Winter Wonderland

Looks kind of pretty but I can't wait for green leaves and grass and sunny skies!!!

Christmas Program

This year was Mia's first Christmas program at church. (she in the middle of the picture) She did really well and enjoyed being the center of attention of all those people. Isabelle had her program later that day and in a rush to get out of the house I forgot my camera! Well, she was an Angel that told the shepherds about the birth of Jesus.

Basketball

Isabelle did another winter season of basketball and will be starting spring basketball again next week. So, we will be driving her to Fargo once a week for practice and every Saturday for games. So it will be very time consuming and expensive! She is still loving it and striving to get better with every game. After spring season is over, Isabelle will be starting on the junior basketball team at Northern Cass in the Fall. She will be playing with girls that have not gotten to play basketball for two years like she has, so we are really hoping she has a little edge on them.

Time to Move

So December 12th was the closing day on our house in town and we had to be out by then so the new owners could move in. Kent and I got the opportunity to meet the current owners of the home. The guy was and Iraq Veteran and came home about a year ago. His wife was pregnant and due in a few weeks. They were going to be turning Isabelle's room into a blue baby's room for their new baby boy. It was nice for us to know that a family was moving into our house and was not going to be rented out, which is common in our neighborhood. Being the vocal person I am and saying what is on my mind, I told the current owner: "We love this house, please take good care of it and water the trees on the boulevard." He said that he would. No matter who moves in there, I will never think that they will love and appreciate the house as much as we did.

Alicia and Mia in the Living room right before bed.

After we closed on the house we were homeless in a way. At this time, the plumbing was not done in the other house so we bunked with our friends Chris and Michelle for two days where TC their little puppy loved to sleep with Mia. Then we stayed in a hotel with my parents for another two days while Kent and my dad worked to get the plumbing hooked up. By Saturday December 15th we has running water and a functioning bathroom in the house. PHEW! So we were only homeless for four days.

Master Suite

This is the north side addition of the house. Kent and I are so excited to have our own bathroom and not have to share sinks with eachother!

Mia crawling on the insulation

Where Mia is standing will be the Bathroom with a tub/shower, two sinks and a toilet. The corner to the right will be where the walk in closet is located.

The doorway covered in plastic is a door from the bedroom on the main floor into the bathroom. Into the master suite. It will come in handy for getting to Mia or any other little one that comes along quicker than going around from the living room. The paneled door is the main entrance into the bedroom from the living room.The door into the master suite. As you can see, it was a window because of the curtains that are still hanging there.

Main Floor Bathroom

This was the one and only bathroom in the whole house. There was a tub, sink and toilet in that tiny space. We took the claw foot tub out of there, brought it upstairs (now THAT was heavy!!!) into the new bathroom. We turned this bathroom into a half bath with just a sink and toilet and it works better that way.

Kent working hard.

Kitchen (Brace Yourself)

Okay, these pictures are SCARY. This is our kitchen and the last picture is where we are at right now. We have things in Rubbermaid totes and in our corner curio cabinets right now. I am able to cook supper but it involves a lot of searching and wandering into the dining room.

Kitchen during demo - aren't the counters lovely?

Opening to the breakfast nook addition

Yes, that is a toilet sitting in the kitchen...

Current kitchen....at least it kind-of looks like a kitchen.

Electrical Lines

Since we were redoing the electrical we thought we would go all the way. There were overhead wires running all over the place in the yard. For appearance and safety, Kent dug trenches in the ground for the electrician to lay the wires. Now we have no over head wires and plenty of room to fly a kite!

Additions

These pictures were taken at the beginning of November.

initial hole for south side addition foundation.Initial hole for the south side addition
West side of the house
South side of the house. The huge tree partially covering the house in this photo is officially the second largest silver maple in our state!
What a mess!

Basement

After we removed everything from the basement Nelson Construction came to put in a new basement floor, sump pump, lift station and brace the walls

Conveyor belt that took the chunks of basement floor out of the basement.
Initial plumbing for sump pump, lift station, washer and bathroom.

Severson Farm

Here are some pictures of our new home. These pictures were taken in Early October before any work was started on it. The stats are as follows: 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1200 square feet. The property is just under 10 acres and we have several outbuildings and a barn. The house was built in 1938 by the sole owner who recently passed away. The house has been vacant since around 2000. The family was very relieved to hear that their childhood home was going to be remodeled and not torn down. There would be no way that we would have torn this house down. It is completely solid. The man who built this house took pride in his work and didn't skimp on anything. The house is built out of cedar wood, which I guess is one of the best woods for building. I guess that the Cypress wood that Noah built the Ark out of is actually a form of Cedar so I guess if Cedar is good enough of God, it's good enough for us!

Back/west side of the house
Front/east side of the house
Barn, Quonset, and grain bins. Looking south
Garage and chicken house facing west.

When all is said and done there will be two new additions. One on the south side off the kitchen and it will be a breakfast nook and crawl space for storage. One on the north side and that will be a master bedroom, full bathroom and walk-in closet and the basement area of the addition will be a family room. The basement has been braced, the floor replaced along with new drain tile, sump pump, lift station and egress window. There will be a .75 bathroom down there with a laundry area, bedroom, sewing room and playroom/workout room. We have a new furnace and duct work, new plumbing, new electrical. Still to come is new shingles, siding and windows. We turned the smallest room on the upper floor into a bathroom and there are still two bedrooms upstairs for the girls. The main floor bathroom was turned into a half bath and the Kitchen has been gutted and will have all new stuff in it. So there isn't much that isn't going to be updated....Fun times ahead for us!

1938 Lennox Furnace 0 Homeowners 1

Day one working on the Farm was DEMO DAY. We had to get everything out of the basement so the contractor could brace the walls and replace the floor. Some things were easier to get out than others. The wood shelves and lone shower were easy and fun. I took a sledge hammer and started swinging. The furnace was another story...

This thing was HUGE. It was seriously almost the size of a compact car.
To give you an idea of how huge this thing is, Kent is 5'10". This is Kent Starting to take the top off.
I was really having fun with the hammer that day!
When we finally got the skirting off there was about 900 pounds of cast iron "stuff" in there.
Kent posing before showing the wooden coal bin whose boss. The poor quality of the picture is from the huge amount of dust in the air. We wore masks the next day.