The House We Hoped To Get (but didn't)

This is the house we hoped to be living in on December 3. (See the last paragraph) We made an offer on it today and we should have final numbers on it by Saturday evening. Even if they counteroffer at their asking price we will be getting a pretty sweet deal.

This is the front walk. It may be a little weird to shovel snow from in the winter, but I'm willing to live with that. I love the Aspen trees, they really set a nice stage for the house. The house feels like a little cottage with its own story to tell. The entry to the house opens up to a living room on the left and the dining room and kitchen on the right. You can see that the kitchen is amazing. All new stainless steel appliances and custom cabinetry with new granite countertops. We plan on putting in all wood floors in place of the carpet. With 3 boys eating at our table that carpet doesn't stand a chance. I told Janna I am going to put the carpet in the garage. Make it easier to work on the cars and go out there barefoot.The front living room exits out the back through French Doors onto a back patio. All the drapes and fixtures are included. We are asking for the barstools to stay too. I really like the skylights and vaulted ceiling. It is hard to tell, but there is crown molding around the entire room.The master bedroom is pretty impressive. It makes me want to update our old bedset though. It opens up onto its own deck with Aspens around it. The owner is a custom home builder and he did a lot of work to the house while living in it. There is a vanity to the right of the picture outside of the bathroom. All 3 bathrooms are also incredibly done. The backyard is not huge, but you can see there is a good chunk of grass, a matching shed, and lots of cool Aspen trees and rose bushes. We can hardly see any of our neighbors houses and it really feels like our own Secret Garden. They have some statues that can be kind of freaky if you don't expect them. The yard has a slope hopefully enough to sled down in the winter. We will let everyone know how it goes. We are really hopeful and excited after looking at what feels like a bazillion houses. This one was just put on the MLS last night and we were able to jump on it right away. Funny how things work out that way.

They did not include any pictures of the basement but it is nice too. Janna just isn't a big fan of the wall paper. She really doesn't like it. At all. Did I mention she hates wall paper? I think it is because they had it in EVERY ROOM growing up. She isn't a fan of the popcorn ceiling either, but we can live with it.

Well, this post is now void. Our agent put the original offer on a 2004 form so we had to reoffer 24 hours later. Of course by that time there was another offer on the table and we never got a response until 24 hours AFTER they were supposed to get us one. I have a really bad taste in my mouth right now. I just have to hope that this happened for a reason that will benefit us in the long run. I am still not happy about it though.

Poor Parenting #5

We have been actively looking for a house to move into after our lease is up in mid November. A week or so ago Van was so hungry that he got up out of his carseat, got his own bottle ready, sat back down, and downed the thing. He has since forgiven us.

Haircut

OK, so the haircut question has drawn some pretty good response from our readers. Therefore, I will give you a look back on the "Looks of Luke." As many of you have given some detailed requests, here are some of the looks I have had over the nearly 7 years Janna and I have been married. If you have an inkling to change your vote, by all means go right ahead. I know some of you see that long, dreamy, flowing red hair and get jealous. Somewhere I have a sweet mullet picture but unfortunately I have not yet located it. Feel free to vote for it regardless.

I have also started my own blog to keep my fans updated on my doings. It is http://iamlukelee.blogspot.com. I will be posting my take on our football games, work, people who bug me, anything I have on my mind. For anyone interested, check it out.

Van @ 4 months

Van is 4 months old today. We took this video right after church this afternoon.

Workaholics Anonymous

So suddenly I am a workaholic. Not by choice, but by the requirements of the job I am on. Due to owner delays with lenders, the hotel I am supposed to be building has indefinite delays until we hear otherwise. I was working afternoons on my current job, Palazzo Verdi, for several weeks due to the big cranes setting precast pieces, but now that they have topped out at the 15th floor, we are back on days. The good part is that we get to work in the sunlight and I get to be home in the evening, but it is really good to be home in the evening when you aren't in a great mood because you were gone from 6am to 6pm?


When I work afternoons I get to bed by midnight, up around 7am, workout, help with the kids, run errands, eat lunch with the family, and head to work around 2pm. I eat a heavier lunch, which gets better digested while working, and a light lunch instead of a heavy dinner. I don't have the opportunity to do as much socially at night, but now I am too tired to do that anyway. Plus I have my hometeaching to keep me socially up to speed.


When I get home I usually kick off my boots, eat dinner, sit on the couch and talk to Janna until I fall asleep, wake up at 2:30am, take off my clothes, brush my teeth, push Rusty to the middle of our bed because he always is in my spot, set my alarm, and fall back to sleep. So lately being home at night doesn't do much for any of us. Did I mention they have had us come in on Saturday the last 2? That includes tomorrow. I told the other engineer I have a prior commitment at 8am and so I will only be able to stay from 6:30-7:30am. Saturday's are my day at home with Janna and the kids to do fun stuff. I feel like 12 hours a day during the week justifies this. I think Janna and the kids agree. It is hard sometimes when the job's schedule gets tight.

Luckily after our grade beam is finished tomorrow, within a week or two we will be back on afternoons for a while. I may sound crazy, but I am looking forward to it.


I am debating whether to keep my hair short or let it grow some. I am at an impasse.



Perhaps I will let my readers vote and have a say. What do you think? Post a comment and your vote shall be tallied accordingly and opinion taken into consideration in relation to how often you comment and frequent our blog. Remember, if you don't post a vote, you cannot complain.

First day of Preschool

Stone had his first day of preschool last week. As many of you know, Stone is very attached to me and doesn't like being away from me. He was excited to go until I had to leave him at school. I stayed half of the time on the first day. I tried to sneak out, but he busted me. The teacher had to take him while I left. He put up a pretty good fight, but he always calms down right after I leave. When I came to pick him up, he said he had fun and that he didn't want to leave. On his second day he didn't want to go. He said that Rusty was going not him. So Rusty puts on the back pack, and when we get there he sits at the table ready for school. I didn't stay this time, but the teacher had to hold him again while I left. He had fun again. Hopefully it will get easier.

Garden of the Gods

On Labor Day, we went to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It was a fun day. The weather was perfect. We took a picnic and had lunch in the park. We watched some people rock climb up some of the rocks. It looked like fun. There are so many beautiful things to see in Colorado. The mountain peak in the background of the picture above is Pike's Peak. It isn't the tallest peak in Colorado but it is one of the many peaks above 14,000 feet. The view from the summit inspired the song "America the Beautiful". I need a microphone, I'm ready for my solo.

Catching Up

After realizing that I really haven't posted for a couple of weeks, I thought I would take a few minutes. We are all home sick from church, though we would all rather be camping. We planned to leave yesterday and Van came down with some bad congestion and Rusty was covered with red spots. Now Stone has a few of the same type of spots. They don't itch or secrete fluids, they are just pimple-like red spots. No fever but obviously contagious. Stone is still getting over his annual summer rash. I have some sort of a stye in my left eye and Janna is also congested. Normally we might just go camping, but last time we did with a sick Rusty he ended up getting pneumonia.


The picture above I took at work last week. The cranes are supposed to have topped out 2 weeks ago but are behind schedule. This unfortunately has forced us to switch from swing to day to swing and Tuesday back to day shift. It is hard to plan anything with the family with this type of schedule. Wednesday one of our vendors is taking the engineer's to a Rockies v. Giants game and has box seats for us. I am looking forward to that. The crane on the right is now moved and the one on the left will be done and pull back this week to start the face of the building. As engineers we do nearly all of the layout for the entire building. It is up to us to make sure everything is right where it is supposed to be. Yeah, no pressure.

We are getting closer to breaking ground on the hotel next door. This week we started getting materials for the excavation. The hole we have to dig will be about 30 feet deep. It will have 2 levels of underground parking. After the hole is dug we will have to drill and pour several dozen caissons down from the bottom of the hole, which are what hold the weight of the building like a footing. We will form up and pour concrete grade beams which sit on the caissons. The building walls are built on the grade beams, held down by anchor bolts. If I lost you somewhere in this paragraph don't worry about it, I am typing this for my dad. He likes to know what I am doing at work.

This is the view out of the west side of our building. We overlook the Coore's Amphitheatre. Every few days in the summer they have concerts and tours. I have heard some decent shows this summer including Evanescence, Atreyu, Ciara, Wierd Al, Click Five, Hilary Duff, and tomorrow night several bands are coming including Linkin Park & My Chemical Romance. Below is a picture of Hilary Duff I took for my siter-in-law and her kids who are Hilary Duff fans, through our builder's level. It seems like every afternoon we get intense rain storms passing by or on top of our project. The upside is that we welcome the rain as we need it, and usually the sun breaks free from the clouds and gives us some of the brightest rainbows. In this picture you can see there is a double rainbow. Also I took all of these pictures on this post with my camera phone.

I want to wish Tim Dickman a HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY today. We also want to wish our friends who are expecting babies soon the best of luck, the mom's a speedy recovery, and all of the parents lots of sleep. We are thinking about you.