NathanAmy.com

Meet Rav4

Nathan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:48:27 +0000

Amy and I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the family, and by that I mean car family. Meet our new 2009 Toyota Rav4 Sport. It’s many features includes good gas mileage and an actual ability to carry canoes, people while still having relevant cargo space. Overall the Rav4 is an affordable car that more effectively fits our lifestyle and allows us to be better stewards of what God has blessed us with.

Meet RAV4

Driver's Seat. Or as I like to think of any vehicle I commandeer, the helm/cockpit.

This picture was purely to intimidate other compact SUVs.

Addition – Almost Complete

Nathan — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 05:43:51 +0000

It has been almost a month since the last update. Amy and I have been in a whirlwind of working on the 1,001 details that will bring the addition to completion. Our reduced pace in completing these items was due to investing more time in the many areas of our lives that had been neglected during the first 4-weeks of construction…which has been great. Though Amy and I are very motivated at this point to get a living room, dining, and loft back for eating and relaxing.

We are very close to being done to the point where we have all of our previous living spaces back to normal. All we need to do is a little bit more painting, have the carpet in the loft stretched back in place, carpets cleaned, furniture put back in place, and a bit of decorating. That being said without further ado I present our current progress:

Entry and living room now with more raised ceiling and can!

Loft and 3rd bedroom. Doors need not apply.

3rd bedroom looking in door. Carpet is overrated.

3rd bedroom looking towards the door.

Looking forward to June!

Amy — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:04:57 +0000

Just booked our airfare to visit Timothy and his family in June! Over Father’s day weekend we will be celebrating Ezra’s First Birthday (May 20), meeting our newborn niece (due June 4), her baby dedication, and celebrating Father’s Day with Nathan’s family! It’s sure to be a fun-packed, non-stop weekend!

So excited to get to see how our little man, Ezra, has grown, Timothy and Manju text us pictures occasionally and he is getting sooo big! And to hold our newborn niece, the first Hein female to be born in almost 30 years!

Addition – Ceiling framing, data, HVAC, drywall

Amy — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:02:11 +0000

God has so fully blessed us!!! This past Sunday we had 5 peeps (including myself) working on the addition and we got a TON done!!! I called my brother the Friday before asking him to pitch in his skills and then Saturday he recruited my dad to help out as well! Kevin was in charge of framing in the ceiling, I was his saw helper and did all of his cutting, Nathan finished wrapping up the numerous data lines he ran (we now have internet plug ins in all the bedrooms of the house, the loft, and the living room), my dad, the HVAC expert, took care of rerouting the living room vents into a bedroom vent and a living room vent, and Jim, the drywall/paint expert sheetrocked the new bedroom wall and bedroom closet! In addition to helping Kevin and the other guys as needed I was also the food manager. I took care of making sure the boys had a hearty breakfast of homemade wildberry muffins and a filling taco bar for lunch!

Can lights in all their beauty. Can you see "it" yet?

The new loft, now with 25% more wall!

Welcome to our 3rd bedroom

You are in the corner. This is where time out may take place.

We are so blessed to have such gifted people in our lives that are willing to give of their talent to our project. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to Kevin, Jim, and my dad. Your guys’ help has been such an amazing blessing and we appreciate you so much!!!

Next up is sheetrocking the living room ceiling and mudding/taping the sheetrock!

No Leftovers left behind

Amy — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:01:41 +0000

I grew up in a house that didn’t really “do” leftovers. Between myself, my mother, and two sisters we took on a typical girlish aversion to reheats. Nathan, on the other hand, comes from a home of mostly men and they ate almost everything in sight, no matter how old (to a point of course!).

When we married he took on a bit of my aversion to leftovers, he would no longer eat food from the fridge or pantry if he noticed I wasn’t eating it anymore. As time went on I started to realize how beneficial leftovers were, the previous night’s dinner made a cost-effective and easy lunch for the following day at work, my leftover aversion began to extend from not at all to 24 hours. As I began to eat leftovers, Nathan also regained confidence in them and he began to eat them as he did before we married.

Now this has been a long and complicated process. And today, I really pushed my leftover threshold to another level. My previous leftover limit has been 48 hours and occasionally my homemade spaghetti would win out at 3 or 4 days but only because well, my spaghetti is just pretty darn awesome as I’m sure some of our readers will attest too Anywho, back to today, as you all know we sold my car last night so here I am at work with no transportation and a container of homemade mac n cheese that Nathan so kindly grabbed for me before we left home this morning. While it is homemade mac n cheese, I made it last Thursday, it is now Tuesday, that’s 5 days old friends!

I reluctantly heated the mac n cheese for lunch (while secretly praying and hoping that someone in the office would volunteer for a last minute Leaann Chin run), and sat down to liberally season it with S&P. One bite, still breathing. Two bites, this isn’t sooo bad. Three bites, passing the mental block. Four bites, this is going down

3 hours later I’m still alive and haven’t had any sudden urges to dash for the bathroom. Pretty proud of myself for eating that mac n cheese, but I think leftovers will still be evaluated with a reproachful eye after 72hrs, hey that’s still a 24hr bump up from my previous deadline…

Goodbye Old Friend

Amy — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:42:36 +0000

8 years ago Nathan and I bought our awesome 1996 black Cadillac Seville STS at 125,000 miles. Tonight it was bittersweet as we sold her to a nice young couple from Rochester bearing 228,000 miles. The Cadillac was a most trustworthy car only ever letting us down twice in the 8 years and 103,000 miles that we owned her. Her seat warmers were appreciated, her air conditioning cool and frosty, and her sunroof warm and sunny. We truly will miss her, she was a swell car and a sound investment. We never imagined, when buying her, that she would get us so far and treat us so well.

Farewell fair Cadillac! You will be missed!

Farewell fair Caddy!

Now it’s back to our carpooling days as we start the search for another perfect car that will give us another wonderful 8-10 years and 100,000+ miles!

Vehicle suggestions anyone?

Addition – Rough-In Inspections Complete

Nathan — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 04:37:13 +0000

Wiring and framing ready for inspection

As last weekend wrapped up, Kevin, Awesome Amy, and I were able to finish up the framing and sub floor installation. With the sub floor and framing complete it was time to do the rough-in electrical. The “rough-in” referrs to installing all of the boxes where outlets and fixtures will go, running the wire to each location but not connecting any of the fixtures or outlets. This is the rough-in point at which a city inspector needs to approve that the national and local electrical codes have been adhered to. I did adhere to them quite well, but I needed the city to sign the piece of paper that says I did.
With the electrical inspection scheduled for Thursday I worked from 5pm Wednesday to 5am Thursday morning to complete the necessary electrical work. It was quite the work out having spent Wednesday at work and reporting back to work at 8a.m. Thursday morning. The key is it all got down and Thursday afternoon the inspector came and signed off on the electrical. Meaning I could proceed to connect all of the outlets and fixtures.

Wiring and walls are up!

Friday afternoon, we had the framing inspection. Which we learned comes after the eletrical inspection in Lakeville which Kevin, Amy, and I thought this was a bit out of the ordinary. But once again the inspector came and was pleased with what had been done and what we were planning to do prior to installing drywall. He had a few things he recommended be done but nothing that required changes or any major additional cost. We were all pleased.

With our electrical rough-in inspection passed and the framing inspection passed we can now proceed with drywall. Although we need to complete the data cable running, HVAC, and framing in the ceiling. Weekend ahooo!

I am no stranger to procrastination

Amy — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 04:30:31 +0000

It’s Tuesday night, and I have a 6-8 page paper due by midnight tomorrow. Thus far I have two sources lined up and about half a page of content. Now, I have never been a stranger to procrastination, but there’s a bit more to it than that this time around. I have no where to work on this paper, and my bedroom, where I am currently working is too close to the “action” in my home… I usually am able to focus in really well just sitting at my desk in my loft, but that space isn’t exactly available these days. Sunday my plan was to hunker down and work on it all day, however the guys and my old friend procrastination needed help in screwing down the subfloor (because who wouldn’t rather screw down 271 sqft of floor rather than write a 6-8 page paper?). Tonight I’m sitting in my bed doing my best to focus, but the ramblings from Nathan in the loft/3rd bedroom trying to configure electrical installations have been pretty darn distracting, not to mention every 20 minutes or so he hollers for my help in placement of an outlet, fire detector, or ethernet connection.

I am really beginning to realize that construction is not conducive to homework… at all. I have finally come to understand that I just can’t work here, especially on a big important paper! So tomorrow when I leave for work I will bring my school bag loaded down with laptop, textbook, and snacks and after work I will swing through Caribou for a highly addictive Caramel Cooler and head to the public library to hunker down and write this beast of a paper for my Ethics class

The good news is once my paper is submitted tomorrow night I have a whole week off from homework before my next class starts!

Addition – Sub Floor and Walls

Nathan — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 02:39:58 +0000

Sunday the team once again assembled to dominate on the 3rd bedroom. Kevin, Amy, and I made the subfloor happen in no time. Kevin and I then focused on framing the wall and the closet. It was quite the productive day. Plus we finished engineering the electrical needs so I am ready to start implementing the circuits.

As always major props to Kevin for his generosity in helping Amy and I add-on to our home. Your support and expertise are a blessing!

And now for the pictures.

Legen…

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Subfloor installed

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dary!

Walls Framed In

Stairwell Gallery Wall

Amy — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:30:19 +0000

Almost a year ago I saw this post on YoungHouseLove and loved it! I have wanted to do something like it ever since and when another friend did something like it on her living room wall it really inspired me. So when Nathan was on his missions trip in Peru last month I took the free time I had and created my own gallery wall in my stairwell. (Please forgive the mediocre pictures, Nathan took the good camera to Peru with him so I was stuck with my cell phone camera).

Here is how my stairwell wall has looked since we got married and moved into our house 6 years ago:

I followed YHL’s tip of cutting out newspaper and taping it to the wall to find the arrangement I liked best. With a permanent marker I also marked where each hanging/hook was on the back of each frame, so once I had the newspaper arranged on the wall just the way I liked it all I had to do was nail holes right into my black dots on the newspaper, rip the newspaper off, and then hang my picture. It was a fantastic way to arrange and hang things quickly!

In finding frames for my hallway gallery I searched the house high and low for black frames, which we happen to have a ton of, I had almost enough to fill the entire wall. Michael’s gave me the 3 or 4 I still needed for 50% off.

I had so much fun filling the frames. I found various pictures and bits of art and even just scrapbook paper to fill the frames. For those wondering, the “47″ on the wall represents two things- 1. for as long as I can remember my favorite number has always been 47, 2. a month after we got married I realized our wedding date added up to 47, 12+30+05=47, which has always been pretty cool to me that our wedding date just happened to add up to my favorite number- so random and cool!

I put all the frames up the first weekend Nathan was gone and was pretty disappointed that I didn’t have anyone to show it off to. Two days later my 4 year old niece, Gwen, came to spend the night with me and in her hurry to play with her toys upstairs she zoomed past the wall. I was a little bummed, but hey, she’s 4, I shouldn’t have expected more than that. So when we were walking downstairs to start making dinner and she all of the sudden yelled “STOP!, LOOK at these beautiful pictures! Pick me up so I can see them better!” I was pretty thrilled.

(Of course currently all of these frames/objects are stored away in a dust covered box and the wall is empty but for the nail holes everywhere… Can hardly wait for the addition to be done!!!)