Its 2009! That's crazy! So many things are happening here in the McFaddin household, most of which are happening within first 6 months.

First we will be closing on and moving into our new house. We were scheduled to close on 12/30 but there were some communication issues between the builder not telling hte bank the house was actually finished. The builder was pushing HARD to close in 2008 for their bottom line, but its not my fault they can't follow through. Oh well, works out better for us anyway. So after some last minute rushing around with everyone on Monday and Tuesday trying to close yesterday we are now scheduled to sign on the dotted lines on Monday. We are planning on moving in on January 10. (We should probably get around to packing huh?)

We are crazy excited to be in our house! Cheryl and Caleb were there yesterday for the final walk-through and Caleb was so excited running from room to room saying "This is my room!" "This is baby's room!" "This is my bathroom!" "This is my new yard!" Caleb's excitement may only be outdone by my anxiousness to be out of our apartment. For the past few months I have just started feeling the walls move in. A feeling that has only been heightened in the past couple weeks.

Once we are settled in the house, Cheryl leaves for Costa Rica with some friends for a nice 5 day trip of fun. Caleb and Daddy will get to spend some good time playing in the new house and new yard (if its not too cold).

Once February comes things start to slow down and we start preparing for the arrival of M&M (Mini-McFaddin) in June.

We hope your 2009 is already shaping up to be as eventful and as exciting as ours!

(I would post some pictures of the house, but the only picture we have of the completed house is the kitchen. If you haven't already seen it on Facebook I am now just going to wait until we can add more pictures).

Labels: Good times, House, News

Hello all! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and day after. We sure did. Now, I wasn't feeling super as I've fighting a cough and yuck for the past several days, but there its always awesome to just sit around and spend time with my honey and kiddo.

Caleb is at such a fun age now and really had a ball playing with his cousins on Thursday. It was so great to see him actually playing together with them instead of just chasing/following them around. All but 2 of his cousins are older - 6, 5, 4, and almost 4 so he is really engaging with them now and he LOVES it!!

We spent Thursday morning at Kathy & Tom's house (Cheryl's older sister for the uninitiated) for a monkey bread breakfast that we brought over. After a couple of hours we headed back home for a little bit to make our rolls and homemade mashed potatoes then made our way out to Julie & Jesse's house (Cheryl's oldest sister) for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great day just being together with family.

Yesterday morning Caleb video-chatted with Nana, Pawpaw, Aunt Amy, Uncle Barrett, and even cousin Lily a little bit. It is so funny to see Caleb interact with them over the computer even though its tough to keep him on the screen since he is constantly running around playing with them.

Last night Cheryl & I had a movie date, thanks to our great friends the Felkers. We all met at Sake, our favorite (and soon to me must closer) hibachi grill for an excellent dinner, and then we switched cars so Micheal & Sandy could take Caleb to their house and Cheryl & I could hit the movie theater. Its a good thing too since the movie started 20 mins before the website said.

After seeing Twlight (which wasn't that bad, when you know its A. not a horror movie and 2. not an action-packed vampire movie), we drove past our house (without a camera) to see the status. Its TOTALLY bricked and even our little address block is included too!! The front door and garage doors are installed and everything!! Its getting so close now we can almost taste it!

I would love to move in before Cheryl goes on her Costa Rican vacation on January 21, but we'll see how the final stages progress, especially packing....

Labels: Family, Good times, Holiday, House

Just a quick update this evening. Our house is progressing quite rapidly. So rapid in fact they have tentatively pushed our close date up 2 weeks! Now, I'm not so sure that it will stay there and I know the primary reason they want to close on December 31 is to get it off their books. Sorry, but I'm gonna be pushing for a first week in January close date. Got to get all the tax benefits right?

As you can see they have started brick laying and have most of the sides already done. The inside has all the sheet rock and even a fresh cost of primer on.





This is in front of the fireplace looking on the family room into the kitchen.

Labels: House

I went by the house last Thursday to see it before our trip to Little Rock and found this:



Still not a whole lot going on, but at least there had been a some progress. Well, after I got back to work on Wednesday I knew I needed to head out there again to just check on things. I planned to stop by during lunch on Friday, but before I did I called the contractor to make a very minor adjustment to some wiring options and he mentioned that the wiring was scheduled for the 13th.

The 13th?! As in November? Needless to say I was very curious so I headed out to see it and I could not believe the state of the house when I got there...or that I forgot to charge the camera battery and couldn't take any pictures! As Caleb would say "Aw man."

Fear not. Cheryl hadn't been to the house in a few weeks so we decided to visit this afternoon so she could see how far along the house was for herself. WOW!! There was significant work done just in the 30 hours since I had seen the house. Well, no more waiting here they are for your viewing pleasure.



From the back door - Looking into the Family Room and kitchen. (Cheryl, Micheal and Sandy are in the kitchen).


From the kitchen pantry - the breakfast nook on the right into the Family Room


The Fam

Labels: Family, House

Well, it's been the usual 2-week gap between posts (ok more like 3), but they finally got started on our house. I drove by during lunch and saw a few guys working a little. These pics are from a couple of days ago.




More to come.

Labels: House

Friday was a pretty awesome day. Its been a few weeks since we posted the picture of our dirt and now we have actually made it to the next step. Friday afternoon, Cheryl & I went to the design gallery and picked everything for our house. Everything. We already had made a few choices when we signed the contract such as taller cabinets, surround sound pre-wiring, and a master retreat in our bedroom.

Now came the big stuff. Our designer, Cly, was very nice and helpful. There is a whole process with designing the interior of your home and I would not necessarily have thought it started in the kitchen. We began by picking out our cabinets. It was fairly easy to pick out the color (a nice cherry finish). Then we took our cabinet door to the area to pick out our tile. We placed the tile samples on the floor and put the cabinet door next to it so see how it looked together. It was easy to pick out 2 tiles and we picked one for the entry, kitchen, and master bath, then the other for the guest (Caleb's) bath.

Next we took the tile to the carpet section. We knew carpet would definitely be one of the few things we would upgrade on. Again we picked out 2 samples very quickly and then placed the kitchen tile next to them and walked every which way around to see all the different shades from each angle. Finally we picked out the slightly warmer color and a thicker carpet pad (Its pretty impressive the difference between 5/8 inches versus 1/2.

Not to continue to bore you with all the details, we had to pick out our countertops (easy), our brick (more challenging than we expected), the interior paint, bathroom and kitchen faucets, and grout color. Seriously, we had to pick out the color of grout for both types of tile we picked out. And we had to pick the colors of our gutters. Like I really care what colors the gutters are painted. Do people really paint their gutters a different color than their exterior trim?

Overall, it was a very productive if mildly stressful and yet enjoyable afternoon (yeah the appointment was 3 hours). We upgraded on a few more things that we anticipated, but knew we were making great choices for now while also considering resale value. (Its kind of weird to be thinking of selling a house I haven't even built or lived in yet).

Needless to say we are super-excited for our house to get started (Cheryl actually drove by yesterday and our dirt is now flatter) and to get moved in! Its going to be an exciting and long few months. We are guessing that we will be in by the end of January (I hope).

So that was Friday afternoon. I had the morning off from work to take Part 3 of the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) exam...again. Back in November I passed Parts 1 & 2 and took Part 3 back in May right before our Chicago trip. I got close with score just 12 points off the pass mark. I had to wait 90 days until I could take Part 3 again, so in the meantime I passed Part 4 in July. Part 3 is, in my humble opinion, the toughest section to pass. Its big and covers so much information compared to the other parts.

I finally scheduled my test during Labor Day weekend and since then have almost been a ghost at home. After Caleb went to bed between 6:30 - 7:00, I was either locked away in the bedroom or more recently headed to Barnes & Noble to study for at least 1.5 hours, usually between 2-3. I was trying to remain confident and I wasn't feeling in the zone while taking the best but once the screen print flashed on the screen I was met with equal parts shock and relief. I PASSED!!!

It felt to great to finally be done studying and to not have this thing hanging over me. I already received my official notice of Certification and within the next few months I will get my certificate.

Oh, I should also point out that as my reward for passing the whole exam was to take some of my exam bonus money (which I will be requesting tomorrow) was to get a Wii. Needless to say I had a very productive 40 minutes after I received my 'Pass".

That was a long post, but its better than nothing. Hopefully progress on the house will pick up and we will have more to share.

Labels: House, News, test