Jon & Shelby

Getting Close

Mrs. Hughes — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:42:38 +0000

It has been a while since we have posted about the house progress so I thought I better check in. Jon and I have been off for a week and during this time we have made a lot of decisions about the house. Our most recent decision was paint. Those of you who know us know we can’t make decisions easily and there are SO many paint colors. Friday we went to the house with our tile, counter, and carpet samples and picked out all the colors for the house. Here are some pictures of what the colors may look like, not in our house obviously. Here are the choices we have made so far.

The tile for the bathroom is Mountain Vista by Shaw in the color Grey Shadow. Here is a sample:

The color of the walls in the bathroom will be called Etherial Mood and look like this:

The kitchen counters we are looking at getting (if we can afford it) are quartz counters by Silestone in Grey Expo:

Cabinet in kitchen are Kraft Maid white cabinets in a recessed square door style:

Kitchen tile will be in something similar to this, if the color isn’t discontinued again!

The living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, and screened in porch will be painted in Amazing Grey and look similar to this:

The Office/Potential 2nd Child’s Room will be done in Breezy:

Abby’s Room and the downstairs bathroom will be Saybrook Sage:

Our room will be Cappuccino:

I think those are all the big decisions so far. We need to get new pictures to put up….probably tomorrow!

House Update

Jon — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:26:19 +0000

Here is another picture of the house (look to the right for our Flickr Feed) . We are looking at a June 1st completion date. I don’t have any updated pics of the inside but we have the East and West side of the house sided.

Since these pictures were taken we have selected flooring, cabinets and have had our fireplace installed. Things are moving a long well now that the weather has let up!

New House Pics

Jon — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:27:14 +0000

Because I have nothing else to say here are some updated pics of the house. You can view more pics by clicking “more photos” on the left hand side of the page.

Pick your candidate

Jon — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:48:22 +0000

If you don’t vote you are a horrible person. If you don’t vote for the same person I vote for you are worse than horrible. Pick your candidate here.

www.glassbooth.org

My name is Jon and I approved this message.

Brought you by the friends of Jon because Shelby hasn’t updated our blog in a long time.

Still a Child

Mrs. Hughes — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:43:24 +0000

There are moments in your life when you realize how much you still depend on your parents. Yesterday, I had one of those moments. Jon and I were driving separate cars to work because I had a meeting after school. Jon left to drop Abby off at Sue’s house and I was running late, of course, so I was probably traveling a bit fast on our dirt, ice covered road. When I reached the 90 degree turn in the road, my car decided to go straight….right into a snowbank. I tried to back up and surprise, surprise, I was stuck! I opened the car door and put the car in Neutral to try to rock it out. When I steeped outside the car to push, I shut the door and then quickly realized the car was locked, running, with my spare key inside. In the words of Swiper the Fox….OH MAN! I banged on the windows for no apparent reason. No one was inside and I wasn’t honestly going to try to break the windows. The only thing I could do was hike through the dark back home and call for help. After almost falling a few times on the slippery road, I got back home and left Jon and Trisha a message saying I would be just a little late for work. Then I called my Mom and Dad. When Dad got on the phone, his first response was “Where are you. I will be be right there.” He rushed around trying to find everything he needed and Mom called me to let me know when he left. She kept me company on the phone while I searched for a spare, spare key to no avail. I decided to hike back down the road to try the huge handful of spare keys that I was sure didn’t fit the lock. Dad met me partway through my walk and drove me back to my car. Of course none of the keys worked so I said, “Should I call the tow truck?” and Dad said “not yet”. He worked some magic with a screwdriver, paint stirrers, a hanger, and a metal yard stick. After a short time of struggling to hit one of the buttons inside the car, we finally got the window down and got in! He then yanked me out of the snow bank and followed me to the gas station to make sure I got my empty tank filled. What a guy! For those of you that ask why we would move up here from Grand Rapids, I have many reasons…the beautiful lakes and woods, the relaxed lifestyle, but the most important thing is family. I am so lucky to have a wonderful family. In my job I see many families who can’t exist together without conflict, if they are together at all. I see kids who only have themselves to rely on and I give them so much credit. I am fortunate to have parents who are still in my life after 29 years and I don’t tell them enough what it means to me. Thanks Dad…you are still my hero!

The Mayor of Whoville

Jon — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:46:26 +0000

Me in the “Grinch Who Stole Christmas”.

The Mayor of Whoville

Basement

Jon — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 04:27:55 +0000

We have a basement. I haven’t posted in the past week or so but the walls are poured and standing for our basement. We had to decide the window placement for the basement and made the first unplanned upgrade…another window. I can see how it will be easy to keep adding things as we go but we are trying to keep that extra stuff at a minimum. Here are the updated pictures. Chris said Monday he will start putting up the walkout walls on the basement and building the floor on top. We will keep everyone posted.

San Antonio

Jon — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:16:20 +0000

This past weekend, Jon and I took a mini vacation to San Antonio, Texas. It was our first time away from Abby for that long and the first time we ever visited Texas. We headed out Thursday morning and after a LONG (3.5 hour) layover in Minneapolis, we arrived in San Antonio around 5pm. We got cleaned up and headed out onto the River Walk. Our hotel, the Drury Plaza Hotel, was right on the River Walk. We could head out the back door and get to restaurants and shops after a short walk. Thursday night we ate Mexican fare at Rita’s on the River. We had good food, a beautiful view, and romance!! Jon had a mariachi band play a romantic tune at our table. It was perfect. We (I more than Jon) also enjoyed the three free drinks at our hotel every evening.

Friday morning we got up and headed out in the direction of the Alamo. We walked the River Walk there but got there before the Alamo opened so we went to the nearby Rivercenter Mall and watched the IMAX movie about the Alamo. It was ok. When it was done, we walked over to the Alamo and checked it out. It was pretty cool. We spent some time walking the grounds and watching the video created by the History Channel. After we left the Alamo, we walked part of a walking tour I had found on Frommer’s that included the Alamo, the Menger Hotel, Dillard’s, and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. Around lunchtime we ended up at La Villita, a former Coahuiltecan Indian village turned craft and art shopping area. There was some beautiful art and it was a unique little area. We stopped for lunch at the Guadalajara Grill and had some more good food. We sat out on the patio in the warm sun. Ahhh!

After stuffing ourselves, we continued our walking tour to HemisFair Park and visited the Tower of the Americas. It’s a 750 ft. tall tower which gives you a view of the whole city. Jon didn’t seem to like the observation deck…a little to high and windy for him. We also went on a 4D ride that highlighted the interesting areas of Texas. When we were done there, we walked back on the River Walk to our hotel. We were exhausted and stuffed so we opted for no dinner and had a snack of chips and cheese (free from the hotel) and our three free drinks in our room and fell asleep by 8pm. Ahhh, the joys of vacation!!

Saturday, we got up and had our full breakfast at the hotel (free again!) and headed out the mall. To the frustration of Jon, I did a little shopping for myself and for Christmas. We ended up eating lunch at a restaurant in the mall where we had good steak but bad service. After filling our bellies, we walked back to the hotel to drop my loot and headed cross town in the misty rain to Market Square. Market Square has lots of little Mexican shops and street vendors selling gorditas and margaritas. We browsed the shops but didn’t see a lot we liked. Instead of dinner, we sat down for a Mexican dessert at Mi Tierra, a Mexican restaurant and bakery. I had Mexican Fried Ice Cream and Jon had Dulce de Leche Cheesecake. Yummy! On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for some last minute souvenirs, then it was back to our room to rest our little feet. That night it was early to bed as well because we had to be up by 3:30am.

Our flights home went well but we had some turbulence on the first flight along with some nearby lightning and we almost missed our second flight due to the short layover time and an unexpected change of airlines for our one flight. Needless to say, we made it home in one piece and are glad to be back. It was nice to spend some time away and see new things but we missed our Abigail so much! Grandma Wagner and Grandma and Grandpa Hughes did such a good job taking care of her that I doubt she missed us as much as we missed her. And although there is laundry to do and the house to clean, it’s good to be home!!

Ground is Broken!

Jon — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:20:07 +0000

WOO HOO! The photos above are from Monday, the excavator was out clearing out stumps.

Today, when we drove by after work, we saw a hole!

And it begins…

Jon — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:51:53 +0000

This past Tuesday, we started a new chapter of our life…building a house. We closed on our construction loan on November 6, 2007, and now the worries about money and weather and moving start. Yikes! It is so exciting but scary at the same time. Chris, the builder, thinks that we will be breaking ground on Monday. Jon and I go by the property on our way home from work so every day we will be stopping by to see the progress. We both can’t wait. Ever since we bought the property, before we were even married, we said, “someday….” and now that day is here! Of course it has taken a lot of preparation. Jon and his Dad have been out almost every Saturday for a couple months taking the trees down so we don’t have to pay for tree removal. I have a few pictures of the work they have done and the location of our future home. Keep checking for updates and pictures.