Men at Work

We were very blessed to have my brother and Brad's dad, uncle, and brother with us this weekend to help us with some much needed manual labor at the 909 House. The original plan was to prep the backyard (clear out remaining yard debris), mark the yard for the fence and dig all the holes for the fence posts. With that in mind, Brad went ahead and rented an auger and had it on stand-by for the moment that they finished prepping the backyard. Interestingly enough though, that moment never came.

After cutting up and piling 6 truck loads of yard debris (cut down vines, branches, trees, roots, etc.), driving most of them to the dump (don't ask where the other loads went), clearing out the 4-foot pile of leaves in the back, right-hand side of the yard (a result of many years of leaf blowing from the church behind us), mulching those leaves down with our lawn mower and then scattering them throughout the yard and blowing the remaining leaves to the side of the yard to determine the amount of concrete that was really in our backyard, there just wasn't enough time to start up that auger. As sad as that realization is, it might actually be a blessing in disguise. After clearing out all of the debris and realizing how much concrete really was in the backyard (you may remember that the previous owners used the house as a beauty salon and they paved over a good portion of the backyard to create a parking lot for their customers), the guys discovered that it's going to take a good deal more work and money to dig up the concrete that goes all the way to our property line ... this is exactly where we were planning to put the fence ... and well, you can't use the auger to drill holes through the concrete. So ... needless to say, we're investigating other fencing options that may work around the concrete, or 'through' the concrete, and that may turn out to be a bit cheaper. (Not too bad.)

And plus, you should see our backyard. I'm sure it hasn't looked this good in 15 or 20 years! Thanks guys! We still have a long way to go: Some concrete removal, tilling, new soil and topsoil (if we want to even hope for grass) and plenty of hours of general landscaping. I enjoy that stuff, so that will be something we can look forward to for many years (?) to come. (Hopefully not that long, but I don't want to underestimate it.)

Here are some of the BEFORE pictures of the yard after my mom and I initially cut down a good deal of the vines, bushes and trees that covered the fence line:


















Here's proof of the 'fruit of the guys' labor':
(You'll notice a gradual decrease of yard debris as the weekend went on.)









































In addition to the landscaping work that we (the guys) did this weekend, the floor guy was in on Saturday and sanded the majority of the floors. What a difference! Despite their age, I think they're going to really look beautiful! They're going to finish up around the edges tomorrow and then we'll have to pick our stain and they'll finish them up by the end of the week. How exciting

Bathroom Tile is In

This isn't really "new" news ... the bathroom floor tile was actually laid last weekend, but since I hadn't written an update about it, I thought I'd clue you in. It's amazing what a difficult task it was to choose what we wanted. There's only thousands and thousands of choices out there and to narrow it down and actual pick something was a feat all on it's own. Plus, unlike choosing paint colors, if you mess up and don't like what you have, it's not that easy to pull up the tile, choose something different and redo the entire project. But thanks to Brad's sanity and desire for simplicity and Lauren's help to verify that I wasn't nuts, the tile looks awesome and coordinates sooo well with the paint colors ... yay!

Here's a sneak peek ... but these pictures really don't do the final product justice.

This blue/green/white mosaic glass tile is now the flooring for our upstairs hall bathroom. This tile coordinates beautifully with the Sea Salt colored walls (a gray w/ a hint of light green) and the soon-to-be installed white subway tiles along the wall of the soon-to-be installed soaking tub.

Next, below the blue/green/white mosaic glass tile, we have the white, oak and gray mosaic glass tile that's now on the floor of our master bathroom. I was a little unsure how this choice would turn out, but wow ... I'm thoroughly impressed. The coloring is a little more sporadic than the blue/green/white tile and so there are larger expanses of white and sporadic oak and gray pieces.This tile also coordinates well with the white subway tile that is already installed on our stand-up shower wall and the 2x2 white tile that's on the shower floor. The walls in our bathroom are a blue/gray and really look nice and crisp with this tile.

I'm so excited that the glass mosaic tile has worked out so well. I've liked it for a while and thought it would look great in a bathroom, but originally thought that it was too expensive for us to do. But when Brad realized how much I liked the look of this material, he brought up the idea that we could just do the floor or a smaller area in that tile, and the reality of using it seemed a lot more manageable ... and he was right! Thanks Brad!

So You Think You Can Dance?

Caed does. Check out the latest video:

Beautiful Color

I can't remember if I communicated how overwhelming paint color decisions were for me .... I guess it wasn't as agonizing as choosing tile, but when it came down to the entire house coordinating, choosing paint was tough. I wanted to have a clean, crisp feeling, but one with warmth, that fit our style and that didn't reflect every color in the rainbow. (We painted just about every wall in our previous house, but it was one at a time and we had all the time in the world to choose each color, so it wasn't so bad.) Thankfully, I had some assistance this time around from some experts in this department and they made my job much easier. Thanks Lauren, Amy and the lady from Benjamin Moore ... you guys were a lifesaver when it came down to choosing paint!

Thoughts of house color have been distant the last week or so because we've been engulfed with granite/countertop decisions, but today was a beautiful today. Wall and trim priming ended and glimpses of color went up on the interior walls of the 909 House!!! Monroe Bisque, Sea Salt and a shade of gray/blue (sadly, the color doesn't have a name ... just a number) went up on the wall today and I'm very pleased! (The house was somewhat dark when Caed and I were there today, so I could be off, but from what I can tell, it looks better than I had imagined!) I'll be excited to see additional colors tomorrow! It's especially exciting to see our master bathroom semi-painted next to the recently laid, white subway tile in our shower ... it's all coming together ... woohoo!

Decisions, Decisions and MORE Decisions

Whew, what a weekend! Starting Friday, we realized that we were behind on ordering the light and plumbing fixtures for the 909 House that we've had picked out for a while. So I ended up heading over to Mom's for the morning (which turned into the day) so that Caed could tag along with her while I made a few last-minute decisions on fixtures and placed all of our orders ... like 6 different online stores to be exact! How exhausting!

Then, Saturday began nice and early as Caed woke up at 6:50 am (he usually wakes up at 8 or later), and not too long afterward, we were out the door to choose our granite slabs for the kitchen countertop and downstairs powder room. Doesn't sound too difficult, but when you're working with a tired and cranky 14-month-old, the level of difficulty escalates greatly! As we were sorting through the slabs, we thought that it wasn't a bad idea to let Caed out of his stroller and walk around a bit. (The granite is way to heavy for him to move or damage, so we thought he would be fine.) But, he is our son and has the curiosity of a cat, so leave it to him to get into EVERYTHING. Before we knew it, he was pulling on the fire extinguisher and pushing his stroller into things, so his time of freedom came to an end quickly. Lots of screaming proceeded, but we really had no other choice. Eventually, he got sleepy and just gave in ... thank goodness ... but no sleeping.

Then, as we were browsing through all of our options, we realized that the sample slab that we've been carrying around to match up with other kitchen decor wasn't the type of granite that we thought it was. We love the sample and thought it was Kashmir White, but turns out that it's Colonial Gold ... ha. So after looking through all of the Kashmir White slabs and realizing that none of the slabs look quite like our sample (slabs tend to vary based on their lot ... where they originated), so we just thought the lots were pretty different. But then we found other types that looked more similar to our sample -- Bianca Romano and River White. (Bianca Romano is pictured to the left.)

(We didn't realize that our sample was Colonial Gold until the end.) Feeling pretty confident that we had found our slabs though, we left with the intent to order Monday. However, we decided to swing by one more granite lot on the way to choose our appliances (yes, another big decision). Funny thing, we arrived at the second granite lot 5 minutes before it closed, so we didn't have much time ... but as soon as we walked in the warehouse, we saw the River White granite and loved it ... it looked a great deal better there than at the other location, so that made our decision that much easier. (I still need to go back tomorrow though, take a second look at it and choose the exact two slabs to use ... more decisions! But at least the granite decision is almost over!) I'm excited ... our countertops are going to be beautiful! (The picture below is just a sample I found online, our slab will probably look a little different from this.)

From the granite lot, we then went to HH Gregg to make our final selection on appliances: Refrigerator, Dishwasher, Range, Mircohood.
We went into the store confident that we were going to go the Whirlpool route for our range, microhood and refrigerator, and we were pretty sure we were going to get a Bosch dishwasher, but trying to decide on appliance finishes threw a few kinks in the road, so we had to deliberate a bit. But after heading home and Brad returning later in the evening to make a final decision, we stayed tried and true with our original Whirlpool and Bosch decision and decided to go black on the finish for the refrigerator and dishwasher and stainless steal for the microhood and range. (That may sound a little strange, but based on the placement of each appliance in the new kitchen, we think this will look great and emphasize the items that we want to emphasize and 'hide' the others. We'll see ....)

The sales guy, Yiuly, was really helpful and gave us a great deal in the end, so if you're heading over to HH Gregg in the near future, you might want to look him up.

Oohh, I can't wait to use my new dishwasher! We've been without a dishwasher for 1 year and a month now and it's driving me crazy! Not too much longer now!

Well, that wraps up a good bit of our decisions this weekend, now we just need to figure out what we're going to do with our windows and then finalize our granite selections tomorrow. We'll keep you posted ....

Box Entertainment

Ever since the day we opened the box to Caed's "new" car seat, he has not only had a larger, more confy seat, but a great box to play in. As soon as I realized he was interested in playing with it, I cut a few holes for windows and a front door. Then, a few weeks later, Brad added "barn doors" in the back to give Caed and Aslan a second entry point.

Caed has had this box since the week before his birthday (August) and it continues to be a great source of entertainment in the Hodgson house. Sadly, each new day brings this box closer to it's demise ... it has been flattened a few times as Caed tries to roll the box over while he's inside ... but thanks Evenflo for making such a great box. And even when you need to be replaced, one of our upcoming appliance boxes will fill your place. (Thankfully we'll be moving into a bigger home that can house you!)

Enjoy this video:

Caedmon's Dedication at Vintage21 Church

At 14 months, Caed finally had the opportunity to be dedicated at Vintage21 Church today.

For those of you that are not familiar with this process, this means that Brad and I brought Caed before the church to say that we commit to raise him in the ways of the Lord (pray for him, teach him and shepherd him well) and to ask our church family to help us in this process (to love him and us and to be a positive example of Jesus to him).

For many people, baptism is a traditional step to take a baby through at this age, but we believe that baptism is an outward sign of an inward decision to follow Jesus (Colossians 2:9-15), and we pray that this will be a decision that Caed will make for himself one day when he outwardly professes that he believes in Jesus and wants to use his life to glorify him. That is a day that we've prayed for since the day he was born and will continue to pray for until it comes into fruition.
Until then, we pray that through our own example in his life, through the truth that we teach him in scripture, through our ongoing prayer for him, and the positive example of those around him, that he's able to see Jesus and realize that he desperately needs a savior to save him from his brokenness. This is obviously a lot to comprehend for a one year old, but I believe that as his little mind develops and he begins to understand the difference between right and wrong, he'll be able to comprehend that God did not intend for us to be broken, but because sin entered the world, our hearts are broken and we can't fix them ourselves. We need Jesus, the perfect savior, to redeem our brokenness and give us new life. This is the truth that Brad and I hope to share with Caedmon as he grows, and despite our own brokenness, it is our prayer that Jesus will allow us to be good teachers of His word and be able to love Caedmon well so that he can experience this truth for himself while he is young.

Here's a picture of the new Bible that Caed received today. His buddy Mason already received one a few months ago, and he was already showing him all the cool stories that it tells.