He Said, " The front door will be done before winter, or I will go crazy." She, smiled while looking out the window at the snow.

Last weekend Mark and Adam insulated and vapor barriered the main room (Thank you Lisa for letting us borrow your husband on your Golden 30th birthday weekend). I almost cried tears of joy! But Adam said "Don't cry til after the sheetrock!" So I went to Menard's and ordered the sheetrock, it was delivered on Tuesday. (Which paying for delivery is almost an extravagant expenditure in the Stankey mind) Mark prepped the rest of the room on Thursday and now everything is ready to sheetrock this weekend. There is no longer a 5-10 drop in temperature when you enter the room-pretty amazing.

So last night as Mark and I stood in our dark main room, Mark said "I'm putting the new front door in before winter! It will drive me crazy if it doesn't get done." I smiled and gave him a hug. It wasn't until today that I realized that it was 27 degrees yesterday and we had a light dusting of snow. When does winter really begin? I guess in a room that no longer feels like winter it hasn't begun. :)

Everyone: Hey, what's new? She replies, "Nothing, I'm literally just running, that's it."

So through this project I decide, actually was peer pressured into running the San Antonio marathon. I would not have spent the last 8 months or so training for an event for most people but it was great to share the marathon experience with my sister Lisa, and good friends from High School Liz Beedle (Ashbrook) and Kidada Mitchell (Stokes). There were supposed to be a few more of us but I guess the only graceful way to back out of running a marathon is to get pregnant - way to go Emily and Majken! Just kidding and congratulations!

The electrical and plumbing took a little longer than anticipated and of course we had to take some weekends to play so I guess it's a good thing we didn't suggest having Thanksgiving at our place this year. At this point our main room is still down to the studs and we have a few more finishing things that need to be done before we insulate and put up sheet rock. We're staying in the cities for TG this year so hopefully we'll get a couple of good days of work in.

Now that the marathon is over (praise the Lord!) I'm hoping to update the blog more frequently. And for those of you that are wondering how I do it - I made this choice a long time ago and even though we live in a construction zone it's still a pretty good option. And when it's complete it really will be glorious - I'm actually a little concerned if we'll have enough to keep us busy then. :) Or at least keep Mark busy. As for me I think I'll be moving to running half marathons and a few other girlfriends have accepted the challenge -way to go Mandi and Sara! it will be fun and will be quite an accomplishment. So Grandma's half marathon in 2010-if you're interested let me know!

She: laughed. He said, "My wife is back!"

So for those of you who know me you know that I love to laugh, I'm pretty easy going and pretty positive most of the time. Last month was a month I'm glad is over-some strange person was walking around in my body and really not being nice-especially to Mark. Sorry hon! But thanks for loving me through it!

We've decided that I really don't like demolition. I say, "loud noises" but Marks response to that was "Are you like Buster from Arrested Development?" So I guess yes, I am a bit.

This month started with a 20/40 yd (large) dumpster being dropped in our drive way. Out went the tile, mortar bed, the kitchen, walls, plaster, and insulation. The kitchen was moved to the basement-which is actually larger, lighter and more efficient than my previous kitchen. And closer to the laundry which makes things really easy when every appliance is within 20 ft. So now that demolition is mostly over and putting new stuff in will begin soon I'm doing better. And being nice to Mark again.

Currently, in our main room we have sub-floor, stud walls, scaffolding, a fridge that is being given away and a bunch of tools. Next projects consist of electrical and raising up the floor so the floor where the tile was is level with the rest of the room. Now I know that things will still be dusty but it will be wood dust instead of plaster dust and that has to be better! I guess we still need to mud and tape-but I'll just be so excited for new walls that I won't care!

Mark's time line for the upstairs is to be completed by Thanksgiving which is only a few months away. Very exciting!

The dumpster was picked up today from Atomic and I'm hoping that mean lindy was in that dumpster somewhere-never to return.

She sang "Happy Birthday to me." He laughed.

The mortar bed is out! We are one step closer and completely full of dust. Mila is grey-not because of old age. And everywhere we turn our clothes/skin turns into white dust! However, if I can somehow convince Mark not to take out the plaster walls this will have been the messiest part. And it is done!!!! I took a photo of my beautiful birthday door with the pile of concrete that Mark removed-we never said it was going to be easy. Or pretty, right away for that matter!

He said, "I'm going to tent off this area." She said, "like a fort?"

The day following my last entry it was decided that I would not get a front door for my birthday. However, we do have a cool fort in our living room trying to keep all the tile/concrete dust contained! I think my nephew (second cousin) Henry really liked the fort yesterday-which I was a bit nervous about. So far no child injuries so that is good-unless you count Sam's first skinned knee. Which it really happened outside so I'm not counting it. Last weekend Mark rented a hammer drill and took up all the tile in our front entry/living room. As I write this the floor is vibrating from round two-removal of 2" mortar bed. The plan is to have the mortar bed up by the end of the weekend-then call all his friends to help remove the tile and concrete from our front yard. You thought not having a front door was bad-now we have a pile of debris in front of our plywood front door. :) We had to remove the mortar bed to build up the floor to match the same height as the other subfloors in our main living area. With the main area starting demolition I'm struggling with the project more than usual. I have no doubt's that Mark will do an amazing job and our house will eventually be a jaw dropper. It's just harder to live in the construction than I thought. Lord please help my attitude to stay postive! This evening we're headed up to the Hemming's cabin for some well needed R & R - hopefully that will rejuvenate us both a bit!

p.s. Sorry this one wasn't funny - i tried to stay away from debbie downer but she tackled me.

He asked "What would you like for your birthday?" She replied, "A front door."

Two years until we got carpeting (which is fantastic! my feet have never been so happy!)-which is fine because the dogs and I can handle sub-floor. However, the neighbors may start complaining if we don't get a front door soon. Not saying it doesn't look good-it just doesn't look good. So, I told Mark that I wanted a front door for my birthday and he was like-no problem, i'll get right on it-and he did! He went and bought the doors-or at least the door slabs (Stankeys don't believe in retail, we customize everything). Door included will be from scratch. I was excitedly telling a work colleague that I was getting a front door for my birthday when it hit me-I did not preface that the door needed to work! Ugh! When will I learn! So last night we're getting ready for bed and Mark says, so I'm pretty sure I can get the door done-I just don't know if the hardware will be in it? What? How does it hang? open? lock? So currently, I have 2 door slabs leaning agains the back of my fireplace. Mark is studying for his LEED exam and I am now off to continue reading Atlas Shrugged-half way through! We'll see if I finish the book before or after the door is installed and working-1200 page book. He's got some time.

She said "I'd like to try a garden this summer." He said, "I'll build you a box!"

The first weekend in May we went up north for the weekend. Had a great weekend with the cousins and wives-Krista, Sara and I got to talking about gardening. I thought that I'd like to try out my green thumb-see if I have one actually. So on the way home I asked Mark what he thought? I was just thinking about tilling up part of the side yard (small) and seeing what happens. Mark said, "I'll build you a garden box." Me thinking it would be 4 boards-4 nails (maybe 8) said "Great! " Thinking this won't take too long...We got home around 5 on Sunday night and I easily had a garden box. All I needed to do was get some dirt! Oh, no - the box wasn't even close to being completed. Over the next three weekends we trimmed the box, puddied the nail holes, sanded, primed and painted the box. Then it was time for the welder! Out of spare steel we had lying around Mark built a cage for our garden box to keep out all the little and big critter's we have around here. Finally, the garden box was complete-I planted the garden on Memorial Day-Tomatoes, Pepper's, Lettuce, Snap Peas, Cucumbers, Green Beans, Herbs and a Jalepeno Pepper plant. Mark's comment, "This was a lot bigger project than what I had anticipated-you better really like to garden." My thought, "If I wasn't meant to garden before-I better be now!"

He said "carpet is being installed on Monday" - She is very excited!

Believe it or not carpet is being installed at this very moment! It looks beautiful already and they haven't even finished yet! Thanks hon for getting the extra thick pad-very soft-almost bouncy! Good-bye subfloor - hello beautiful!

He said "I think we should try and refinance." She replied, "We don't have a front door."

Good Thing we still went for the refi anyways - in the midst of our destruction, construction, designing and shopping. But we locked in at 4.875% for a 30 yr fixed-pretty excited about that one! So the refi is complete, Mark is done with ski season so now it is game on with the house. The last couple months were definitely nice, but I'm very excited to start seeing some progress again. We've decided the next big thing to tackle is the kitchen and in true Stankey fashion we decide to do TWO - I mean if you're doing one already, how hard is the second?! We have decided to make the basement into a one bedroom apartment - hence the 2nd kitchen. So to make room for the kitchen in the basement we need to begin with moving the laundry room. Good bye shop-hello laundry! I'm sure I'll have plenty of new photo's and stories soon. Nothing like a little adventure to get us ready for Summer. Since we had a new oven to replace our old double oven (that hasn't worked since October, 2008) I asked Mark to remove the old one and put the new one in. Mark did but now there is something wrong with the wiring - not really the oven. ugh! Oh well, I've gone this long with out an oven-what's a few more days/months. At least we can grill!

She asked: What were we thinking having a New Year's Party? He replied: It'll be fine. You know what?! It was great!

Thank you to everyone who rang in 2009 with us! We had a wonderful time and hope you did too!

The week before New Year's we decided to remove all the insulation in the cantilever on the back side of the house and spray with foam insulation. We had to order the insulation online (remember the pics of the haz mat suit?) and it arrived right before New Year's. So Dec. 30th we decide to remove all the bat and spray in the new stuff-hoping to make the basement warmer for all the ping pong enthusiasts. We were a bit disappointed in the amount of time and the continuing lack of heat in the basement. But out with the old and in with the new!

Mark also reworked the electrical around the front door and the living room french doors, we re insulated, put up the vapor barrier and sheet rocked around both doors. We were going to try and plaster before the party but insulating the basement took a little bit longer than expected.

So here we are Jan. 2nd, 2009 and not much has changed from 2008. We took off the 1st and rested up from the week's of entertaining and working. No rest for the weary-today I've been cleaning up from the party and Mark is getting all the wall's prepped for plaster. Our camera's on the fritz so I'll post pics as soon as I can. The great thing about 2009 is that we will be working on the interior of the house-the bad thing about 2009 is that we will be working on the interior of the house!

She asked "Are you sure you need to hang that last gutter today." He replied, "I just need to get it done."

Saturday Mark hung the last of the gutter's. Yes - in the freezing cold and swirling winds Mark is up on a ladder hanging gutters! But now they are all up! I worked at insulating the area's around our new french door in the living room and front door area. Our front door is still "plywood" - Yes, Fancy. But it is now insulated. I thought it was funny on Monday watching Mark shovel the path to our front steps - which is currently not an entrance. Guess he's just trying to see what friends of our are really reading the blog!

Tuesday we were judges for a Northwestern College event - hallway decorating - very intense. And afterwards Mark said, "I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed with all the things we need to do before New Years." I (in the nicest way) replied, "Just starting! I've been concerned about that for months!" Good thing we both have some time off around the Holidays to you know - cover up insulation, fix the hanging electrical, insulate the basement, fix some tile. All the normal party prep stuff. And yes, if you are reading this you are invited to the New Year's Party.

He said "What are you going to do when you are done with those books?" she said "talk to you again."

The painter's officially had their last day last Wednesday! (To view larger photo's scroll to the end) This morning Mark was playing frisbee with the dogs and I was getting ready to leave. He turned with a huge smile and said look at how happy we are! I think it's the week off of having to come home from work to start working on the house more than anything. But it is good! The stucco has been added around the doors - so we will paint that this summer. Mark ordered the gutters to arrive today so he can install this weekend. Once the gutter's are on we will take down the scaffolding that has been up since June. That should make the neighbor's happy! I have been completely useless with this Twilight book series that I'm reading. Maybe that's why "we" are so happy right now?! All in all the house is buttoned up well and we are enjoying coming home to it. Soon it's on to the interior!

She said: One of the best sounds ever is the sound of a running furnace!

Last Saturday Mark, Paul, Jae and my Dad put in two French Doors and the last window! All in a days work. I helped put the piping (foam tube) around the doors and window, Mark sprayed the insulation, and we were officially "closed up" for winter. Tuesday came and the furnace was turned on-works beautifully. Oh so nice to feel warmth when entering your home!

This week we had our first real frost and the roof looked great! No obvious loss of heat areas so another huge win for the Stankey renovation project.

This week has been mostly rainy and the contractor's have only put in 2 days of work. Maybe 3 if today starts shaping up. But they need to be done next week - it's just getting too cold for painting. Another bonus is the stucco guys are coming next week and will re-dash everything before winter so the only thing we'll be missing is a front door. And who does that really affect? Trick-or-Treaters maybe...

"We've got Glass, not class, glass" - He said.

Wahoo! Two windows in! Hey it's a start! Thanks Kevin for the help today. Mark and Kevin put in 2 windows while I finished burning the paint off the bedroom windows. Absolutely beautiful day! The plan is to have all the windows in this weekend and then both the doors next weekend. Pray for warm weather...then the furnace will be in full swing!

He said: Did you just get the butter out of the fridge?" She said, "Nope""

Last Sunday, after a long weekend of smelling paint fumes and bondo we sat down for dinner. Sat at the dining room table for a good hearty dinner of stew that had been simmering in the crockpot all day, french bread and a glass of wine. That is when Mark asked the titled question. Now, you have all probably noticed that it has been getting down into the 40's at night and with plywood for windows it's kind of frivolous to turn on the furnace. But man-if my mom hadn't brought over a space heater and an electric blanket last weekend I may have moved back in with the rents! It's 5:45 and my body is already frozen for the evening so this is going to be a rough one.

The good thing is the windows and doors will be delivered tomorrow!!! Yay! My father-in-law, Doug, and possibly our friend Kevin are going to help Mark put in windows this weekend.

The paint crew is making huge strides and will actually paint the front of the house tomorrow. This weekend I will finish burning the paint off the bedroom windows for the crew to sand and paint next week. Wow! 3 weeks has gone by fast! Once the doors are in place, I'm gonna crank the heat to 110 to make up for all the shivering I've done!

He said "We got 40 pallets for the cabin, how was your weekend?" She said, "Fantastic!"

While I'd love to tell you about my fun weekend with the girls - Pizza Nea, Nye's for Karaoke, Golf, Antiquing in Stillwater, dinner on the Freighthouse Patio - I know you aren't really looking for those details. So while I was playing, Mark took off for the cabin with Paul and Sara. Mark's Dad, Doug, surprised them all with a visit and helped them get the 2nd load of pallets for our eventual Pallet Cabin. Thanks Paul and Doug for helping!

Many of you get a glazed look in your eye's when I mention a "Pallet Cabin" so I'll attach photo's of the Pallet Barn (Scott and Paul's).

They drove into Duluth to loll furniture where they picked up the 40 pallets. Just a couple heavy loads! The pallet size is 5' x 12' so they are not light. And since Mark has been home he is realizing how "not light" they were with a decent amount of kidney pain lately-aghhh, kidney pain.

He said, "I know I have a lot to do here but the pallets are ready." She is thankful for a weekend with out loud noises!

The last 2 days have been wonderful. No more holes, no loud hammers or saws making the dogs anxious, but tonight that ends once again. Paul (Mark's cousin and pretty amazing all around guy) is coming over to help Mark remove the last window, at least in this phase. Then the waiting game for the windows really begins - should be soon. Yay!

This weekend I will have some more quiet time as craziness part 2 begins. This summer Paul came up with an idea to build a Pallet Barn on the Stankey family land south of Duluth. Check out the Pallet Barn at http://hivemodular.terapad.com. It went up really quickly this summer and Paul offered Mark his Pallet connection - loll furniture, so they are going up to Duluth this weekend to get 36 pallets that will eventually be a cabin for us. In our spare time...

On the link you will also be able to view Paul & Sara's and Scott, Krista and Aaron's cabin-you've never seen more beautiful storage containers than what they designed.

Well the noise has begun so I'll keep you posted.

He said, "Do you think we should measure that?"

Wow, First off I have to say that my husband is pretty ambitious. Some may say crazy (some of those being me) but even with the rain this weekend. Mark removed: 1 window in our stairwell, 1 window in the living room, 7 foot section of plaster, 4 foot section of stucco, re framed the opening for the new patio door off the living room, removed the plaster from below the kitchen window (that will be the next and dare I say last window removed) at least for now. Everything has been boarded back up and waiting the arrival of the new windows and doors. My Dad, Paul, and Ben all helped through out the weekend - Thanks guys! And yes-we currently have red carpet, pink counter tops and red /white floral wall paper. Surprisingly, the wall paper I will miss. Did I mention that our oven finally bit the dust this weekend. It's a bummer - vintage 60's, very cool.

He said, "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"

If you have never been to a recycling yard-you need to go at least once in your life! It's a whole other world and every time I go I learn something new. Every time-is six times since the renovation began. I'm partial to Re-Alliance Steel in Minneapolis but I know other's who like Scrappy's.

And this is ridiculous to say but ladies if you feel comfortable going - go! Everyone there is much nicer to me than they have been to Mark and my Dad.

Our pile of aluminum in the photos started as the trim on our house. We (Mark did go twice today) hauled 3 truck loads to Re-Alliance that was worth roughly $350. Not bad for a day off-too bad it needs to go back into the renovation...bummer.