House Update

Hello everyone. I am once again at the keyboard, but unfortunately, this time it is because Amber is otherwise preoccupied. Drew is not feeling well, with a fever and other details I won't go into. As such, I'm back in the driver's seat to give you the latest on our new home.

Here are the latest pictures of the house. Still on schedule to close next Friday, 2/26!!! Enjoy!!

The first picture here was taken by Drew (he's quite the photographer - Don't you think?). As you will notice, we have a driveway and the lights outside are all installed.


Here is the back of the house.

Here is the shower in the Master Bath. Looks a little different than last time . . .

This is Amber's sink in the bathroom. Mine looks just like it (medicine cabinet is on the left).

Here are some updated pictures of the kitchen. The backsplash tile is in (still needed to be grouted) and the countertops are in. They look fantastic, Amber really did a good job picking them out.

Here is the update that everyone is most interested in - Drew's new bathtub!!!

It is really getting close, and we are extremely excited to show it to you all when it is finished!!!

New House Update

As this blog is likely to read differently than the previous posts, I'll go ahead and make the disclaimer up front. I have high-jacked this blog and am writing this before Amber has a chance to edit it. I hope you enjoy a change of author . . .

We had a chance to go by the new house today and it was an awesome experience. As you will see from the pictures, there has been fantastic progress and we can now see just how close we are to being ready to move in (currently scheduled to close on it on 2/26).

The first three pictures are the front exterior of the house, note the stone work is completed, and the brick is too, with the one exception of some work around the master bedroom windows in the back. The electricians were at the house working on the exterior lights (close-up to follow).

This is one of the 4 lights that will be across the front of the house (far left of garage, either side of the front door, and far right column).

Drew & Josh's new bathroom. Drew was very excited to get to see his new bathtub!

The cabinetry of the laundry room. The two cabinets on the left will be over the washer, with a short hanging rack over the dryer.

The tile work is completed in the entry, kitchen & bathrooms. This is the shower in the master bath.

These are our wonderful spindles on the banisters. This walkway crosses above the living room from the stairs to the boys' rooms.

Close-up of the spindles on the stairs.

Amber was really excited to see that the shelves in the pantry had been installed already. Looks to have lots of space.

These are our cabinets in the kitchen. The second picture is of the area where the sink will be, and is a little easier to see the color of the cabinet.

I hope you've enjoyed the change in blog author, however, I believe I'll let Amber continue to chronicle the changing world of the Wiggins' house, specifically the perpetual motion machines named Drew & Josh.

Josh at 10 months

Can you believe that my baby is already 10 months old!?! He just started crawling and is really fast! Nothing is safe anymore!!! He loves to eat just about anything and especially loves feeding himself puffs and cheerios. He's still working on top teeth (he has one, and is working on about 3 more) and has 2 on the bottom. He can say "Ma-ma-ma" and "Da-da-da" and is starting to use them appropriately. He absolutely ADORES his big brother. I love watching them together and hope that they are always such good friends. It seems like he learns something new every day and he certainly makes every day an adventure around here!

Nothing is safe anymore!! Josh is on the move!

Look out world, here he comes.

January Recap

I can't believe that January is already over!! I realized that I didn't have hardly any pictures of the boys posted from the last month so here are the best ones.

Gigi and Drew filling the feeder for the birds (but mostly for the squirrels!)

Josh is so close to crawling

Drew with a crayon behind his ear - he's ready for work

Josh with his sippy cup (we're still working on drinking from it, instead of just chewing on it)

Josh has started pulling himself up

Josh LOVES his Leapfrog table (thanks Gramps!)
Drew likes it too!

He just keeps getting cuter and cuter

I'm gonna get you, Mommy!

2 silly boys in the bathtub (they are having such fun bathing together now)

Brothers (about the best pictures we can get these days)

Mommy and Josh (picture taken by Drew!)

He's not quite a crawling machine yet, but he's getting there

Holding onto Daddy's fingers

House update

We have a roof, complete with shingles, siding and windows!!!

Our House (so far)

Okay, finally the story of our new house. We went house-hunting at the end of October and knew that we'd be moving at the end of November (Russell's new job started December 1), so it was important to find something quickly. Well, the best laid plans don't always turn out like you'd think. During our house-hunting trip we looked at so many online listings and visited just about everything that looked promising. We decided that the location of the house (ie: neighborhood amenities and proximity to family) plus the actual floor plan and features of the house were the most important thing. We narrowed our search and after MUCH looking and discussing we made our choice. We found a neighborhood that we loved and a house that fit the bill. It was new construction, slated to be completed the end of November, perfect, right?? Well, by the time we'd finally made our decision they'd already sold it. (In fact, the sold it to another relocating family an hour after our second visit.) This was a major blow to us because it was already Thursday night (of our week long trip) and because we had taken such an "intellectual" approach to our hunt we had talked ourselves out of everything else we'd seen. By the time we made our decision we had already determined that our previous second and third choices were no longer viable options for us. We finally decided that we really liked the neighborhood and the builder, so we switched our game plan and decided to build from scratch. We chose a floor plan (that we actually liked even better) and our salesman worked some magic to get us an amazing lot (without the lot premium!) and extra buyer incentives. The end result is going to be an amazing house that we will absolutely love on a lot that is fantastic in a neighborhood that is awesome. We had hoped that we'd be able to be in sometime in January, but now it's looking like mid to late February. (We still relocated to Houston for Russell to start work, but we're living with Gigi and Grandpa (Russell's mom and step dad) until our house is done.)

Here's what our lot looked like when we left town after our house-hunting trip

Partial form boards set for the foundation
Prepped for foundation

Finally - sunny skies and cement!!!

Our first family picture in front of the "house"

Framing begins

Framing continues

(As of 1/10/10) It really looks like a house!!!

Another view