Construction Day 1

Today is the first real day of construction for our home renovation.  I think we must be crazy for STARTING a huge (5 month long) renovation with a) a 5 week old boy and b) at the start of a Minnesota winter (started snowing this afternoon) but we are going through with it!

We started this process really and truly around Thanksgiving 2011 meeting with a design-build company, and I guess started actually developing architectural plans around February or so of 2011.  The process was long, made even more lengthy by our indecisiveness and by the departure of the 2 architects to a different company, but we ended up with a design and an architect that we loved!

The project will entail a COMPLETE demolition of our family room and "master" bedroom.  In exchange, we will lengthen the house, have a brand new kitchen, family room, mud room and "master suite" with a walk in closet and new bathroom.  We will also be getting a 1/2 bath downstairs to replace our closet of a 1/2 bath and a butler's pantry to transition from the more formal part of the house (dining room and living room) to the more lived in part of the house.  I am so excited about the finished product, but it will be a long journey there!

It has been stressful already.  We had to move all of our things out of our family room and bedroom and much of our kitchen.  Since I am still not supposed to lift anything more than 15 pounds, it made it tough to move our things and I definitely broke the rules several times I am sure!

Today, they came to board up our family room and bedroom and start cutting the house in half for the demo on Monday.  Here are some pictures . . .

Our "master" bedroom once we moved all of our furniture out.  Don't you love the pink carpet?

Another view of our bedroom.  The closet did not work for the two of us!

Construction site in the morning.  Backyard fence is down, port-a-potty is here! haha!

Family room with all of our stuff moved out

Construction site this afternoon, just a few more additions

Boarded up hallway to family room

We now have less than 1/2 of our original kitchen and our pantry is now in the middle of the kitchen....Obviously we will have to move the table and lamp!

Here's to 5 months of crazy living!!!

Family Visits

It is amazing how quickly this first month with Max has gone by and I feel like they will only go by more quickly.  I will eventually blog about Max's birth.  He was born on a Wednesday evening and Marc and I got to go home the following Friday.  My parents made it up for the birth and my mom was able to stay for several days afterward to help us get settled in.

Max's crib had not yet come in so as soon as we got home Marc had to make an emergency trip to Target to get a pack n play, baby monitors, sheet, etc.  Max spent his first night in his nursery, but in the crib.  I can't remember all the details of his first night, but he seemed to sleep pretty well.  The following morning the crib and dresser were delivered and we were able to get his nursery all put together.

We had lots of visitors in Max's first month.  After my mom left, Scott (Marc's twin brother), Jessica and Dean all came up and Max had his first cousin meeting.  It was SOOO nice to see them.  We just did a lot of hanging out around the house and it was fantastic to spend some good quality time together.  We miss the luxury of just being able to pop over to their house in Little Rock.

They brought a Mickey's cake (our very favorite) for baby Max and it was eaten rather quickly.  Here are some pictures from their visit.

Max getting to meet Auntie J and cousin Dean

Dean wanted to help push baby Max

On a stroll in our neighborhood

Max is already ready to get into his first Mickey's cake!

After Scott, Jessica and Dean drove back to Arkansas it was only a few days until my mom came back and my older sister came for their visit.  Mary E. (my sister) was fantastic and came up here to get Max on a schedule and help me figure things out with my new boy.  She also brought up her newest boy, Tull, who is just 5 months older than Mr. Max.  We had fun with our two boys and Mary E. helped me learn tricks on how to soothe Max and many, many other things.  She even stayed up with me when he was fussy and came to hang out with me at the 1am and 4 am feedings!  I still call her ALL the time with questions.  We had a great time with everyone and I was so thrilled to meet my newest nephew.  He looked so big compared to Max!

Our next visitors were Marc's parents who came for Thanksgiving.  We got most of our meal catered from Whole Foods (thank goodness).  It turned out really well and was much easier.  We made macaroni and cheese and pumpkin pie, but everything else we picked up and heated up!  

Max with his Thanksgiving turkey.

The vegetarian Thanksgiving meal (there was turkey, just not on my plate!)

Our most recent visitor was my mom--her third trip up since Max's birth.  I am SO grateful that my mom can come up so frequently.  There is nothing better than having your mom around! :)  While she was up she kept Max so I could go meet with my assistant program director for my 6 month review and she kept Max so Marc and I could go out to eat for our 4th wedding anniversary.  Poor mom was sick while she was here, so she walked around with a bottle of hand sanitizer and a mask and didn't get to hold Max at all!  She will get lots of time later though!

So Max had a very busy month of visitors, not including friends who have stopped by, which we are also grateful for!  

More to come later