Friday, August 27, 2010

Floor Plan





Here is a drawing of our future home!







Here is a blue print of our future house. There are a few minor changes that we have made. We will be putting the master closet where the bath is and then putting the bath into the closet. We will have double vanities in the master bath. We decided to have a full pantry installed instead of a Lazy Susan (which I hate!). For now the basement will remain unfinished and it is where the toys will go and where I let Emily ride her trike this winter. I can't wait!! :)



Our Home

Bryce and I moved into our current house almost 7 years ago. We moved into the house in October 2003. I think we have a great home. We have made so many memories in this house. This was the first place that was "ours". We got engaged at the island in our kitchen on my 24th birthday, we lived here when we got married, I was pregnant with Emily in this house, and this is the home we brought Emily Marie to on January 28, 2007. We became a family here.

We have had a lot of joy and happiness in this house but alas, it seems we have outgrown our home. Toys are spilling out of their shelves, closets have been known to explode, and drawers are stuffed. We need more space.

How to solve the problem...clean stuff out? pack up toys and give them away? move? We tried the first two options. We decided to try out the last option. Where to was the biggest question. I didn't want Emily in West Fargo schools. We can't afford the area we like in Fargo. So we were at a standstill. Bryce and I decided that we would wait and see if there were any new developments that might get going in the next year or so. We were saving all of my paychecks.

Then one day while Bryce and his friend Chris were looking for a house for Chris, Bryce came across a house for sale in our price range. We decided to look at the house. It was a nice enough house but we knew it was not what we wanted. We noticed that right next door were two lots for sale. So we played around with the idea of these lots that were not in Fargo or West Fargo. We had John the Realtor call and get us some info on the lots and they were a steal compared to Fargo! We were still thinking though. No minds were made up.

One HOT Sunday about a month ago Bryce went golfing. Em and I hung out and were lazy. I texted Bryce to see if he wanted to go look at open houses to get a feel for what we like so when we were ready in a year we would know more about what we wanted. He agreed. SHOCKING!! We looked at one house in our range and then two more that were way too expensive for us, even in our dreams. But the third house we liked a lot, as far as cosmetic details went. We talked to the builder's rep there that day and she sold us on a floor plan that was just what we wanted.

In the last two weeks we have been meeting with builders and John the Realtor a lot. The reason for that is because we have decided to move! The builder is Heritage Homes. They built the Extreme Makeover Home Edition house in Minot. We are very excited to be moving. We are also nervous too because we will be about 25 miles from Fargo.

Where to you ask? We are moving to KINDRED! As of last week we have a tentative closing date of Dec. 15. But we will know more about that in October after the foundation is poured. We have a lot to do until then. Right now we are cleaning and getting rid of the stuff that builds up after 7 years.

Below I have posted some pictures of the lot that is ours. We will be on 1/4 acre. We won't have backyard neighbors. Our house will face west. There are two cul de sacs on our street.







The lot with a daycare in the background. It looks close, but it is not.


Our next door neighbor's house.

Our 1/4 acre

Now we just have to sell this house!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Barn Hunting

For Mother's Day Bryce and Emily got me a new camera. The camera I got is a Nikon D3000. It shoots really good photos and it makes me want to learn how to take better pictures.




Butterfly on a wildflower



That being said I don't want to photograph people for portraits, though I do want to capture my family. However, I want to take pictures of nature and the sky and get ready for it...BARNS!! I have always loved driving along the interstate or a country road and seeing old barns and tattered houses. I don't like new, pretty barns. I like the old ready to blow over with the next strong gust of wind type. The kind that are all weathered with broken windows. The kind with holes in the roof. The kind that makes you wonder who or what used to live there.





Burned trees and a rusty bus






This last weekend I got the chance to go out with my photographer friend Sabrina. We drove south down to Kindred and back up near Grandin. We had no plan other than to keep our eyes open and drive. I was surprised at what we found. We have plans to go out again when the weather changes everything from green to golds and oranges. I am lucky too because my pal is also teaching me a few tricks on how to take better photos! I hope you enjoy some of my photos...I sure do!






Door on a building for grain storage





Red Barn


Sunflowers and hay bales



An old school house.



Our first barn of the day

Friday, August 6, 2010

Picture Perfect

This evening we went to our church to have our family pictures taken for the church directory. Normally I love doing pictures, especially with Emily since I think she is so adorably cute. Tonight was a VERY different case. Tonight we were led into a dimly lit room where we were posed and told how to stand. At one point my arm was used as a chair for Emily as I held her and then I was asked to get down a little bit so I wouldn't be so tall over the seated Bryce and Emily. Since I couldn't get down low enough with just bending my legs I had to stand like a man with my legs spread apart...wearing a dress!! As if that wasn't bad enough, we were asked to bend slightly at the waist while we held Emily, turn our head this way and tilt it that way, and in generaly just pose. Please tell me how this would create a "natural" family photo?

Don't get me wrong...I have done studio portraits in the past and I have had wonderful results. Most of which were done at JCPenney and I would recommend them to anyone, but I have found that going with a person who specializes in capturing people as they are is my way to go. I have gone with two different companies and had two very successful photo sessions. The first time we used this was with MJOY Photography last fall. Emily warmed up to the photographer so quickly that we had some amazing photos to sort through in about 2 hours. We did some at home and some at the park. The second time we did photos was with a friend of mine who has started a photography business out of her house. SK Photography is my new favorite photographer. Our photographer was so awesome with Emily. She truly captured Emily as herself. The beauty of photographer outside of a studio is that they will usually go wherever you ask them to go and they capture "you".

OK now that that rant is over I need to go book my fall portrait session!!




3 Year Picture by SK Photography





Fall 2009 pictures by MJOY Photography