Cement, Cement, and More Cement

Been without the Internet for a few days and it feels like so much has gone on here. The addition keeps moving forward and last Saturday morning Chris got the second floor poured and it looks fabulous. Having the floor poured is another major hurdle in this project and it was exciting to see them complete this task. It was an early morning when the pumper truck rolled in at 6 am and Cemstone came around 6:30, the big question was how they were going to get the cement up to the second floor but there was enough hose to reach...it was slick to watch.

Our unexpected concrete crew that helped us out on our back slab (color guys) helped us out again, and this time instead of color for the concrete we got a Turtle. Yes a turtle made out of cement now lays in the middle of our driveway and will stay there until we get the bobcat back to move it. The guy in the picture is Ben Brown and he does a great job finishing. He is starting up his own business so I guess Chris is helping him out by throwing him this concrete work.

The wonderful morning wouldn't have been complete without a visit from the men in blue...that's right our fabulous neighbor Ron called the Maplewood PD to have Rich (Chris's co-worker) remove his car from his property (actually it was the boulevard). We will just say that the officer wasn't happy about being deceived on the phone about the situation and then come to realize the truth once he showed up.

Stress is high here at the Carvelli house and the race is on to the finish line. Chris finished setting the upstairs tub/showers and is moving onto the vanities and then onto the kitchen. Joel is making progress on the electrical and once that is done we can go ahead and get the framing inspection done and onto insulation. The move in day is getting closer...hopefully we can make it there in one piece or at least still talking.

Poor Emma

Update...Chris won, Emma is back in the garage. Poor little girl has to sleep alone so big bad Chris gets his beauty sleep. If sleeping in the garage wasn't bad enough, I forgot that this past weekend we went to Grandma Beanie's place in Nisswa for Memorial and poor Emma was robbed of her food by the neighbor dog Flash. It shows her that if she doesn't eat her food someone else will. Even without all of her food, she had a good time at Grandma's as well as the rest of the family. The kids got some good fishing in and they even got to see a Dog Fish. It was a good size swimming right by the dock. This year Jasmine got an adult fishing pool with her own daredevil (pink) and got a few fish on her own. Jayna and Nick got in on the action too and Jayna reeled in the best catch of all...her pink burpie. She dropped it in the lake not once but twice...we made a beeline to the laundry mat when we got home and it is as good as new now.

The unofficial start of summer is on the way and the kids can't wait for the school year to end and the beaches to open. Heat wave bring it on...we are supposedly going to have air condition this year.

New Porch

The house is coming along. Boy does that sound redundant doesn't it. The house is coming along but when is it going to be done? The porch phase of the house is almost completed and it does look good. I can picture us drinking a nice cold drink on the porch over looking the great view of Ron's development.

It's wonderful to see something come along from start to completion and now we have to wait on Joel to finish the electrical so we can fast forward to the finish of this project.

While we are waiting, I guess I should take advantage of this crummy little house to house break Emma. I think her saving grace is that she is so cute. There have been times Chris and I were willing to give her back to Julie but then Emma gives you that look and we are sucked right back into it. We are at odds here though. I want to keep Emma in the house and take her out at night (hey I got up with four kids during their night feedings) but Chris wants to keep putting her in the garage, but then I get to clean up the mess in the morning. Chris claims he needs his sleep but the last time I checked he was still snoozing pretty good when I got up at 2 AM to take her out.

I will keep everyone updated on the battle of the sexes who will win...Chris or Emma?

The Little House in South Maplewood

Day three and if I couldn't remember how small our house is, I guess Emma is a reminder. We have been blessed with decent weather so we have been able to spread outside too, because if there is some unfortunate reason we all have to be inside, it is chaos. Doors are shut now to keep Emma from exploring the bathroom and bedrooms and and now that leaves only the small kitchen and living room to sit in. Shoving seven figures in a room is tough especially when Tony is on the floor Emma loves to give kisses all over his face so he has to be supervised on the couch or held. Plus Jayna loves Emma but as soon as the pooch comes closes Jayna goes a running. It is a ballet dance over here.

Not only are the walls closing in, but everyone's sleeping schedule is out of wack. Poor Tony can't fall asleep with all those lovely doggie kisses since his mattress is on the floor so Tony has to wait until Emma goes to her kennel in Chris's garage around 10:00-10:30 and is awake again from doggie kisses around 6:30 in the morning when Emma comes inside to eat breakfast.
Puppy time is everyone's time so around 7:30/8:00 A.M. Jasmine and Nick get to "entertain" Emma while I get ready and get the other kids ready for the day. They have been warned if they can't help out Julie and Matt have other people that can take Emma. So far so good.

We are adjusting to another member of the family, but we are doing good. Emma hasn't had an accident in the house yet but we are still trying to get her "spot" figured out in the backyard. The lack of grass has made that transition difficult but she is getting the hang of it, but she still has found a way to eat it too. Nick got a close up look at what regurgitated grass looks like :) Even Chris has gotten in on doggie duty with his first poop duty. He got to clean off her yard gate after she got a little excited after see him. Joy!! Emma is making sure she spreads the wealth around. It is fun to see her get more comfortable around here.

Emma's Home

The second day home and Emma is off and running. She is still scoping out the joint and the kids are overly excited. I think we have a keeper and if someone has to be returned to Julie and Matt's, it is going to be one of the kids. Right now as I write this post, Emma is sleeping on my feet. She is so mellow which is good for this family, because another hyper personality in this house might have driven me over the edge. Noises don't seem to bother her so hopefully when a storm hits she will be okay. From the looks of the following picture even Tony can't get her to move.

Only time will tell if these two become buddies, but for now Tony has to get use to another little one in the house that will knock him down in a moments notice. If you look close enough Tony is actually on Emma's paws, she doesn't seem to care as long as she is close to someone. I can't say enough of what a cutie she is. From the first moment she was home, the kids have been running from one end of the house to the other end of the addition. By the time night comes, she is out cold. So far so good, take a look at some of the pictures below and you can tell she is right at home.

Ready or Not Here Comes Puppy!!

We're not sure if we are crazy or not, but we went puppy shopping finally. We got the essentials and I am sure we will have to pick up more as the puppy grows. I can't believe we are getting a little puppy but now we have a huge bag of food and a kennel that says we are. So on our final weekend of pet free Tony doesn't seem to want to go to sleep and I am already thinking of what a mess we are getting into. Typical Carvelli I am also having second thoughts of where our little one is going to sleep, since Saturday night is going to be near freezing again I don't like the idea of keeping her in the kennel in the addition. So I am trying to convince Chris to make her a little bed next to ours in our room. So then we can tell people that Jayna sleeps on the couch, Tony is on the living room floor, Jasmine and Nick sleep on their floor and our puppy gets the toddler bed. What a scene we are. LOL

Oh and if things are not crazy enough my washer took a dump and if Chris can't work his magic I will be making more trips to the Laundry Mat like I did today with the three kids. It is amazing that I got seven loads of laundry done in a hour and a half, but shoving those quarters into the machine wasn't fun. The transition to the addition can't come fast enough for me, and hopefully after this weekend we will be that much closer to moving in. Cross your fingers and wish us luck :-)

Rain Rain Go Away

Rain didn't stop the carvellis from moving forward with our addition plans. On this particular cloudy day, Chris went ahead with the footing and patio pour. We got the green light from the city just days before on the plumbing, sheathing, outside footings but ironically the tin had a few problems that needed to be fixed before that got approved. The rain gods must have been watching out for us.

The footings and patio slab between the two garages got poured before the rain fell and Chris had just the right size piece of plastic to go over it too. We got an extra set of hands with Nick this time around. He was our finisher for the footings and he did a darn fine job.

Getting the right pitch on the back slab is a little trickier than we had anticipated but Chris gave it all he got, but I think someone above thought differently. Apparently, there was a cement crew down the street that was working on a remodel patio job and they were looking for a place to park their bobcat since they were out a trailer thanks to the men in blue. Well, we will let Chris tell you the long drawn out story but we had space and they had tools, and Walla...we got a finished color slab at no extra cost to us.

Shhh...no one is the wiser.