New Glarus, New Home!

Wow, what a 2012 so far! I feel like the dust has finally settled and I've had time this week to gather some pictures and blog about the house. We moved in on a beautiful weekend in early January, with awesome help from our family and Ken's close friends from high school, who we are forever indebted to!!! We are absolutely in love with the house and New Glarus, and I have said many times in the last 6 weeks that we are NEVER moving again and will die in this house (morbid, I know, but so very true!) I cannot express how blessed and joyous we feel with this wonderful home, and what it will mean to us to raise our children and grow old together here. Thank you to those who have kept us in their thoughts during this process and been kind enough to ask us how things are going and listen to us politely while we drone on and on about this lighting fixture and that paint color, etc. So I tried to arrange the pictures of the house as if I were giving you a tour, so I'll be using a lot of directional statements, etc, that might be extremely boring, but it's my blog and I can do what I want! Ha! Thanks for sticking with me ;)

Here I'm facing due south:

Here I'm facing SW:

Close-up of the front door and patio:

Facing due west (the plywood is over the sliding glass door for safety until the deck gets put on):

My favorite view of the house. The plywood on the left is covering the dining room sliding glass door, and the right plywood covers the family room sliding glass door; you'll be able to get onto the deck from either room.

Here's the view from the family room, facing SE:

View from family room facing due south:

Moving on, now we're in the entryway looking north:

Standing in the family room looking north (behind the half wall are the stairs to the unfinished basement):

Looking east towards the stairs (Zoey did not find this photography interesting at all):

Now I'm in the family room looking west towards the rest of the house. Down that hallway to the right is Tate's bedroom & the guest bedroom, and straight ahead is one of two ways to get into the common bathroom:

Now I'm standing in the entryway looking SW into the kitchen and dining room:

In the family room looking west again:

See-through fireplace! This tile pattern was a joint creative effort between our builder, Jim Campbell, the tile guy, and us ;) Love how it turned out:

Standing next to the fireplace looking east into family room:

Pretty psyched about these chairs (Kohls.com!) and the table (overstock.com):

Other side of the fireplace, standing in the kitchen:

Facing due north in the kitchen (behind the range hood wall is the hallway to the two bedrooms and main bathroom). Please excuse the clutter, I'm only a good housekeeper if people are coming over ;) Oh, and one of our pendants over the island was faulty and is being replaced, hence the one lonely pendant in this picture:

Our dining room and the lighting fixture we couldn't resist, ok, I couldn't resist. I'm facing SE. Thanks for the beautiful housewarming orchid, Bec!!!

Now I'm standing between the kitchen and dining room facing due west, looking down the hallway that leads to our pantry (1st door immediately on the right & one of my most favorite parts of the house!), the 2nd entry into the common bath (on the right), and the mudroom (straight ahead), as well as the master suite (on the left). That door halfway down on the left will eventually go out to a 2nd little screened-in deck.


The walk-in pantry!!!!!! Best part about it is the sensor light in case your hands are full of groceries! We didn't waste time filling it up:

At the end of that long hallway is the mudroom that leads out to the garage. My back is to the garage here and I'm looking south towards the door into that hallway:

If you go left at the end of that hallway, you'll enter the master suite (I'm facing due west here):

Now looking south (the ceilings are about 12 feet high on the south wall, but started at 9 feet tall on the north walls of the house, the roof is one big slope upward to the south):

I am very proud of this decal I put on the eastern wall of our bedroom (behind this wall is our walk-in closet). I thought I was gonna tear my hair out but it turned out great, right!!??

Now the master bath (I'm facing NW):

Now I'm looking SW back towards our bedroom:

Now I'm back in the common bathroom, facing west. I couldn't resist this paint color, it's called Apple Crisp (Behr):

Still looking west. If you go through the more distant door on the left, that puts you back in front of the sinks. The closer door on left is a linen closet that you can access from the tub side and the sink/toilet side:

I've gone through the common bathroom and am now in the hallway by Tate's room and the guest room, looking south. The other side of this wall is the kitchen. Showcasing Grandie's art here:

This is the guest bedroom (bed is against the west wall). Garage is behind that wall:

North wall of bedroom:

Behind this eastern wall is Tate's bedroom:


Tate's room, and another awesome decal from etsy.com. His closet is on the southern wall of his bedroom:

Tree decal also from etsy.com. Guest bedroom behind this wall:

Curtains are on the north wall of Tate's bedroom and on the other side of the crib wall is the entryway:

Lower level storage room directly below Tate's and guest bedrooms (I'm facing west):

Future rec room area below family, kitchen and dining rooms (facing SW):

On the southwest corner of house (under MBR) is the future 4th bedroom:

Facing due east and standing just north of 4th bedroom:

So that's our house!!! Thanks for taking the virtual tour with me. It's always open to visitors and we'd love to see you!

Here are a few miscellany photos I wanted to share. This picture is from December, before we moved out of the apartment. Tate is modeling his new zebra hat from Nana and Grandad:

Modeling airplane jammies from best buddy Tess and daycare provider extraordinaire Rebbecca:

Helping celebrate cousin Adelle's 10th birthday in late January. "Man, those cake pops are great, Aunt Corry; Mom is trying to steal one":

On Feb. 6th, our baby boy turned TWO!!! Wasn't I just pregnant yesterday??!! We celebrated with close friends and family and had a Thomas the Train party (well, except for the airplane cake it was ALL Thomas). Tate was so excited to see everyone he didn't nap all day and was bouncing around showing off his "new house":

Tate is really excited about his Thomas underwear. Too bad he hasn't gotten to the point of wearing it in the proper place yet ;) Soon enough, I'm sure...

Tate hopes you all had a special Valentine's Day cookie, too:

All my love and best wishes for a Happy and Healthy Spring! This month's blog is dedicated to my Grandpa, who passed away from pancreatic cancer yesterday. You never got to see our house for yourself, Grandpa, but I know now you can see it very clearly from your vantage point in heaven... We miss you so much.

XOXO,
Meredith

Cold Weather, Warm House!!!

Happy Winter everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots to be thankful for! We are feeling very blessed this year, for our health and happiness, friends and family, and a new home that will be ready next month! Tate is getting to be such a big boy (22 months!), who knows all his colors and helps Mommy sing the "ABC" song and is learning to count. He is repeating just about everything we say, so we have to be very careful as Ken and I can occasionally have trucker-mouths ;) My favorite words from Tate lately are "pistachio", "cinnamon", and "Cumbaya" (one of our favorite bedtime songs).

We are very anxious to say goodbye to our apartment and be in the new house. I haven't posted any pics since October, so there are lots in here to catch you all up! Below are a few pictures we took shortly after the walls and flooring panels were delivered & set back in mid-October; the roof went up only a few days later:

At the end of October, my uncle Whitney came to visit from FL and we all went to a pumpkin patch in Chicagoland during his visit to celebrate fall & family:

The boys didn't know what to do with the straw...

Checking out the corn maze:

Taking a hayride with Auntie A & Nana:

Meanwhile, lots of work happening at the house... drywall!

Front porch poured:

In early November the flooring was installed (all but carpet) and the painting started. Below is the foyer/entryway:

Master bathroom:

Family/living room & fireplace:

Here I'm standing in the foyer and looking towards the back of the house (living room to left and dining room to the right in green):

Tate's room:

Guest room (it's a pale yellow):

Extremely bright main bathroom (but the color was called Apple Crisp and I couldn't resist):

Mudroom (it's not quite so pink in person):

Then just a couple of weeks ago the fireplace insert arrived (the kitchen is right behind Kenny):

And the last time we headed down there we had working lights (I'm facing the kitchen and dining area)!

Here I'm standing in the dining room looking back towards the kitchen and entryway:

And lastly, our steel roof is finally on! Now we won't be back in until the house is pretty much finished (our builder locks his clients out for the last couple of weeks so there can be a big reveal). Nerve-wracking, I know- good thing we have a lot of trust and faith in our builder (and our choices)!

Tate says, "Happy Holidays!!!"

From our family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year!!! Next time I blog it will hopefully be from the new house!!!
Meredith ;)