Eleven Months as a MRS

The Wonderful Things:

• We still have chicks alive
• these little chicks were a random thing that we thought we'd try, but somehow we have managed to keep them alive
• They are still living in our basement in a kiddie pool surrounded by chicken wire because mother nature apparently doesn't care that we have a beautiful chicken coop outside just waiting for it's inhabitants
• They are growing like CRAZY - and next to impossible to get photos of - I am hoping once they move outside it will be easier - or really I hope they quit being so crazy pants in their kiddie pool so I can take pictures that I actually want to post
• Marc rocks at putting in flooring
• he has been working hard (I have been attempting to help)
• he has the flooring down in the two basement bedrooms
• Our basement may actually be semi livable by August
• Our next step is to get the electrician back in to finish up the electrical work, we plan on having that done here shortly - we need to move some stuff out of the closet so they can access the light that goes in there - and it would be helpful if Mother Nature would play nice so we can get the chickens outside and out of what will be the 3rd bathroom
• We continue to work on the flooring in the main room and hallway

Marc and I downstairs working on the flooring
He's a champ for putting up with 12,001 photos

The Things No One Ever Tells You About:

• Medical insurance is ridiculous to navigate - why can't people just tell me the answers I am looking for or explain to me in terms that I would understand 
• WHY does this need to be this complicated?!
• Winter sucks when it drags on through the end of April. 
• We have read every book on our winter reading list, we have watched every movie on our winter watch list, we have watched more stupid movies that we didn't care to watch, and we have read more stupid books that we didn't want to read - we want to be outside and we are going stir crazy
• Winter eats at our souls after a while

The Miscellaneous Things:

• I can't believe it is May and summer is around the corner
• on the same token I can't believe we have been married for 11 months already and only 11 months already
• I AM WAYYYY happy to not be planning a wedding again this summer
• The wedding itself was fun - the planning of it was fine (Thank God for my mom and brother who deeply care about details of weddings and things) - I am glad it is over
• I AM over crappy weather, bring on spring. 
• I went for a few days down to IOWA a connecting state to Minnesota and it was 50 degrees warmer and they have green grass! Trust me I have been questioning why we live so stinking far north. I want spring/summer. Mother Nature needs to get the memo.

Easter

I had every intent of actually getting this up and posted a LONG time ago, however, that didn't happen, and so my Easter photos are just going up now. Life has been busy. 

Marc and my mom spent a day and a half
priming our basement!

The chickens have been moved from a rubbermaid tote
to a kiddie swimming pool in the basement

WE LOVE living next to the Crow Wing State Park
When the weather was nice we took LONG walks over there every day
The dogs were in heaven

Mississippi River

FAMILY

Lots of walking = exhausted puppies

We (the boys) flew a couple of kites on afternoon
it is the perk of not having power lines

Loving the sunshine, family, and her orange ball

Exhausted puppy when everyone left

Basement Progress

We are actually making progress. We are getting somewhere. Stuff is getting done in our basement. Perhaps this ridiculously cold weather is proving to be worth something after all! Realistically we had hoped that we would be outside enjoying some beautiful spring weather however, mother nature seems to still be confused what season it should be so we are attempting to seize the opportunity to get stuff done in the house. Our basement has the sheet rock all hung, taped, and textured (yeah it is ridiculously hard to take pictures of taping and texturing work, but trust me it was worth every penny to have that part done by professionals - not to mention it would have taken Marc and I no less than 12,001 times longer than it took them). So now we are onto priming/painting and flooring. 

     The original plan was to hold out on the flooring and just deal with the cemented floor, however, a few weeks ago at Menards, during their 11% sale, I conned Marc into just going for it now, while everything is already out of the basement, I mean really - do we want to resettle everything into the basement and then with a newborn or a toddler or older kid be trying to finish the basement. Not to mention most of the things for the basement are currently beautifully stacked in what will be the nursery. So here we are doing the basement floor and watching copious amounts of youtube videos in attempt to figure out what the heck we are doing and how to install flooring. Thank God for people with way more time on their hands then us or people who are passionate about making youtube videos about everything because our house would be in shambles if it wasn't for people like this. 

      In all honesty Marc probably does the bulk of the work - he really knows how to do it. My job: keep the house cleanish, entertain the puppy (who really isn't a puppy any more), check in on our growing chicks (yes, there will be a chicken post coming in the nearish future), keep Marc fed, the dishes done, the laundry clean and folded, put down the blue under layment that goes under the flooring, tape the under layment seams, and make the cuts to the wood with the table saw that Marc says he needs. He is good at putting the boards together and making sure they are all tight enough and making sure that they all have the seal that they are suppose to have. Every once in a while I get promoted to holding something down while he tries to get something in place, but for the most part Marc has been doing most of that. I think he is really enjoying the project actually (which is good because we still have a lot of basement to go - we'll see what he thinks about this project in a few weeks - we have a ton of basement to cover). I think he actually chose the most complicated room to start with (unknowingly though) because this room has a HUGE walk in closet (that I think is going to become my craft nook) and the room is anything but square. The other room that will be another guest room is totally square and has a little closet, so hopefully this will make it a little easier. Then after that it is onto the hallway and then the great room.

    Today I am stopping by Menards (they are seriously going to know me by name by the time this house gets done) to pick up some clear varnish/something to put on the beadboard/floorboards and I am going to start painting those outside as soon as possible so that we can get those pieces put up as soon as they are dry. So the flooring isn't technically done but hopefully the laying of the floor part is actually the time consuming piece and the actual putting up of the last pieces goes pretty quick. We will just have to make sure we cut the pieces to size, which I am hoping won't be too hard, not to forget I am getting really good with a table saw!

    The other complication about this project is we don't actually have electricity downstairs hooked up - it is all just roughed in, so what light we have is just some work/flood lights that we have brought in from the garage. My mom is coming up this weekend to help with the priming/painting of some of the rooms/ so that will be nice, as soon as that is done, I am going to call and get the electricians back to come and finish up the electrical work so that we are back in action with electricity downstairs. Other things that will need to be done at some point: tile the bathroom floor, finish installing the toilet/shower/sink/vanity, hang doors, and add shelving to the closets.

Basement Update

You may as well be warned: there will lots of house updates in the next while, our basement is in full get it finished mode. This week we have the crew here taping and texturing our basement. It is impressive how much work they can get done. I am thankful for these guys because I don't even want to guess how many hours/weekends/months it would take Marc and I to do this. And to be REALLY honest, there is NO WAY it would look as nice as what they are doing. Thank God for professionals who work with sheet rock. We currently have our house warmer than I would want and their two massive fans as well as a few of our own fans blowing full power down there in hopes that the walls are dry enough that they can work again today.

It is a hurry up and wait type of process. We REALLY want to get this part done because this weekend we would have time to prime the walls and ceilings if they are ready for us to do it. Fingers crossed we can work our tails off this weekend on this. Yes, I am sure there will be a plethora of pictures to follow after this weekends thrilling (hopeful) paint party. 

Do you like doing projects on your house?
What is your favorite house project you have done on your house?

Sheetrock is HUNG!

Our sheetrock has now been hung up in the basement! REJOICE!
Now we are onto the waiting for the guys to tape and texture the rest. It looks sooooo different down there with the sheetrock up, now we can tell what the rooms will look like. Our basement has: one closet under the stairs, two bedrooms each with a closet (one with a huge closet), a full bathroom, and a utility room/laundry room. I seriously cannot believe that they got this all hung in a day!

I believe I was told the taping/texturing will take just about a week to do. So we'll see how it goes. I now need to mop downstairs because of the sheetrock dust that is EVERYWHERE. Also now watching at Home Depot and Menards (our options in town for building type stuff) for primer to go on sale so I can just buy a 5 gallon bucket of it. Hopefully 5 gallons is enough to cover it all.

Insulating Weekend

It was an insulating weekend around the Marshall house. We spent our weekend insulating our basement, walls and ceilings (yes, we know that insulating the ceiling wasn't necessary, however, we wanted to sound protect the basement from upstairs and vice versa - so we insulated with R-30 which is roughly 10 or so inches of beauty.). The walls got r-13 except for a couple walls which got R-19 for extra insulation due to the space that they allowed. It was crazy and took quite a while, but we are happy that we did it and are jazzed for the plumbers to be coming in tomorrow to rough in our bathroom. Dakota was a champ. We bribed her with a 99% empty peanut butter jar and every couple hours we bundled up and took her for a walk around the neighborhood. Yesterday, was MUCH nicer out that today, today when I left for work my car read -4 degrees. BRING ON SPRING PLEASE!

BEFORE

Bribery at it's finest

Our truck full of insulation, sheetrock, and a bathtub/shower

He humors me and allows me to take pictures

Taking the plastic off these bundles is like opening one of those
Pillsbury dough cans where it just explodes out of the can
It was fun - seriously we enjoyed it every time
Note how far it expanded compared to Marc

Progress at it's finest

Now we can cross that off the to-do list and next up is roughing in our bathroom and then the sheetrockers will come to hang the sheetrock and then another crew comes to tape and texture the walls. THEN WE CAN PAINT! (oh beloved Mother, who is a rockstar at painting, pack your painting clothes and come on up.) Whoop Whoop. Oh and I suppose at some point we need to figure out what we are doing for doors and flooring. I think both bedrooms downstairs are getting carpet. The bathroom some type of tile or laminate (oh beloved brother, want to come tile a floor for me?! You know you want to....). And then in the main room and the hallway I am hoping for some type of a fake wood type of deal (brother don't you want to also try to do this?!). AND THEN... we can finally move all of our stuff out of the guest bedroom upstairs as well as move our stuff we have crammed into the closet under the stairs (we didn't sheetrock that part for about 12,000 reasons.). IT IS GETTING CLOSER.

Or at least we are making progress.

How was your weekend?
Did you do anything fun?

• Friday we had friends over and it was AMAZING, so much fun with friends. Shepherd's pie and pie for dessert it seriously doesn't get any better than that
• We did watch the Hurt Locker on Saturday evening which was an interesting movie for sure.
• Also my blanket I am crocheting for myself is 90% done and I AM JAZZED and already picking out my next project