No new pictures (yet) but some exciting news... we passed our FINAL foundation inspection today! This means that we successfully completed an entire foundation -by hand- correctly. Very exciting. Only a couple small things left to do to finish it off - seal up the vents and put down a vapor barrier (looks like a big garbage bag). Craig has made a ton of other progress with the house since we moved in 3 weeks ago. All our pipes are insulated now, the new grounding rod is in place (so no more worrying about being electrocuted while I'm drying my hair) and the entire house is actually bolted down to the foundation. I'm sure this is the most stable this house has been in the past 50 years or so. I'll upload pictures soon. We leave tomorrow for Toledo for my cousin's wedding (congrats, Ellissa!) so we'll have some time away from the mansion. I haven't been to Toledo for 9 months so I'm actually pretty excited (in addition to just being excited to have carpet under my feet:)

House Fund

This is not really related to the house, but I won $40 at lunch today when a co-worker bet me I couldn't eat all the broccoli on the salad bar in under 10min. I think I accomplished it in around 8min. This should buy us a couple shades for the house which we desperately need so that the neighbors don't have to watch me brush my teeth. This also helped me stick to my diet as I'm officially stuffed. Win-Win really, expect maybe for my co-workers in about an hour. I hear broccoli is a rich source of fiber...

No longer just a "project"

We officially moved in on Saturday after multiple trips back and forth from the apartment to the house to the storage unit to the apartment and on and on. Moving in makes this whole thing a lot more 'real' that's for sure. It's much different when you can't go home at night because you are at home! Moving out of the apartment meant that we also needed to move our boat trailer which was parked behind our building. We figured now that we have a nice big backyard, we'd just wheel it back there until we store the boat for the season. Only one minor detail stood in the way - it wouldn't fit between our house and our neighbor's via our shared driveway. I suggested we just leave the thing in our front yard, I mean our house is pretty ghetto already and it would only be for a couple weeks, but Craig was determined. He ended up cutting the bolts that connect the axle to the trailer (essentially removing the wheels that stuck out on both sides). Then, in total MacGyver fashion, he jimmied a plank under the base of the trailer and we used a hand truck to drag the tailer body into the backyard. The wheels/axle are temporarily laying on the side of the house.

Saturday night was the first night in the house. I didn't sleep much because I constantly thought I was hearing things (mice?, bats?, ghosts?). But in the next couple nights I found solutions for that (wine and/or a loud fan).

Half of the upstairs is really our 'living area' complete with area rugs, a zip-up covered clothes rack and our TV (minus cable). The kitchen is half kitchen half working space and the kitchen sink functions as both our kitchen sink and our bathroom sink - at least for now. The good news is the shower isn't bad at all -- plenty of hot water. Keeping your feet clean after you get out of the shower is another story:)

Ode to a great pair of jeans

I bought these Calvin's at Urban Outfitters my sophomore year at Michigan. At the time they were the most expensive jeans I'd ever had (I'm sure my mom 'loaned' me the money) @ around $65 and I wore then religiously over the years. They started to develop a small hole in the knee about a year ago so once we started working on the house I figured these would be the best jeans to sacrifice. And sacrifice I did. The final straw was the hole in the butt that occurred simply by stepping into the house (which is a rather large step when you don't have any stairs...) So, I gave in and threw them out during the moving process but not without documenting their battle scars first:

(RIP Calvin's 2001-2007)

Freaky!

We found a lot of random stuff while cleaning up under the house and digging, but nothing as random as these....bones! While I'm hoping they're from someone's beloved Fido from years past, it is kinda spooky.