Here are the pictures of the house before we moved in. The above cabinets were painted as well as a few other changes after these photos were taken. We were pretty rushed to move in because we had to be out of our apartment. We literally moved in the second they finished cleaning the house and mopping the new hard floor in the kitchen. They had a few left over random things to do, but they allowed us to move in since they knew we needed to be out of our apartment. 

The main bathroom

notice the mirror- I chose all the mirrors and kept trying out different mirrors before deciding on which ones to use in each of the bathrooms. That mirror shown was not the one we chose.

The kitchen (before the backsplash white subway tile was installed)

The area where the slide was going to be installed as well as the play area above the slide- both which were completed after we moved in.

The kitchen coffered ceiling and pendant lights.

Floating shelves in the kitchen

Great Room

Stairway to the basement

Front entrance

Front porch before the front railing was finished

The ugly blue posts that were fixed and painted white

Front of the house with the huge rocks the builders put in on their own. Apparently they were showing some people our house that were interested in building with them and when they saw the front porch cement they said something about how ugly it was. We then came to see the house and saw these huge big rocks in front of it. We were surprised in a good way, but were confused where the money came to put the rocks in. Apparently they saved cost in the foundation and put it towards the rock. It was a good surprise.

The side of the house next to the Lindsey's

Our drawer microwave

Kaylee and Ashlynn's room

Connor's room

The laundry room with the laundry shoot that is connected to the master closet

the Basement

Ashlynn hanging out while I finished painting the shelves

The kids painted in the basement on the unfinished wall

The sliding door to the Master bathroom

West Bountiful had a celebration at the park on July 3rd that we decided to go to. Our Woods Cross neighbors Andy Leger was singing at the park as well as a few activities throughout the park. They also had fireworks that night, but we knew we were going to Idaho the following day and didn't want to stay up that night as well.

They had a place where the kids could race on these cars. Of course, the kids thought it was a lot of fun. Poor shorty Connor struggled to reach the peddles, but he made it work.

The kids wandered around gathering all kinds of junk ha ha

We ran into some of our new neighbors (The Allreds and Haslam's) and sat with them while we waited to hear the names called in the drawing. Kaylee's name got called- she won two $5 gift certificates for Five Guy's.

Okay, so the new house is almost finished being built and I haven't blogged much about the process. The kids and I went and took pictures of the house just about EVERYDAY to show the progress. So instead of loading all those pictures on here- I am going to do a separate photo book for the house progress. Many people ask how building has been and if we would ever do it again. Right now- the answer is no I would not do it again. Am I glad I did it- yes. But it is really stressful and hard on the little's that I just don't have a desire to do that again. We are planning on having this be our forever home so hopefully that is our Heavenly Father's plan as well :)

Building a house has a lot of ups and downs. A lot of expectations and for us- a lot of miscommunication. We worked with a builder named Eschelon Homes. We had a lot of positive experiences with them- but had a lot of negative experiences as well....and unfortunately most of those negative experiences were at the end so it wasn't the end we wished for. BJ's brother JC is building a house with them and we are hoping they have an overall better experience than we did. 

One of the biggest stresses to building a house is all of the decisions. HA- I couldn't believe how many things we had to decide on that I had never thought of before. We thought we were pretty prepared going into building, and quickly realized how many little details we hadn't thought of. It was fun picking things but also stressful because we knew if it didn't look good it was our own fault.

In the end I think we were both pretty happy with what we chose. 

Here is a photo of the front of our house. The only thing different that you will see in another photo is the front posts are painted blue in this picture- but they repainted them the color we had originally requested which is white in a later photo. They actually also messed up and painted the front of the house opposite of what we had asked.....BUT, in the end we liked the way it turned out probably better than what we had chose so it worked in our favor.

We really wanted to put a "secret door" in the house, but the cost to have the cabinets painted and installed was going to be more than we wanted. SO- I volunteered to paint it while BJ volunteered to install the cabinet "secret door"

My amazing brother Johnathon came and helped me figure out the paint sprayer we borrowed from BJ's co-worker Gavin. I didn't want to mess up the cabinets nor ruin the paint sprayer, so I enlisted Johnathon's knowledge while BJ watched the kids.

It was SOOO Hot in the basement while we painted. They hadn't installed the air conditioning in the house yet. But we survived. Johnathon stayed for the first coat and I finished a little later on my own. I had posted this picture on facebook about how hot it was and how grateful I was for Johnathon's help. My neighbor Paige saw it and ran over with two water bottles!!! We LOVE that we have such amazing neighbors.

While I was painting the railing guys were there finishing up the back railing.

Yay! Looking good

Our friend Challae told us about a Centerville summer program called Iddy Biddy Ball where the kids get to play three different sports over a course of 6 weeks. They go twice a week and play each sport (soccer, T-ball, and basketball) for two weeks. 

The program is run by high school students. They just teach the kids how to play the game and a few basic skills. Connor really liked one of his teachers and his teacher always made a point to call him by his name which Connor loved of course.

Brinlee and Everette had signed up as well. So both Kaylee and Connor had a friend they knew in their class. Connor was lucky because not only did Everette sign up- but his friend Austen did as well.

It was cute watching them play T-ball

Ashlynn enjoyed playing with Beckham and Isaac on the grass while we watched the kids. Overall I think the kids enjoyed it. It was good to just expose them to more options of things to try.