Quick Picture Update!

So much happening after a long plateau! Very excited to share more progress pics soon!

Super Quick Huevos Rancheros!

I know this isn't that type of blog, but on this snowy day I had extra time to make a delicious breakfast and thought I'd share the "recipe". This is such an easy, tasty and satisfying breakfast!

So I don't have amounts because I just kind of wing it, so you can kind of determine how much of each thing you will need for however many eggs you'll make. In this case, I made enough for 3.

For the sauce I used:
2 Roma tomatoes
1/4 white onion
1 seeded jalapeño pepper
1 tablespoon of butter
salt and pepper to taste.

I chopped everything in my handy chopper. This thing is awesome, it saves so much time. I put the butter in a small pot, throw everything in there and cook it all down. Season with salt and pepper.

Sorry, I forgot to photograph when I chopped it, but you get the idea!

For the eggs:
3 eggs
3 corn tortillas
Veg. or corn oil to coat frying pan

I coat a frying pan with the oil, maybe 1/4 of an inch. Fry up the tortillas one by one on both sides until crispy on medium-high heat making sure the oil doesn't brown. Then I turn the heat down to low-medium and wait until the pan has cooled down some (I take it off the burner to speed this up) then fry the eggs to over-medium (but you can do your desired wellness).

Again, forgot to photograph the egg, but here's the tortilla frying. I mean it's really not complicated. 

Next, I lay the egg (salt and pepper) on top of the fried tortilla, layer sauce on top, and add slices of avocado and garnish with cilantro.

Optional- You can smear some refried beans on the tortilla before you put the egg on top. You can also add cheese to the sauce (Monterrey Jack) or add it to the top.

Here it is assembled and ready to be enjoyed!

Simple and so yummy!

-C

Windows!!

So excited we got our windows in! Just pics today...

Stairs!

We got stairs last week and a roof (pics of that to come)! I am still scared to walk down the stairs because there are no railings and I can see through them, but I managed to get up there and take some photos of the second floor.

One of my favorites in the house: the master closet! We are thinking about putting a wall in to divide the space (his and hers closets) and to add more hanging space, but the I love the openness of it the way it is.

The view from our bedroom. That house you see is our existing house and will be torn down once the new house is done. Our view will be of the backyard and woods.

Stairs(!) and foyer.

The basement also has some updates! There is some kind of foam insulation on the ground (I don't remember what it's called) I'll post pics next time.

-Cynthia

Slow And Steady Wins The Race?

So, there isn't much (visible) progress. The house is waiting for a roof and siding next. We have rough plumbing in and the beginning stages of a retaining wall in the front yard are going to happen this week. Things are going much slower than I anticipated. We have our front door in the not-yet-finished garage and it's beautiful! I can't wait for it to go up so I can take a picture for this blog. We made a couple of changes in the layout of our upstairs before it was done being framed, and we're very pleased with the outcome.

I am terrified of heights, so I haven't been on the second floor in a while and haven't photographed the progress, but here is the last photo I took up there.

This one I didn't even make it off the ladder, I was alone and too paranoid to fall and not be heard, haha. You can see the roof is up though!

This is the kitchen. I can't wait to put a table in that little nook on the right! We already have a table purchased and ready for pick up (it was on sale so we HAD to buy it!) but we asked that they hold it for us till a later date. 

Close up of the nook. The windows were framed too narrow, but they're going to change it. This is what they look like now (except the roof above is done)

This is a panoramic of the downstairs taken from the family room. It looks enormous because of the panoramic effect and because some walls are not framed yet.

This is that kitchen nook from the outside. You can really appreciate how close our existing home is to the new construction in this picture. Needless to say, I don't think we'll have any trick-or-treaters this year! 

The first day our roof trusses went up! This picture was taken from the garage/driveway side (from the back of the house)

This is the kitchen from the outside again.

And this is what our house looks like right now! The huge machine is back to work on the retaining wall out front.

We're thinking of doing this kind of stone. What do you think? 

Till next time!

-Cindy

A Quick Update!

So I haven't updated in a while. It was looking the same for a while then suddenly a ton of activity! I don't even recognize our lot.
I didn't think I was going to feel this way, but I just want to hurry up and finish! As exciting as building a house is, there's a whole lot of hurry up and wait. Right now we wait. This is how last week looked:

Then at the end of the week a crane was here putting all the trusses on the roof. This week, the framer has pretty much been covering the roof and sides. I will post more photos as soon as I get them off my phone.

The next big decision to make is what color siding to pick, if we should do clapboard or shingle. I'm leaning towards a sandy grey with clapboard fiber cement. I did sort of negotiate that I would pick the kitchen backsplash if my husband picked the exterior color. I'll be happy with anything but green! :)

-Cindy

We Have Walls!

This is probably the most exciting week so far, after the initial foundation digging. There was some time in the middle where things really stalled, but now walls are up! It seems like real progress is being made and the view from our house (behind the new house) is changing daily.

The following are some photos from the last couple of weeks or so. I'm not the best at keeping a daily log, or dates but you get an idea of the timeframe.

This window in the front is where our living room will be. 

This is the basement from the back window. 

And that's all I have! I'll try to do a post a week, and hopefully have the videos put together to post. (If we even did it the right way)

-Cynthia