Update -- part 4 -- Our new house

So, we BOUGHT A HOUSE! We bought the house with my parents and are so excited for this new phase in our lives. It is a 6 bedroom and four story house and is almost 3000 sq ft. There is enough space for everyone to have a bedroom (Bryan & I, Mom & Dad, Shawn, and a guest bedroom), and for Bryan and my Dad to each have an office. But before we were ready to move in there was a LOT of work to do on the house. My Dad left for Africa before we bought the house, and my Mom left two weeks after we bought the house. Which meant that I had to step up and be the "General Contractor" for the house.


We pulled up the carpet in the entire house and had it replaced. We painted the entire house (Mom, Bryan and I painted the top floor and decided it was too ambitious to think we could paint the entire house, so we hired a painter to do the bottom 3 floors). We had all of the electrical sockets and switches replaced. We had a new Water heater/ A/C /furnace put in--I call it the Monolith because it is a HUGE system!! We pulled down an entire room of 1970s dark wood paneling. At the same time, the fridge went out! So I had to hire a repair man to come in and fix it--luckily it was under warranty and did not cost us a thing.



Once we had the house mostly finished, our Home Church helped us move all of our stuff from our apartment up to the house. They also (in the same day, mind you) moved all of my parents stuff from their storage unit into the house. It was a lot of work and a very long day, but what a blessing to have it all finished. We kept it a secret from my parents and had 1 week to get as much put away and finished as possible. While it wasn't completely done when they got back to the States, they were so excited that they didn't have to come home and move in! :)

Here are some pictures from the house renovation:

We were so glad we were given a Pack and Play from the Reeses. It came in so handy while we were working on the house. Here is a picture of Baby Central! :)

Here is a picture of Shawn giving orders. He was such a slave driver!! :)

Here he is overseeing Grandma's painting. We all worked SO hard.



Here is my Mom ripping up the last of the carpet. It was SO disgusting and it smelled horrible. We were VERY glad to see it go. I will post more pictures of the house with all of the work completed. What a transformation!

Before all the work began we took a trip up to Estes Park with some of my parents friends. We went into Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked one day. That night we went back into the park to hear the elk bugling (their mating call). It was awesome to see the giant males fighting for their ladies. :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of Shawn. He is smiling at Grandpa (7 weeks old).