Fight the power!

Merrin on her birthday. Showing her support for the solidarity and rise to power for babies everywhere.

Merrin Halsey Grigg

At 5:47 AM on Tuesday the 18th of December Merrin Halsey Grigg was born. LaNae was only in labor for about 3 hours and everything went very smoothly with the delivery. Merrin weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz. and she was 20 inches long. She has a pretty good amount of blondish hair, a good amount for a Grigg baby anyway. Mom and baby came home from the hospital today at around 1:00. On a sidenote and with more photos to come later, we moved into the new house about a week ago. We still have a lot of unpacking to do but it's really nice to be here and have all the space that we need.

Getting closer

The exterior is almost complete. They finally started doing the stone-masonry around the front and the garage as you can see in this photo. Inside they have been laying tile in the bathrooms, laundry, and mud room. On Tuesday and Wednesday they will sand and finish the hardwood flooring. There's still an awful lot of little things that need to be done, but we're hoping to be in by the first week in December.

Shop is being built

Here is the garage side of the house and the 30x40 pole building that will be my dream shop when it's done. It took a long time to get it started but now it should move along pretty quickly. I can't wait to have a seperate shop for woodworking and such and a garage that is just for cars to live in. That's like a lifelong dream for me.

Hot back door pics

Here is a current photo of the back of the new house. All of the siding is pretty much done, the drywall is being taped and textured this week. Interior paint is scheduled for next week. Also the exterior doors should be delivered tomorrow and installed. They are gorgeous by the way. We're picking countertops and paint colors and all that stuff these days. I think we finally settled on the paint colors inside and out. That was a huge decision.

Finally an Update.

So I finally had a minute to take an updated photo. We've been crazy busy getting moved from our house on the northside. We got it sold and hopefully will have a big fat check in our hands any day now. We are getting situated in the little cottage on our property and hopefully will have ourselves organized soon. The house is coming along nicely and they should begin the drywalling process soon.

Windows goin' in.

So today they put in all the windows, and finished all of the plumbing. Tomorrow the roof shingles go on, and the HVAC gets installed. They are just working like crazy out there everyday. It's pretty fun to go out and see all the busy little bees working away.

Weekly Update

Almost done framing

Daily construction update

Wowie look at that.

What you are looking at inside of those trusses is our future home theater room. That is the bonus room over the garage. This house is starting to look Ginormous.

Latest Construction Update

All of the interior walls are up and I think they are ready to start putting the trusses up.

Little Rangers

Rowan and Killian with their spiffy white shirts and there Glasgow Rangers ties that we bought in Scotland. Sorry Pattersons, but hopefully nobody around here knows anything about the football club that these ties represent.

Look at them go.

They're really moving along now. This was taken about 16 hours after the previous photo.

View from the living room.

The subfloor on the main level is done. This picture was taken from the spot where the living room will be. By the end of this week they should have the majority of the main level walls erected.

It's a Basement

Just two days into framing, most of the basement bearing walls are up. This is going to be fun to watch.

Pocket Knife Collection

I've had a long running competion with myself to see how many pocket knives I could collect. So far, I'm at about 40 knives. Many of these are little and very poor quality, but they are part of the collection none the less. I forget to include my newest knife, which my friend in the Air Force just brought back from Kyrgyzstan. It's not really a pocket knife, but it's definately the most unique knife in my collection.

Here's our house... pre-assembled, of course.

Basement floor is done.

Flatwork got done in the basement today. Everything is going to be ready for the framer to begin on Monday. It's amazing that all the huge piles of dirt that they dug out for the basement are gone. Once they backfill up against the basement walls and level things out and spread it all around it all just disappears.

Doesn't look like much has happened but progress is being made.

Here's the latest shot from the construction site. The groundwork for plumbing and radon mitigation has been done. The foundation has been damp-proofed so they will be back-filling and ready to poor the basement floor next week. The framing is to begin on Monday July 2nd.

Killy and Fiona inside The Devil's Punchbowl

This Just In... Oregon Coast is Still Fantastic!!!

Gorgeous view from Otter Crest Beach. How do people in the midwest go their whole lives without seeing this?

Wild Boys

Killian and Rowan just before that blessed moment when they go to bed. These boys are such a handful right now. Killian suffers from middle child syndrome, always starved for attention so he gets the attention however he can which usually involves some form of torturing his little brother. Rowan knows how to talk but has decided that he doesn't want to, so he does a lot of pointing and squealing until he get's what he wants. I hope we're not creating a couple of monsters.

Rowan Grigg caught partying again!

Reaching for the paparazzi's camera after another night on the town with Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton.

Basement Walls

Fiona's Piano Recital

Fiona did a great job at her recital. She performed The JellyBean Rag, and The Rose.

Latest Construction Pics

Here's the forms going up for the basement walls. They are supposed to be pouring the concrete today, although it's been raining heavily all morning. I asked them yesterday if they would pour in the event of rain and they said that the only thing that would stop them was lightning.

Setting Forms for Basement Walls.

Here's a better photo of the footings and a handful of busy workers laying out the forms for the basement foundation walls.

Footings Are Done.

I took a quick snap with my camera phone yesterday as I forgot my good camera. The latest rediculousnous from the county health department is that they need to get another sample of our well water because the original water quality sample was taken by me, as apposed to a professional. The good news is, they didn't notice this little glitch until after they had already given us our permits, so It's not going to hold us up on anything. It's just a formality at this point... another in a long line of formalities that they've put us through.

Foundation To Be Poured Next Week.

The crew laid out the forms for the footings this week. They're scheduled to pour on Tuesday and the foundation crew is scheduled right behind them.

How are we going to keep the boys away from her?

Fiona had a fresh haircut and spiffy new duds from head to toe, so I had to snap a pic before we went to church last Sunday morning. She's a natural beauty.

All Things Scottish

Here we are standing in the middle of The Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The amount of incredible historic architecture in this city is unbelievable.
To see more photos click this link:
http://community.webshots.com/user/macgrigg

Below is a photo of the historic governors house in Edinburgh.

Boy Scout in Training

I took Killian with me on my latest scout overnighter. We built this monkey bridge as the culmination of the Pioneering merit badge. I enjoy my calling as the scoutmaster, though I definately understand why it's pretty much the most dreaded calling in church. If you're doing it right it's not just a Sunday calling. It's more of a Sundays, Wednesday nights, and at least one saturday a month calling.

We Felt The Earth Move, Under Our Feet.

Finally seeing some action on our new home project on 10 acres out in Cheney. I will be keeping updated photos of the progress as it gets underway.