Twin Blessings for 2009

It was stunning enough to see that we were having a baby. After six frustrating months, it had finally happened. I came home from work and found that Erin had left a pregnancy test on top of the toilet tank. No need to analyze plusses and minuses or multiple lines; this was the digital variety, simply reading "Pregnant."

I walked out of the bathroom, trying to make sense of this in my mind. I found Erin sitting on the bed, grinning like the Cheshire cat. Any doubts or questions I had in my mind were immediately dispelled: we were having a baby!

In the following weeks, the pregnancy was confirmed by a series of home tests leading up to our first doctor's visit. Due to a very early miscarriage several months earlier, the doctor decided to do an ultrasound that day. We saw the image to the right...a healthy baby. We could even see the little heart flickering away. Excitement!

Several weeks later, we made a return visit for a more complete medical history and enough bloodwork to key Dracula satiated for the better part of a year. During the visit, a different doctor (our practice has seven doctors, and we cycle through them during each visit) found the heartbeat, and let us listen to it over the speakers. The fast "whooshing" of the heartbeat brought smiles to our faces, and made the whole experience even a little more real.

Two weeks later, we returned yet again; this time for an ultrasound to go along with some of the bloodwork to test for a number of potential genetic issues (sidenote: all clear!). This time, we met with an ultrasound technician, using the large machine instead of the portable unit that we had at the first visit. As the image was being displayed on the large flat panel monitor on the wall, the technician asked if we had gone through an ultrasound yet.

"Yes, we had one at about seven and half weeks," Erin replied.

Without skipping a beat or revealing much, the tech then asked, "Did you see anything interesting?"

If either of us gave the question any thought, it was that she was asking if there had been any problems. Probably just a routine question.

"No," Erin said. "Everything was fine."

Around this time, I began to get confused by the images I was seeing. The image seemed to be repeating itself as it moved back and forth. My neurons began firing, though clearly at a substandard level. The ultrasound tech asked again, "Nothing interesting at all?"

"Uh...are there two of them?" was all I could get out. I looked from the monitor to Erin, whose eyes widened at the realization of what was happening.

We both turned to the ultrasound technician, and saw she was smiling. "You're having twins!"

My jaw hit the floor. I leaned forward, covering my mouth with my hand and breathing heavily. Erin was stunned; smiling and tearing up at the same time. She put her hand on my head, and I began to laugh. "Oh my God!"

After a moment, the tech left the room on the pretense of looking up some piece of information. I think she just wanted to give us a minute to get our thoughts together before continuing the ultrasound.

Unable to think of anything else to say, I told Erin that I loved her. I then declared, "We are not giving them rhyming names."

House Details and Other Fun Stuff

We went to the house on Sunday, and saw lots of progress. About all that is left to complete is a new front door, the appliances, and repainting. And cleaning...a whole lot of cleaning.

By this point, we've shown the layout enough here, we figured we'd take some pictures of the detail work in the house to give a better idea of how things will look. Plus, I figure that if we had to spend hours and hours picking this stuff out at the home studio, we should get at least one opportunity to point it all out.

Here goes:

This is the chandelier that will be hanging over empty space in the dining room for quite some time. I'm sure the carpet will be beautifully lit.



This light fixture is in a handful of places throughout the house. I think they look cool.



This is what the cabinets and countertops look like in the kitchen.



Instead of the standard six panel interior doors, we went with four panel doors instead.



There are ceiling fans scattered throughout the house...they all look like this.



I took this picture to show the spotlights at the top. They point to area above the fireplace. Now we just need some piece of art to actually show off. Until then, the tan-ish wall will be well illuminated.



In the master bathroom, these are the lights above the mirror, the faucets, and the tub & shower.







These are the exterior lights on the garage.



Everybody gets the same mailbox. This is ours.



And it looks like someone knew I was coming, and left me a present. That's the type of welcome to the neighborhood that I like!




The other piece of fun news is about our soon-to-be dog. The breeder was planning two litters, and both were born two weeks ago on April 8th. One of these 18 bundles of joy will be our puppy in a few weeks. We'll be selecting our pup in 2 weeks, and we should get to bring him home about 4 weeks after that.






Excitement abounds...we'll keep you all posted.

It's a real house!

Finally.

These pictures are from Easter Sunday, when we were surprised to find the driveway completed, the siding and stone work finished, and a lot more work inside done. For the first time, we could see the house taking shape.

On to the pics:

Here are the exterior shots. This is pretty much what the house is going to look like...though we will ideally have grass in the yard. No guarantees though.





This is a shot of the backyard mud puddle, and the surrounding area. The big grassy area is common space, which can't be built on. This gives us some more space, which is nice.



Here is the kitchen. Cabinets...woo! You can see where the recessed can lights will be going.





Living room. The mantle is built around the fireplace now, which is nice. The hole in the ceiling above the fireplace is where a pair of small spotlights will go. Now we just have to find something worth showing off.




This is the staircase (duh)...up until now, we haven't had the railing in.


This is our room...I had at least two apartments in my life that were smaller than this room.




This is the loft area on the second floor.




This is one of the other bedrooms. They all kinda look the same right now.


That's what we've got for now. We'll be making a return trip in two weeks, once we get back from Detroit. We will undoubtedly post more pictures at that point.

More Home Pics

OK, so we're slow at uploading. Anyhow...here are a few pictures from two weeks ago. Hooray for siding!

By tomorrow there will be a new set of pictures that will go up more quickly...highlights will include drywall, cabinets, and doors. I think.

Anyhow, here goes...

Exterior shots:





Inside...no walls yet at this point. I'm pleased to report that there are in fact walls now. I raised quite a ruckus at the idea of a wall-less house.

This is the guest bedroom. I was hoping it would be windowless to promote a prison feeling. Alas, you will have light. Bah.



This is the kitchen, as seen from the living room. The odd structure in the room is the island.



Living room and fireplace (and lots of drywall).


A few shots up the upper floors:




That's it for now. Lots more tomorrow.

On a side note...we got our closing letter today. Looks like D-Day is Friday, May 16th. So, we're under two months at this point!

New Home Excitement

** Warning in advance: There are a crap ton of pictures here...you may be best served giving this a minute to load before you start scrolling, lest your browser lock up. **

On Saturday, January 19th, Erin and I signed the purchase agreement to start building our new house. During the process of selecting our lot, we found that there was a house under construction that the previous buyers backed out of. Since this house had the same framing options that we already wanted, we decided to take it and save ourselves several months.

What follows here is a visual tour. It starts with the front of the community and progresses into our neighborhood. There are pictures of the model home, so you can get an idea of what the interior will look like, as well as a few shots of the framed home. Commentary abounds.

Woo.

This is the entrance to Regent Park, which is the larger development in which our neighborhood is situated.





This is golf course the lies right next to our neighborhood. It looks slightly more impressive in the spring and summer when the Bermuda grass is actually green.



This is the entrance to Madison Green, which is our neighborhood. There are 6 or 7 different builders in the Regent Park development, each with its own neighborhood.





On to the house. To begin, here is the floorplan for the house:


Now, here are some pictures of the model. It's worth noting that the model has something like $95000 worth of upgrades and options added in. We will not. So where you see certain things like hardwood floors and granite countertops and wrought iron stair railings and custom paint jobs, recognize that it won't be in our house. It is also unlikely that our place will be this well-decorated. These pictures do, however, give you a good idea of the space and layout.

This is the living room, which is directly to the right when you enter the front door:


This is the dining room, which is directly to the left when you enter the front door. It's also the early favorite for "Last Room to Actually Get a Piece of Furniture Placed In It." The over/under currently stands at June, 2013.



Walking forward from those rooms, we pass the staircase on the right (please note that in the absence of a dozen beers, the staircase will likely appear less blurry. This, of course, means that Chandler will always see the staircase in this manner):


Coming through the entryway, the kitchen sits on left, along with a "breakfast nook." There are a few other upgrades here that we passed on, like the double ovens and the extended cabinets (ours will end where the oven is).







Standing in the kitchen, you can look out into the family room.







Past the family room would ostensibly be a small den/office area. However, we've upgraded it into an actual bedroom, with a bathroom right next to it.





That's the first floor. On the second floor, after clearing the stairs, you are immediately in a loft area, which functions as another family room/child play room.



On the right are the double doors leading to the master bedroom.






Master Bath:



Walk in closet that is the same size as the bedroom I had in my senior year apartment with Nick and Chandler. Like that bedroom, the closet is accessible from the bathroom. God, that apartment sucked. What in the world made us pay that rent?



Also off the loft is another bedroom.



Walking through the loft, we come to a bathroom on the left (I'll spare you the pictures...it's a pretty standard bathroom). Past that is a short hallway with two bedrooms and a laundry room in between (hoorah for second floor laundry!).






So that's the basic layout of the house. As I mentioned earlier, the house that we've selected has already been framed. This is what it looks like currently:





Behind our house is a common area that's used as a storm drainage area. All of the rain and snow from the last few days let us see how the water flow works. It was nice to see that it doesn't collect in a swamp in our backyard. Anyhow, it's quite nice to not have someone right there.



The property here goes back to the top of the black silt fence. Beyond that is the common space.



It's a good sized yard, without being overly huge. When lawn mowing is a 10 month activity here, I didn't want an acre to deal with.

So, that's what we have here. Next step is going to the home studio to pick out our options a week from Wednesday. After that's finalized, building resumes. As things happen, more pictures will be taken. I promise, however, that I will never post this many again.