I promised prints, so here ya go!

You've all been so patient listening to us talk about the land and the new house, either in person or in the blog, that I thought it was time that those of you who haven't seen the prints be subjected to the torture that those of you who have met with us in person have been through. Wait, did I say that? Shame on me!

Anyway, here are the prints of this dream house that Ryan and I have created. And of course, by "us" I mean Ryan did all the drawing and I scrunched my face up when I didn't like something. If you're like me, these prints will mean very little to you - I have no vision whatsoever and cannot see how this flat page translates to a real, 3 dimensional house. If you're like Ryan and so many of the people that have seen these, enjoy - you'll be able to picture this all in glorious 3-D. Tell me how it is, will ya?

Here is the front and back of the house. Well, technically the back and the front of the house. Can anyone guess how much it bugs someone in my line of work that he put the back of the house above the front of the house? Alas, the house: (Note: you can click on any of these pics for a larger view.)

Here are the sides of the house:
As you can tell, we have a problem with giant cats at the new house. Giant cats are very common out in the country. We'll learn to live with it.

(Special note to Poppa P - I had to rewrite that multiple times to get around the "miniature horse" phenomenon!)

Here is the first floor:
AAK! The giant cat got in the new house! SCRAM, giant cat!!

There, that's better:
No, that post near the entrance to the kitchen will not be there. (Whew!) Note the rockin' walk-in pantry, wrap-around porch and covered deck. Who is coming over for BBQ?

On to the second floor. Plenty of room for family and friends to come stay. See the "Bonus Room"? It's all mine. It's a little known fact (since I just made it up) that "Bonus" is a home building term that means "Meghan's." Look it up, I dare ya. Unless you've got better things to do. And I really hope you do.

(Don't worry, men. Ryan will have a barn all to himself.)

So that's the house. Oh, wait, I should probably give you a little color in this post, huh?? Ok, here are some of the views from the house. This picture was taken from the future location of our driveway, facing the nearest human neighbors. That's their barn.

This is the view to the other side:

Out the front of the house:

And off the back of our property:

MOOOOOOOOO!

And then it was July...

I swear, it was like I woke up this morning and June was gone. And half of July. What happened? This summer is slipping away so quickly!

Quick recap: June was a quiet month. It included a trip to Arizona for Ryan:


a Kenny Loggins concert for me, and a serious sense of "old" for both of us as we celebrated our nephew Matthew’s 16th birthday.

July has been somewhat quiet so far as well. July 4th weekend included a visit from Mom and Dad P, and since then, its just been mostly new house stuff. Well, actually, we did have some excitement in the form of a basement slowly filling with water coming from the fireplace. It was a sight to see, water from a fireplace – very yin/yang. We were lucky – there was no damage to anything and only had to throw out a few little things that got in the path of the water. Ryan did some investigating, found the cause of the flood, fixed it, and we’ve been dry ever since.

Speaking of house stuff, here’s the story on the new house: We’re very close to having the prints completed – just a few small changes left to go. We’re gathering estimates and quotes like crazy, and although it’s a lot of work, it is also a lot of fun.

Anyway, here are some pics from the past month:

Mama, Liz, Annabelle and I stumbled upon this scene in the backyard and decided it was the Lamest Parade Ever. Really cute guys, but no music. No horses or elephants either. They could have at least thrown candy!


In all seriousness, the boys were trying to tow one tractor/lawnmower with another. All went well - until the rope broke. Don't worry boys, Annabelle knows when her assistance is needed.


Last weekend, we sat down with Walter and Papa before dinner at Mama and Papa’s to go over the prints.


Note: when planning a house, it is important to:

Talk to people who have done it before.
Hire trusted sub-contractors
Be flexible.
Drink beer.


If beer isn’t available, wine will do. Right, Walter?



After dinner, Walter's daughter (and Elzbieta's sister! Shoutout to our Seattle siblings!) Danuta brought her son Tomasz over to play with Annabelle. Annabelle knows a cute boy when she sees one and wastes no time grabbing his hand.




Ok, thats it for now. I have some images of the prints that I'm going to post later this weekend, for those of you that have heard about this house but would like to see what the beast may someday look like. Stay tuned!