The Biggest Fall Reading Giveaway of All Time! {that I know of}

September 30, 2013 By: Stephanie4 Comments

Do you love reading? Enjoy free stuff? Like Money? I'm so excited to be partnering with a whole bunch of other bloggers and businesses to bring you this HUGE giveaway.

You are not going to believe this prize package.

Seriously.

Now that the kids are back in school, maybe you find yourself with a little extra free time for reading grown-up people books with grown-up people words in them. Maybe, as the autumn air gets chillier, you’re looking for an excuse to snuggle up inside under a blanket. Whatever the reason, one thing’s for sure: you need some great stuff to read. Thus, we bring you…

THE BIGGEST FALL READING GIVEAWAY EVER!

First off, we’ve collected practically an entirely new library for you – nine (9) (NINE!!!) new books to make you laugh, cry, and forget that you were supposed to turn on the crockpot because you’re just plain having too much fun.

You Have Lipstick On Your Teeth, the long-awaited first humor anthology from In The Powder Room, is the #1 Hot New Release on Amazon for good reason – it’s packed with 39 (mostly) true tales by women, for women, about being women—bodily changes, relationships, careers, motherhood, aging, illness, and more—written with the humor and grit that proudly sets In The Powder Room apart. The winner’s shiny new copy will be signed by none other than Lipstick co-author and editor, Leslie Marinelli of The Bearded Iris!

Do you have a copy of the hilarious best-selling collection of hilarious essays, I Just Want To Pee Alone, yet? Well, I bet you don’t have a copy signed by four of the co-authors – Amy Bozza of My Real Life signed one with Kim Bongiorno, Kim Forde and Anna Sandler, and she’s willing to part with it JUST FOR YOU! It covers every parenting topic from planning for your baby, to being driven insane by your children, to… wait, are there other parenting topics? Yes, don’t be silly, of course there are. I’m pretty sure.

From Abby Has Issues, you’ll get a signed paperback copy of Abby Still Has Issues, the 5-star rated second installment of award-winning humor writer Abby’s compiled blogging neurosis – everything from the drama of a cab ride with Aunt Mable to her quest to become a naked sushi model.

Carriage Before Marriage has two stories in the hilarious, irreverent anthology What Was I Thinking: 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories featuring essays from Carrie Fisher, Sex and The City producer Cindy Chupack and more. Romantic disasters spun into comedy gold for your entertainment!

Janie Emaus is offering up a autographed paperback copy of her smart and compelling young adult book, Mercury In Retro Love – a story about crushes, conflicts and astrological confusion.

Kim Bongiorno, of Let Me Start By Saying, has generously added an autographed paperback copy of her 5-star rated “Part of My World: Short Stories”, a book that allows the reader to escape into 21 unique, exhilarating worlds. To boot, she’s including a “How Being a Parent is Like Being a Rock Star” note card, based on her hilarious graphic that’s gone viral (blank inside, with envelope).

You’ll also win an autographed copy of Not Your Mother’s Book…on Being a Parent, co-authored by Stacey Hatton of Nurse Mommy Laughs. These new anthologies are edgy “poultry for the chakra” books and will have you laughing instead of crying.

Of course your library won’t be complete without a signed paperback copy of the best selling debut of humorist Paige Kellerman, At Least My Belly Hides My Cankles – a touching story of cankles, gestational diabetes, and one woman’s quest not to pee her own pants while carrying twins.

Still want more parenting laughs? Parenting Gag Reel – Hilarious Writes and Wrongs (from the popular Life Well Blogged series) is for moms and dads who’ve fought to get little ones down for a nap, worn their pajamas to drop off the kids at school or can name at least ten shades of poop. If that’s you, you’re in the right place for an afternoon of laughter, thanks to some very funny bloggers, including Snarkfest.

But wait – that’s not all! Because we love you and we know that just WANTING to read doesn’t always get you the time, setting, and accessories that make it possible, we’re also including all of this:

Because it’s hard to concentrate on reading while the kids are awake, we’ll set you up with the customizable kid’s photo clock of your choice from ZAZOO KiDS! In addition to allowing you to upload your own photos, video and music, it has pre-programmed image alarms to show a child visually when they can start the day or when it is time to rest. Brilliant! For maximum reading time, we recommend setting bedtime to 4 PM.

Because they might still need a little help staying in bed, there’s Duck Tape. Everyone can find a fun and creative use for Duck Tape, from crafty tweens to practical DIYers, to mamas who just want to read for a minute, for Pete’s sake. We’re giving away an awesome prize pack of Duck Tape in assorted colors and patterns.

Because sometimes Mama needs a little glass of something while she reads, you’ll get a monogrammed Vino-2-Go (Wine Sippy! Right? RIGHT? Awesome.) for those special times when you need to be the classiest bitch at a party, or when you’re just afraid you might spill some precious vino on your precious book.

Because you need to be comfortable while you read, we’re bringing you your choice of one throw pillow from Sewn, Inc. Sewn is a small design atelier in Brooklyn, NY, specializing in dressmaking, custom Halloween costumes for children, home decor accents, and quilted Christmas stockings.

Because you might be out and about while you’re reading (hey, it could happen), the winner will also get a $30 gift certificate to the Jennifer Ladd shop on Etsy, which is chock full of gorgeous handbags and change purses.

Because you’ll need something clean for your kids to wear if you hope to put off the laundry one more day, let us introduce you to Nostalgic Graphic Tees by Elizabeth Horton. Brushed for softness and screen printed using multiple layers of environmentally friendly ink, you’ll be happy when this becomes your child’s favorite shirt because it’ll stand up to life and washings and still look good enough to hand down to a little brother or sister. Winner gets to choose any tee from the Etsy site. That’s winner’s choice! You just have to pick from a size in stock.

Because you’ll need something cozy to “borrow” from your husband’s closet while you read (or because you’re the husband whose cozy stuff keeps getting “borrowed,” or because you just happen to like reading and comfort), Cool Dads is providing one of their tees. They work hard to make tees that their kids would dig, and that they would be proud to wear too. They feature a tailored fit, custom stitching, and high quality bamboo viscose material that makes their shirts softer than the softest cotton, keep you degrees cooler, and even repel sweat to keep you dry.

Because people are always trying to take the few things around the house that aren’t made by Fisher Price (like your new fantastic book collection) and claim them as their own, label them in style with Name Bubbles. These sturdy, water-resistant and dishwasher safe labels come in a variety of colors, sizes, and fonts so you can personalize them just the way you want. We’re giving away a School Labels Pack, an assortment of over 80 labels!

Because we know you’ll get interrupted while you’re trying to read, you’ll get a $40 gift card to Snappin Studio, where they make unique hand stamped metal keepsakes like beautiful copper bookmarks. What a stylish way to keep track of where you left off, until you’re finished getting the kids just one more glass of water at 10:30 PM! Shop for gorgeous hand stamped metal gifts such as personalized guitar picks, unique anniversary gifts, handmade wedding favors and more.

Also, because we know we’re all just barely holding it together ourselves, we’re including a canvas I Just Want To Pee Alone tote bag so YOU can hold all this stuff together – super rare and totes adorable, you’ll be able to carry all this incredible loot in style.

And finally, because we know we might have forgotten something (Who, US???), the lucky winner will also get a $175.00 Amazon gift card, to spend however he or she wants, although we strongly suggest using it to buy the giveaway hosts something pretty.

That’s almost $700 worth of fantastic prizes!

NOW FOR THE NITTY-GRITTY:

To qualify: You must have a deep, burning desire to own all or part of the stuff mentioned above, and live in the United States. (So sorry, non-United States friends – we love you big time, but we don’t understand your sweepstakes rules and don’t enjoy serving jail time. Also, POSTAGE. Gah. It’s, like, more than college tuition.)

Required: Do the little Rafflecopter thingy. Winner will be chosen at random and notified after the giveaway closes on Saturday, October 5. If there’s no response from the winner within 24 hours, another winner will be chosen and so on until I decide just to keep everything for myself. (I’m kidding, of course. OR AM I? Yes, I’m kidding.)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

1 Pot, 3 Recipes. Make Your Apples Do Triple Duty!

September 27, 2013 By: Stephanie2 Comments

It’s a big week for apples here in Pennsylvania. Yesterday was Johnny Appleseed’s birthday and today Nicholas’ kindergarten class dressed in costume and put on a parade to celebrate.

At home we are celebrating in our own way by cooking with apples as much as we can while they are in season.

Apples are one of my most favorite things to cook with. They are healthy, they taste good, and they can be preserved really easily. What’s not to love?

What if I told you that you could chop up a few apples and use the very same ones to make spiced apples, homemade applesauce, and apple juice AND you can do it all in the same pot? That’s right. Only one pot to wash. You only have to chop the apples once. Then you can freeze what you make and have it on hand to feed your family for weeks. I’ll show you.

You just need a pot with a lid. My Le Creuset is my favorite, favorite, favorite pot of all time. (Pssst…I got mine from HomeGoods for less than half of the retail price.) I wish I had an extra one. I love it. For reals.

Ok, back to the task at hand.

First, buy some apples. See if your local orchard is selling “seconds.” These are the apples that may have a small bruise, fell to the ground, or are too ripe to sit on the store shelves and they are sold at steep discounts. Our orchard was selling a peck (8 quarts) for $6.50 or so yesterday when I was there. If we assume each quart weighs a pound, that is about $0.81/lb. The grocery store brand is $1.99/lb this week, so that is less than half price. Seconds are great for cooking and preserving.

Wash, peel, core and chop your apples. DO NOT THROW THE PEELS AND CORES AWAY.

Save the peels (but do discard any bruises or yucky spots) and the cores in a large bowl of water and set it aside.

Recipe 1: Cinnamon Apples

Add the chopped apples to the pot with a few tablespoons of liquid. You can use water, juice, cider, whatever you have. Add a few tablespoons of cinnamon. Turn the heat on medium high and cook them until they are tender, but still have a little bit of a bite to them, like the inside of an apple pie. Some people prefer to add a pinch of sugar as well. That’s really all there is to it.

Done.

Take half of the apples out of your pot at this point. You can serve these warm as a side dish or separate them into small batches in Ziploc bags and freeze them to use later in crisps, baked french toast, etc. My kids like these cinnamon apples tossed with raisins and granola for breakfast.

Recipe 2: Applesauce

To the apples that are still in your pot, add more liquid and continue cooking until your apples are very soft. You should be able to smash them easily with a fork. You can add sugar or lemon juice if you want, but those are optional. (If you want to can your applesauce you’ll need to find a recipe with exact measurements for the amount of lemon juice that you need. I don’t recommend this method for canning.)

Use a potato masher or an immersion blender to smash the apples to your desired consistency. We like to leave ours a little chunky.

Done.

There are very few things in the world that are more comforting than warm, homemade applesauce. And it makes your house smell soooo good!

That wasn’t so hard, right?

Ok, here comes the intimidating part. (Don’t worry, it’s still not that bad.)

Recipe 3: Homemade Apple Juice

First wipe the inside of your pot with a wet rag or a few paper towels. It will be a little messy and sticky from the applesauce.

Rinse the apple peels that have been sitting the bowl of water, to get rid of any dirt or residue that was on the peels, and add fresh water to the bowl. Let the water sit a while longer to soak the peels, then add it to the pot.

* I imagine that you could probably also do this in a Crock-pot set to low overnight, but I have never tried it.

Add more water if necessary. The pot should be about 3/4 full. I added more water after I took the next picture.

Bring the pot to a boil and stir occasionally.

Add sugar to taste. (This is optional, but since we are only using the peels it can be bitter, so I definitely recommend adding a cup of sugar.)

Keep the lid on most of the time so that your liquid doesn’t evaporate. Let it boil lightly for about 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to low.

Let it simmer for at least 2-3 hours on low heat, still stirring occasionally.

Eventually, you will notice that the color is drained from the apple peels and the liquid in the pot looks like juice.

Allow the pot to cool.

Strain the liquid.

Keep the juice refrigerated or freeze it in freezer-safe glass jars. (Make sure to leave room at the top of the jar to allow for expansion.)

Enjoy!

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DIY Stone Fireplace with AirStone

September 26, 2013 By: Stephanie51 Comments

A few weeks ago I reached out to AirStone to see if they would be willing to partner with me on our fireplace design. I was SO excited when they said yes!

I knew it would be the perfect product for us because I had been told by our builder and my engineer of a husband that the structure of our house wouldn’t support the weight of an entire wall of real stone, like I originally wanted. The living room is in the middle of the house, so this fireplace is on an interior wall sitting over the middle of our open basement. It just doesn’t have enough structural support for that much weight in one spot, not to mention that there was no way real stone was going to fit in the budget.

AirStone weighs 75% less than real stone, but you honestly can’t tell the difference just by looking at it. The texture is rough and it is cool to the touch, just like real stone, it just weighs a lot less. Plus, it is made out of 80% recycled materials and it is super easy to install, as you will see in a minute. AND it’s very reasonably priced.

The first thing we did was install the flagstone hearth.

I also painted the walls behind the AirStone a dark color at the recommendation of one of our contractors, who had worked with this product before.

We used the online calculator to figure out how much we would need. There are flat edge, natural edge (for edges that will show in the finished product, like the sides of our fireplace wall), and corner pieces available. We needed some of each for this project. We also needed two buckets of the adhesive. We placed our order online for pickup at our local Lowes and I picked up our supplies the next day.

One of the hardest parts was getting started. We were a little overwhelmed because it seemed like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Our contractor was there and he gave us a few tips and told us how he would usually install a product like this.

Once we got up the courage to get started, it wasn’t hard at all.

Just use a putty knife to spread the adhesive on the stone like you are frosting a cupcake or buttering a piece of toast, then stick the stone on the wall.

It’s really important to clean the front of the stone right away if you accidentally get some adhesive on it! That is some strong stuff and it dries pretty quickly, but I really appreciated that the smell wasn’t noticeable. We were doing this project with our kids in the house and no one complained at all, not even Nicholas, who has some sensory issues and is very sensitive to smells.

We started working up each side, using a pocket level to make sure we were keeping our lines as straight as possible. We used painters tape and cardboard to protect the fireplace insert.

If we needed to cut a piece we would take it outside and cut it with a hacksaw. This worked fine, but Eddie said it would have been much faster if we could have used his angle grinder. Unfortunately, a lot of our tools are still in storage. It does make a lot of dust, so I recommend doing it outside if you can.

Under the hearthstone we used the corner pieces. We had to buy a whole box just for six pieces. I wish they sold these pieces individually.

We used 1/2″ strips of plywood to keep the stones on the hearth slightly up off the floor so that there is a gap for the carpet, which will be installed in about two weeks.

When we got to the top of the fireplace insert, we had to cut vertical supports so that the stones wouldn’t side down before the adhesive set, due to gravity.

One quick tip: We used small pieces ripped right from the AirStone box as spacers to keep our stones level. It saved us a lot of frustration.

We had been warned by someone who had used this product before that it was difficult to keep level, especially once you get to the top. We found this to be true as well.

The last three stones were definitely the hardest!

We still have some caulking to do around the gas fireplace insert and scrape off the drywall mud that accidentally was spread onto it. (I have to admit I’m more than a little irritated about that because there are also two large scratches on it from where someone tried to scape off the mud.)

Overall, I’m really happy with the finished product!

We will be making a nice big, chunky mantle within the next few weeks and the painter is starting TODAY.

Only about three weeks until our projected finish date!

UPDATE: See our finished fireplace and how to build a floating fireplace mantle:

Thanks to AirStone for sponsoring this project! I was provided with the materials to complete this project. All opinions are my own.

Fireplace Makeover Part 1: How to Lay a Flagstone Hearth

September 25, 2013 By: Stephanie6 Comments

Last weekend we spent ALL DAY Saturday on our fireplace. It took us about 10.5 hours total, but it was so worth it. We starting by preparing the walls and laying the flagstone hearth.

First we had to prep the walls for the AirStone we were going to be using. I took all 3 kids with me to the home improvement store to pick up paint and supplies and got to work paining the walls a dark color. (If I had it to do over again, I would have primed the walls first because some of the paint started to peel later.)

While I was painting, Eddie went to a local concrete supplier and picked up the Pennsylvania Flagstone (also called Bluestone) we had ordered. We had also checked landscaping companies and fireplace suppliers, but the concrete yard was the only place with an 18″ deep piece in stock. Living in PA means we have access to a lot of great stone. Even though the budget and the structure of the house didn’t allow for us to be able to use real stone for the entire project, I wanted a native piece of flagstone in the house.

Eddie’s parents came by to keep and eye on the kids and his dad and our contractor helped us get the giant piece of stone into the house. It measures 72″ x 18′ x 2″ and weighs about 300 pounds. This type of long, rectangular piece is called a “tread stone.”

We had already reinforced the framing for the hearth with plywood and vertical supports (which are hidden under the plywood).

Our contractor, Mike, let us borrow his rubbing stone to take the sharp edges off the flagstone and make it a little safer for the kids.

Originally we had planned to use mortar to attach the flagstone to the hearth, but when he saw how heavy this stone was it was pretty clear it wasn’t going anywhere and Mike thought silicone would be the way to go. It made the process pretty fast and easy. The guys laid a thick bead of silicone.

Then they marked a center line on the stone and one on the fireplace wall and they picked up the stone (carefully!) and laid it down, matching up the center lines.

I was really happy that we were able to select a local stone that coordinated so well with the AirStone we were going to be using.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2. 🙂

Confessions of a Diet Cheater: Week 1 with Green Giant

September 24, 2013 By: Stephanie9 Comments

I have been offered a really cool opportunity to partner with Green Giant over the next few weeks!

Sweet. I love Green Giant. I use their broccoli with cheese sauce over baked potatoes all the time for an easy lunch.

The catch?

In order to be part of this experience, I have to be open with the whole entire internet (you guys) about my diet cheating habits.

You know, the things we all tell ourselves (or maybe it’s just me?) to feel better about eating stuff we aren’t supposed to…

Like, “Peanut butter ice cream can’t be that bad for me. It is protein and dairy… It’s practically a protein shake!”

Along with a few other bloggers, I have been introduced to Dr. V from Bravo’s “L.A. Shrinks” and she will be giving us “prescriptions” (really just tips from a pro, we aren’t taking any diet pills or doing anything sketchy) and we will be working to correct some of our cheating ways.

This is what they say about her: Sharp-tongued with a mind to match, Dr. Venus Nicolino (aka, Dr. V) certainly serves up the sass, but when it comes to her clients, Dr. V’s code is one of genuine kindness and recognition in the transformative powers of empathy. Using her compassionate understanding of the human condition with an occasional dash of profanity, she tackles the obstacles and joys that make up life. A blue-collar girl at heart, Dr. V now resides in Bel Air with her husband Matthew, their two sons, ages 3 and 5, and their two nephews, ages 5 and 7, who are now under their permanent guardianship.

She sounds pretty cool, and also a little intimidating.

(I’m totally copying Dr. V and painting my own name on my arm at my next black tie event. )

Here she is to introduce herself:

I am really excited about this!

We are a family that does normally try to eat pretty healthy, but because we are in such a weird state of transition right now as we build the house and a lot of our stuff is in storage, we have been relying too much on convenience foods and letting some of the more healthy options in our frig go to waste.

I’m hoping that adding the Green Giant veggies into our routine will make it easier for me to add affordable healthy options that won’t go to waste if I can’t get to them right away because they will stay put in the freezer. 🙂

I made my very first blog for Dr.V (See, she has me stepping outside of my comfort zone already.) Since I love you so much, if you can spare a few minutes, I will show you the inside of our refrigerator. Plus, you get the added bonus of seeing me sans makeup first thing in the morning AND you get to hear me say “NO, you can’t eat a pickle at 6am!” to the kid who wouldn’t leave me alone while I was trying to “work” because he wanted a pickle for breakfast.

There. I showed you mine. Now show me yours. I would LOVE to see the inside of your freezer or refrigerator! (I’m just nosy like that) Take a photo and upload it to my Binkies and Briefcases Facebook page. And while you are there, tell me some of your diet cheats. We can work on kicking them together over the next few weeks.

This week my goal is to be to rely less on convenience foods. It’s going to be hard, but I know having lots of frozen healthy options that I can just pop in the microwave will make it a little bit less of a challenge.

What is your goal going to be?

Thanks to Green Giant for sponsoring this post! All opinions are my own.

Our New Neighborhood

September 20, 2013 By: Stephanie5 Comments

We still have 4 more weeks before our new house is scheduled to be finished, but we have been spending a lot of time in the neighborhood visiting our construction site and taking Nicholas back and forth to school.

The other day I brought my camera along so that I could show you some pictures of the ‘hood. (That is probably the one and only time in your life that you will hear Central Pennsylvania referred to as “the ‘hood.”)

This is what we see as we walk across our acreage to pick up Nick from school…

Around here it’s pretty normal to see a tractor parked in your neighbor’s yard.

I’m very jealous of this neighbor’s gazebo garden.

Our mailbox is at the end of this gravel road, which dead ends right into the parking lot of Nick’s elementary school.

This is our view on our walk to the mailbox.

And this was taken from the same spot, looking in the other direction.

Lately, if Nick has a “smiley face day” we go to a park about two blocks away after school. The kids like the river that runs through the park.

I’m not sure why, but there is hardly ever anyone there. It’s really nice to have the whole place to ourselves.

My school guy is getting big!

I can’t wait to share more pictures of the neighborhood once we are settled!

Penny in Pictures

September 19, 2013 By: Stephanie3 Comments

It occurred to me that I might have a touch of “Mom of a Third Child Syndrome” because I have hardly shared any pictures of Penny with you at all.

And now my “baby” is almost two years old!

How did that happen?

Her name is Penelope, but we call her Penny and I think it fits her well.

She has been such a blessing and a great addition to our family. She was truly the easiest baby I have ever come across, which was a very welcome change because neither her brother or her sister were what I would call “easy.” We had no issues at all with nursing or sleeping or health. She just slipped right into our family in her own quiet way.

Penny is very laid back and calm most of the time. (Although as we start to get closer to the Terrible Twos she is getting some sass!)

She ADORES her big brother and sister.

She is getting very independent. I let her do so much more on her own than I would have allowed my first two. (Mostly because my hands are usually full.)

We have an awesome park just a few blocks from the neighborhood where we are building our new house. It’s kind of a hidden gem and we almost always have the whole place to ourselves. Penny loves the slides.

And I love her serious little face. It is hard to get a smile out if this one. She really makes you work for it!

Building the Dream: Drywall and My Covered Porches!

September 18, 2013 By: Stephanie7 Comments

This week and every week from this point forward will be super exciting!

First, the drywall is up!!

It’s amazing how much this changes the look and feel of the space.

Drywall-in-a-New-Construction-Home

I’ve already picked up the AirStone for the fireplace and we are planning to install it on Saturday. Hopefully, I’ll have a big reveal for you soon.

One of my favorite places in the whole house is the girls’ shared bedroom. I love the double closet with the window seat (which will double as storage). I had the electrician add a recessed light that wasn’t originally in the plan because I want to create a reading nook in that area. I’m also in love with our extra tall windows. The ceilings are 9 feet high (12 feet in the vaulted living room) and the tall windows let in a ton of natural light.

The pool is going in! I took this picture from our back door. I pinch myself every time I look out at this view. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that this gorgeous space is our backyard!! (It’ll be a little more gorgeous without the construction fence and giant piles of dirt.) I can’t wait until next summer when I can sit on the back porch and watch the kids play out here.

And speaking of the porches…They are in!

One of the biggest reasons I fell in love with the design for this house was the large covered porches on the front and back of the house. I forgot to take pictures of the front porch, but here are a few of the back.

And the siding is continuing to go up as well.

Only ONE MONTH left on the schedule! This time next month we will be moving in!!!!

Need a Ladies’ Night Out? I Have Two for You.

September 16, 2013 By: Stephaniecomment

Pull out your phones, iPads, palm pilots, and paper calendars, friends.

You are going to want to write this down.

I have TWO fabulous Ladies’ Night Out events planned for you over the next few weeks.

First, on October 3rd, I’ll be joining Meredith from The Mom of the Year and Ellen and Erin from Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms in Downingtown, PA at Kismet Consignment for an amazing book signing/LNO. Can you say free wine, lipstick, and cupcakes? We can!

THEN I don’t know if you’ve heard, but on October 16th the writer’s of I Just Want to Pee Alone have declared a national holiday. We can do that.

Yeah, that’s right. It’s National Ladies’ Night Out. It could even go international if you are reading this somewhere out side of the US and you want in on the action.

Meredith and I will be running the Pennsylvania group meet up at the Applebe’s in Lancaster, PA. (Near the outlets.)

But there are groups of women meeting all over the country.

Check out Jen’s master list of all the locations here. She also has information on how you can get involved if you don’t see your area listed.

Hope to see some of you at one or both of these fun nights!

Building the Dream: Siding, concrete, and the start of the pool!

September 11, 2013 By: Stephanie5 Comments

This has been a BIG week at the job site. If you are new to my blog, our family is the in the process of building our dream home on a few acres of land. We've been on this journey for about two years since we found the lot, but now we are just a few weeks away from our move-in day!

Up until this point, a lot of work has been behind the scenes, things that won’t be seen once the finishes are up. The foundation and framing are super important, but they are kind of boring. This week has been really special because we can start to see what the finishes will look like and how things are coming together.

Concrete and Roofing in New Construction Home

The first piece of exciting news is: THE ROOF IS FINISHED!!!! That was a bear of a roof. It took almost a full three months from the time the trusses were delivered until all the shingles were on. (Other important stuff like all of the interior framing was happening simultaneously.) Our contractor has been building houses for 20 years and he said that ours is the second most complicated roof he has ever done. (Sorry!) There are a lot of angles and different pitches in different sections, but it makes for a very pretty finished product!

The concrete for the garage floor has been poured.

The excavator started digging out the area for the pool.

And my personal favorite thing so far this week: The siding started going up! The color is called Cameo and is a very light yellow/cream. I love it.

Did you notice that all of the windows and doors went in as well?

Later this week the drywall work will start and the gas fireplace insert will be installed. I’m really excited because I’ve been offered the opportunity to partner with AirStone for our fireplace design and share the whole process with you. It’s a really cool product that is going to give our fireplace wall the look of stacked stone without all the weight. Our living room is in the middle of the house and wouldn’t be able to support the weight of real stone and stone wouldn’t have been in our budget anyway. I’ve seen the AirStone display at our local Lowes and kept going back because I thought it would be a great solution for us. I’m so glad they decided to partner with me!

I can’t wait to show you the pictures over the next few weeks as things really start to take shape!

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The Biggest Fall Reading Giveaway of All Time! {that I know of}

1 Pot, 3 Recipes. Make Your Apples Do Triple Duty!

Recipe 1: Cinnamon Apples

Recipe 2: Applesauce

Recipe 3: Homemade Apple Juice

DIY Stone Fireplace with AirStone

Fireplace Makeover Part 1: How to Lay a Flagstone Hearth

Confessions of a Diet Cheater: Week 1 with Green Giant

Our New Neighborhood

Penny in Pictures

Building the Dream: Drywall and My Covered Porches!

Need a Ladies’ Night Out? I Have Two for You.

Building the Dream: Siding, concrete, and the start of the pool!

Binkies and Briefcases with Stephanie Giese

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Recipe 1: Cinnamon Apples

Recipe 2: Applesauce

Recipe 3: Homemade Apple Juice

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Binkies and Briefcases with Stephanie Giese

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