First Crush

Eliana apparently has developed a crush on one of the boys in her preschool class. A few weeks back, she received an invitation to his birthday party. She toted the Transformers festooned cardstock all over the house right up until the day Optimus Prime had announced.

It was the ever insightful Mommom who first noticed that Eliana's enthusiasm seemed to be greater than usual for a birthday party. She asked Ellie if she though the boy was cute. Emphatically the reply came that he was the cutest boy in preschool.

The party was Wednesday at "Old McDonald's." Elizabeth had a chance to talk to the boy's mom at the party. It turns out the crush is requited. She said that her son tells her he and Eliana are "in love." In more worrying news, the mother of another boy at the party says that he doesn't like girls, but he talks positively about Eliana all the time. This pattern could become concerning to a father.

Today, Eliana is running around, making what I believe is a card for the birthday boy. She's been writing their names next to each other obsessively and commenting effusively about the shocking fact that they both have "E"s in their name. Oy.

It gets worse. Elizabeth reports that the wee one then said something to the effect of "Eliana and boy's name. Now for love." Then she asked her for help drawing a heart, which she spent the next 20 minutes practicing. The authoring of this post was interrupted many times to be shown her improving attempts.

Pleasant surprises about the design of our house

We put a lot of thought into the design of our house. (Elizabeth would typically call it obsessing when I would do it. She'd do something else while I pondered the importance of the position of a door, for example. Often that something else was try to get me to stop obsessing so that we could leave the house.) With a few exceptions most things worked out the way we'd hoped. For example, I had the electrician install a power outlet in the downstairs hall at light switch level. I intended to put a shelf there to set my phone on while charging. In the end, Elizabeth came up with a better solution, which was to put some furniture in our "mud hall" to collect that kind of stuff. Because I wasn't on the same page with her there, I didn't get an outlet on the right wall in the mud hall, so I can't plug my phone in at the same place that I drop my keys and wallet. Whoops.

However, there were other things we didn't plan that have worked out well. For example, as we were walking through with the electrician Elizabeth told him that we wanted one can light on its own switch above each of the window seats. I thought it was a silly idea, but the electrician said it would not cost substantially more to have it on a separate switch, so I acquiesced. Turns out, I use that light in Eliana's room as a night light. She likes it because it's bright enough to read by. I like it because the CFL can uses less power than the pretty, girly incandescent night light.

Another happy surprise is also lighting related. I've been reading to Eliana most nights before putting her to bed. We'll turn off all the lights in the living room, light the fire, and sit down to read. Normally, that'd be the time that you'd want some sort of end table lamp to give you just enough illumination to see the page. Well, I don't really like lamps and we don't have any in the living room. But we do have awesome lighting on our deck. If I turn that on, more than enough light comes in through the window to read by and provides something of a sunset effect. I like it.

The shelving unit that we bought to put into Eliana's closet was a mistake that turned into serendipity. It took up too much space in the center of the closet, i.e. where the door opened, leaving too little room to hang closets on the rods, which ended up back in the hard-to-reach corners. I'd already assembled the shelving unit at that point, so we didn't feel like we could return it. Then Elizabeth had the brilliant idea of installing the unit in the laundry room. We'd originally drawn the laundry room with enough space for cabinets on the wall opposite the washer and dryer, but hadn't planned to actually buy them until later. Well, the closet kit, which was much less expensive than cabinets, worked great in that space and provided hanging space that we (or at least I) weren't even thinking about. It also provided storage for detergent, stain remover, etc. There was even a little room left over to slide in a table for folding clothes on.

On an unrelated note, the water is starting to melt off the pond and the birds are beginning to return. After Eliana and I cleaned up after dinner, we took some bread down to feed the ducks. We also saw a Great Blue Heron, a Red-tailed Hawk, a pair of Hungarian Partridges, and some geese. It was fantastic except for the daughter forgetting to put on socks before we wandered outside into a newly fallen half foot of snow. Her cold toes required the excursion's end.

Officially in the new house

Last time Elizabeth posted on the blog, she included a picture from the bedroom of the new house. What she didn't mention is that that, February 26, was the first morning we woke up in the new house. We had been planning over a month beforehand to move into the house that weekend. We were busy enough schlepping that weekend and since that we really didn't take the time to say that we're in the house. We've been a little hesitant to post pictures since we're not completely unpacked and because there are a few more construction details to complete. Most notably, a fair bit of the siding still needs to be painted.

But the real point of this post is to say that we've been in the house two weeks and love it.

Here's what we woke up to this morning...

Here's what we woke up to this morning..., originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Here's what we woke up to this morning...

Our house is getting so close to ready to move into!

Our house is getting so close to ready to move into!, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Our house is getting so close to ready to move into!

Energy Star Certified

We decided to have our new house Energy Star certified. I had two motivations for doing it: I wanted to be able to advertise the house with some sort of green credential if we sell it and I wanted to have an independent third party directing all the various subcontractors toward building an energy efficient house. I feel like it turned out great.


Bill at Infrared USA did our verification and ensured that everybody was building things energy efficiently. Oddly enough, just the fact that we were building a home we intended to have certified seemed to make a big difference in the subs' attitudes. I'd overhear them discussing how to do something and picking a certain option because it was an Energy Star house. I'm not sure if they were required to do it that way to meet the certification, and in some cases I'm guessing it wasn't. However, that sort of green umbrella over the project is the kind of secondary effect I'd hoped to achieve by opting for the certification. Some of the credit for that effect certainly should be extended to our builder, Keith Fraser who made a point to mention the goal.


The news aspect of all of this is that today we had our final blower door test. One of the key aspects of the Energy Star certification is ensuring the house doesn't leak much air. To do that, the tester performs a blower door test with a rig that looks like this:





That rig contains a fan that turns hard enough to generate a specific amount of pressure and an anemometer to measure the amount of air moving through. From that and the volume of the house, the air changes per hour can be calculated. To meet the standard, the home needed to have 4.0 ACH or better. Our house measured over six times better than that, 0.65 ACH. I'm pleased.

The downside of having such a tight home is that we'll need to install an HRV to ensure that the home has sufficient fresh air. In the short term that hurts because it's another couple thousand dollars we'll be putting into the mechanical system of the home, but long term it means that the house will have fresh air that we're not paying to heat which should mean lower heating bills (and hopefully no cooling bills).

It has been brought to my attention...

... that I am slacking in the blog post department. My apologies. =D

The house is coming along! I am excited for all the changes that are taking place - daily it seems! Here are a few looks at the progress...

We have cabinets!!

We have Corian countertops!

We have progress on the siding!!

We have wood stairs!!

Hooray for progress!! About a month until we get to move in!!

Wood Floors...

This boy has been working so hard to help put our house together, including installing and finishing the hardwood floors. Don't they look great??

This little girl...

... starts preschool in the morning. I'm not sure I believe just how big she's gotten.

Siding Progress

We had a warm spell last week, so work began on the lap siding, which is "traditional red." Above the red, you can can see the board and batten, which is the other style that will cover parts of the house.

More House Updates

We have flooring going in!!! It's very exciting. Gavin is working on tile while Leif and Keith (our builder) are installing the hardwood floors. Keith is installing the "important" rooms (kitchen, dining, and living rooms) while Leif is working on the "less important" rooms (craft room, MK office, and den). It's fun to see the house taking shape and starting to look like a home!!

The family entrance from the garage

Boxes of tile for the master bathroom.

The master bathroom in progress.

The maple wood flooring waiting to be installed.

My craft room is getting a hardwood floor!!

So there... that's the current progress on the house. It's looking good!!

Merry Christmas from Eliana!

Happy Holidays!!

We are not sending out Christmas cards this year... Instead, "We've Moved" cards will be going out around the end of February when we move into our new house! So don't feel left out if you haven't received a card from us this year. You're in good company! If we had sent out cards, though, here's the picture we took for them. Enjoy! =D

The siding is going up!

Color in the house!!

Those of you who have been to our house in Belgrade probably know that there was no color in it. None. Veeeerrrry beige. Leif didn't want me to paint in that house, because it was never "our" home, it was always just a temporary (for 8 years!) until we were able to move to Bozeman. This new house is, apparently, different, though, because Leif has encouraged me to use some color! It's been a new process for me and one I have thoroughly enjoyed, especially because I didn't have to do the painting!! Here are some views as the color goes on...

The base wall color is "Only Natural" - a kind of light beige. The ceiling color is "Marshmallow" - which is not white, but kind of looks like it in contrast to the beige. =D

The first accent wall you come to is painted with "Hot Stone" - my favorite color! I love how rich and warm it is without being too dark! This color is going to go in our den, too.

The darkest color is "Grey Earth" or something like that. It's in the dining room, just on the pop out. I think it will nicely frame the view of the Bridgers, and it adds some character in the room. This color will also go in Leif's office on one wall.

Ellie's room has the most subtle accent, a light pink called "Shangri La" that we picked to tie into the curtains and bedspread Robert is making for Eliana's room. This color is also going in the guest room and in my Mary Kay office.

The boldest accent is in our bedroom. I went with a color called "Bolero" - and I love it! It's very close to the color that the outside of the house will be, and it goes very nicely with our bedding and our dark bedroom furniture.

So there you have the progress... COLOR!! It's starting to look like a real house!

10 Years!!

It's hard to believe, but we've been married for 10 years now. A decade! It also means that we've had this blog for 5 years now, as our very first blog post was about our 5th anniversary! A lot has gone on in the past 5 years... We had Eliana, I started (and then stopped a few years later) teaching scrapbooking classes, I started my own business with Mary Kay, Leif started doing freelance photography, Leif finished his master's degree, we designed and started building our own home, we changed churches, we moved to Bozeman, I started playing keyboard and singing for the worship team at our church, I started teaching Sunday school, Leif started skate skiing, We gained some new close friends as others moved away, and we have fallen more in love! All in all, it has been a good 10 years, and I am excited to see what the next 10... 20... 30... bring!

Movin' on back....

Well, our move-in date has been moved back again. So, now it looks like we'll be able to move into the house around the end of February. The house is coming along, though, and that's neat to see. Here are some pictures of the progress - we have sheet rock!

What we're up to this weekend...

Yes, moving.

Our house isn't done yet, but we're moving into an apartment for a couple months so the other people can live in this house.

Just thought it might be time for a blog update!!

C-O-K-E

When we picked Eliana up from gymmnastics today she said she was thirsty. I didn't have a drink for her, so Mom asked is Ellie could have some C-O-K-E. Ellie said, "Yeah, Mommy, can I have some C-O-K-E?" We asked if she even knew what that spelled. "I think it spells pop." She's pretty sharp, that little girl!

No Spring Chicken...

My mom is here to visit. This morning Eliana went down and woke my mom up. As my mom was getting out of bed, Eliana said, "Mommom, are you an old lady? You're walking like this... (hobbles all hunched over). You need a cane."

Then later this afternoon Eliana was talking about being 16 years old. My mom said, "You know what, Eliana? I am sixteen PLUS forty." Ellie's reply? "Wow. You're older than a dead dog."

Anyone else want to come for a visit and get your self esteem shot down??