***Darden Adventures***

Alrighty, devoted blog-followers. The end is near! The end of the home building, that is.

The kids daycare had a family fun day in the parking lot - we were able to get in about 20 minutes of bouncing before it started raining and we escaped inside for pizza.

For the next like 2 weeks Isaac asked where the "bouncy bouncy" was.

Isaac's in the red shirt there, and Mara is in the yellow shirt.

Isaac really liked decorating and eating his cookie.

Mara decorated a pumpkin with some friends.

And a leaf.

This is Isaac after pizza, checking out the older boys and what they were doing. (Playing Nintendo). That's one of Isaac's buddies, Henry, on the right in the hat.

We hung out that Friday evening and played cars/tractors while the rain died down.

Our fireplace was still in the process of being done.

Kitchen looks pretty nice in the daylight! Floors still need to be stained.

The trim guy was back to put in our pillars.

Dishwasher buttons are here.

View looking into the pantry.

Not the best pics of the kids faces... but they were playing together so nicely with Isaac's tractor set.

We took a trip north (Wake Forest) to spend time with the Butlers.

Isaac rode on this truck for like an hour. He toted Hayden around later and had a blast.

Our well was installed - talk about a muddy operation.

Here's a few from the well to the house.

The well has been continuously pumped with different chlorine compounds and the water recycled. We should have the water test back next week to make sure we're all good to go.

Here's what it looks like in the crawl space.

Double hot water heaters.

When our lights were delivered, we got the task of putting them in the right rooms with the light bulbs.

I chose these for the hanging pendants.

Lots of bulbs.

Kids playing in the sawdust with the dump truck and digger!

Next visit, some of the lights were installed. What a difference this makes - it really starts to look like a home someone lives in! This is the dining room and front hallway.

Kitchen eating area.

The ovens were installed.

Cook top, too!

Master bathroom was looking good with the shower glass.

Kids got the hang of getting in and out really quickly.

Oh look at that, more construction going on in the bathroom.

And a broken bulb.

Screened in porch ceiling fan installed.

And our exterior outlets.

These are the lights that are in the bedrooms.

And these are in the kids closets and the pantry. Doesn't it look like a full moon against the night sky?

Front porch lights.

Quite a mess, huh?

The kids daycare was closed one Thursday in October, so I took off work and took them to the mall. We didn't even get inside Sears before we were doing this:

And running around near the outside fountains.

We actually chose the kids' Halloween outfits that day at the mall. Isaac had never seen a mannequin before, and kept approaching the female mannequin in the store and exclaiming, "Mommy, she has boobies!" and I'd usher him away with an explanation and he'd return and touch her bottom and shout "I LIKE boobies, Mommy!" We got a lot of laughs.

We did a lot that day - here's the kids running and falling down the apartment hill on the way back from the apartment playground. Wonder if we'll ever have such lush grass?

Check out our breaker boxes. Yes, they had some misspellings but Z tells me I'll never be in here anyway, so to let it go. Let it go.

Hood installed!

Pendants in!

And sand delivered for the septic system. This was a fun (and dirty) evening for the kiddos.

We were invited to one of Mara's friends at her old school's birthday party - Anissa. They used to be best buddies and they had a wonderful reunion.

Isaac was good for the first 45 mins or so and then he came down with a sudden fever!

I had to leave from the party to photograph a wedding reception nearby, so Z took care of the munchkins that evening. Thankfully, Isaac's fever only lasted 24 hours and Mobug never got it.

The rain this summer has been unending. The septic installers were able to put in the tank, but had to wait another week before doing the leech field.

In the meantime, other things were getting done - here are the garage lights.

Lots of playing each visit.

It was great when the lights were finally all installed and we could turn them on in the evenings to see! And the doorbell most definitely works. We have such great little testers.

Here's the garage door that Z and I picked out. Who knew there were so many different window options?

I asked for this code box.

The day the floors were stained, we had to keep off of them while they dried. Here is my attempt at phone pictures through the windows.

We were happy to take a trip to Lewisville for some quality time with family.

Isaac showing PawPaw how to operate the iPad. He loves the construction games on there that Cherry found.

We of course took part in chicken stew, and each year it gets more and more kid friendly. Isaac broke into the crackers before we even got inside.

All the boys were volunteering to push Mara around in the car, which of course meant it went nowhere. Clockwise from bottom is Elam (plaid), Lincoln, Isaac, and Max.

Uncle Hunt with the giant ladles.

Mara enjoying the stew part of the chicken stew!

And getting the hang of cooling it off.

We enjoyed being outside that weekend SO MUCH! Zack says it's so nice to not be in the "cave" (apartment).

We returned home to a finished fireplace (finally!)

And beautiful floors.

Stained stairs - the white parts get painted later.

And here's the septic field going in. Check out all the different colors of dirt.

Isaac was thrilled at the number of tractors.

I took these for Isaac, but I think Elaine and Mark are also fans?

Red, brown, white, and black dirt.

Biiiig tractor.

And here's the finished product.

Our gutters were installed - we went with white (versus brown or black).

The backyard and under the porch were smoothed and grass seed thrown.

View from the backyard.

Our door handles and stoppers were installed.

Here's mobug testing the doorbell.

Testing the flood lights one evening.

Here's the builder sketching out the sidewalk and parking pad.

And our carpet was getting installed that day. We went with the dark color, if you recall.

Master bedroom.

Master closet.

Sidewalk guys laying it out based on our sketches.

Kid hugs - Mara asked me to take this picture.

We were lucky to see Claire and Travis when they were in town for a few hours. They got to see the almost-finished product!

And parking pad/sidewalk poured.

Railings stained.

The same weekend that we did the fair, Phillips farm, and a birthday party, we got to walk Adam through the house (that's him in the white shirt). But this shows the upstairs carpet and the stained wood.