Ready for fall...

Boy has it been a hot summer down here in Apex, NC. I guess there has been no motivation to update the blog since the house has been finished, but frankly, there are a lot more exciting things to tell everyone about than our accomplishments. We ran into some family friends tonight while we were out walking in the neighborhood and they shared a lot of wisdom. We live in the love and forgiveness of Christ. We just need to focus on how to love Him more each day we wake up. Our friend kept pointing to us and saying, "This is success. This is what success feels like. This is what success looks like. You will never know success more than you do right now. You are living for Christ." His whole point was that we shouldn't be living for anything but Christ. We go to heaven alone. We don't bring anything with us.

Shane and I have been learning a lot through our prayer life, times alone with the Lord, and experiences with people at work, circumstances at work, etc. Tonight's conversation was such a blessing...and we wanted to share it with y'all.

It's FINISHED!

The apartment is finished....well, close enough. Woo! We've been married a little over 4 months and 2 of those we lived with Jeanie. Pretty crazy. I have to say that it's great having our own space, with a fully furnished kitchen. What a blessing!

I know y'all have been impatiently waiting to see all of Shane's handy work, so here it is!

The kitchen. I'm standing at the door between the garage and the apartment. You can see Shane's door, our STOVE, pantry, table, and nicely painted floor.

Jeanie repainted the cabinets and they turned out great. There are a few brass knobs that we are going to take off and replace with glass knobs that match the other ones. Sorry for the mess.

Jeanie picked out a new countertop and sink, so Shane cut the countertop to fit PERFECTLY between the walls. He also cut a hole to put the sink into that was perfectly aligned with the cabinets above where the microwave sits. Very impressive.

Our new fridge and cabinet. We still need to paint it white to match everything else. I went grocery shopping for the first time in a while last week and I have completely forgotten how to shop. I came home and Shane asked what was for dinner...I couldn't put a meal together with what I bought. So, we went out to eat. Pretty sad. I took Shane shopping with me last night and he was very helpful. We cooked a yummy dinner tonight.

Our stove. It's so nice. Notice the cookie sheet with no cookies on it. We can't cook dinner and not cook dessert.

And now for the upstairs.

Shane watching TV on our new couch!

The bedroom without a wall separating it from the couch. It's nice, we can watch TV from the couch or the bed.

SHANE!

Shane's really happy we are living in the apartment. So am I.

Thanks for keeping up with all of the house updates. We are really happy with how it turned out and I'm pretty sure Jeanie is too. Shane worked so hard and we are thankful for the help from Matt Wall, Dad K, Dad P, David, Jeanie, and Tim.

Shane's birthday was last Monday. Mom and Dad P had us over to dinner and David and Sarah joined us. Mom made london broil, sweet potato wedges, zuccini and onions, salad, and lest us not forget the made from scratch Red Velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Mmm, mmm, good.

We opened gifts from everyone there. It was very special.

One of Shane's new pairs of shoes.

On his actual birthday he got some mail from family, opened gifts from me and from Mom and Dad K, received lots of calls, and Tim Gregory came into town and surprised him. I told Shane I had a surprise for him at 4:30, so he thought we were going somewhere. Tim pulled in right around then and surprised Shane. The 3 of us went out to Cracker Barrel for dinner and then drove out to Durham to say hey to Tim's mom. It was a fun evening. He felt very loved from everyone, so thank you for all of the calls, cards, and gifts.

That's it for now. We are loving our place and would love everyone to come by sometime and see it. Hopefully we will get rid of whatever is biting us before you come. We'll have to get a bug bomb or something.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET BOY!

Happy birthday to YOU, happy birthday to YOU, happy birthday to SHAAAAAAAANNNEEEE, happy birthday to YOU!
Love you Shane!

Pictures!

You know how people take pictures of their baby to document all the changes and growth and then email them to family and friends? I feel like that with this house...except it's not our baby OR our house. Hmm. Moving on...

Protecting ourselves from fiberglass. I think some snuck into my nose considering I've had quite a few nosebleeds. Gross.

Shane mudding. I think this was hour 88.

Picking at the bubbles in the wall upstairs for Shane to re-mud. He used an old piece of drywall so it was kind of messed up.

Mudding.

So dad was building a fort while Shane was working...just kidding. The camera lens got covered with drywall dust so you can't really see dad. He was helping put up the remaining pieces of drywall. Pretend Dad K is in the picture too because he did a lot of work the weekend before but I didn't get any pictures. :(

We decided to get the air compressor out to blow the dust out of the lens. After we cleaned the lens, we blew air on ourselves. I think we are going crazy.

David came over one night and had dinner with us, and before he left Shane had him help take the cabinets back off the wall.

Upstairs is FINISHED!

The beginning of priming downstairs.

Jeanie painting. I caught her off guard.

The interior door with molding.

Shane dropped the ceiling because of some 2x4's that were in the way. It was a pain, but it looks awesome!

One of the new light fixtures.

The cabinets and the light fixture above.

Ceiling fan in the kitchen.

All we have now is:

- a few more places leading upstairs that need to be painted

- painting the floor, bathroom, and stairs

- fixing the railing

- installing a smoke detector

- installing appliances

- moving in!

We are so close!

I'm assuming I'll be able to put pictures up in a week of everything completed with all of our stuff in place, etc. Very fun! Hope you've enjoyed this.

Close to finished...but not close enough.

Alright, time to get on your knees in prayer. We are ready for this project to be finished. Jeanie scheduled a final inspection for Monday morning, so we are hoping to have everything done by then. The final inspection will allow the electricians to finish their work, and it'll give us a certificate of occupancy. My dad is over there now working on it while Shane and I are at work. We are thankful for his help. There are a few little things that need to be done in order to pass (put up a hand rail for bottom part of the stairs, mud the side of the wall facing into the garage to make it fire safe (I think?), and other things I can't think of. Stuff we need to finish up that doesn't have anything to do with the inspection is caulking, priming, and painting the walls (which Jeanie has been working on the past couple days), mudding in some areas to smooth the walls out, and painting the floor downstairs. Jeanie picked a really neat color that I forget the name of (reddish, orange) that looks really good. The walls are cream and the cabinets are going to be painted white. She got a great new countertop and sink as well. Shane worked for a while yesterday cutting a hole in the counter top for the sink to fit into and cut it to the right length, he also put in the spray hose and faucet. I'll put pictures up soon. Thank you all for keeping up with everything and keeping us in your prayers. Please pray that we finish everything up by Monday so that it passes, and that if we don't, the city will be available to come back when we are ready. It'll be so fun to enjoy the space once we move in!

The construction continues...with smiles on our faces!

Wow, I didn't realize that it had been 3 weeks. Whoops. Sorry!

This past weekend was great! Mom and dad Kirkpatrick came in town to spend some time

with mom and dad Puffer and us. We went out to O'Charley's friday night and then came by the apartment to show off Shane's hard work. Then we finished off the night with cake, ice cream and coffee at the Puffer house. Saturday, ALL DAY, the dads and Shane put up the ceiling in the kitchen and garage area (downstairs). They worked from 10am-6pm, and the dad's help was huge. We are so thankful for that. I'm really bummed because I forget that I'm documenting everything and I didn't get any pictures of the 3 guys working together...so all I have is the final result. Just picture them all working and completing sweating through their clothes. With that said, they deserved the steak dinner that the moms prepared. After dinner Shane and I wanted mom and dad K to experience Good Berry's, a local frozen custard place that is so delicious. I think they loved it. I got pictures there, but I took them on the disposable camera we took on the honeymoon, and they aren't developed yet.

Sunday we all went to church together at Vintage 21, minus dad Puffer because he was teaching sunday school at Summit. After church everyone but me went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Rancherita. I felt horrible and today is the first day I am feeling better. It worked out well that I had Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off. I hated missing lunch at La Rancherita, but I know that we can make it happen again. We look forward to getting out to Monroe to spend some time fishing, shooting clay things, and eating at Jason's with the parents! One thing I wish my dad could experience is riding the dirt bike, but it's gone. :( Hopefully we'll get another one in the future.

Alright, and here are some picture of the apartment. Last post I think we were just finishing up the insulation upstairs. So here is what has happened since then...

Shane is boxing in the wires downstairs because they couldn't show in order to pass inspection (I'm learning a lot through all of this, I'm sure some of y'all already knew this)

A close-up of the wires...boring.

Shane putting up insulation on the ceiling in the garage.

The drywall upstairs! Matt Wall helped Shane with the drywal from the wall to the ceiling, and then Shane did all of the storage space drywall himself. He sweats through 2 pairs of jeans each time he works usually.

We work well together. :)

Shane picking up some drywall to take upstairs

Shane next to his WALL! He put up the drywall on one side of the wall downstairs.

There it is again.

The other side of the wall doesn't have drywall becuase we had to get the insulation on the ceiling and the walls downstairs checked before we could cover it up with drywall.

And here is the ceiling that the dads helped Shane with! Ah, I am so bummed I don't have pictures of them working. From what I hear, they had a good time.

The ceiling on the other side of the wall.

And onto the next thing...

Mudding begins! Mudding upstairs that Shane did last night.

And Shane is mudding the left side as I sit here, lazily, on the computer and write about it.

And here we are! Thanks for keeping up with us everyone! We thank God every night for what He has given us and the opportunities that He gives us to serve and love Him. Good night!

Now for the good stuff...

Wow, so Shane has been hard at work and I have been his little clean up crew. I'll give you a few pictures to show you what we have been working on.

Long story short, the insulation upstairs was not to code, so we moved everything downstairs into the garage, took the dry wall down, took the insulation out, put new insulation in, and are now in the process of getting a few more outlets put in upstairs, finishing up putting insulation in, and then putting the drywall back up. We have been living with Jeanie in one of her spare bedrooms, which has been neat. We have had a couple breakfasts together, and a dinner. We are still working on getting her to come out with us sometime. I think I may take a yoga class with her in downtown Apex if she goes while I am not at work. We are enjoying getting to know her. She's a school teacher, so she has the summer off.

So here is a glimpse of the past 2 weeks.

Moving stuff downstairs...

Putting plastic down...

Taking the molding off...

Taking drywall down...

After a long night of work...

The next day Shane finished tearing down the drywall while I was moving the stuff in the storage sections downstairs.

I decided to help take the drywall off since Shane was putting insulation up on the other side of the apartment.

This is the insulation that Shane took out. He is saving it to use in the ceiling downstairs.

This was Shane's genius way of getting to the ceiling above the staircase. He propped a 2x8 and 2 2x4's on the stairs and on the latter...I'm glad I was at work when he thought this up.

This is me demonstrating how it worked...as if you really needed to see that. Shane just got camera happy.

Some of Shane's NICE insulation installation work. As I am writing this, he is filling in the 6 or so inches at the top with insulation so that can be complete! I am trying to hurry through this so he has his assistant back...not that I'm much help, but we'll see what he can use me for tonight.

This is all of our stuff stacked up in the garage.

This is kind of funny. The entertainment center became our closet, everything didn't fit though, so it's just laying around wherever there was room. I think I may have to make a trip to the laudrymat when this is all finished to make sure all of our clothes are clean. Eakes.

While Shane was at work on Monday, I made my way upstairs. Shane had asked me to throw all the insulation out the window (the stuff Shane tore out and is re-using downstairs) onto the driveway to get it out of the way for when he had to put the drywall back up. I also picked up all the plastic and swept and vacuumed so that we wouldn't have AS big of a mess to clean up after the drywall was put back up. Shane works so so hard so I wanted to treat him somehow. It actually looked like what we used to live in when I finished, it was exciting.

That's all I have for now. Jeanie and I have had a couple breakdowns, but life could be a lot worse than this. While all of this is going on in the garage, Jeanie's A/C breaks in her house. She doesn't seem to catch a break. The A/C parts that we need were ordered and will be installed on Friday.

Hope everyone is doing well! Congrats to MEGHAN for finishing up her MBA this coming Friday! Woo! And little Will will be 8 months at the end of this week! Lots of exciting things going on.