The Flying Singer Sisters

Well I guess we're probably not ready to take our act on the road but here are some funny videos I took at gymnastics last weekend.

Emily is in the blue (with teacher) and Ellery is in the pink. 

Ellery helping her sister get a leg up.  Or both.

Remember a few posts ago Emily wasn't so graceful with the somersaults??  Well, she's been working hard and her form is much much better!

What Would You Do??

In one of my less than brilliant moments I asked the girls what color they wanted to paint their new rooms.   So now for the last few months that is all they talk about.  The various colors and the fact that they want to help paint.  I'm ok with them helping since this will be the only time the room doesn't have carpeting down so hopefully they can't make too much of a mess, but after hearing all their color choices I think we'll just need to stick with an accent wall.  Some of the color options thrown out there have been orange, hot pink, rainbow stripes, silver, purple.  I'm ok with most, but some are a little random.  Hello.....rainbow...really??

Here are Emily's possible choices.  When we finally picked out colors her main vote was for "Sexy Pink"  Um....luckily she changed her mind to a princess themed pink.

Ellery finally agreed to silver sparkles which means I may be able to paint it the same silver grey as the rest of the house but I found a sparkle clear coat at Benjamin Moore that I think we'll apply over the top. 

Now I'm wishing i didn't open my big mouth and ask them for their opinions.  Andy thinks I should still paint it whatever we want and cut the girls out of the decision, but I know that could be a recipe for disaster as they have been talking about it for weeks.  I'm sure this is typical of almost 4 year olds but if you tell them something once they NEVER forget it.  Ever. 

Updated photos of the master bath

Doors are going in throughout the house. Now we need to figure out if we should paint them white or do something a little different.  I'm thinking we may use the same dark olive color that we used at our Multnomah house, but not sure just yet.

This entire weekend Andy and I scoured the city looking for our cabinets and counter top options.  I think we've finalized our options.  We ordered chocolate colored oak cabinets for the kitchen and this weekend I fell in love with a solid white square edge quartz.  It is perfect for my modern feel.  I'm not sure that is what I'll end up with just yet, but it's my front runner right now.

We also ordered all the flooring for the house.  Red oak with a dark maple stain, grey carpet, and some fun floors for the bathrooms.  We're taking some risks and I think it is going to be a lot of fun.  I can't wait to see the rest of the house come together. 

They are Here, They are Here, They are Here!!!

The decision of which garage door to choose has been a difficult one.  It seems like it would be simple, but we realized that the garage door would set the tone for the rest of the house since it's what you see when you drive up.  Andy and I both fell in love with the modern glass and aluminum doors but they were way over our budget.  However...we bought them anyway.  AND THEY ARE HERE!!  They are soooo pretty.  Now I'm sad that we've fenced in the house because you can't even seem them from the road.  I want to show these babies off!  The best part is that when you are inside the garage there is so much light because of the glass.  It will be so nice to get in and out of the car without the dim garage light we typically have.

Don't mind the construction debris....

January House Progress

Lots of things have happened since the last house update.  I've got a month or so worth of house progress but I'm also going to give some Before and During photos to keep track of the progress.  The sweet little country house is no longer.  We've made a huge crazy mess of it but the end result will be great. 

Here's a view of the framed up house.  I'm standing just inside the front door looking at the new addition.  Right about where the light on the wall is positioned is where the old house ended.

See the white eves...where the unpainted wood ones start is where we added on. 

Sheetrock has been delivered and the insulation has been added.

Here's a view of what blow in in insulation looks like.  The put up a cheese cloth type fabric around the framing, poke a hole in it, then blow in the insulation.  Kind of cool.  It's definitely not like the old pink stuff that looks good enough to eat until you realize it's itchy and scratch and probably toxic.

Before -  kitchen

During - View of the kitchen window.

Before - family room

Before- fireplace

During - Fireplace

During - View of the family room.  This is part of the original house. 

Emily demonstrating how nice it is to run circles in the dining room

Loooong hallway! 

Before - basement

During - Basement.  We did minimal work down here, but of course had to update  the electrical, plumbing, and patch a bunch of holes left from removing the radiant heat and gas boiler system. 

Ellery's future bedroom.

Emily's future room

We've started fencing in the whole property

Now you can't see the house at all from the road.

Standing in the family room looking at the kitchen

View from the house.  I can't wait to enjoy many more of these!

Before - end of house and carport

During - no more carport now there is a garage at a 90 degree angle

Next up on the project list is to get the house sided, install the awesome fancy garage doors, install interior doors, and start the finish/trim work.  That will take a while but as soon as the trim is finished it's painting time and then comes the fun stuff like flooring, cabinets, and all the stuff I care about.  Whoooo hooo!

House Update - End of December

Here's some updated photos of the house.  It's all closed in for the winter with plywood and roofing, but it's harder to tell what is changing from day to day.  The most exciting thing was being able to enter the front door and walk through the entire house.  Up until recently you could go in the front door and see the existing house and then go in the garage to see the new part.  Now they are one cohesive unit.  This week the plumbers, electricians, and the HVAC people have been wrapping up their work.  Next up is insulation and sheet rock...then we will really see the progress.  Unfortunately progress equals $$$.  boo.

We are also trying to take a different design direction with this house than what we did the last time we built.  Our house in Multnomah village was a Craftsman design.  We tried to keep everything consistent with what you would find in a craftsman style home.  This house is a ranch style home that up until we got our hands on it, it was more country than anything.  I don't want to add a bunch of craftsman style things or things that would look out of place so we've been looking around for inspiration.  While driving around Portland we started to see some updated ranch homes that were a little more modern.  Then someone asked us what we were doing for garage doors since they are the first thing you'll see as you drive in.  We realized we needed to do something unique.  All the doors out there seem to be carriage type which we love but it felt a little odd with our design.  Then Andy and I both came to the realization that the aluminium and glass modern doors would be so cool.  They are 2x time garage door budget but after a lot of thinking we realized that it's what we need to do.  It will set the house apart from others from a resale perspective (not moving...but always have to be conscious of that!!), we love the look of the door, and this will let me have my "MODERN RUSTIC" style home.  I've been saying all along I want modern rustic which means wood and metal.  Whoo hoo!  So now that those babies are ordered we've been trying to figure out what we should do for siding of the home.  We have all that wood that was milled on site and just today found out we could also mill some boards to be used horizontally.  So I think we'll have a combo of raw wood and painted batten board.  We still have some time to decide, but that is where our heads are at....for now.

View from the living room

Future home of my new garage doors

Guest bath

coming down the driveway

We took out a long bank of windows and added a double slider to the deck

Master bathtub

Hanukkah...Christmas.....and...Football Oh My!!

We just wrapped up a super crazy multi-holiday week. We had Hanukkah in Portland and then went down to Eugene for Christmas. The girls still don't totally understand the message of the holidays and instead just look for the next present, and the next, and the next.  I think they care more about unwrapping something.  I guess the good news is that I can just wrap up things they need and pass them off as gifts and the girls will be totally content. For example, this year I wrapped a ton of underpants, tights, and pjs.

These two weeks have been so much fun.  We spent good quality family time with the four of us but we also got to spend time with Grammy Bobbi, Grandpa Bill, Grammy Linda, and Papa Gary.  We had a great time with everyone and can't believe what an amazing family we have.  Our girls are lucky to have such wonderful and loving grandparents.   Emily and Ellery have such amazing relationships with each one, I couldn't imagine life any other way.

Giving Chloe baby some love before the family Hanukkah party

Emily in Pink....Ellery in Silver. 

Ellery is no longer our pink only girl.  She now loves all colors and Emily only wants pink.

Emily being a ham for the camera

Emily showing us her jewelry

Watch out world, Emily and Ellery are born to perform!

Making Gingerbread houses in Eugene

Emily showing us her finished product

Ellery is more excited about the candy!

Emily borrowed Uncle Cody's baseball cap.

Elfa the Elf on the Shelf making a much needed appearance.

Ready to open presents!

 Over the holiday break we also got to watch the Oregon ducks play (AND WIN) the Rose bowl! 

The girls not only were excited to root for their favorite team they were exited to hold their first........

 

Baby!!!  Meet Baby Lyla.  Ellery loved holding her!

Emily was a little more nervous but they both were so excited to have a special moment with her.  Thanks Fischer Family for bringing the newest Oregon fan over to watch the game!

Happy Holiday!!!