July House Progress Part 1 (July 1 - July 7)

After the discouraging sight of our house basically completely gutted at the end of June, we were happy to see things really start coming together quickly in July.  It was a very tough month for construction due to the weather, which was the rainiest July in Chicago on record.  At least we weren't living there at the time, but having to deal with the aftermath of a mini-hurricane a couple of times a week for most of the month definitely slowed things down a bit.  Despite that, we were happy with the progress. We went from a house with practically no floors or walls to one with plenty of both in just a few weeks.

Standing in the first floor family room and looking out through the second floor master bedroom window.  Wait, what?

Post-Simon June House Progress (June 20 - June 29)

After Simon was born we couldn't bring him back to the house which was still so far from being liveable.  Emily and I could deal with the construction noise and dust but we didn't want to subject Simon to that.  So we ended up renting a tiny studio apartment just down the street from the house.  No longer restricted by needing to make sure that we had a place to live inside the house while it was being built, Contractor Larry took full advantage of his new freedom by basically gutting the inside of the house.  We knew all of this had to happen in order for the construction to proceed but seeing it all at once like that was pretty jarring for us.  Here we were with a brand new baby and our house looked further than ever from being complete.

Looking past the stacked chairs you can see the old back wall of the living room has been removed, leaving it open to the temp laundry room.  Off to the right you can see the initial framing for the new doorway between the future dining room and the future family room

Pre-Simon June House Progress (June 1 - June 14)

For the first two weeks of June we continued living in the house while the construction continued and more and more of our house became unusable.  By the time we headed to the hospital on the 14th for the beginning of labor we were pretty much reduced to just our bedroom and the bathroom.

On June 8 they built out the frame for a big window in the temp kitchen (which will eventually be a small family room off of the kitchen)

Play time!

Simon loves his play mat. I don't know if he realizes that it is his hands that make the hanging toys move, but he sure likes it when they do! He isn't much of a fan of tummy time on the mat yet. Though he definitely has the crawling motions down he isn't quite strong enough to support his weight for long and he doesn't have the know-how to spread his hands to distribute the weight.

Basement Floor (May 19 - June 1)

I just realized I hadn't posted any house pics since May, which means it's time for a ton of house construction posts to catch up.

First up, let's jump back to the end of May for the basement floor.  It had been just wet sand since they tore up the old concrete earlier in the year, but now that the foundation was finished and the sewer and water pipes were in place they could pour the new floor.

Our basement in May 2011: wet sand and the occasional pit

Picture of the Day: 8/21/11

Simon shows off his "Cubs Fan" face

Poor Little Boy! (aka 2 Month Dr Visit)

Simon had his 2 month doctor visit on Friday and got a weigh in. I thought he was close to 15 pounds. He almost doubled his weight the first month so I figured he'd come close to doing the same in his second. He didn't. He gained on average an ounce a day - which is nothing to scoff at I suppose. He is now 11 pounds and 13 oz (at 1 month he was 9lbs 8oz). He is now in the 50th percentile in both height and weight.

Unfortunately, his 2 month doctor visit is also when he get a first round of vaccines. Four as shots and one orally. The poor guy held up to the shots quite nicely. (It was more traumatizing to dad who had to hold him while the nurse gave him the shots.) A few horrified moments when he tried to figure out what was going on, a couple unhappy shouts and then nursing and his first shots were done without much drama. Or so we thought...