Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas family & friends!

We spent yesterday basically just nibbling, opening gifts and having a ball looking at all the new things... especially Spencer. Our decorated Christmas tree took center stage. I will put up photos in the next few days.

We had a traditional dinner; turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes and squash. The dressing SUCKED since this year I tried to cut one step and a bought a pre-dressed turkey. NEVER again! I'd rather take the time and at least make something edible. We did however enjoy our turkey dinner with our next door neighbours this year as they tend to celebrate here in Elkford instead of at the house in Calgary. That ment that Spencer had another 5 year old to play with all afternoon!

We're off to Lethbridge today to take advantage of the Boxing Days sales. I'm hoping to get a new laundry set today since they have so many good deals on today. Wish me luck!

Wishing you and yours a very merry holiday!

Exhaustion and Pain

Now that the stress of actually getting everything ready to actual occupy the house is over, the exhaustion and physical pain has come. I am exhausted to the point of collapse today. Every single muscle in my body is screaming pain and sleep right now. I actually laid down for a nap this morning because I just couldn't function.

We got most of the big stuff moved into the house last night. We got our bed, Todd's dresser, Spencer's bed and the washer & dryer in the new house. We really only have my dresser, the couches and the table to take over. The neighbour came in last night from Calgary and he's going to help Todd move the couches. They literally have to be taken out of the house through the front window. At least they will be easy to put in the new house... right through the patio door!

My goal today is get the kitchen cleared out and in the new house and as much of the clothes taken over plus maybe some of my scrap stuff. It will be the last to go over though. Priorities for comfort right now run first and for most!

Off I go...

Hooray!

Woohoo! We have been given our Occupancy Permit! We can officially move into our new house.

We just have to put numbers of our civic address on the outside and put on an insulated sleeve over our dryer vent and we're good to go!

Hooray! Our goal is to sleep in our new home tonight! Not all of our furnature will be there but at least the essentials will be... like beds, food and toilet paper!! LOL!

Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday Dad!
Hope you have a great day and know that I'm thinking about you from afar!

Will it EVER end?

I was getting ready to go and pick up the babysitter so I could go to work this morning. I slipped over to the new house to see if I could get the hot water running in the kitchen since I hadn't gotten it to run yet and I smelled gas outside of the new house. Yup... we have a GAS LEAK.

I immediately phoned the gas company and they sent someone immediately. After turning off the gas line to the new house he has discovered that we have some sort of break in the gas line between the old house and new house. Gas has been leeching through the ground for 24 hours. We were told to evacuate the house immediately by the gas technician as the gas was leaching thorough the ground and into the basement of the old house so I took Spencer and we drove down to my work.

After about an hour and a half or so, the gas technician gave us a call saying we good to come home.

The plumber is on his way from Cranbrook to remedy the problem. I believe he will have to dig up the old pipe and replace it or he'll run a complete new line to the new house but regardless he'll have to dig... not fun!

So much for getting settled in. I swear this project has been jinxed since day one! Grrr...

EDITED TO ADD: The plumber fixed it with a temporary pipe and we're good to go now!

A Sneak...

I came home last night from work to a little light on on the side of the new house! Yippee! We have electricity! Todd worked all afternoon yesterday and hooked it up. I can now at least switch on all the lights in the house.

As you can see, we now have lamp fixtures and stairs to the front door... much easier than climbing a ladder to get inside. Our screen doors have also been installed too.


Here's a glimpse of my kitchen. I got all new appliances and I think my counter tops (shades of grey) work well with the flooring and the appliances so I'm extremely happy with my choices there. The tile on the back splash tie in the colours on the walls.

This is looking towards the living room. As you can see, the driveway literally is right in front. I'm loving the light that streams into this room already. I also love the vaulted ceilings in the kitchen/living room. It makes the room feel much larger and open. The ceilings throughout the house have been done with a "popcorn" finish.

This is looking down the hallway from the front door.

Our bathroom. It's small but functional. The only thing I wish I had done was put a small window in the room to let in some natural light. We have a nice bathtub & shower just behind the door to the left.

When we decided on adding the patio doors to our floor plan, we also decided to put fixtures on either side. Eventually when the house is on its permanent foundation, it will be facing the green space and will be located high in the air. We will eventually build a deck over looking our lush backyard.


It's -20 today and the slight wind in the valley makes it feel extremely cold!

The plumber is due back tomorrow to finish off his job. All I have to say is that I better be able to at least turn on the furnace tomorrow afternoon and begin to slowly heat the house. Then once it's warm enough, we'll be able to run the water.

The building inspector is due on Wednesday. We'll know then if we're allowed to move in. Hopefully he'll give us our Occupancy Permit and the okay to move our belongings in. I just want to be at least somewhat living in the new house for Christmas. I really want to see my Christmas tree up in the corner of the living room. I need it to feel like Christmas!!! I just haven't had the spirit of Christmas due to all the stress of the house coming and all the issues we've had along with all that.

For those of you unable to view the video, you must actually view it on the blog. Click here to see it.

Testing out Video....

We are in need of some fire wire to load up the videos we took of Spencer's Christmas concert from Tuesday night but I wanted to see if I could take a mini video using my computer's camera of the new house outside the window. I apologize for the poor quality. Hopefully this little mini video will load.


Click the triangle to play the video.

"Moving" Day

Well our day started out by looking out the front window to see about 10-12 inches of new snow... CRAP! So all of the new house's pad was covered! I called our local contractor and let him know that we needed a bit of snow removal and a little bit of care on the leveling of the lot before the house arrived. They told me that they would send out the Bobcat as soon as they fixed it. It had lost a tire and they were waiting for parts from Sparwood. Great!!!

At about 12 noon I caught our first glimpse that we were close to delivery... the Eagles Homes truck arrives! A good sign!

Soon after their arrival, the Clarkson excavator Bobcat arrived. They cleared the snow off the lot and leveled off some of the bumpy spots where we needed them.

Some time just after 2:30pm we caught our first glimpse of our new home down the street. I admit it... I had a tear in my eye! I seriously didn't think this day would ever come!


They pulled the house around the corner and pointed it up the street.


If you notice in the picture above, the road is white and if you notice the road below, it has sand on it. We had called the District to ask them to sand the hill for us to make putting the house in place a little easier. They literally showed up 5 minutes before the guys started up the hill. When the sander arrived you could hear the entire crew of guys let out a "hooray" from the bottom of the hill.

Slow and steadily, the truck backed up the hill and into the cul va sac. They backed slowly down the driveway and into position.

The board on the end is where our living room patio doors are. They covered them during travel to prevent stones from breaking the window. We did manage to get a few cracks in the siding next to the doors though which will be fixed for us.

The guys had the front door cracked open for a bit so I caught my first glimpse of my new kitchen. I am extremely happy with the way that our flooring, counters and appliances turned out. I even caught a glimpse of my new dishwasher... Yippee!!!

The next thing was to support the back of the house. The guys stacked specially designed supports on the back braces and then they literally jacked up the front of the house right off the truck and its wheeled dolly.

As you can see, it was raised quite a bit up off the ground.

They jacked it up even higher than our existing mobile sitting on a full and raised foundation! See how much prettier the new house is from our 1970's old house...


Then they winched out the set of wheels supporting the far end of the house. They managed to chain it up to their pick up truck and literally pulled it out from underneath the house and to the right of the rig through that HUGE snowbank to the right of the truck.

Then they blocked the center supports and then laid the front supports and lowered the house on to that.

As of right now it's sitting on 6 supports. It will get it's permanent supports tomorrow and will get officially leveled. The stairs will get added and everything will be unpacked from it's voyage. We will officially get to go through the house tomorrow when it's fully supported and leveled. All the plumbing and gas lines will be connected on Friday. Todd will connect the electrical when he gets time this week, probably Friday morning.

So we now have our new house! I can hardly wait to make it feel like a home!

Today!

Today's the day! Sometime this afternoon our new house will drive down the street and be a part of Delta Crescent! Wish us luck!

Sending Out Birthday Wishes...

Happy Birthday Mom!

Hope you have a wonderful day! Sending you lots of BIG hugs from BC from us 3!!!

Once there was a Trench...

Even though I was under the weather all yesterday we still managed to get all the trenches dug for the new utilities to go in.

The excavators dug the trench to the new house location and then the plumber showed up to hook up all the new lines (waste pipe, gas line, water lines).

Then Todd took a quick trip home during work to lay the Teck cable (electrical line) and the cable lines in the trench. He didn't even bother to take off his hard hat!

Since the excavator was still here, he just back filled the trench all back in again. It means we won't have an open trench to cover due to snowfall and the guys won't have to come back to back fill it in on Monday.

So far so good! House is due to arrive on Wednesday. Hope that goes without a hitch!

"Meow" "Meow" to You!

Sending out a whiny high pitched version of "Happy Birthday to You" little sis!

Happy Birthday Crick!

And a little birthday wish going out to both Kelly Tunney and Mike Eby today too!

The Drama Never Stops!

What happens when you have NO trench, a plumber on the way and more snow?

You have to deal with a sick little boy and a sick self!


Yup... Spencer and I are both under the weather. The excavating team has still yet to arrive (soon they're saying - had to call in an extra person to cover our dig), the plumber's already on the way. I feel so bad. I called in sick to work for tonight but still have to deal with all this crap anyway.

I tell ya... when are they gunna give a girl a break???? Sorry... I'm having a personal pitty party! Anyone wanna join me?

The "Why Me?" Week

Did you ever have one of those weeks when you wonder "Why me?"?

This week has been brutal!

The excavators were supposed to be here at 9:00 am this morning to dig the trench for the pipes, gas and sewer, etc.. The guy phoned me this morning to say that they may not be able to get to us today due to snow removal... GRRRR!! I told him that it's got to get done before 10am tomorrow before the plumber arrives.

I'm livid! Why can't people stick to their words? All I have to say is that if they delay the job of the plumber, I'm billing THEM for the wait time! The damn plumber is having to come all the way from Cranbrook (2 hours away) which means "billed travel time" = NOT CHEAP.

Then the friggin' lady from the bank phones and says "we're still waiting for a confirmation of employment". I'm like.... "What the HELL? News to me!!!" Why is that we didn't know about this? And WHY is she waiting until ONE WEEK before delivery when she asks for this? And I know for a fact that we sent TWO pieces of proof of employment to her just after our mortgage meeting.

I seriously could just about pull all of the hair out of my head right now! Why do people always have "rain" on my parade! (NOTE: "rain" has been substituted for a word that it's running across my lips and rhymes with "HIT" for all those tender eyes & ears out there!)

We were also told that the house delivery will be a day late. It's now scheduled for delivery on Wednesday next week instead of Tuesday. *sigh*

Can someone just brighten my day?...somehow?...in some way shape or form?? PWEASE?

Oh Heidi!

Sending out BIG birthday wishes to Heidi!
Hope you have a great birthday today!

The Countdown BEGINS!

The word is we have a DELIVERY date! It's official...

Tuesday December 14th is the day!

20 days until the new house arrives! I am thrilled. Now the mad dash begins to get everything ready for it's delivery. It will probably be at least one more week or a little more until we actually get to move in with all the hook ups that have to happen once it's here.

One GIANT Step Closer!

We are one GIANT step closer to having our new house. I got a call this morning from Eagle Homes and the house is scheduled to be completed on December 6th in the factory. That's only ELEVEN days from now!!! Holy crow!!!

The modular home factory is located in Penticton. As you can see from the above map, that's a fair distance from us here; approximate 670 km. There are lots of passes to go through with VERY long climbs and long descents, lots of switchbacks and sometimes they close the passes due to high winds or snowy weather too.

We still don't have an official delivery date but the finish date is very promising for a delivery date before Christmas. Cross your fingers for us!!!

Must Wear Your Woolies!

That's right... it's MINUS 28.6 this morning (8am)! PLEASE... please send us some warmer weather! This is just TOO cold for my taste!

We signed off on the plans for the new house last night. We should be hearing about a delivery date sometime this week. I'm not holding my breath at having the house here and livable by Christmas. I'll be happy with a January date at this point!

New house = no leaky roof, fully insulated walls & no frozen water pipes!!!

Snow... and MORE Snow!

My little snowman this morning!

It has continued to snow for the last 2 days here without stopping. We now have close to TWO feet of snow. Spencer decided that he wanted to WALK to school this morning. Let's just say, that wasn't the best of ideas. It took us forever and I now have wet jeans up to my knees! The snow was above his knees too and with no trail to school in the snow yet it took him forever to walk. Needless to say, Mommy will be picking him up in the Jeep at the end of the day today!

It's Beginning to Look Like... WINTER!

This is what we woke up to this morning... SN*W! We got about 5-6 inches last night and we're still getting a bit now. This week is supposed to be cold and snowy. I'm not looking forward to winter!

Hooray!

We just bought a new house!!! The deal went through even before we could make it all the way home from the bank.

We're off to Cranbrook to finalize all the colour options, etc. this afternoon!

Yippee! The Isreals' are gettin' a new house for Christmas!!!!!

House Update

After talking with the building inspector here in town we finally realized that our current is certainly not to code to put a brand new house on... even temporarily. We both kind of new that deep down. So we've resigned with the fact that we are going to have the house delivered, blocked and leveled and hooked up to live in until we can build a new foundation for it.

So with that knowledge we took the next BIG step and we put down our deposit to start the buying process. We alos found out that the "SALE" price goes up $5000 more next week so we jumped at signing our contract before we have to pay $5000 more for the same house.

We're all on our way this evening to Cranbrook to discuss the upgrades we want: a patio door, addition window and maybe a flooring upgrade. We have a meeting at 6:30pm. I can't wait until I get to pick my exterior choices! Not too many choices for the insides.

Where There's Smoke...

Where's there's smoke...

There's a fireman!

Spencer sitting on the steps with our pumpkins.

We started our haunting last night just after 6 o'clock. We first adventured down the street and met a few of our neighbours.

We then got in the Jeep and drove over to the fire hall. We'd been told that that was the place to go!

When we got there, we encountered these 3 burly guys all dressed up in their fire fighting garb and just had to take a picture. The guy in the white shirt and red hat is our Fire Chief, Bernie.

After about 2.5 hours of touring town, we staggered home where it was WARM again and went through his stash. The kid managed to bring home 6 lbs (yup... I weighed it!) of chocolate bars and treats, 27 bags of chips, 2 pop, a deck of mini playing cards, a whistle, a mini playdough and an apple juice!


Hope you all had a great holiday! Trick or treat!

Building inspector meeting is tomorrow. Cross your fingers that we can get our new house for Christmas!