Pretty!

So one half of our kitchen is pretty much done, except for a few little details (which include the floors, toe kicks, shoe mouldings, crown molding, knob and/or pulls, caulking between the counters and wall, window mouldings, and a whole bunch of touch-ups). Once again for memory sake this is the kitchen before our little remodel.

And Now:

Check out this faucet and sink, are you sick of hearing that I love them? I don't know if you can tell by the picture but it is so deep. I seriously think it is double as deep as any sink I have previously used. The only issue this has caused so far is that you get a little extra sprayage since the water has a lot of room to fall and then redirect, but since the sink is so deep it doesn't usually get all over things. The pump over to the far right is for soap. It is so nice to have this little pump so I don't get have a dish soap bottle that is all nasty and it's nice when you just want something to soak and can just spray in a little soap while you are running the water.

Dish Pan Hands...

I can officially say I will no longer have to wash my dishes in the bathroom!!!!!! This weekend while I was at a church retreat out of town, Adam finished most of the work for getting the sink in and dishwasher hooked up. When I got home Saturday he just had some finishing things to complete. Last night he was able to get everything hooked up and we were able to put our dishes from dinner (and probably a few dinners before that) in the dishwasher. Even with the few items I needed to handwash, I have to say I have never been so excited to stand at a kitchen sink and wash something.

I really like my sink and faucet. Our sink is much deeper than our previous one and the faucet is one that has a high arch so you could put a pot like 2 feet deep in there and not have to finagle it out. I put my 8 quart stock pot in the sink to fill it up last night and you could hardly see it above the rim of the sink. I know that is probably not the most exciting thing for most people, it is just a fun little convenience I like :)

I am going to take some pictures but I want to get the counter top cleaned off and the cabinet doors back on so it can actually look like it is supposed to and not half done. I think I can finally say I have fully operational house, done.....not yet, but operational...absolutely. Now we can start on all the other projects we have hanging out there that need to be finished. We should also have some contractors coming out soon to finish up the bricking on the back of the house around a window and possibly some other things I have requested we get a quote on (i.e. Husband,.... please let some of this get done by someone besides us so that we can enjoy our summer and maybe even be able to have people over to our house!!!)

Yard work deserves a Vacation

This weekend we about did ourselves in trying to clean up our mess of a yard. We did get rid of all the brush from the storm (yes I know that was 2 months ago), well actually we have a mountain of mulch in our driveway, and finally got all of the leaves raked and in bags. We also cleaned out our flower beds and cleaned up our porch. I have some pics but no time to post these days (if you are a CPA and reading this, sorry, but you all are a pain this time of year!).

In other news Adam and I have decided to take a vacation in May. We are going to be going to the Britich Virgin Islands, we will actually fly into St Thomas (USVI) but then spend our trip between Tortola and Virgin Gorda. Due to the proximtiy a lot of the BVIs are to one another we will be able to make some day trips to places like Jost Van Dyke and Peter's Island. I'm super excited, we haven't done a lazy vacation in awhile and I'm ready for that more than I ever knew. Plus as much as I want this house to just get done, taking a week off isn't going to wreck our plans to get finished considering we have been doing this for over 6 months now.

Here are some pics of the places we will be going, I can't wait!

A beach in Tortola

The famous "Bath" in Virgin Gorda

Schweet we have a Stove!

So the stove has moved out of its temporary home in the 3rd bedroom and into its proper place in the kitchen. It is the no-fingerprints stainless steel, and might be a little different than the micro but in this picture it doesn't even look like SS, must be the flash or something. The funny thing is that even though this got moved in here on Friday night we have yet to use the stove top due to our schedule since then. Guess I wasn't as excited as I though to have a stove to cook on?

Here is the 18 inch cabinet that replaced the too big 24 inch cabinet that was in this spot. We are starting to get the shelves reinstalled and cabinet doors back on. I even unloaded 1 whole box of spices and sauces/oils into the cabinets around the stove.

One can now actually walk through the dining room without fear of tripping over a cord or falling over a box. I resituated everything and even got the table closer to its proper place. This validated my though that we need to order a new dining room set b/c this table looks like doll-house furniture in this big of a space. Obviously the fridge will not be there and actually this one will be making its way to the garage as soon as we get a dolly to get it exchanged for our new SS fridge that is currently just sitting out in the garage.
On a change of plans we are going to use the extra 24 inch cabinet to put up above the "L" shaped bar thing on the left wall. We also ordered another 18 inch cabinet to fill up the space a bit. So we will have 42 inches of additional cabinet space which will be nice and kind of balance the kitchen, is what Adam and I decided. The cabinet Lady has to think we are the most unorganized kitchen remodelers ever since we seem to be calling once a month to order something else we decided we need.

The micro and a yellow wall

So, the most exciting progress you have ever seen....not really..... but an update none-the-less.

We did get one cooking appliance installed too bad it was something we already were using this one is just bigger. It is a pretty sweet little micro all kinds of fun little settings. Even my set-everything-manually-husband has used some of the auto settings. I do like that we got to finally see what the only-missing-their-knobs cabinets look like with our appliances and I have to say I do like what I see.

Here is the long awaited spacer, this is probably the most dull photograph to everyone else, but that darn little spacer not being in its spot has delayed my new oven from entering the kitchen for about 2 extra weeks.

Here is a pic of the wall color that will run along the walls opposite of the green kitchen walls, so basically the dining room area. I like how the 2 colors look together and glad I went with something other than a variation of green and brown. I think my Mom was starting to think they never taught me about any other colors in kindergarten. I never realized how amazingly unorganized and chaotic our house looks to the outside world until I take these picture and look at our mess!

Here are couple of items we ordered today from Overstock (see below), our kitchen faucet and the light that will go in the dining room. Adam actually spotted the light and I liked it, I think he is getting better at this interior decorating thing, he sure is getting more experience than he probably ever wanted!

Until further updates adios, hope to be making a new entry soon (i.e. "Please husband, move my oven range into the kitchen and then finish the plumbing so the new sink can go in and I can try my mad skills at becoming the next Rachel Ray" j/k on that last part)

A cute little bunny....

My dad sent me these pictures from my niece's, Camryn, first Easter Egg hunt that she had with her Grandma and Grandpa on the other side. I think she makes about the cutest Easter Bunny I have ever seen in my life!!

On a side note we have made a little progress in the kitchen since the last pictures I posted, I'll try to take some pictures tonight and get them posted soon.

1st Quarter Review

Since I live in the financial world, time basically seems to operate on quarters. Since we are nearing the end of the 1st quarter here in a few days, I thought I would summarize the happenings of our year so far (can you tell we did nothing on our house this weekend and I'm trying to at least have an updated post?). Anyway.... on to the happenings of 2008:

The Good:
1. We moved into our "new" house and finally do not have to move anymore for awhile.
2. We finshed our bathroom to the point it is usuable and no longer had to live by frequenting gas stations and other convenient restrooms or using our friends for their showers.
3. We got to celebrate our nieces 1st birthday.
4. I received a decent bonus this year for last calendar year, which allowed us to payoff a mixture of residual Italy expenses, Christmas, and some house stuff.
5. Our kitchen is nearly finished which will mean that Adam will have a very happy wife that may not complain as much about the shape our house is in!!!
6. Our House Church (the small group we are a part of) has grown the last few months with some new faces which has allowed us to have some new friendships and for the group dynamics to be influenced by these new personalities and experiences, which is always fun to see how God works.
7. This coming weekend we get to celebrate the wedding of two of our bestfriends, Adam is actually a bestman and I am a Matron of Honor, we are super happy to be apart of this celebration.


The Bad:
1. On January 31st a crazy storm blew through and made a big mess at our house. We lost several trees and even had some fall on my car and the house. We still have some residual mess to get cleaned up once we have a few nice days.
2. At the end of February I was leaving my dentist appointment when my driver's side window fell completely down in the door, mind you it was probably 10 degrees and I was driving with no window at least 5 to 10 miles, brrrrrr. My window got scratched in the fall and so I had to get a new window and plus get it fixed. A dealership visit is never cheap, but I did find out that since the issue was caused by a build up of ice on my window it was covered under my comp coverage, thank goodness for insurance. My deductible is fairly low so we only had to dish out about 1/2 of the cost.
3. Last week on my way to work I hit a pothole, I mean crater, and totally messed up my tire. Not only did I get a flat, that has now been fixed, but we are still hearing a sound when I drive the car in the wheel somewhere.
.................................................Do you see a trend here???? Yeah we are planning to trade my car in this fall, that was decided before all this occurred, for a more family friendly vehicle. We love the Honda Pilot, but the thought of filling an SUV with $4/gallon gas makes me shudder. Yes I know it is a Honda, but still its an SUV, I wonder if I can get Adam to look at the Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

The Ugly:
I think the thing this year that has been "ugliest" is watching one of our very dear friends go through having breast cancer. She is basically our age with a great husband and an infant. In January she had a mastectomy and is now going through Chemo. She just finished her 2nd round and was hospitalized b/c her WBC got so low and she caught something, so her fever spiked above where it is supposed to be and she has to stay until they feel comfortable with the WBC. I can't imagine what it is like in a time when they want to be playing with their baby girl, watching her discover new things, being active as a family, and just learn how to be parents. They are amazing as they try to keep life as normal as they can, but it just seems like if something is going to happen it will happen to our dear friend. They have an awesome faith in God and that has been their strength. The "good" that has come out of this is just to see how people respond when someone they care about is in need. This friend has touched so many peoples lives that those wanting to help, give encouragement, and pray for her has been a huge number of people. One can only hope that they are loved like our friend is!