_

Click here to view these pictures larger

Here's a sampling of what my day was like yesterday:
* Of course I work with idiots (that's an everyday thing)
* Walk outside in the morning to see that one of my boat trailer tires blew out...just blew out while sitting in the driveway
* Try to remove the lugnuts (oh nice, my crobar is the wrong size)
* Go to a tire store and they let me use their 4-way crobar, along with a different size lugnut socket
* Go home, start loosening the lugnuts, only to find that one of them is a locking lugnut, for which I do not have the socket key
* Go to an auto parts store, and the guy sells me something he "thinks" may work to get off the locking lugnut.
* Does NOT work, so I take it back to the parts store and get my money back
* Drive back to tire store...They give me a "Gorilla Lock Socket" and tell me to jam it in there as hard as I can with a hammer
* Go home, and proceed to hammer the crap out of it into the locking lugnut.​.​.​SUCCESS (First one of the day)
* I loosen all the nuts, get out my Tahoe car jack, and jack up the trailer
* While the Trailer is jacked up, I remove the nuts and then the tire...Sweet finally got the tire off
* Not 30 seconds after removing the tire, I hear a creeking noise (like something out of a horror movie)​.​.​.​BAMMMM!​!​!​ The jack bends in half and the trailer (boat and all) come crashing down onto the driveway.
* Great, now I have a removed tire, a "jacked up" jack, and my boat trailer has crashed to the ground, and the trailer is connected to the tow hitch of my Tahoe, which now cannot be removed because of the weird angle the trailer is laying at. I can't drive anywhere
* Wife gets home...Sweet, now I have a car I can use.
* Take the tire over to the Tire shop, buy a new one, and leave (takes roughly an hour)
* Get in fight with the wife because my day has been a complete disaster and I take it out on her
* Drop her off at home, then go back to the parts store and buy a floor jack
* Pick up the new tire and go home
* I whip out my new 2 ton floor jack, put it under the trailer and start cranking.
* Gets up about 3 inches and I hear that infamous creeking noise again...Also the little wheels on the jack start giving out...BAMMMM!! The trailer falls to the ground again, increasing the size of the hole I put in it the first time it crashed to the ground
* I pack the jack back up, drive back to the parts store, return it, and get a bigass 3-ton floor jack (The kind you see in Auto shops)
* Get home, whip out my 2nd new Floor jack, and this thing is a beast!
* Put it under the trailer, jack it up...SUCCESS. Put the new tire on...SUCCESS!!
* Then when I thought the worst was done for the day, I'm drinking wine on the couch. moved a little to my right, caught the bottom of the glass on a pillow.​.​.​BAMMM.​.​.​FULL glass of wine spills on me, the couch cusions and the pillow. My entire left side is covered in red wine (My shirt, my arm, my shorts, and even my freakin boxers). The cusions are drenched.
* I was done drinking wine for the night for fear of something else happening. I stayed on the couch, arms crossed, watching tv.

THE END

On Monday 9/15/2008 we closed on our very first home. It was a long and stressful process to build our first home but in the end we think it was worth it. LEARNED A LOT. Tom says he is going to write a book...we'll see. :)

As soon as we signed the papers, Tom had to get on a flight to Minneapolis so I was all alone. Of course as soon as I got off of work I called my friend Natalie and we celebrated the new house.

This past week we have done nothing but paint. 2700 sq ft is a lot of painting. I guess we were a little over zealous, but in the end it will be all worth it.

Attached are the pictures of the completed house, I took these the day we closed. Once we are done painting and all moved in (The movers come this Friday) I will post more.

Hope to see a couple of you out here to see the house in person! We have plenty of room!!!!

Miss and love you all.
Gina & Tom (The happy, tired, sore but still excited new home owners)

Well it's pretty exciting right now. The house is looking amazing, walls painted, window sills, base boards, interior doors and cabinets are in. We also now are very aware of how large our front yard is. Tom is not looking forward to keeping it watered and mowed. The interior photos are pretty boring right now but the outside looks amazing.

The constuction project manager has a close date mid September. Tom and I will have 2 weeks to paint the whole inside of the house...we will be calling in a lot of favors and owing many of our dear friends plenty of food and booze, but I know it will be perfect.

Can't wait for everyone to come out and see it.

Construction is moving fast. Framing is complete, sheet rock is up, windows are in and now they are working on the roof. Tom and I had a chance to walk through the house and stand in our rooms. Granted there are no interior walls yet but it was still pretty amazing to be standing in our home for the first time.

Here are some pictures of of the house going up. Enjoy :)

Paperwork is done, options are finalized, permits have been acquired, and they have broke ground!!!

The foundation frame is up, and they have brought in tons of dirt to level everything out. Next step will be to lay out plumbing and electrical throughout and then the foundation can be poured. We are hoping this is done within the next 2-3 weeks so the framing can go up by the end of June.

Here are some pictures...as more gets done we will post!

And one more little tid bit, we got the unexpected news that the house will not be done October 1st but....September 1st!!! One less month for me to obsess and one less month for us to get everything in order before we move in!!!

So this past weekend Tom & I went to the Design Studio and picked out all the options for the house. From the outside Brick to the Kitchen Cabinets. Here are a couple of pictures of the options we chose. They should be breaking ground within the next couple of weeks, will post pictures as soon as they do.