Coming up for a breath

Hi everyone.
I really didn't mean to drop off the blog for so long.  Between the house and getting ready for Christmas, I'm feeling a bit unglued.  Hopefully I can pull myself together fairly quickly.  Despite two snow storms, we've started framing the house.  In between, our school-aged kids all performed at the local Festival of Trees.  (I love kindergartners!)

The day after I finished up painting the basement walls, the concrete subcontractor backfilled our foundation.  Woot!  Last Thursday, our contractor and I measured off the foundation and chalked the lines for the sill plates.

It took Mr. Pickup and I a few days to get those plates on with the weather.

Our current focus is framing the bearing walls in the basement.  Mr. Pickup and I spent most of Monday chalking out walls, cutting top and bottom plates for the bearing walls.

 It feels really good to finally be accomplishing something.  My favorite part?  Working with my best friend.

Please know how much I appreciate your comments and emails.  I'll get some replies coming soon!