Monday, April 21, 2014

April 19th - Moving Day

We received a lot of flack from our neighbors in the group about having built a house and not moving in as soon as we could, When are you guys moving in? Some time this year? Didn't you build this house? Don't you want it? All in good fun of course. But since I was still in class we waited until that was all finished up so we didn't have to commute and I wouldn't have to stress.

But because of that when moving day came around, we weren't as packed as I would have liked. The night before Skylar and I rented a van and took over as much as we could: our dresser, a ton of storage stuff (decorations, baby/boy clothes) movies, books, bookshelf, anything we could do with out for the night and that would fit in the van. We packed it tight! And then next day we still had to make 3 trips out to the house to get everything. We should have just rented a big ole Uhaul. But it worked out. While the boys were packing up the cars and trailer that Skylar's grandpa brought down, I was able to just keep packing stuff up.

I can NOT believe how much stuff we had in our apartment. We ran out of boxes and we had even asked JC and Missy for the ones they were done with from them moving and I still had to ask my mom to run over to the store to see if they had extra boxes. It worked out but it was a little nuts.

Grandpa packing up the trailer

Our car loaded up with odd shaped items




Jonas snoozing through it all


Our house filled with stuff



The washer that we will probably sell to get a set





Cohen sleeping soundly on Easter morning.

Well that's it. We'll need to make an after shot to go along side the before but it was an incredible experience. We learned so much and made good friends and now we're in our home. The past 10 months flew by even though at the time it seemed as though it would never end. But it's over and we're reaping the benefits. Thanks to everyone who helped: self-help, our awesome neighbors, my wonderful mom for babysitting all the time, it was definitely a group effort. Here's to our home!

April 3rd - Open House, project completion

We did it. We did it, we did it, we did it. It felt like we would never finish the houses, that we would never really move in but then one day, we were done.

The open house was great. A lot of our neighbors came out to meet us and check out the houses so it seems like a really friendly neighborhood with TONS of kids. Which is great for us. There are plenty of families having kids and plenty of families with kids already.

Sponsors came out that work with Self Help all the time and told some great stories about the benefits of the program: people starting their own stucco companies afterward and things like that. Other future participants came and looked at the houses and I remember being there! I remember being so excited and thinking, dang, they made this? Well the answer is yes. Dang yes, we made this.


A somewhat decent shot of our group (left to right)
Adam's wife Jen and their daughter, Michelle and Brandon (behind), our supervisor Nathan, JC and his two sons, Jim (behind, who is in another group but came out and helped us in the beginning), Skylar and Cohen, me and Jonas, city official, and Jane and her daughter


Nathan being Nathan and taking care of the pulled pork. He once again smoked the food for the open house


Skylar chatting with JC


Jane smiling at babies


Adam with Jim and Adele


And Cohen stuffing his face














Even though it's blurry, this picture cracks me up. This crazy kid.

New couches! One of our first steps in moving in...another post coming soon? I think so!