Frueh Fortress

New Home Presentation

2011-04-05T21:54:00.000-04:00

Finally! We got a sneak peek of the inside of the house. :) Wel, it's not like we haven't already been in it, but the last time it was just freshly drywalled. Every step of the way it's been so exciting to see what it's going to look like next. Today we got a glimpse of it almost in it's finished state.

It would seem as if all that's left is really the spit and polish. ;) The front porch and front door still need to be painted, the screen porch still needs to be enclosed and painted, there is some trim that needs to be placed in the kitchen, the garage door needs to be installed and the bathroom mirrors and accessories still need to be installed. There's probably more, but those are the things that stand out. Today the painter was there doing some touch-ups.

We came up with a short list of things that still need to be addressed and we'll return on Sunday to make sure everything gets done before we close on Monday.

It's actually coming to a point where I can start to imagine our furniture and decorating in it.

The front and exterior with landscaping.

Kitchen and dining room and family room.

Kitchen and front entry way.

Master bedroom and loft area.

Almost Finished

2011-03-27T18:34:00.000-04:00

Things are happening so quickly now. In just a few short weeks we'll be living here!

We weren't really planning to stop by the house this weekend, but we had a baptism to attend and we were counting on Megan falling asleep in the car. So we drove the extra 20 minutes to the house instead of driving straight home to the apartment. You can imagine our surprise when we pulled up and saw it almost completely painted and landscaped. We knew that they would sod the front and seed the back, but we thought we were only getting one tree. I guess one perk of the corner lot is a lot more landscaping. While it may not be what we would have chosen, it's included and something that we won't have to worry about right away.

There are still a few things missing from the exterior, but boy has it taken shape over the past two weeks. The to do list is definitely getting shorter.

The house was locked up tight so we didn't get any inside pictures this time. Turns out we could have just gone to the sales office and they would have given us a key. Oh well, we'll be seeing it for our Home Presentation walk through very soon anyways.

Builder Upgrades (?)

2011-03-16T15:34:00.000-04:00

So through this adventure there have been several updates to the plan that we may not have been made aware of ahead of time.

We lucked out and got those two windows in the living room. They came about because the wrong plan was ordered for us. So, that was a win for us.

The layout of the kitchen has been updated. Instead of the window facing out the side, it now goes out the back. This is a plus because the venting for the stove/OTR now goes out the side and not into the screen porch. Yeah, that would be kind of dumb. And now the window over looks the screen porch instead of looking at the neighbor's house. So that was totally a win.

Due to some plumbing issues, the layout of the half-bath has also been changed. Instead of walking into the room with the sink and toilet facing you, the door opens to the pedestal sink with the toilet beyond that. Guests will appreciate that if the door accidentally gets opened up on them. ;)

Upstairs, the second bath has also been altered. Instead of having the tub fill opposite the toilet and cabinet wall, everything is on the same side. I was actually looking forward to having more room on the free-side when it comes to Megan's bath time. Oh well.

And one of the biggest changes, I didn't even notice until I was creating the last post. The master bedroom windows. In the model we looked at there were two narrow windows in the bedroom. In our house, there is a nice wide triple window instead of the two separate windows. The amount of light coming into that room is amazing.

Because the houses are opposite, these photos were basically taken from the same spot. Look at how much brighter our house is with that new window layout!

Drywall, Doors, Cabinets and Millwork

2011-03-12T22:02:00.000-05:00

Wow! Lots of changes in the last two weeks. We figured there would be, but seeing it really is impressive.

After talking with the builder representative, we thought there might even be some paint going up, but that wasn't the case. Won't be long though, I'm sure of that.

When we were upstairs looking around we heard footsteps downstairs. It was our realtor. He had a showing in the area and decided to stop in to check on our progress. It was nice to see him and talk a bit. We haven't seen him since October. The day that we were looking at lots he was influential in our decision of choosing this lot. When he stood on that front porch, he emphasized what a great lot it was and that he was happy that we chose the one we did. Honestly, I hadn't really looked at the overall lot and view that we have from the front porch. Being a corner lot, we really do have a lot more grass area than most of the neighbors. It's going to be so nice.

Here's the way things are looking now. No big changes to the exterior. They had been out and done a little more grading near the house and prepping for the sidewalk and back porch foundation to be poured.

Living room and kitchen. Those little south facing windows sure do let a lot of light in.

Shane's office

Stairway. That window at the top is going to let a lot of light into the loft area.

Melissa's office

Master bedroom. Again, I'm so happy how bright it is in here.

Master bath

Loft area

Megan's room

Megan's Bathroom. This is where that cute clearance stuff from the previous post is going to go.

Spare bedroom

Decorating

2011-03-08T14:27:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't love a good deal? We found these bath rugs and shower curtain for Megan's bathroom on clearance at Target. Such fun colors for a little girl's bathroom. The decorating possibilities are almost endless with this variety of colors. Can't wait to see it all come together!

And then there is this adorable print that I found for Megan's room. The silhouette of the little girl playing with the balloon was so cute. It just felt so innocent and reminded me of the little Hope and Miss You Willow Tree figurines that we have. The strawberry background of the print should match pretty well with the dark pink in Megan's bedding. I'm so excited to get to start decorating again!

We met with the project manager of our build on Feb 26th. There weren't many changes from the week before. The insulation was in and they were ready to start drywalling. We just had to complete a walk-through before they starting closing it all up.

We didn't make it to the house over the weekend of March 5th, so there should be some major changes when we get there next. Our closing is just over five weeks away.

Progress!

2011-02-20T20:48:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: The colors you are about to see are not the final colors. Things have not yet been painted.

Okay, now that we have that covered. It was a little alarming to pull up to the house today to see it yellow. The same horrible yellow as every single wall of the apartment we are staying at. Nope, just the Hardie Board siding as it comes and the shakes in their original state. The roof is complete. We didn't get to pick the shingle color. They must have taken our color choices and picked what would go best. It looks nice. Now of course I'm that much more anxious to see the actual paint colors go up!

Today was the first time at we looked in the house. We got to walk around IN our new house! We got to see what our view out the patio door will be. What it will look like standing at the front door. Things that just seeing the house from the curb can't tell you. Oh, and the window mistake has been fixed. The glass block is back where it belongs in the Master bath.

Front of house with shake detail. Craftsman style is starting to show.

Living room with our "free" south-facing windows due to an error in our plan. Patio door to screen porch.

Kitchen window looking to dining area. Living room looking back to kitchen.

Triple window in Master bedroom. Double window to the left is guest room or office. Glass block window in M/Bath with tub and shower area.

Megan's room and spare room. Not sure we've decided which will be hers just yet.

Back of the house/porch (west) and side of house (south). Screen porch off dining area/kitchen.

These week to week changes are incredible. It's just amazing how much they get done in a week. Other big elements for the exterior still to come include enclosing the screen porch, installing gutters, stone work on the column of the front porch and of course the real color scheme. Exciting stuff!

More Big Changes

2011-02-12T20:24:00.000-05:00

We went from having the start of the framing to actually having solid walls, windows, a front door and a roof. The roofers were even there when we stopped by on a Saturday.

The framing for the screen porch has also been started. It's so nice to see it all come together. Pretty soon the weekly changes won't be as obvious from the outside. In just two-months, this will be our new home!

There was a mistake that we noticed this week. (You can see it in the last photo). The glass-block style window that is supposed to be in the master bathroom was installed in the kitchen. Oops. We contacted our project manager and the architect was going to check it out first thing Monday morning. Luckily the siding hadn't been started, so it shouldn't be too bad to fix this mixup.

We Have Walls!

2011-02-05T15:30:00.000-05:00

Another week and the framing has begun. And another bundle of materials has been delivered. Maybe by next week we'll even have a roof!

The Foundation is In!

2011-01-29T15:06:00.000-05:00

Here it is. The base for our new home. Funny how small it looks. The framing materials had been delivered so it was hard to get a good picture of the whole lot.

Our little "corner of the world".

Selections - Another Sneak Peek

2011-01-24T19:59:00.000-05:00

We met with the interior designer to go over our options for the finishes that were customizable.

The exterior: L-R front door, trim & garage door, siding, shake

Granite, kitchen flooring, cabinetry style and color. Door and drawer hardware.

There was also tile and grout for the bathrooms and laundry room, and the cultured marble vanity tops for the bathrooms, and some other miscellaneous finishes and accessories, but for some reason I didn't get pictures of those.

This process was pretty fun and exciting. I love that we got to choose our exterior colors from the Sherwin Williams fan deck and weren't just limited to a certain number of palettes that they had already put together. It will be so so fun to see everything come together with our personalizations.

What We Left Behind

2011-01-24T13:02:00.000-05:00

This photo was taken on December 12, 2010. We were busy packing and getting ready to move. Besides packing, we had lots and lots of snow to deal with. The snow just kept coming and coming right up to the very end.

For this. Photo taken exactly a month later from our apartment patio, January 12, 2011. And this was just two days after a "winter storm" went through.

Sneak Peek at our Lot

2011-01-23T18:06:00.000-05:00

As it looked back in October when we were first here.

And after it was graded and trees cleared.

One week later. Gas and water lines and sewer work complete. Looks like the foundation will be coming very soon.

Welcome to North Carolina

2011-01-23T14:31:00.000-05:00

We were lucky to see lots of houses when we came down in October. The Parade of Homes was going on, so our Realtor was able to get us into many different houses in many different parts of town. We really lucked out. We only had a few hours on Thursday afternoon, all of Friday and Saturday to do the hunt. Then we were scheduled to come home on Sunday.

One of our stops on Friday included a model home in the South Lakes neighborhood. Our Realtor was long time friends with one of the builder representatives in the development. She asked for 15 minutes of our time. I think we were there closer to an hour! She had four different houses on the Parade. Her first choice for us was not the one our Realtor had in mind, but once we got inside, the sparks started. Both of us really loved this house. We talked it out and decided to go ahead and pick a lot to build on and put together our purchase agreement. We came back the next day to do all the paperwork. Holy crap! We just bought a house! (well, contingent on the sale of our home in MN)

Here are pictures of the model and our lot as we saw it in October. Our house will be oriented the same as this first image. It's kind of hard to picture it turned around after walking through the model laid out this way. The house has 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a loft, screen porch and is just over 2000 sq ft.

Artist rendering:

Photos from the model home we visited:

Front of house with small porch.

Kitchen and living room

Entryway and stairway. Doors on left are a coat closet.

Looking into master bedroom and into master bath.

Masterbath. Peeking into walk-in closet. Can't wait to soak in that tub!

Loft area.

We're Moving!

2011-01-22T14:39:00.000-05:00

My poor neglected blog. You have a baby and your whole life changes. You go from busy to busier. All the time.

Yes, that's right. The Frueh Fortress is moving. Well, it isn't moving, but the Frueh Family is moving. After six years, it's time to move on. We've done all we can for our little house. There is only so much you can do to fix the problems of your house. Cosmetics were easy, but you can't change your neighbors or your neighborhood or the reputation of your town.

We put our house on the market late in October, 2010 and got an offer in less than three weeks. In this market, that is practically unheard of. We closed on our sale on December 30, 2010.

So, where are we moving to? The Raleigh area of North Carolina. We're tired of winters. As most any Minnesotan will tell you, this has been an extremely hard winter too. The cold and snow started early and shows no signs of letting up. While friends back home are complaining of temperature of -20°F, we were sitting in nearly 50° weather. Even though the sale and move happened much quicker than we could have imagined and packing and moving out right after Christmas was extremely challenging, we are so excited to be out of there.

For sentimental reasons, here are some photos that I took for our Realtor for the MLS listing. Kind of like embedding the memory someplace where I can go see them again. I didn't get pictures of Megan's room. She was napping when I took these. I should have gone in and done it as soon as she woke up, but I never got back to it.

Bye bye Brooklyn Park house. There are many things about you that we will miss. Too bad we couldn't have packed you up and moved you with us.

August already?

2009-08-12T17:46:00.003-04:00

Where has our summer gone? That's a good question isn't it. This has been such a weird summer. Heck, it's August and the Daylilies that usually bloom in May have finally just bloomed. Weird.

Our backyard fireplace and smoker have definitely been neglected this summer. Poor things. This weekend we finally had a BBQ and fired up the smoker. FINALLY. It was nice to have people over and enjoy our fenced in yard that we worked so hard on last summer.

One thing we can't say is that we haven't been busy. Life sure changes when you bring a baby into your lives. But, I wouldn't change it for the world.

Our New Addition

2009-06-26T21:43:00.000-04:00

Surprise! Guess what. There were actually 3 of us in our holiday photo. No wonder we look so happy. :)

Megan Hope joined our family on June 9, at 4:34am weighing 6lbs 1oz, 19in. We have been blessed.

Thanks again to Jessica of jmphotomn for the wonderful announcements.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-10T10:33:00.001-05:00

After 4 years, we finally had professional pictures taken again. This is what we will be sending as our holiday card this year.

Thanks Jessica.
(photo courtesy of www.jmphotomn.com)

Fall in MN

2008-10-17T18:44:00.004-04:00

This afternoon we went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It was a little chilly, and some of the trees were already past their prime, but we still saw quite a bit of fall beauty today and I also got to play with our new camera a bit.

Deer Friends

2008-10-09T19:35:00.001-04:00

This evening our wildlife friends of the summer returned.

We first "met" the baby deer the first weekend that we were working on the fence. Someone was here who had worked at the Dallas Zoo and said from his experience, the baby was probably only a couple of days old.

Due to the steep incline and chain-link fence around the edge or our property, the baby couldn't get out. First thoughts were that momma had abandoned the little one. But then we started seeing her with the baby again. The momma was looking very weak and thin. She didn't look like she could take care of a baby. So we decided to get some corn and nurse her back to health so she could take care of her baby.

We haven't fed them in a while and now this evening I noticed the corn bucket has been tipped over. You think they are trying to tell us something? It's a good thing we have the new Willow trees' trunks wrapped.

Momma is the closer one here and the one keeping an eye on me as I shoot a few photos.

Take that Rabbits!

2008-10-06T16:19:00.001-04:00

We finally won the battle with the rabbits. Every time the Hostas would finally get a little growth on them the darn rabbits would come and eat them down to the ground again. This went on most of last summer and into this summer as well. Finally we decided to outsmart them and put up a little 6" fence. Ha! Now that summer is over they are finally looking really healthy. Hopefully by ending the season like this will give them a boost next spring.

Now what can we get to prevent them from eating down the Barberry and Potentilla bushes again over the winter?

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-09-29T22:06:00.002-04:00

Remember when we were younger and we thought 35 was SO old? Now that I am 35, I don't really feel old at all. I guess age really is just a number.

I had a nice weekend, got to have dinner with a good friend yesterday, Shane and I went out to eat tonight and we have more fun things planned for next weekend.

It's hard to put a feeling on 35. Hitting 30 never really bothered me, and this one hasn't yet either. I think I'm dreading the big 4-0 more than anything! (At least as of today!)

No, this is not really my cake.

Finally Getting With the Times

2008-09-25T13:10:00.001-04:00

Yes, it's true. We just got a Wii.

For the last few months, I've been looking every time I go to Target. Well, Monday was our lucky day. They had 3 of them on the shelf...and we had a 10% discount to be used!

It's going to take me a while to get used to this, but it seems like it could be a lot of fun, and something that we can do together.

This makes a good gift for our anniversary and birthdays combined. What perfect timing!

Four Years Ago Today

2008-09-18T19:30:00.001-04:00

We became Husband and Wife.

Today was just as beautiful as the day we were married. Temps in the lower 80's, sunny with just a bit of a breeze.

We'll celebrate with a nice dinner out tomorrow evening.

These Shoes Were Made for Walking

2008-09-08T22:32:00.007-04:00

At least that's what I'm hoping.

Now that fall is coming and it's getting cooler, I have to retire my flip-flops.

For several fall/winter seasons now I've been wearing ankle boots with a little bit of a heel. Not exactly comfortable for long walks or hours at the mall.

Today I went shopping and these little flat casual shoes jumped out at me. I tried them on, and they are actually really comfortable. They are Skechers, so they have some support to them.

It feels so weird, in a good way, to not be in those heeled boots. I think I over did the flip-flops with daily wear this summer and my knee is telling me it needs a better shoe. Okay fine.

So, what do you think?

Joey's Play Date

2008-09-07T10:50:00.000-04:00

After the rainy day moping last week, we set Joey up with a play date with Tess the Cairn for this weekend. Luckily the weather was perfect for a couple of little pooches to run and play. Tess is a little smaller and whole lot quicker! She definitely gave him a good workout in chase.

Kind of funny, but after the pups were good and worn out, it rained.

Here's a link to some more of the action pictures from the day. Joey was really good about sharing his favorite green ball with Tess and didn't even mind when the little human wanted to play with it too...although he never took his eyes off the ball. He was probably expecting her to throw it for him to chase after.

Rainy Day Fun

2008-09-04T19:00:00.001-04:00

This is Joey. He suffers from SAD. Or more like CAD (Cloudy Affective Disorder). He is generally such a chipper happy pup. A cloudy day comes and all he does is mope around the house. For some reason, the rain this week really hit him hard. I couldn't take it any more. I had to pull out a little green ball therapy.

This is like puppy crack. He loves this ball so much, he chases it around and "plays soccer" with it. It seriously wears him out, but he just can't stop playing with it. We have to limit his green ball playtime and only allow it with close supervision.

Here he is after playing with this ball. Look how happy he looks.

If you want to see the series of pictures, you can find those here
Watch it as a slideshow. You can almost see the action in the shots.

After playtime it was naptime. :)

Got Tomatoes?

2008-09-03T16:36:00.012-04:00

Can you believe these are the same plants?

They were started from seeds just about a week before Easter in March. This first picture was taken April 13th. There were 12 of them, we gave 4 plants away.

Now, almost 6 months later, they are just going crazy. It's September and they are still blooming.

Every couple of days we're bring in at least a couple of ice cream pails full.

What do you do with so many tomatoes? Can lots of Salsa Ranchera and Spaghetti sauce for use during the winter.

These are about to be stewed to go into the Spaghetti sauce.

What's cookin'?

2008-09-01T19:49:00.000-04:00

This is Shane's pride & joy smoker. He's had it almost 3 years now and the cookin' just keeps getting better.

Today was a good day for smokin'. It was a hot day, around 90 degrees, which makes for easy temperature control. Keeping it as close to 250 degrees without any major temp spikes or drops.

On the barbecue we had a 9lb Boston Butt, pulled and topped with our favorite Memphis style barbecue sauce. Yummy!

(Too bad it takes 10 hours to make one of these.)

Happy Birthday Katy!

2008-08-31T21:18:00.002-04:00

Today we celebrated Katy's 7th birthday (it's really tomorrow, Sept 1st). I don't know how it's possible that this little girl is already 7 years old.

Here are two pictures. One from our wedding in Sept '04 just after she turned 3 and then one from today. My how she's grown. Our littlest niece isn't so little anymore. Her smile has changed a bit. Her big teeth are coming in now.

Our Summer Project

2008-08-28T22:14:00.003-04:00

Memorial Day weekend. The unofficial start of summer. The official start of our fence project.

The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we started digging post holes. 43 of them. Thanks to the help of some friends, a rented power auger, and some meat on the smoker, all the holes got dug in one day.

Over the course of the next few weekends and many evenings, the posts were all set and many cross pieces attached.

We were getting so burnt out doing only the cross pieces that we finally started on some of the vertical slats and trim pieces. And viola! we had the beginnings of a very fine looking fence.

These pictures were taken one month from starting. It's a big project. 300 linear feet of fence is hard to put it into perspective. Way bigger than I can squeeze into one frame.

With stain and everything, we finished up the second weekend of August. So what is that? 11 weeks? Yeah, safe to say. Our summer project.

Now that it is 100% done, I should try to get a few more pictures...including the gate.

**edit** more photos of the completed fence

This last photo is taken from the easement part of our yard, about halfway point. We have the strangest lot on our block.

Finally!

2008-08-04T09:56:00.001-04:00

It only took 4 years, but we finally agreed on a wall color for the bedroom. I can not believe I lived in a white bedroom for 4 years.

The new paint color matches nearly perfectly to the downstairs family room, and that wasn't even planned. Different brand, from a different store. I guess we just really like this color.

These were taken right after we painted. The comforter was fresh out of the bag and hadn't had a chance to straighten out yet. I love the new color!

Emerald Isle

2008-08-03T22:34:00.002-04:00

What started out as a simple painting project turned out to be yet another remodel project. All we wanted was to get rid of the white!

When you're working with an emerald green floor and a green sink, the paint color choices are a little limited. Staying in theme with the basement colors, we picked a dark chocolaty brown. Well, that just looked like reverse tree with the green floor as the leaves.

So, after the walls were painted, we clearly saw that just wasn't going to work. We made a trip to our favorite local tile shop and picked out our new floor. We were able to find a vanity at Lowe's that matched the style of the new cabinets in the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom and on a trip to Menard's, we found a vanity top on sale. And from there our new lower level bathroom remodel began.

Seems to always be a project around here.

Here are some pictures before and after:

From Drab to Fab!

2008-08-02T21:04:00.001-04:00

The kitchen was our first really big project. The before images are from when we looked at the house. None of the accessories were ours, but we did get to be the proud owners of the yellow & blue make green flower wallpaper border.

We had actually ripped down the border and painted the kitchen our first winter in the house. It wasn't until the 2nd winter that we really dug in and put our stamp on the kitchen.

In the Limelight

2008-08-02T20:34:00.000-04:00

We started small with our first home improvement project. At least small in that it was one of the smallest rooms in the house. The bathroom was glow in the dark lime green. (Okay, maybe not that bad, but it was bright!) And, it had one of those wall phones that you can see all of the insides of. (You can see it in the reflection in the mirror.) I'd rather not take phone calls in the bathroom, thank you very much!

We tore up the old tile and the mesh covered poured cement base that was under it. I've personally never been a fan of the dual sinks in a bathroom, and it was really cramped between the toilet and the vanity.

I love the look of the new cherry finished maple vanity on the natural maple floor and the single sink is so much more practical. The on vanity tower was a nice addition as well. So much extra storage space.

It's hard to tell, but the finished color is a much more muted tone of green.

His, Hers, Ours

2008-08-01T19:00:00.001-04:00

Spring of 2004.

He had His place, She had Her place, We bought Our place.

Of course this current picture of Our house does not actually reflect how it looked when we bought it. We've done a lot with the place in 4 years.