Prairie Style Ranch Spec Home

I recently worked on creating a spec. home for a client, but they decided to cancel their building project, therefore leaving me with a great design, but no home owners. If you are interested in developing this Prairie-style ranch home, I would be happy to meet with you and discuss this design further. I apologize if the scan is a bit pixelized, but I was limited in the quality settings on the scanner. This plan is for a 2500 sq. ft. ranch home with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and an open, flowing central space for the kitchen, great room, family room and dining area. It can accommodate a full basement, and I have designed an attached oversized 3-car garage with a workspace area. It is in the $500-600k construction budget and would work best on a south-facing lot (as it is currently configured.)


Please take a look at the initial concept and give me a call if you would like to discuss things further!


Aaron Zimmer
T*Rex Architex
303-388-2918

THANK YOU!!

As you can tell, Kim Mee is DEFINITELY fitting in! She is a ZIMMER! I love getting her to flash me that smile!

Look at those cheeks! I call her my little cabbage patch kid! :-)


You know what, there's something vaguely familiar about Kim's jacket.....???

I thought it looked familiar!!

(Jade Zimmer, March 2000)

...same coat!








The past two weekends we have been blessed by being able to share our new joy with our friends. We have gone to two baby showers in Kim's honor, and the gifts rolled in! Thank you so much to all of our friends that attended and the wonderful gifts that you have shared. Your generosity was only outdone by your eagerness to see our newest family member. And she was a HIT!

Thank you Rhonda for hosting this shower. This was one of the few breaks away from the food table that I allowed myself!


We had good times catching up with old friends!

(not that you're old, Barbara -- but your DAUGHTER sure is~!)





One of the shower's was thrown at our Jazz. center. 40 students and friends filled the room with socializing, games, chattering, and balloons. Oh yeah, and a whole bunch of food (healthy, of course!)




Thank you Mary for bringing this shower all together. And many, many thanks to all of you who came. By the way, these are the only two pics I was able to capture before my dying camera gave out on me. If you are reading this and were able to snap a couple of good shots, please send our way. Thanks!




Kaleb had TOO much fun opening all of Kimmie's new gifts!











Did I just confuse you there with the name spelling? Kim Mee, Kimmee, Kimmie, Kimmy -- whatever works for you!



In case you were wondering, the kids are adjusting JUST FINE to the new little one in the house :-O )
















One of the gifts we received was this great little child sling. It gives Kat a chance to get some stuff done around the house without having to worry about Kimmee (see, the spelling is interchangeable!) We have had a few broken cups and dishes, though, by Kim's inquisitive hand grabs!




I know I show a lot of food pictures. But truth is, she loves to eat! She loves our American food. And she ABSOLUTELY LOVES FROZEN WAFFLES!!






....and Kaleb LOVED the oatmeal!!

Man, how they grow up so quickly!

(Kal-Ray, Sept. '03)

New Pics -- AS PROMISED!

Kim Mee Zimmer, born Bae, So Mee in South Korea, April 7th, 2007. Arrived in Denver, CO. on Dec. 18th, 2007. Merry Christmas!




















Hello there my faithful blogspotters! I hope all is well! If you haven't had a chance to read Kathy's entry, then I would suggest you skip these pictures and read her words first. THEN come on back to the pics! It's more fun that way!

We're doing well and each day is a bit better. Kim's fitting in well with us all now, eating healthy, sleeping well, enjoying life in the crazy Zimmer family!

Alright, enough talking....let's see some pics!!



Here's a great shot with my grandparents. Kimmee was a hit and a GREAT SURPRISE for the Zimmer Holidays!







This is my sister (I know, she has my hair!), grandpa, and Kim.


For those of you who may not know this, my grandpa is Ray (Raphael) Zimmer. Both my brother AND Kaleb were named after this incredible man! You can see how genuine of a man he is in his smile!






Sis, Kim, and Kiddo.












Der Zimmer Klan!


p.s. If anyone out there from the family has this shot with everyone LOOKING at the camera, please send it my way. THANKS! Obviously everyone was staring at a DIFFERENT camera!







Grandpa "Big Guy". We had a great visit in Walton with Kathy's dad. It was good to be able to see all of our family back in NE.




































Now we're back home and getting into a routine!













Holding Kim and feeding her is a MAJOR accomplish- ment for me! For the first few weeks, she would tolerate me, but my time was minimal. I seem to have that effect on people :-)




Didn't take too long for Gwen to figure out where the best seat in the house is!


I think Kim's trying to poke fun at my facial hair!






Here's a great shot of Gwen enjoying her Christmas gift! She loves this game!













Bath time back home.


























Kaleb took this shot...I had to post it for him.












Right now things are going very well for us. We're tired, but that's to be expected. Kim's letting go of some of her clinggyness, but not all of it. I think the worst trait of hers is that she is SUCH a light sleeper! Any floor creak, a muffled sneeze, a slight wall thump and she is AWAKE! It's sucks for us, but at least the other two kids are deep sleepers and can weather her cries!















The kids are enjoying all of their Christmas gifts! Many thanks to all for your gifts, thoughts, and prayers this Christmas season!









Kaleb Raphael Tony Hawk Zimmer


















My little guy is growing up! Goodbye tooth #2! This happened last night...











Jade demonstrating her skills as a big sister! This is actually the traditional Korean way for transporting kids -- for reals!









Merry Christmas, y'all!












Zimmer Family -- Party of FIVE!

Your parenting style really does change from a man-to-man defense to zone coverage. Watch out for the Blitz!









Good night, EVERYBODY!

Kathy's Post

As many of you can tell, we have just been too busy (and too tired!) to update our blog with weekly posts. Sorry! But Kathy did send out an updated email today, and I thought it would be nice to share it with our blog world! Here are her words:



Kathy Zimmer wrote:

Hey guys, I know a lot of you are all wondering how things are going at the Zimmer house, and I finally have a moment to tell you.

Hard to believe but Kimmee has now been w/ us for 4 weeks. It's easy to say time has flown, but there are definitely moments when the clock was incredibly slow. Some of you have read on the blog (www.zimmerfam.blogspot.com) how crazy the arrival day was. Yes, it was. I almost had to sit on Aaron because he was so giddy and hyper!

The first 4 days Kimmee was with us we all (party of 5) camped out on the floor in our bedroom. It's funny the day we brought Kimmee home, Aaron and I put our mattress on the floor in anticipation of helping her get acquainted with us. When Kaleb had seen what we had done, he took off running. He came back about 2 minutes later w/ his sleeping bag and pillow informing us that he was not going to be left out of this slumber party!

Kimmee came on a Tue and we headed up to Breckenridge for a week of skiing over Christmas. Crazy! We are not and have never asserted ourselves to be textbook parents, and boy did we live it. My Mom came with us so that we were able to get in some skiing/boarding. Lots of fun w/ Jade and Kaleb. Jade's becoming quite the snow boarder, and Kaleb's just enjoying skiing down the mountain via the terrain park or trees w/ me following right behind him.

Attachment? People ask if Kimmee has had trouble attaching. Attaching no! She has decided to attach herself to me with super glue. For the first week or so she would not let me out of her touch let alone her sight. Trips to the bathroom were a sight to see! If I cannot be found, Jade is a suitable substitute. It's been a little trying for Jade and I, but life is getting so much better.

Kaleb has tried with all of his might to have her like him as much as he likes her. He saves her from her crib after her name, and feeds her cheerios. Anything to help him become her "hero!"

Kimmee has slowly and steadily been growing in her attachment to Aaron. We think that she must have been more attached to her foster mom, because it's taken a little bit for her to warm up to men. I joke that I should let my cross dressing student hold her and see how she reacts!

After Breckenridge we made a surprise visit to Nebraska to introduce her to her Omaha and Walton family. Good times. I'm glad we made the trip.

All of that craziness didn't come without a price though. Christmas is crazy enough, but throw in a brand new baby from another country and you've just multiplied your need for therapy.

When we returned home, Kimmee got introduced to her crib, and has been there since. Our social worker visited us shortly after we arrived home, and assured us that a couple of weeks of normalcy would do a lot to improve everyone's mental health. She was right. Kimmee has slept through the night in her own crib 2 nights in a row. She's finally figured out how to put herself back to sleep, and Jade was even able to stay in her own bed the entire night. Life always looks so much better with a full night of sleep.

Life is improving by leaps and bounds every day. I can honestly say my prayer life has grown so much.

Here's a little story that sums up how we're doing. On Wednesday night, my friend Mary offered to watch Kimmee while we took the kids to Awanas. We came back to pick her up, and I asked how it went. She said she was sad while we were gone. At that moment we looked at her, I think Aaron was holding her, and she was all smiles and giggles. Mary said, "You can tell she knows exactly where she belongs."

Have a great day, and thanks for caring about us.

Kathy

'nough said ....Aaron. Good night, our friends! Please keep an eye out in the next few days for some updated photos! I promise to post them by the end of the week!!

Kim Mee Zimmer - Day 2

Hello my friends! It's getting late...and our nights are short!

First things first, Kimmee is doing great! She's a very healthy, alert, and curious little girl. She's very strong for her age, crawls everywhere and can pull herself up to a standing position. Very impressive! Her fine baby hair is falling out with the new thicker hair hidden underneath (Jade had the same thing!)

It was such a blessing to get her in time for Christmas! It completely changed our holiday plans, but in a good way! We feel special and complete now that she is here with us...

Last night was a bit rough on her. She cried a sad cry -- you could tell that she missed the familiar. Today was a new day, though! She has completely latched onto both Kathy and Jade. It's a beautiful sight! Jade is EATING it UP! When she is in their arms, she is quiet as can be. Kaleb and I....well, we're just a couple of goofballs to her! Kaleb, surprisingly is very resilient. If Kimmie doesn't come to him, he just waits for the next time, or the next, or the next. You can see in the pics that when she does sit with him, he's just glowing!!

She's hot and cold with me right now. I think her strong attachment to her foster mom makes her more content with being held by a female. This is just pure conjecture. It could be the strange way that my hair grows out of my chin! I'm patient though, and am just wanting her to be happy for the now. She'll warm up to me, just like Kathy eventually did! :-)





Today was a low-key day. We hung around the house, ate, played, and slept. Kim did great last night, sleeping from 9pm until 5am, waking up once for a mid-night feeding. We moved our mattress to the floor and are letting her sleep with us since this is the Korean way. No sense in forcing her into a crib just yet. The kids insist on camping out on our floor too! It's family style here at the Zimmer house! Come on over, bring your sleeping bag!




Kaleb is so happy about finally being a big brother! This smile is so genuine in this pic!














Our tired world traveler.










Sisters for life!

You can't see it here, but she has a beautiful smile and coo....her whole face lights up and lets you know when she's happy! I'll work on capturing a better pic with her smile!








The Zimmer kids!











We only have 2 more days left at home before we head up to Breck! Then we'll be skiing and hitting the slopes hard. But we'll probably only stay out for 3-4 hours a day. The rest of the time we'll be swimming and hanging out at the lodge. We haven't "tested the waters" yet with Miss Kim, but we hear that she loves to play in the water....she's going to fit RIGHT in with this crew!




From the words of Kaleb's favorite rock star: Hannah Montana
Good night everybody!!

SHE'S HERE! :-)

Friends and family, let me introduce you to miss Kim Mee Zimmer!!!
















Two years of anticipation and our "gotcha" day has arrived! In the adoption circle, the day that you receive your baby is known as your "gotcha" day. Our family will always celebrate the anniversary of December 18th as the day we became a party of FIVE!

Okay, first things first. I felt like at any moment today I was going to throw up! I could not contain my excitement. I called several friends and family members and talked my co-workers ears off because I just could not bottle up my excitement anymore!

Kimmee traveled from Inchon, Korea (near Seoul) to Hong Kong, then to Tokyo, then to Los Angeles, then to DIA. What a trooper! We think she traveled for about 24 hours.

When we got to DIA, my number one task was to get past the security screening so that I could meet my daughter at the gate! A very lovely and understanding ticket agent for Frontier made this happen for us! She found Kimmee on the flight and generated boarding passes for us so that we could make it into the terminal.


Of course I TOTALLY forgot that I was carrying my Spiderco pocket knife that I ALWAYS carry and had to make a mad DASH to our friends back at the fountains then sprint back to the screening gates. "Everyone outta the way!! My daughter arrives in TEN MINUTES -- let me thru!" as I'm sprinting thru the crowded concourse. They all did....with applause I might add! :-)



(One last shot with Jade and I before heading to meet Kim at the gate!)

We did make it the gate with time to spare. Relax. Calm down. And wait.









Then she arrived. She was so beautiful! And alert. And happy! And curious. It was a perfect introduction.










Kaleb could not WAIT to hold Kim! He was beaming!!!












Although this picture doesn't reflect it, Kimmie has taken an immediate liking to Jade. She'll quit fussing just by being held by Jade. It's very sweet!










One of my favorite shots taken at DIA today! Jade took it without my knowledge. Pretty much captured the moment!


Perfect.







After we met up with our friends at DIA, we brought the party home. We really discovered how active Kim is already! She scoots around just fine and can pull herself up and even enjoys eating Cheerios!


No, the camera's not out of focus. Even the equipment was experiencing teariness from the moment!

The Zimmer Kids! December 18th, 2007.










She has got such a great personality! I know all parents say this, but truth is she's very alert and constantly exploring her new environment.

The opposite side of this coin is that she does experience moments of sadness. You can tell that she misses her familiar environment and the only family that she has ever known. It's tough, but we expected this. Then she'll break through the sadness with a smile and a coo. She's lovely!




No fear of the dog! She jumped right into the Gwenie action. Gwen licked her face a few times in a very lovingly way. :-) They're going to be GREAT friends!








Today was a long day, but it was fun to share it with everyone that could make it! I'm going to work on a "Gotcha!" video that I'll post sometime after this weekend. I'll have video clips and more pictures and a GREAT CHRISTmas song to carry the clip.

Wish us luck and send out a prayer. Kim extremely confused on time, and very tired but sleeping lightly. The next few days are going to require a whole-family effort to make it through. I'll upload more pics and updates tomorrow!

Good night!