Sorry for the absence!

I guess you could figure that a lot must be happening since I'm not posting anything. Well, I haven't exactly been sitting around with nothing to do, but with a few free minutes and some urging by Heidi, here's an update for whomever may still be paying attention.

Where should we start? We probably have to go way back before Thanksgiving... At that time, we were just starting to think about putting in the floors. I had a little help. In addition to Maddie, Rob came and showed me how to install the wood floors. As long as you had the right tools, it's not that difficult of a task.

While the floors were being installed, Heidi was staining the main floor wood work. Mom helped her out one weekend, but it was still a monster task that Heidi did without a whole lot of assistance. I think she might be getting tired of "my" project. :)

That's not the best photo, but by the time I got around to taking it, that was all that was left being displayed. We had pretty much the whole garage full of doors at one point as well as a majority of the stair parts. Again, it was a big job.

I also installed a laminate tile floor on the main floor. It's the same stuff that was in the laundry room that I showed earlier.

Once the wood floors were in, the focus could shift to the kitchen cabinets...but before we start those, we had to get ready for carpet.

So the trim around the stairs had to go on as well as all the base moulding wherever carpet was going to be installed.

The carpet changed everything! We could all finally walk around without shoes on. Maddie was so giddy she started making a "carpet angel". The older two quickly joined in.

Back to the cabinets! I promised Rob he would be plastered all over the internet. So here he is! Internet take notice! :) He brought along fellow handyman Paul and the two of them have made some terrific progress.

And here is the nearly finished kitchen with the installed countertop and appliances. Complete with a shot of the computer writing this blog post.

While all of this was going on, the electrical was being finished. I can't say how thankful I am for Dad to fill in the gaps while my actual electrician Gene was struggling with some health issues. And to top it all off, we passed our electrical inspection this afternoon!

With the electrical inspection over, Thursday is the next big day. We will have our remaining inspections that afternoon. If we pass all of those, we will be issued a "Certificate of Occupancy" meaning we can finally make this a home!

Goodbye old house...

Last Friday we closed on the sale of our house in Dodge Center. Last Tuesday we made one last trip and cleaned out the last of the remaining stuff/junk. There were lots of emotions from everyone. Maddie was, well, clueless and relatively happy until she got hungry. I think Libby was very unsure of the situation and that exhibited itself in misbehavior. While goofing around with Libby, Martin was a little more introspective and obviously more aware of what was going on. There was even some sniffling and tears about 5 miles down the road as reality set in.

We closed on the purchase of that house on Dec 3, 2004. In ten years, the population in that house almost tripled. Although we leave the house behind, the memories will come with us.

We exist!

...well at least according to the post office. So while we always knew our address, we now have a mailbox. All our mail is supposed to be forwarded there starting sometime next week. With that I think we can say officially that our new address is:

The Paulsen Family
9145 Dalton Court

Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076

Grandma and Grandpa Woller & Ginger showed up to help this weekend. They helped finish the painting, install the steps, install all the handles & levers on the windows (Grandpa & Martin enjoyed that task), and they helped us sweep and vacuum the whole house. That was overdue!

Other notable accomplishments for the week: (1) The kitchen cabinets arrived. (2) The finish work continued. (3) The electrical work continued. (4) The first of the flooring appeared in the laundry room, and (5) The final HVAC installation has begun.

Now for the pictures:

That's a lot of cabinets!

The casing is around the windows and doors. The laundry room has flooring!

Still pink... but the woodwork helps?

My girls on the steps.

I'm not ready for this...

It's a darn good thing that I told Heidi we would be in before Christmas and not before "winter". Argh... I guess I should be thankful we didn't get the forecasted 12".

Painting Days 2 through 8

Heidi and I kept painting over the course of the week. We wanted to get as many colors put away as possible, so we completed all the upstairs bedrooms at night. There were some late nights, but we did get everything done that we hoped. Friday was a busy night as we primed the whole main floor of the house in just a few hours. We wanted to leave nothing but painting for the Saturday "help".

However, by the time Saturday came, our painting help sort of unraveled. John showed up as did my mom, but due to a variety of circumstances, that was all the additional help we were going to see. So we had to improvise. We decided to use the sprayer that was previously used for priming for the actual wall paint. It worked great! And we made real good time. Maddie also cooperated so we had Heidi for the whole day. We completed the office and painted with the light brown (living room, dining room, kitchen, hallways, stairway...) until we ran out. We got more done than we could have imagined.

Heidi told me she would finish up whatever's left. Hooray! I'm done painting!

After lunch we took a quick break and walked to the neighboring lot to take a look at the river. (For a mere $239,000 it can be all yours!)

After we had all taken a look, Martin and Libby decided they weren't done and stood there a little longer either admiring the panoramic view or the train running in the valley below. For once, I wasn't too slow with the camera.

I had mentioned that Mom was helping paint. Well, Dad was busy accomplishing something else... We are now lit up. Those aren't just the temporary lights illuminating the windows anymore!

Mom & Dad didn't come alone either. Rob was there, too, setting doors upstairs. I guess I never went upstairs with the camera, so those pictures will have to wait.

Painting - Day 1

I don't think I need to write a lot of words for this one as the pictures speak for themselves...

The goal was to finish the upstairs, and that didn't quite happen. Heidi and I have been working over the week to finish it up. We're going to get close. So there's still plenty of stuff to do for week 2 if you're still interested in showing up!

We had a good group of people helping. So many thanks go out to (in order of appearance, I think):

-Travis

-Grandpa & Grandma Paulsen

-Neil, Marianne, Kati & Anna

-Denice, Rylee, Olivia, Claire & Bridger

No more walking through walls

Finally, what has been anticipated for weeks, has been accomplished. It seems like forever ago when I hauled all the drywall into the house before the last of the windows was put into place. Now those piles and stacks of drywall are no more. In a matter of three days those piles disappeared and the walls closed up.

Stairs (in case you couldn't figure it out)

Kitchen

Living Room

Family Room

Maddie's Room w/ built-in
shelves over the stairs

Master Suite

Over those same three days, Heidi and I spent time in Mankato purchasing, staining and lacquering the interior trim. Fortunately we had a lot of help. Grandma Woller watched the kids on Thursday and Friday. Grandpa Woller helped stain. Grandma and Grandpa Paulsen helped on and off Thursday through Saturday including some late night staining after the kids were in bed. And on Saturday Luke showed up to help again while we all overwhelmed Grandma with 6 kids to watch. Staining was the far easier task.

I regret not having taken any pictures of any of the staining, but there will be another opportunity. We did get a majority of it done, but there is more to do.

The drywall crew is there taping and mudding right now and I would say there is a chance they finish this week. So, for those that are looking for something to do over the next couple of weekends, there will be an opportunity to help paint. Let us know if you're interested!