Snowmageddon 2010

Dear Kitchen...I Love You

Update 9/22

Moving furniture Saturday, Closing next Tuesday!

Closing Date 2.0...

Well, as you know nothing in the world of construction goes as planned. With that being said, our new Closing Date is September 28th. Hardwood flooring is in, sorry I don't have any pictures to show you what it looks like because after they installed it they cover it up to protect it while everything else gets finished up. This week: granite in the kitchen, carpet, plubming, landscaping, driveway. Pictures to follow!

One More Week...

Here's some new pictures of the house. One more week and we'll be MOVING IN!!!

Catch-Up with the Carney's

Here is a rundown of what in the world the Carney's have been up to lately:

As some of you know, I work from home and from time to time I get to travel to different conventions and conferences. As I type this, I am sitting in my hotel room in Brookfield, Wisconsin! I am here with two co-workers for the American Legion Convention. I drove out here Thursday (8/26) and had the three days leading up to my trip all planned out - hair cut and color, laundry, etc. But, Adam had other plans for me...

Adam was admitted to the hospital on Monday after work. Before I continue, he is home and is doing just fine :) Adam has been having some episodes of rapid heart rates and has been wearing a heart monitor the last week. His doctor called and asked him to come to the U of M hospital and be admitted over night so they could observe him. Long story short, what he has is not life threatening, just annoying and can be corrected by medications, which he is now taking. I am sure there is a term for what his condition is, and of course my brain is not remembering it right now.

Now for some better news, we have a closing date for our house - September 23rd! It is so crazy that it is less than a month away!!! And 7 days after that, my parents will be here :) All our selections for the house are finished, I think we just have to meet with the landscaper.

As I mentioned earlier, I am in Wisconsin for work. It's been fun to in a new city and spend the day talking to veterans. My dad served in the Air Force for 23 years, so I have a soft spot for veterans and what they have done for our country. And of course we've been eating some great food - Milwaukee Brat House, Major Goolsby's, Glass Nickel Pizza, and of course Wisconsin's own, Culver's! And tomorrow we are going to the Harley Davidson Museum. I love traveling, but I with Adam was here. I told him we have to come back to Milwaukee so I can see and do everything.

On our horizon is the Minnesota State Fair! Last year was my first year going, so this year we will have a better idea of what to see, and more importantly, what to eat! I already know we will be stopping at Sweet Martha's for sure :)

House Update 8/10

Here is the most recent photo of the house - we have wiring and insulation! Sheetrock starts this week and then painting!!!

Selling the Mormon Church in 30 Seconds

I read this article entitled "Selling the Mormon Church in 30 Seconds" that appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today. The article is informing, but what got me down was the comments people left. Example:

"the wacky mormons at it again. From the religion that decided in the late 70s that God finally gave them permission to give black men the same equal standing as white men in the church, comes a recent ad making it look like there;s such a thing as an LDS feminist. I'm surprised they don't make their women wear Burkas. Utah has two statistics that say it all. # 1 in the USA for anti-depressants prescribed to women and # 1 in porn web searches."

"Selling what? A church? Nope, a cult."

It makes me so sad that people feel this way. I know many here in Minnesota are unfamiliar with the Church, but why so hateful? I think these ads are GREAT and show the world that yes, we are just like you. We do fun things and our family is important to us. I guess it makes me want to be better - a better person, wife, friend, member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A better example to my friends and neighbors who are not members of the Church so that they will never be able to say such hateful things about my beliefs. My name is Erin, and I'm a Mormon.

Weekend Update 7/18/2010

Framing 7/14/2010

Framing 7/13/2010

It's starting to really look like a house now!!!

Fabulous Framing

July 7, 2010:

No News is Good News...Right?

This is what our house looks like as of this afternoon when I drove by to check if framing had started. The boss man says framing should start tomorrow (7/7) and then things will really get going. Then, I will hopefully have more pictures to post when our house starts to actually look like a house.

I'm In Love With a Sink...

This is the sink we picked out for our kitchen!!! It's "handmade" by British artisans who actually sign the bottom of the sink - it will be our first piece of art!!! Adam got to pick out the appliances, but I got my sink :)

House Update - Lighting

We picked out our lighting tonight - in only 2 hours!!!


Entry Way


Dining


Over Kitchen Island (x3)


Stairway


Downstairs Office, Hallways, Mud Room, Loft

House Update - Week 1

We are now into the second week of building on our house - we had a few delays, but now we are full steam ahead!

And so it begins...

As of Tuesday, May 11th, our house is "staked"!



Tomorrow starts the picking everything out portion - tiles, carpet, you name it, we have to pick it out :)

Home Sweet Home

In case you live under a rock or do not live close enough to hear me talk nonstop about this, we are building a house! Construction will start next month and we should be ready to move in the beginning of September. Here are pictures of our lot:





Our lot is three quarters of an acre and includes just over half of that pond. It is in the Maple Creek Estates neighborhood in Maple Grove, MN (for the locals - Bass Lake Road and Lawndale) The neighborhood is just one street with a cul-de-sac on each end. There are about 16 lots total and just over half of them already have houses built and people living in them. This development started a few years ago, but went under, and new builders have come in. Our neighbors to the left, the O'Connor family, have lived there for 2 years already - we met them while looking at the lot with Adam's parents. The husbands name is Mike O'Connor (my maiden name is O'Connell, and my dad's name is Mike) and his wife went to USD (where Adam went). He was in the Navy and lived in San Diego - if these weren't meant to be out neighbors than I don't know who was! They have 3 young kids - all with Irish names :)

The house itself will be custom and about 2600 sq ft, 2 story with 3 bedrooms and a loft. Adam is getting his dream kitchen - 6 burner gas cook top, double ovens - and a huge island! Downstairs is an office, kitchen and great room; upstairs is the 3 bedrooms, loft and laundry room. The loft will be where my work office with a built in desk! So far we have decided the kitchen will have white cabinets with black granite counter tops and stainless steal appliances. We're going for a "craftsman" style home, so I've been spending lots of time drooling over way-out-of-our-price- range craftsman style elements - light fixtures, etc. The exterior will be a dark blue with white trim and white garage doors. I will post pictures when we get final drawings from the builder. We're still in the process of picking everything for the exterior out - who knew there were so many choices!

More updates to follow - we plan to take pictures throughout the whole process.

Catch Up!

So ya, its been over 3 months since my last post. Wait, that sounds like I'm in confessional....let's start again:

Whoa! Where has the time gone! (that's better...)

It is beautiful in Minnesota! In March we had NO SNOW, which for Minnesota hasn't happened in over 100 years. Everything is green and blooming and weather has been great. Andrew and Stephanie came for a visit the end of March and the weather was perfect. We went to the Mall of America (duh...of course!), Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis Institute of Arts and a walk through the sky ways in downtown Minneapolis. Of course we ate good food too - Chino Latino was AMAZING.

In other catch up news, we are building a house! This deserves its own post, so more to come on that.

We saw Avenue Q this past weekend - too funny! Who knew puppets were so inappropriate! Tomorrow night we are going to see Anthony Bourdain, which I've been looking forward to for awhile :)

Next month brings more travel - Dallas/Fort Worth, TX for work and then Adam and I are off to San Diego for a mini-family reunion. Grandma turned 90 in March and mom and dad thought this would be a great time to get all the family together.

Once again, I will tell you I promise to keep up on my blog, but we both know that's probably not going to happen, but hey, one can dream!

Well Hello 2010

So I guess I've already failed at one of my resolutions - to blog more! It's only the 16th and I haven't posted since October...oops! Time to hop back on the wagon and get started!

I spent the first few days of 2010 in sunny Scottsdale at the office. We have some exciting changes going on at work, so I was able to escape the cold and snow for 70s and sunny. One day when I was leaving the office it was 83 degrees!!! Of course I ate lunch at Carolina's on my way to the airport and picked up some yummy tortillas to bring home :)

Since then it's been the same old same old here. Some days I feel like a crazy lady because I don't leave the house if I don't have to. But I guess it's a good thing because I'm not out shopping and going out for lunch! This weekend Adam is in Las Vegas with the guys from work, and I'm catching up on a lot of stuff around the house. My desk is atrocious - the past week I've relocated to the living room and set up my office on the couch, close to the fireplace and the TV - almost finished season 1 of Mad Men! So on the top of my list is to organize my office and desk so it is "workable".

Last night was a girls night out and I had my friend Cecia help me buy make-up! She of course always looks fabulous so I knew she would be the one to ask for help. I don't think I've worn make-up since my wedding...2 1/2 years ago. Since I'll be the big 2-9 next week, I figured I better learn how to do this make-up stuff.

The last week of January, Adam and I will be in Phoenix for a wedding and then I'm off to San Diego for a week - whooo hooo!!! Hello Mexican food, goodbye diet! I'm going to Disneyland with my brother and his girlfriend, so I'm super excited about that. They'll going to come visit the end of March - hopefully the snow will be melted by then!

Well, there is your "What in the heck is Erin up to" update. I know you've been dying to read it and I'm hope I didn't disappoint!