roof were delivered. It was pretty cool. This semi-truck with 2 guys showed up, and they set up what appeared to resemble a conveyer belt from the truck to the roof. It took them, maybe, 30 minutes to unload the whole truck. Anyways, roofing starts on Tuesday. Again, I'll remain optimistic about this, but I will try not to be surprised if they don't show up till Friday. I may not be surprised, but I will be annoyed :)

Hope everyone has a fantastic Labor Day Weekend. We will be without Internet. Sigh.

Taking Shape

The house is really starting to look goooood. Right now is such an exciting part of the process, and one that I feel like we waited f-o-r-e-v-e-r for. But walls are starting to go up, the roof is taking shape, and we are starting to see house wrap appear! I never thought I would be so happy to see house wrap.

The hubby had a day off yesterday, and he spent the whole day harassing our workers. I think he spent maybe, a total of an hour inside yesterday. The only times he came in were to get another beer, and then head back out to watch these guys build. He's been like a kid in a candy store. On Saturday, he spent 2 hours at the property sweeping up the sawdust on the floors. And then he wants me to go stand in the house and look at it for hours. Ummm, I'm excited, but I am a girl :)

The hubby snapped this pic whilst he was watching them work. Beer in hand :)

The amount of work they got done yesterday. These workers are crazy, they were carrying parts of the roof up this ramp!

Garage.

Front door which is starting to look more like a front door.

Roof over the front patio.

Living room window.

The hole that will be the basement.

Side of the house.

Side view of the garage.

Loving the progress!

Next up- doors, windows, pouring the concrete basement floor, and HVAC on Thursday!

Asian Grilled Chicken

I love a good ol' piece of marinated meat. Marinating is a good way to add flavor to something, yet still control the amount of calories you are adding. I had about 4 large chicken breasts that I needed to do something with, and was at a loss of what to do with them. There was no shortage of large ziploc bags in the house, so on to marinating it was.

I had an Asian-style marinade recipe, and I had most all of the ingredients. The only ingredient I didn't have was sake. Damn. That's not something you are going to find around these parts. I decided to improvise, using a mixture of dry chardonnay, mirin, and rice vinegar. This strange sounding combination turned out fantastic! I made plenty of marinade, threw all the chicken in a bag, and left it in the fridge for the day. This resulted in a wonderfully salty and slightly spicy, flavorful piece of meat. Yummo! I served this up with teriyaki rice and grilled zucchini, and we had an Asian feast. Definitely making this one again :)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup dry chardonnay
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp garlic chile paste
1 heaping tbsp minced garlic

Directions:
1. Combine chardonnay through garlic in a large ziploc bag. Add chicken to the bag, seal, and shake. Chill in fridge for 7-8 hours, turning occasionally.
2. Grill accordingly. Let chicken rest for 7-8 minutes. Serve immediately.

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

Construction Update: 8/24/12

For a week that started out without much potential, it ended on a bang! While the framers were supposed to show up last Thursday, they instead showed their faces on this Thursday. Better late than never, I said, but I still said it a bit crankily. That being said, they have gotten a huge amount of work done in 2 days. The first day they got the basement columns up and the floors on.

That hole in the floor will be where the stairs to the basement are.

Corner of the house, looking to the backyard.

Walls that were built but not yet set up after Day 1.

 Tons of progress was made today, Day 2. They got all the walls built and the frame put up. It was an awesomely amazing experience to walk through our house for the first time. Today was the first day I could actually see how the house is going to look. It felt fantastic!

Progress by the end of Day 2. The frame is up!

View of the frame, more front-wise.

Garage.

We have a front door! Or at least, we know where the front door will be!

Looking at the Dining Nook, Kitchen, and Great Room.

Future laundry room.

Looking at the Dining Nook while hanging out of the Master Bedroom  window.

Backyard view from the Master Bedroom window. It might not look like much now, but someday!

The hubby hanging out in the "shower".

View from the Guest Room window. Gorgeous.

All right. So the project manager told the hubby the following things today:

1. The roof trusses (tresses? trussels? tressels?) are going up on Monday.
2. Shingles will be delivered and should be laid out by Wednesday.
3. The electrician is scheduled to come next Thursday and has been scheduled for 2 weeks.
4. The house should be under roof by next Friday.

Now, he hasn't exactly been the most forthcoming or honest man in construction that I've ran into, so I'm taking all his "talk" with a grain of salt. I hope he delivers, but I'm not going to be overly optimistic this time. Here's crossing my fingers the schedule keeps next week!

Product Review: Milani Eyeshadow Stick in Brown Deluxe and More

It seems like most of the sales this summer have been on hair products. I've added tons of shampoos, conditioners, leave-in conditioners, hairsprays, mousses (is that even a word?), volumizers, etc. to my stockpile. I've added a couple of makeup products here and there, but not nearly as much as hair products. I really think I have enough hair product to last me a year! Between all the hair products, I have found time to try a few new makeup items.

1. Milani Eyeshadow Stick in Brown Deluxe

I've finally found a drugstore cream shadow that works! Wow. I've tried quite a few products, and nothing was living up to MAC's paint. Granted, MAC paint is a high-quality product. I should have known it would take a miracle to find something that worked nearly as good at an affordable price. But, it happened. This eyeshadow stick is very affordable, I picked it up for $4.49 with a CVS store coupon. My only complaint about these sticks (and it's not a big enough issue to keep me from buying it again) is that when you glide this shadow on, you do not have a lot of time to blend the color in. I would advise putting this eyeshadow exactly where you want it, because it stays put. And stay put it will. I wear my eyeshadow for 8-10 hours a day, and creasing is my main problem with drugstore cream shadow. I really wanted to like Maybelline's Color Tattoo eye shadow, but that darn creasing. This eyeshadow though, I am pleased to report, was un-creasable. The pigmentation stays true as well. And this is in 90 degree-plus weather with 90% humidity. I'm so happy to have found this product. The verdict? Recommended! Buy it! I'm going to be picking this eyeshadow stick up in the champagne color and also the purple.

2. Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm in Honey

I'm in love with Revlon's Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm's. I have the product in 4 colors, and there's actually a couple more shades I want to try. The Honey color in this line is amazing! It looks like my lips, only better. I love how these lipstain's aren't dry, because that has always been my problem in the past. The lipstain would look good going on, but then it would settle into my lips looking dry and patchy. Major dislike. This product doesn't do that. It really does have a lip balm feel. This color, once worn down after a couple of hours, leaves my lips a natural rosy-pink color. The worn down look is almost better than the freshly applied look. I will be heartbroken if Revlon discontinues this product. The verdict? Honey is a keeper, going into my makeup stash as a must-have and a daily basic. And like I said, I will be purchasing more shades in the future.

3. Dove Oil Care Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner

I've been using Dove's Oil Care Leave-In Conditioner for awhile now. I liked it so well, I bought the shampoo and conditioner. And I'm glad I did. These have got to be some of the best drug-store shampoo and conditioner I've tried. The shampoo lathers nicely, smells fresh, and feels luxurious. It doesn't leave my hair feeling like straw, it leaves my hair feeling soft when I rinse it out. Unusual for a shampoo. The conditioner leaves my hair silky after being rinsed out, I love when my hair feels like that instead of rough. My blowouts also feel much softer, and my hair isn't weighed by these products. Usually really moisturizing shampoo and conditioners weigh my hair down, so I'm pleased these don't. These also work with my wavy and curly hairstyles, majorly decreasing frizz and fuzziness. The verdict? I will buy this again. I've actually added several bottles to my stockpile already. There are always coupons for Dove, so you can really pick these up for a reasonable price.

Vacation? Yes, Please!

Hubby and I at the Oregon Coast

The hubby just got home from working last night with some excellent news! He's got 1 month off from work for us to go out to Oregon! I'm sooooo excited! We are renting a car, and driving with the dogs out to Oregon on September 27th and staying to October 23rd. I can't wait! It's like 4 o'clock in the morning on the West Coast, otherwise I would be calling them on the phone to let them know right now. I'll wait till a decent hour, but then it's time to deliver good news. It will be nice to get away from the house frustrations, for sure!

Back On The Grid!

This weekend, I had the... opportunity to be without the internet for 4 days. 4. Long. Days. I couldn't even get service on my phone, let alone my 4G internet. It drove me crazy. The Internet is something I can't give up, the one luxury, if you will,  I can't go without. I don't know how people live without it! I felt so out of touch with the world, not being able to check the news, Facebook, email, my bank account, etc. Interesting how much the world has changed since I was a kid, and no one had even heard of the internet.

Anyways, I have the Internet again, so I'm happy. One thing I'm not so happy about? Progress on the house. I know, I know, what's new? Well, we had all of our wood delivered by Wednesday of last week, and we were told the company that is going to frame the house would be here on last Thursday. It's Monday, and no sight of them. The hubby couldn't even get anyone on the phone today. Argh. At this point, we aren't sure when the next step will happen. We are trying to take this in stride, but we are both feeling great pressure for the house to be done. As anyone would! Hopefully the framers show up this week...

We'll see.

We were heading to the grocery store on Wednesday when we passed this truck. We just had to turn around and make sure it was going to our house. It did!

Wood for the roof. The hubby called them tresses. Or trussels. Or tressels. Can you tell I'm a good listener?

Jarrell wood!

The hubby goofing around :)

Atop the wood pile.

The Smell Police, on patrol.

Building materials. Again the hubby told me what everything was, but again, in one ear and out the other :)

More wood.

And more building materials.

And more wood.

I think you can see where this is going :)

Relaxing with a couple of beers after checking out our deliveries.

And, one more. Me goofing off on top of the gravel pile. That's right, I climbed it :)

I hope everyone had a good weekend! Happy Monday!