The Tales of T&A

It’s a Girl….Just Kidding

amberandtrevor — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:04:17 +0000

Trevor and I went to my 20 week ultrasound appointment yesterday looking forward to seeing our baby girl’s’ growth and progression…..As a reminder, we found out the gender of the baby by visiting 3D baby images when I was 16 weeks (and the tech was POSITIVE it was a girl). We showed up at our appointment yesterday and the ultrasound tech started taking measurements and asked us if we already found out the gender. “Yes, we know it’s a girl,” we said. A few minutes went by and more measurements were taken before she said, “Wait, what did they tell you the sex was?” …”A Girl” we replied. NO, NO…this is definitely not a girl. We were stunned and shocked to say the least. It’s a full day later and I’m still shocked and thinking that someone will pinch me and I’ll wake up. Of course, we would have been happy with either a boy or girl!…but we’re thrilled beyond belief to have a little boy. Maybe this would better explain all those active early kicks, and why Trevor could only think of boys names from the beginning

Construction – Week 11.5

amberandtrevor — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:42:32 +0000

With the whirlwind of the holidays, I didn’t get to post pictures nearly as much as I wanted to. Between all of the stuff with friends, family, work, and construction, this Holiday season felt like it came and went in a blur.

Kyle Drake and his team at Sensible Home Solutions have been amazing to work with every step of the way through this home renovation/construction process. I have recommended him to pretty much all of my friends and family and hope that they will look to him for any construction needs. Kyle has been one of, if not THE most honest, straightforward, trustworthy, and competent contractors I have ever worked with … and considering I was in the home building industry for a long time, that’s saying a lot! Kyle has helped me figure out ways to get what I am looking for, effectively solve roadbumps, and save money along the way when possible … something you really don’t find often in a contractor. With less thana week left in our project it looks like we are going to come in under budget and ahead of schedule – AMAZING.

So much has happened in the past three weeks. We got all of the trims in – electrical, HVAC, and plumbing. Countertops, interior trim, carpet, tile, and all of the miscellaneous touches. The pictures really speak for themselves …

Fun at the Park

amberandtrevor — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:35:04 +0000

Maylee is such a cutie pie and over the past few months her vocabulary has been expanding so much. She’s saying 5+ word sentences and she cracks us up because she’ll say “I’m tired” or ”Help Daddy” with such a southern hick accent. Who knows where she gets it from! Over the past few months she has taught herself to potty train without us pushing it. Her favorite show is still “Yo Gabba Gabba” along with her favorite book at nighttime. She LOVES to dance and sing, especially her owl dance where she’ll shout out “OWL, OWL” and spin in circles with her hands up until she gets so dizzy she falls down.

Ringing in the New Year!

amberandtrevor — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:25:11 +0000

2011 was supposed to be a year of change and that is was! So much has happened….We were thankful to start the year off by traveling to Thailand to see family and friends and have them meet Maylee. After about 7 months on the market, we sold our house and moved to Sandy Springs. We are currently finishing up on renovations and love our new home and neighborhood. Maylee turned two and we found out the exciting news that we are expanding our family! We had to say goodbye to our loved cat Woody, but thankfully Jackson and Brighton are happy and healthy. The best part of the year was spending precious time with family and friends throughout the year. We look forward to what 2012 brings us….our little one is healthy and growing. She is our “little dragon” since she will be born in 2012- the year of the Dragon for the Chinese Calendar which is good luck! We’re so grateful and appreciative of all that we have in life and look forward to the coming year!

Happy New Year to all and best wishes for a wonderful year ahead!

Holidays

amberandtrevor — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:55:17 +0000

We always look forward to the holiday season because it’s an extra special time with family and friends. We kicked off the festivities by going to see a Christmas Carol at the Alliance Theater which was one of our favorite performances – beautiful set and moving story. Maylee is still a bit young to see performances so she enjoyed the night with her favorite sitter Allison. We enjoyed Christmas Eve at our house with the extended family and as usual, had an Asian-inspired feast with garlic pork and cashew nut chicken. Although our house is not completely finished, it was so nice to celebrate in our new home! After doing our traditional Secret Santa exchange everyone turned in for an early night to enjoy the festivities the following day–a wonderful day at Estelle and Hugh’s house with great company and food!

Construction – Week 8.5

amberandtrevor — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:48:53 +0000

Wow … so much has happened in the past 2 weeks. It is hard to believe the end is in sight! The exterior is completely finished and only needs to be painted and slap on some gutters. The inside has really shaped up. Sheetrock went up, trim and doors went in, everything is painted, the kitchen cabinets have been moved, an awesome pantry was built on the fly when we realized we couldn’t do corner cabinet units the way we envisioned. The kitchen workstation area is ready to go in. All the bedrooms are complete. Electric trim is happening today, HVAC trim tomorrow, and plumbing trim Wednesday, and carpet on Thursday. We may just finish up 2 weeks ahead of an already compressed time schedule!

Construction – Week 6.5

amberandtrevor — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:30:29 +0000

Seems like things have slowed down a little now that the framers have gone and we had to lose a couple of days for mechanical/insulation inspections. The reality is that there is always at least one trade at the house every day doing something. Over the past two weeks the copper roofing has gone up, the trim has been completed for the most part, and the chimney has been completed with the exception of the copper chimney cap. On the interior we passed inspections for plumbing, electrical, HVAC, insulation, and for the footings in the basement. Sheetrock started today and they are hauling ass on it. Should be done by this weekend so we are still pushing to try to be complete by the first or second week of January.

Also inside, we moved the oven and microwave to their new locations in the kitchen. We had to make some design changes on the fly and are now going to go with a small walk-in pantry with decorative door in the corner instead of cabinetry due to the strange configurations of the cabinets. The new idea should look even better than the cabinets we envisioned! I also installed the pendant lights over the island. They look great and add a nice accent light to the room. In the past two weeks we also finished the hardwood floors on the main level. The pain of that process was moving the furniture out into the kitchen and family room. We had to live like hoarders for several days, making small paths throughout the rooms to get to and from different areas. Brighton got lost repeatedly. Jackson just jumped on top of everything and walked across the room that way. Jacob & Saul have been painting away and finished all of the downstairs rooms except for the kitchen. As you can see from the pics, Maylee’s room is now 100% complete, including new wall art with owls. She loves them and exclaims “OWL!” every time she walks in her room. The soon-to-be nursery is the temporary furniture staging room while we wait to finish the last bedroom. It may be a couple more weeks til that one is done while we finish out the kitchen.

Stay tuned for more updates to come!

Celebrating Maylee’s Birthday (part 2) with family

amberandtrevor — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:35:55 +0000

Gobble Gobble!

amberandtrevor — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:03:40 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, Gobble (as Maylee would say). Aahhh…thanksgiving…one of our favorite holidays of the year! This year was no exception….We had the whole crew over to mom and dad’s house and enjoyed a traditional feast (with an Asian twist, of course!) and lots of laughs and smiles. No Thanksgiving would be complete without each of us saying what we’re thankful for. Thank you to my wonderful family and friends. I am so grateful for your love and hope that each day we can live life to the fullest.

Construction – Week 4.5

amberandtrevor — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:48:20 +0000

Last week went by quick with the addition of the housewrap, soffit, fascia, shake siding, windows, and exterior trim on the back of the house, in addition to completing the electrical rough. I found time to wire the upstairs for surround sound in the main room and in the exercise room.Last week also saw the completion of the sheetrock replacement/painting of the ceilings in Maylee’s bedroom, my office, and the hallway. The main guest bath is shaping up with the plumbing rough complete and sheetrock up.

This week is a short one with Thanksgiving, but the HVAC rough should be complete, siding and trim on the front of the house. Insulation to come early next week and then sheetrock. I still think we can have everything looking pretty close to complete by New Years Day.