October 27 Update

We woke up this morning for the first time to see the sunrise streaming through our east bedroom window (every other morning it's been dark when we got up!). It was beautiful, and even though we are a long way from done, maybe that sunrise today was us seeing some "light at the end of the tunnel".

As we got dressed for church, Hillary reminded me that we had not yet found any shoes for her to wear other than flip flops...since it was 35 degrees (and October 27) we decided sandals wouldn't cut it.  So we went on a hunt for the box that said "Hillary's closet" on it, hoping to find her boots or other shoes.  Of course, that box wasn't in the house - it was in the batch of boxes we had loaded into a covered trailer we borrowed until we can officially move in and unpack them. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the box we needed was the first one inside the door of the trailer!  That never happens.  So picture this...it was a tall wardrobe box so I kind of looked like an ostrich as I stuck my head into the box and hunted underneath all the hanging clothes for shoes or boots.  Of course, I found one of the shoes I was looking for right away...ONE of them.  Finally I unearthed the other one without having to completely unload the box - this was a good thing considering how many half-unloaded boxes are in the house from trying to find certain items!

Church was great and then afterwards we picked up the boys who had returned from the retreat.  They didn't even make it 10 minutes before both were sacked out in the back seat - a couple of late nights no doubt.  But they had a great time and one of the youth pastor text me "...the youth absolutely loved your kids!  They talked about them on the way home. I'm excited they are back.  We had a great time this weekend." Made for a couple of happy parents!

John seeded the grass and I started staining the kids' vanities that will go in their bathrooms.  Peyton helped for awhile and we got the first coat almost finished.  It's fun to watch the wood change color, and after the second coat goes on tomorrow it will hopefully turn out as great as I anticipate :).

October 25 House Update

So yesterday we had the chance to sit down and plan out the next 6-8 weeks of work on the house...we had certainly hoped to be through with everything by Halloween...or even Thanksgiving...but it looks like it will be closer to mid-December before all the pieces are in place.  However!  Lots of things will start falling into place now that some of the big stuff is behind us.

This morning started with a couple of surprises.  First off, it wasn't windy!  And the temperature wasn't as cold overnight as it has been, making it almost perfect weather for my run. Not being windy may not sound like much of a surprise for those of you in Fresno, but in Kansas, it's a nice thing to wake up to!  Second, when I got back there were a couple trucks in the driveway.  Bill and Cord decided to come back and replace a few more windows this morning which was awesome since we didn't expect anyone back until Monday! 

It was work day for the Niemann's...Peyton and Trace went to a church retreat, but John, Hillary and I got after it.  Chad (the carpenter) had all his saws and plywood set up on the side of the garage where we are doing the workout center, so while Hillary picked up trash all over the yard, John and I cleaned up the other side and set it up for Chad to work in this week.  The heating/cooling system was installed in there this week, so we can hopefully get the rest of the work done and I can start training in there.  I've been working out and training in the basketball court above the barn which was great until the overnight lows hit below 36 - gets a little chilly in there at 5am! We also got a few things organized in the house, some boxes unloaded and a couple of piece of furniture moved into our bedroom.

New Action in Mount Hope!

Well I have made a lot of new friends the past couple of weeks!  Chad, Nick, Dalton, Cody, Andy, Steve, Bill, Cord, Lynn & others are here doing a variety of things like carpentry, plumbing, sheetrocking, insulation, carpet, tile, dirt work, tree trimming, window replacement, etc.

Last week the focus was on sheetrocking the areas where walls had been knocked out, and then the patching process began.  I've learned a lot about how houses are built and come together for sure, and it's been pretty interesting.  Unfortunately we continued to find a lot of cracks in the walls and ceilings, but at least it's all being repaired.  I never realized there were so many decisions when you do major remodeling - like what kind of door fronts do we want on our drawers and cabinets...what kind of texture on the ceilings...do we stain or paint the vanities...I do not think I will ever want to build a house from scratch - this has been hard enough! 

We did have a major accomplishment on Wednesday of this week...the carpet was laid in our master bedroom!  Thank you to Mark Nett and Rick Dalton who came out to help John move our bed and some bedroom furniture up into our room.  It was so nice to sleep in our own bed for the first time in two and a half months - after a few weeks in the RV's double bed, our king size felt "super size" for sure.  Hillary opted to sleep in the RV for one more night, and then joined the rest of the family in the house.  The boys are still on mattresses on the floor of the guest room, and we made her a little sleeping nook in the large side closet storage area off of John's closet.  She loves it and apparently Cabela (the cat) does too considering she found her back in there right away. 

The Remodel in Mount Hope Continues...

Well has it ever been an adventure living in a home where every room except for the laundry room and a 1/2 bath is in some stage of remodel!  This week we have had insulation put in some of the new walls and miscellaneous areas where it was missing, a vanity for the master bath is almost completely built, the various electrical projects are nearing completion and the master bath & bedroom is freshly painted!  A nice change from the wallpaper that was in there before. Will finish it off with some tile work in another week or so.

 

 

 

Although John and I have been able to unpack most of our clothes into our closets, we can't unpack a lot of other boxes with all the construction.  So we've attempted to find a few necessary items like jackets, sweatshirts, silverware and plates.  Most of the time we have been successful, however, the only dishes we have found so far are the little kids' plastic plates and bowls.  Hillary got quite a laugh out of watching John eat out of her pink butterfly bowl!  I couldn't find a colander to strain some pasta in last night, so I opted for a wire basket.  And fortunately Del Monte makes a lot of their canned items with pop tops, since I have yet to find the can opener!  We did score last night when we came across a box that included the package of coffee beans that my friend Fred had brought me from Africa this summer!  A nice surprise and treat the next morning.

So here's a funny unpacking story...there was a box labeled "master bathroom" so I started sifting through it the other day.  As I got down past the second layer of packing paper I noticed that all the items in there - washcloths, bath pillow, a number of small boxes of Mary Kay products - were covered with a white dust.  As I reached the bottom of the box there was a bucket of random items, one of which was a container of Ajax...and no, it didn't have anything covering the holes on the top.  Now if you were a packer, wouldn't you say to yourself, "hmmm...perhaps I should put a piece of tape over those holes or it might get Ajax powder all over the rest of the items in the box"??  Well, this particular box packer didn't think that.  At least those items are clean, right?!

Fortunately for us the weather has been warm so we can eat outside on the deck - this is great considering we only have the 2 chairs and small table that is usually on the front porch in the house at this point.  Last night when John and I were downloading about our day I enjoyed a seat on the stepladder while he hopped up on the kitchen counter!  Nice and cozy.  :)

I have started doing some training again and I didn't realized until I started back how much I missed it!  I have two clients - one of which I trained at a school track until this week.  Starting yesterday I am training on the basketball court in the loft of the barn until the workout center is finished.  Feels kind of like Hoosiers!  The former owners left a jam box up there that has a dual-cassette player on the front.  Hillary wasn't sure what "those things on the front" were for :).

Mount Hope: Day 3

So yesterday afternoon it was 93 degrees...then at 4:30 or so a storm rolled in and the temperature dropped to 63. Welcome back to Kansas!  I went for a run this morning - the first one from new house - and it was a "refreshing" 45 degrees and 16mph winds. Brrr!

It was a little bit of a rough night as Hillary had an upset tummy.  Fortunately the RV is a small place and I could be there quick to help her out. After 6 or 7 trips out of bed she said, "mommy, I'm sorry I'm keeping you from getting a good night's rest" :). 

In the afternoon John took Trace to his foot ball game in Wellington where the Cougars won a close one.  Peyton and I lined pantry shelves with paper and attempted to semi-organize the kitchen before a visit from Kirsten and Mallory Pruitt, and Hillary slept for the majority of the day.  While we were fixing supper one of our neighbors (they actually live about 2 miles away but out here, that's neighbors!) came over and brought us a tray of fruit and some brownies.  She is  a sweet lady and we enjoy good chat.  She and her husband share a bus route for this area, and they are big K-State fans! (We won't mention anything about today's game, however.)

John grilled some great sterling silver steaks and a few filets from the antelope that Peyton shot last weekend in Dalhart.  Biggest accomplishment of the evening?  John finding the wine glasses in the first box he opened! :)

Mount Hope: Day 2

Today dawned very WINDY!  It was field trip day to Rock Springs for the boys, and John had signed up to go as a chaperone.  They left early and I enjoyed my first workout up in the basketball court!  Felt like a true Insanity workout being in a gym. There was a beautiful sunrise brewing as I went up to shower - the view out our master window to the east is really pretty.

Hillary and I left for school on time again, dropped a few things off at the R&R that had ended up in our laundry, and I headed to WalMart to buy shelf paper.  Ready to get some things into the kitchen cabinets!

It wasn't too crazy around here today - Chad finished up some of the wood trim, and the DirecTV guy encountered no problems in setting up our satellite - a first!  He managed to get everything working, even though the electrician wasn't able to come back and finish his work first.  He even installed our tv in the living room so we can watch football this weekend! 

I did a little cleaning (with all the sawdust it's like I'm chasing the wind) and also got the pantry cabinets cleaned out and ready for shelf paper!  About 5pm a storm hit and it rained super hard as I left to go get the kids after the boys returned from their trip.  As it subsided we saw a great rainbow. 

The boys were excited to see the tv's hooked up - particular the huge rear-projection screen in the basement!  It is really cool down there.  Although we don't have sound down there yet they figured out how to set up one of the games we have and proceeded to play a few rounds of Wheel of Fortune!

 

 

 

Mount Hope: Day 1

Day one of driving to school!  We knew we had to be out the door and in the car driving by 8:10am.  The main challenge with this was that I also had to have the casserole cooked and loaded into a cooler so it would stay hot, and I also wanted to get in a yoga workout and be completely showered (going back and forth between the upstairs master bathroom and the RV of course) and ready to fix them a good breakfast before we left.  Everyone cooperated fairly well and we ended up driving off at 8:08! Yea for us.

It always makes me laugh that anytime I am dressed in something other than workout/training clothes one of the kids asks "why are you dressed like that?"!  I got to wear "grown-up clothes" since I was going to Bible study and sure enough, Hillary asked the question :).   Since that didn't start until 9:30 and I didn't really want to come all the way back home after dropping the kids off at school, I stopped at Starbucks for coffee and a little quiet time.  Good thing since I had yet to find the coffee pot!

I made it back home in time to help the electrician solve a few more challenges and prepare for Girls on the Run - a program Hillary is involved in that encourages fitness/running and life skills. My fellow running friend Tiffany had asked me to help coach and even though timing is a little crazy, I have enjoyed it so much. I lead the group on Thursdays so I loaded back up and headed for St. Mark's. I tried to be super organized by packing Trace a sandwich, his water and his football gear so we wouldn't have to come back home before dropping him off in Andale for practice.  This worked quite well until I realized I left his shoulder pads and helmet in the garage...forgot to go back for that second load. Oh well!  Fortunately we had enough time and even got him there a few minutes early.

One of our challenges tonight was to find the DirecTV receivers since they are coming to hook up our satellite/tv's tomorrow.  After searching for an hour, John walked through the front room where there were only two boxes...and one was labeled "tv boxes".  Yep...right there where we had walked all day long!

Two more challenges...finding the coffee pot and the sets of 8- and 10-lb. weights for my workout tomorrow morning.  So while John dug through a box in the garage that we suspected had been visited by a mouse (yes, they are combining all around us which sends the field mice running), I searched for the coffee pot box.  I had packed it myself and I knew I had seen it.  As I rounded the first corner of boxes for the umpteenth time, there it was!!  Coffee pot...ahhhhh.

We quickly found the weights - they were stacked under a box of other weights.  As we lifted the heavy box off the stack, a 10-pounder came tumbling down...right onto John's foot.  10lbs. may not feel like it's terribly heavy when doing shoulder presses, but when it hits your foot - yes, it's heavy!  After bringing the cat into the garage to hunt down potential rodents, we went to bed!

Moving to Mount Hope

We lived in the R&R for over 6 weeks! I found it hard to believe it was that long...until I started packing. It took literally all day, and that was after John spent 2 hours speed packing (that man can move when he wants to!) early that morning all the big stuff. I found clothes, toys and all kinds of knick-knacks (thank you, Hillary) in every nook and cranny of that place. It was a great experience for sure - and being that close to school was a true blessing.

After school we all met back at the R&R - John had picked up the dogs so we were all back together again.  We spent a few minutes reflecting on our blessings and said a prayer over the R&R, as well as for our new home.  We loaded up and headed to Mount Hope where we were meeting Rick Dalton.  Why Rick?  Because we had arranged to borrow his RV so we'd have a place to sleep :).

With the house in disarray, we didn't really have a place to sleep so thus the RV.  The carpet in the master was pulled up to be replaced, but that won't be for a few weeks.  The kids "wing" of the house is completely torn up since their bathroom had to be gutted so no go for those rooms either.  The final decision was to put the boys' mattresses on the floor in the guest room (those floors are being refinished but again, not for a few weeks) and Hillary, John and I would sleep in the RV.

Problem A: Sheets...I finally found a box labeled "linens" and inside I found 2 sets of Hillary's sheets - one set was pink and on was blue! But fortunately boys don't get too caught up in all that and didn't seem to care :).  Problem A solved!

Problem B: No mirror.  The half bath was finished but we hadn't bought a mirror so we brought the old green-framed that was in there originally and leaned it up behind the sink. Problem B solved! Well, sort of...if we were all 4 feet tall it would work great...you pretty much have to squat to see your face.  But hey, that's a great glute and quad workout!

In true Jennifer Niemann fashion, I had volunteered to make an egg casserole for Thursday morning Bible study.  I had browned the sausage earlier in the day while we were still at the R&R since I knew I didn't have dishes at the house.  I knew where the box was with the crock pot in it so I was just going to make it in the crock pot.  But when I opened the box, that's when I discovered Problem C...it was the crock pot whose lid got broken earlier in the summer, not the oval one with an intact lid. Bummer. As I pondered what to do, I opened another box labeled "kitchen dishes" hoping maybe it had something in it I could use...and it did!  All my 9x13 pans were there so I started putting it together.  Of course, I forgot I didn't have access to my spices or measuring cups for that matter, but I had salsa and cilantro so guessed at the amounts and made it Tex-Mex style!  Problem C solved.

Problem D: Towels.  Although the master shower didn't have a shower curtain on it, and I had yet to find that box, we made do with an old towel on the floor to soak up water and just directed the spout toward the wall.  As I made my way through the boxes I found one labels towels. There was a random assortment, and Trace ended up using a beach towel, but Problem D solved!

As the evening wore on it got comical...every time I needed something it ended up being in a suitcase that wasn't where I was.  If I was in the house it was in the RV, or if I was upstairs what I needed was in the living room.  But we all finally found our toothbrushes and a washcloth so we could get ready for bed!  Hillary headed out to the RV on her own an hit the sack, while the boys got comfy in their colorful beds. 

John and I spend some time that night rehashing the day's work.  The electrical guys had been here all day and spent a lot of time putting up the lights in the garage workout center area.  Thus Problem E...the trusses changed directions halfway across the garage!  Of course they did.  But Problem E was solved with a little extra time...like 2 hours...during which Kendall got everything working properly. 

As we made our way via flashlight out to the RV, John commented, "it will be better tomorrow"...:).  Inside the RV Hillary had spent time "decorating" the area above her bed by stringing mardi gras beads together!  At least she's creative. As we turned out the lights and attempted to get comfy in our almost-queen-sized bed John said, "you know, we really should have packed and labeled boxes for remodeling"...famous last words!