I still blog...

Just not here.

I do not know what my plans for this blog are right now.

I do still blog at www.teachingwithstowe.blogspot.com

One of my new year's resolutions was to expand my Teachers pay Teachers store. I have been successful at that and blogging at the other blog is part of it.

I like sharing ideas with other teachers and hearing feedback/suggestions about teaching.

Behind Chris and Carter, teaching is my life. It is currently consuming all my time outside family time.

So, if you want to here some awesome ideas for 6th grade math, check out the other blog.

Building a House: Week 6

The house really progressed this week. The roof looks completely done. I don't know if it actually is, but it looks like it is.

More of the siding is done. They still have 1/2 the house to do, so hopefully they can get it done before it rains this week because then the outside will be completely done, except the painting. 

The duct work has been started. The rough plumbing and electricity has been started. It looks done, but again, I don't know what that else needs to be done. But it seems like they can start insulating and dry walling soon. 

Building a House: Week 5

It just keeps moving along. This week there is part of a roof. The windows are in. 

The siding has been started. 

The arches are in. 

And Carter is still running around. This is the temporary front door. 

And this is the real back door. 

Building a House: Week 4

There has been a lot of visual progress on the house this week. Dormors are up, green stuff is on the framing ( I don't really know what it is).

Windows have been delivered and are chained to the house. 

I think this is my favorite part of the house. A bay window in the breakfast area with the best uninterrupted view. 

And the view again. Can't wait to move in!

Building a House: Week 3

We have a mostly framed house now. Things are running smoothly so far. It seems to be moving quickly, but everyone says that it moves slow once the outside is done.

Carter loves going to the house and running around. Here she is standing in the living room. I am standing hear the kitchen island. Perfect view into the living room.


The house from the front. So excited for Carter to have a big yard to play in.

The view from the 4th bedroom. Soon there will be actual walls here!

It is starting to feel like a real house now and I am getting anxious to decorate and get furniture. 

Building a House: Week 2

After a week basically non-stop rain, our concrete slab has been poured. They actually did it in the rain which had Chris freaked out, but it worked out. 

Next Step: Framing. 

The superintendent told us the house will be done in 90 days. That ends up being August 13, or the day we go back to work for the next school year. So hopefully it won't be any later. 

This is looking from the garage to the other side of the house. 

This is standing in the master bedroom.

This is Carter standing where the master bath will be. She is adorable in her ponytail and flip flops, which she just loves. 

Next week, it should all be framed up!

Building a House: Week 1

Here is week 1 of house building. It seems like they made a lot of progress this past week and the next step is to poor the concrete.

Too bad it is supposed to rain for the next two weeks. 

But its started. We will be in a new house this year!

We had an issue figuring out our electricity. We live in a regulated area and Montgomery only has two electric companies and our house is right on the line that divides their two territories. One company didn't want to give us electricity because they didn't want to get sued (even though their pole was across the street). The other's closet pole was across the railroad tracks and it would take 6 months and several thousand dollars to get that approved. 

The second company eventually released us as a customer and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to get electricity.

Just one of the problems I didn't imagine would come up in house building. It won't be the last. 

Waiting

This is probably the hardest part in the home building process...waiting for everything to start. We are waiting for everything with the loan to be finalized. We were told it would take about 2 months and we are halfway through that time. It will be a bittersweet moment when we finally close because then we can start the actual house building but it will also mean we have to say goodbye to a big chunk of our savings.

In the meantime, the builder has been out to the property to do a soil test, we have an address, and we decided where we want the front of the house to be.

 Here is Miss Carter staking out where she thinks the house should be.

And here is a panoramic of our acre. The house will face towards the street on the left. 

Our Colors

Chris played around with photoshop a bit and redid the colors on the house we saw last week. We are not finished choosing colors, but we have chosen a gray siding, red door, white trim and white shutters. So this gives us an idea of what it will look like.

We Are Building!

We looked for a house for a few months. The area is really growing and although we found a few houses we were ready to put offers on, they were pending days (sometimes hours) within being put on the market. It was a frustrating experience but then Chris's grandpa offered us an acre of land and then building became an option. 

It took a few months of talking to 5 different builders before settling on one. A week ago we signed a contract to build and we should be ready to move in this summer. 

We are excited for this next step in our lives and can't wait to move in, decorate, and make it our home!

It is a 1 story, 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house. We decided to do 4 bedroom instead of 3 because the plan is to say here for a while. 

The builder is building another house with the same floor plan but three bedrooms about 1 1/2 hours away from us that we went to see last week. So this is similar to what ours will look like:

And then this is my favorite part. The kitchen. It has lots of cabinets and it opens right into the living room.

This is more similar to what ours will look look with the wall oven and the island at one level instead of part of it raised. 

I am going to try to continue to blog about this. I have been obsessed with reading other blogs where people are building houses. If anyone knows of one, let me know!

2015 Goals

1. Move into our new house!
2. Graduate from Grad School!
3. Host a Christmas Party in our new house. (Hosting stresses me out so it will take me a year to plan this thing.)
4. Read the Book of Mormon twice.
5. Expand my Teachers pay Teachers store.
6. Read 30 books.
7. Go on a vacation. Chris wants Europe, I am fine with anywhere not in Texas.

And as always, spend time with this little girl. That's not really hard to do.

2014 Accomplishments

This was the most stressful year of my life. I went back to work after maternity, was enrolled in grad schools classes all year long and had to balance home, work, church and personal stuff all at once. But I am proud of what I was able to accomplish this year.


1. Got a 4.0 in all my grad school classes. (6 of them)
2. Lost 10 pounds. Back to Pre-Pregnancy weight.
3. Got a new job that pays more.
4. Signed a contract to build a house. After 7 months of praying, thinking, talking...we finally did it two days ago.
5. Read 26 books.
6. I survived without any major breakdown. I did not think I was going to see the end of this last
semester, and I have celebrated by doing absolutely nothing work/school related the last 2 weeks.
7. The most important part of my year was when I got to spend time with my little family. Chris and Carter make everything better.

I expect 2015 to be a completely different year than 2014 but it is going to be a good year for the Stowe Family.