Dubuque, IA

The Knight Family descended on Dubuque, IA for a get together and wedding for Rusty and Wendy. Here are some pictures from our trip. We had a blast and we were so grateful that Rusty let our family, Cory, and his kids spend the weekend at the Hill House!! This was so nice to have more space and the ability to play outside and use a fridge for the little ones, bottles and yogurt:)!

Ben was so excited to go to this wedding and show off his newly learned dance moves!! Here he is keeping up with the one and only Aunt Laura!! As you can see Ben and Laura danced the night away. Ben really had a good time meeting Laura and spending time with her. She was super good with Ben and Olivia and Mac and Grace.
Here are my two Knight women, boy am I blessed to have such beautiful ladies in my life!!!

Ben had a ton of fun meeting Mac. The two of them were thick as thieves and they had a lot of fun with their uncles, Cory, Chet, Chase and Chad. Here Chad, Mac and Ben are sitting together smiling big for the camera. They loved the oversized chair Chad was sitting in most of the day!!

Here are the two thieves poseing nicely for a picture!! They had a ton of fun together!!

And it was tackle, tackle and more TACKLE!! when they weren't playing tackle they were playing SUMO belly bump!! No black eyes, bloody noses or broken bones so i guess it was okay!!

Here is Rusty with the two boys and they boys are eating all of the lemons from the water glasses at the Sat. morning Brunch that Wendy and Rusty invited us too. It was great to see everyone again after the wedding and to get a good breakfast before we had to head back to the cities to get ready for Ben's 3rd BIRTHDAY party!

So you were thinking were are the pictures of Olivia and Grace, well to be honest they didn't sit still very long to get a good shot. Here they are just before they both took off chasing each other using their patented scooting method of travel!! Crazy that they both scoot the same way and are basically the same age and don't crawl!!!

Well till the next posting hope you enjoyed the pictures.

To the IOWA Knights, hope we get a chance to get back together some day soon, it was a lot of fun and of course way to short!!!

Roof is ON!!

The Knights left for a weekend in Dubuque to spend time with the Knight Cousins from Iowa. While we were gone the guys were able to roof the back addition and roof the garage/mudroom addition. Below the shingles matched quite nicely in the back and you really have a hard time realizing the new shingles are both new and of a different color as the others were discontinued.


The roof for the garage isn't quite as seamless, but hey after a year or so of leaf staining it will look nice and worn in!!

The guys did a great job cutting in the shingles and melding everything together.

With the nice touch of the gable roof the front of the garage looks as good as it did before, now once this gets siding it will look completely new!!!

Walls are UP!!!

Well the house has made another transformation this weekend. The guys, Jamie, Chad and Tim made another big completion for the weekend. With this wonderful Indian Summer we are having they are taking care of it by working diligently and accomplishing a lot of work during the weekends.

At the end of the weekend the new master bathroom/bedroom in the back looks great and adds some depth to the house on this long back yard.
If the lumber company wouldn't have messed up with the truss measurement the trusses would have been hung on the garage as well. No worries the garage is now framed for next weekend to have the trusses hung. As you can see Ben loved to ride his trike around after the guys were done and when the guys were taking breaks!!
Here is where we found out the trusses were measured incorrectly. The guys were really bummed and they were on pace to have the entire garage completed. Of course i couldn't forget our biggest helper, Ben. He constantly moved lumber and other scrap materials around the back yard and the front yard to show how big he is and how much he can help. The guys made good headway while Ben and I were at the cabin taking out the docks and the weed roller. I guess without their supervisor and their question guy, they were able to actually work all day!!
Tim and Chad on the roof as Jamie was cutting sheeting as fast as they hung it. Boy they work fast!!

Till next week when all the garage trusses and some of the new windows will be installed. This project is starting to really come together.

Yes all this construction is taking up a lot of our time but we are still finding plenty of time for fun! Last Sunday we went to watch our friend Stefan and his dad run the TC Marathon. It was a beautiful day for a run. Nice job Stefan and Warren!

Olivia, Ben and Addie

Later that day we went to the apple orchard with Grandpa and Grandma Knight. How tall will you be next year Ben?

Olivia is getting ready to crawl. She starts here...

And here is where she ends. She hasn't quite figured out the forward motion yet.

Yesterday we sent Olivia to daycare and Trevor and I spent the day with Ben. We took him to the Children's Museum in St. Paul. I think Mom and Dad had as much fun as Ben.

Left to Right: Vinny (1 week), Fin (4 months), Grace (6 months), Jacob (1 month), Addie (almost 2), Samual (7 months), Ben (almost 3) and Olivia (10 months)... Missing in action was Will and Jack and baby Julien due next month

Last night was Canadian Thanksgiving at the Julien's. Every year Betsy and Stefan host Canadian Thanksgiving and this year Stefan's parents were even in town all the way from BC Canada! This year was much different as you can see above. We have added a number of members since last year when it was just Ben and Addie!

First week of Construction

Well, the First week has come and gone with much progress! We can't believe the progress these guys have accomplished, i guess with the cold of winter coming they work harder during these nice days we have been having.

Here is what the place looked like on Sept. 27th. the day before all the MADNESS!!

This is the crawl space under the family room where the electrician had to crawl through to lay the new electrical service, SCARY!!! He was braver than I!!! This path is 20 feet long. It is tight and very nasty!!

Now here is what it looked like the next day and the following days after....

This is the inside of the garage, minus the garage floor, and the crawl space for the new mud room/entry way is being dug for the footings and the block walls. I can't believe the mini digger was able to get inside the garage and dig the hole.

The front stoop with the sidewalk removed for the soon to be footer.

This is the mini digger making a path to get the cement and the guys down to lay the block.
Here are the footings of the back addition curing after 9:00 am on Wed. morning. Day 2 of the project.

The mudroom/entry way prepped to have the first course of block laid on Wed. afternoon.

Ben is such a good helper, he wants to get down in the dirt every day, I am sure Galina really appreciates a dirty kid every morning.
Ben is loving playing in the dirt and getting into the Mini Digger and the Bob Cat!! Every morning before we head out and every evening when we get home we climb into Val's(the excavator) equipment for a make believe dig. He loves it!!!

Here are the masons starting to lay the block on the second day of work.
All the block came from W.W. Thompson Concrete Products in Brainerd, MN. My buddy Brett Thompson was very generous and sold block to me all the way down in Minnetonka. All the Masons loved this block, they said it is some of the best block they have ever used. Kudos to W.W. Thompson Concrete!!! Our front yard and back yard was full of these pallets of block, 20 pallets in all!!!

At the end of the third day all the walls were built and the block work in the back, mudroom/entry way and front stoop were complete. The garage expansion is scheduled for next week as there is no more room in the front yard for any more dirt!!!

We are cutting the bottom of the garage wall off so we can lay 2 more courses of block. There is a temporary header in the inside of the garage supporting the garage. When we dig the expanded garage footing we will build another wall to cut the remainder of the wall out and lay more block with the expansion of the garage.
The back addition after the walls have been core filled and cured. This is Sat. morning just before the carpenters, Jamie, Chad and Tim cap this on Sunday.

The capped and framed mudroom/entry way complete on Sat. night!!
The 12inch I-Joists being laid on Sunday afternoon. This was completely covered by Sunday evening.

.

And the most amazing thing, I think, is this is the crawl space under the family room after Chad and I cleaned it all out!!! Now I have to go back down there and dig down the sides to properly insulate the space instead of just packing it full of pink insulation. This looks like it will be a great time for me!!!