Baby Banner

Here's the latest picture of our little one, taken at our 20 week ultrasound yesterday afternoon. This is a side profile of the face and upper body - you can see the little pointy nose and a hand below the face. We got a DVD, but the baby didn't move around much at all. 'A very laid back baby' according to the nurse - "like it's Daddy" said Cody. It's either laid back or stubborn (like both its parents) - at one point the nurse was trying to roll him/her over to get a better look at the spine, and the baby just wasn't having it! But we did at least get to see the arms, legs, fingers and toes move around enough to know that they can, and that's all we need to know. It was tough not finding out the sex, but what a fun surprise it will be at the delivery! Right now the baby's a little bigger than the average for this stage, but we'll have to wait and see if that trend continues. Hopefully it won't be too big, because I'm hoping to deliver naturally and I have no idea what my pain threshold will be because I've never had any serious injuries or illnesses to test it. Most mothers laugh when I say this is my plan, but I know it can be done because I know women who have done it. We'll just have to wait and see how this one cooperates - I'm counting on the Conder history of fast labor, but I don't want to have any false hopes either! But we've still got four more months to prepare for all of that - right now Cody and I are just excited to know that everything is fine and we've got a healthy little Banner we can't wait to meet!

And the work continues.....

It's been quite awhile since I've updated this - our camera is broken so I've been unable to take pictures. Here is the latest image, complements of Uncle Carlton. We've gotten one coat of exterior paint on the outside - we've had lots of help with the painting from my family - a whole group showed up on Sunday and helped us get the whole first coat completed. We're lucky to have such a great family. You can't tell from this picture, but all of the rough-in work is complete (a/c, plumbing, electrical) and we passed our framing and rough-in inspection. We just picked up our next draw check on Friday, and now we're ready to order the drywall work. Hopefully our camera will be fixed quickly and we can get some more pictures up, but until then I'll try to do a better job of at least updating the site to let you know where we are in the process. Oh - and I almost forgot to mention - we have our 20 week ultrasound this afternoon at 4:00. I can't wait to see our little one on the big screen! We're still hoping not to find out, but I guess we'll have to see if Baby Banner wants to cooperate. It's so nice to know we're halfway there - the time has flown by, so I'm hoping the same will be true for the second half. It's been really nice - no sickness, no cravings, no mood swings (and this is according to Cody!) - I couldn't have asked for it to be any better!

It's a Wrap!

The window trim is up, the house is wrapped, and the siding is going up. This is not a recent picture. I haven't been able to make it out there since last Friday, but I hear that the siding is almost or may even be completely finished. Now it just needs to be painted. I think the only major thing that's left on the outside is the soffits, and then it's on to the inside to begin work in there - pretty exciting!

Some of the Work Crew

Here's the head honcho - busy as usual. You should see how easy he makes it look to hammer those nails in the wall! Puts me to shame, that's for sure.

My hubby - such a stud! I'm sure he'll be a happy camper if he never sees another hurricane clip for as long as he lives.

Here's Mom - always looking good no matter how hard she's working! I hope baby gets those good Conder genes!

He was too busy working to get a head shot, but here's Dad working on hurricane clips - you have to have so many of those things! But it's worth it because I know they could come in handy one day.

Grandpa worked so hard he decided he needed a two week vacation at the beach! I'm sure there will be plenty of painting for him to do when he gets back.

House Update

It's been a while since I've updated everyone on how the homebuilding is going. We've now got the complete roof, the rough in electrical and plumbing, and we're working on getting the A/C roughed in. All the trim is up and the siding is going up too. It's almost time for our next inspection and loan draw. I don't know what comes next, other than painting the exterior. We went ahead and bought a five gallon bucket of the 'Mother Nature' green that we painted the shed. I still have hesitations about painting the house green in a field full of green grass, but I think it will look really good, especially once we add some color around the house with our landscaping. I'm hoping what they say isn't true about how if you live with a mechanic your car's never running, when you live with a plumber there's always a pipe leaking, and so on and so forth. Otherwise, we'll never have any landscaping!

We have a roof!

As you can see, the metal roof is now on - doesn't it look great! It's so exciting to see it look more like a house all the time. Today is our framing inspection. Hopefully I'll find out in a few hours that we passed! We had some wonderful help this weekend from U. Carlton, Grandpa, Mom and Dad to get everything finished up. Thanks guys!

Doors are on

As you can see, we've got the doors up and now the house is secure. All the interior framing is done, the colums are ready for installation on the front porch, and Cody is busily working to finish up with those hurricane clips so we can hopefully get our framing inspection on Monday.

Baby Update

Here's the latest image of baby Banner. Cody and I went Friday afternoon for a quick appointment and the doctor said it was still a little early to hear the heartbeat with the doppler, so she did a quick ultrasound, which we weren't expecting. On the right is the head, and on the left you can see the little legs. Every few seconds, you would see him/her do a little jump! It was nice to know that everything is okay and the baby's moving around in there. I'm in week eleven right now so the first trimester is almost over with no sickness to speak of. I've got another appointment the first week of September and then again in early October. The end of October I'll be at 20 weeks and so that's when we'll have the full ultrasound.

All OSB is Up

As you can see here, all the windows are installed and all the OSB is up around the outside. The headers on the front porch are finished, the posts for the porch are made and ready to install, and the exterior doors will probably be installed this weekend. Then Cody has to install around 400 hurricane clips along the inside (10 nails per clip!), and we should be hurricane ready!

On this side of the house the window you see is what will be our bedroom, the front room will be the nursery/guest room, and a closet runs along the wall so there are no windows.

Here you can see some of the back of the house. The far window is in our bedroom, and the near window is in the kitchen over the sink. There is a door on the side here that comes out through the kitchen, and a door in the back that's in the utility room.

Another side view.

And the front.

Moving Along - Windows

Here's the latest on the hacienda. We're moving right along. This week they should be finishing installing the windows, and it's time to go get the doors as well. Then I don't know what comes next, but it looks like it might be the roof! We're moving right along - please help us in praying that hurricane season will either avoid us altogether or at least hold off until we've got a solid exterior structure!