The big move / kitchen reveal

So Saturday was the big day for us. We had gotten a lot of packing done and my visiting teachers came Friday night to help me finish packing the kitchen. Then we went over to the house and totally unpacked the kitchen. I had my cabinet drawings all ready with pencil markings all over it showing what I wanted to go where. We had at least 8 guys show up Saturday morning to help us move, which took a good 3 hours, including getting my piano back from my friend's house. I helped with things as long as I could, but then I had to go take the girls to The Nutcracker in S.F. with some friends, since we'd had it planned months ago. When I got back, a family in our ward who had showed up to help had set up our beds, computer, electronics, and Christmas tree. I couldn't believe it. They also helped watch the girls and had us over for dinner Sunday. Another friend brought us dinner Saturday night and my sister and other friends watched the kids pretty much the whole weekend. We were SO grateful. And so exhausted. We're still digging out of boxes while trying to wrap Christmas presents, put up a few decorations, etc., but it feels so good to be back in our own house! I LOVE how much space I have now.

They did have to do the final coat on the hardwood in the kitchen yesterday, so we had to stay off that floor for a day and a half (and smell the lovely fumes / keep the doors & windows open), but we're on it now, so that's good. Unfortunately, the fridge needs to stay in the garage for a while so that it won't hurt the floor, so use your imagination in the pictures. You can obviously see where the fridge is supposed to go! I'm so excited to finally reveal these pictures. Let me know what you think. I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!

Here it is...........................

The table is still in the garage, too, for a little while, but it will go underneath that chandelier. Here are some pics of the backsplash area.

The border around the design is made of glass tiles and there are some 1 x 1 tiles interspersed throughout the pattern. Did you notice the skylight? I'll probably post some more shots of other things in the next several days, but for now, I have got to go to bed!!!

Christmas Events

Last Monday our family went to the annual Creche Exhibit in Palo Alto. They always have a fun children's room set up there where the kids can do crafts, see a marionette show, and dress up. Here are a few pictures.........

Tonight we went to see the "Bethlehem" live nativity scene and re-enactment that is put on by a local Baptist church. It's something we love going to every year. I've taken pictures in the past, but unfortunately I didn't take my camera tonight. We had fun seeing the sheep, the huge camel and the baby camel, learning how to weave, playing the dreidel game, and of course watching the neat re-enactment of the night Jesus was born. It's a really amazing thing to watch and SO much work goes into it!

On Saturday we had our Ward Christmas Party and the kids got their picture taken with Santa. I'm pretty sure with this belly shot of Andrew, that he's well on his way to becoming Old St. Nick himself someday! LOL! :)

The girls also went ice skating with Ruel last Friday for a "Y Guides" father/daughter activity. Actually it was for families, but Andrew had been sick, so he and I stayed home. They have been ice skating a handful of times before and they just love it. They both came home begging me to let them take ice skating lessons, so it looks like that might be our upcoming adventure for January. I think they'll enjoy it.

This may be my last post for a little while since we are entering the insanity of moving week. I'm already starting to lose my marbles, among other things, so I will blog with some final pictures of the house and my big kitchen "reveal" in a week or so! Wish us luck. Saturday is the big day! Oh yeah, and the girls and I and some friends already had tickets months ago to go see The Nutcracker in S.F. on the same day as what is now moving day, so I'll be taking some time out for that in the middle of the day. Yikes! Note to self: don't ever move again right before Christmas. No, make that: don't ever move again.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

So I finally tried my hand at a new layout after seeing everyone else's cute ones. It was actually really easy and I didn't delete the whole blog! Yay for me! Anyway, I thought I would post an update on the house. I can hardly remember what I posted last about it. Let's see..... last week the driveway was poured as well as some sidewalk leading to the backyard. They also laid most of the tile and stained the hardwood. I'll keep the hardwood as part of my kitchen surprise, but here is a glimpse of the rest!

1/2 bathroom tile:

Here is a shot of the entryway in progress. The finished products looks nice but I don't have any pics of that yet. We had them replace the really orange tile you see in the picture.

Here is the driveway and pictures of the girls putting their handprints down on the walkway. We all put in a handprint. I even had to get Hannah out of school for a little bit so she could do it before it dried!

The concrete guy is the one helping them and pushing down their hands while I was taking pictures. All the workers have been so nice, especially Dan and Mike. Gotta give a shout-out to them, even though they'll never see this!

Today they started putting the granite in the kitchen and I really like it! They put the countertops in the laundry room a few days ago. It's a material called Kerrock (like Corian). I tried to take a picture but it just came out pretty black.

I think the last coat of polyurethane went on the hardwood today (or maybe tomorrow), and then they can finally bring the appliances in, which I'm dying to see. Not too many things left. Still, keep your fingers crossed that all goes well, everything passes inspection, and we're able to move in next weekend!

Hannah's new haircut

Well, it's not so new. Hannah got her hair cut 3 weeks ago and I keep meaning to post a picture, and am just now getting around to it. I think it turned out really cute. She wanted it really short. I told the lady how much to cut off and we had to tell her to cut more 3 times until it was where Hannah really wanted it. It's so easy to take care of now: brush and put behind ears OR brush and put in a headband!

Emily didn't want to be left out, so she had me take a picture of her straightened hair today and post a picture. Here is the little cutie-tootie.

Moving right along...

Here is the latest update on the house. All of the cabinets that were to be painted are done now (LOVE THEM!) and the doors are on. I especially love how the kitchen ones turned out and I'm dying to post some pictures of them, but I'm still going to save them to be a surprise. I should be able to show it by next week. So the tile for the entryway, laundry area, and 1/2 bath will be laid tomorrow. Appliances also arrive tomorrow and will be installed over the next day or two. I think the granite and kitchen sinks will be in really soon (not sure what day) and the driveway will be poured on Thursday. I will post some pictures from today:

Mud room cubbies:

It's kind of hard to see the true shade in this picture because of the poor lighting, but I like them. The back wall looks white, but it's really the same color as the other walls, which is kind of taupe.

Living room cabinets:

I like how the mantel turned out. I'll post a better picture later after we get the tile in around the fireplace.

Front door:

Live and learn: The outdoor lights that I chose were installed and the ones by the front porch look good, but I used the exact same ones for either side of the garage door and they look ridiculously tiny there (especially since our garage is pretty big now), so luckily Lamps Plus said we could return them and I ordered the exact same ones in a bigger size. I also got the mini shades for the dining room chandelier today (ordered them online) and I don't really like them. The ones I really wanted were out of stock for now, so I went to choice #2 and they don't look so good. Maybe I'll put them up and see what I think, but I may have to return them and just wait for the others to be re-stocked. Oh well. Sometimes it's really hard to know what something's going to look like until you actually see it where it's supposed to be. Those are small things, though, so it's not the end of the world. More soon.

Andrew's magic wand

A few nights ago when Ruel was reading to the girls in their room, I was sitting on my bed and Andrew was jumping around me with one of the girls' wands. He waved it at me and this is what he said: "You're not a mom anymore. You're a frog. Now go to your pond and hop on green things!"

Alrighty then, Andrew. Got it. Guess I'll go hop on some "green things"!

Hooray.........cabinets!!

This was a very exciting week at the house! All the cabinets were delivered and installed yesterday. This includes the kitchen, mudroom cubbies, built-in desk area, laundry room, and living room bookshelves. I'm not posting many pictures of the kitchen, since I'm still keeping that a surprise, but here's a look at most everything:

Darn - this is not very good lighting so you can't see all the details and the color, but this is my built-in desk area. If you look closely, you can see the little cubbies in it.

Here are the mudroom cubbies. They will be painted red (keep an open mind - it will look nice!).

You can see some of the laundry room cupboards here. They'll be painted an off-white color.

And this is the 1/2 bath cabinet. I love how it turned out:

Here's a very close-up glimpse of the island before it was set in place. That's all of the kitchen I'm going to give for now!

Here are the living room cabinets. Ruel says that the mantel was completely finished today after I was last there, so I don't have pictures of that yet. Stay tuned till next week for that.

The hardwood was delivered yesterday and apparently they're going to start installing it tomorrow. There are mostly just a lot of little things we need to get now. Fortunately the big decisions are behind us. What a relief!

Exterior paint

I haven't posted on the house for a while but a lot has been going on. They finally painted the outside. I was a little surprised with how it turned out because it was supposed to have a little bit of green in it, but it doesn't seem to. I like it, though. It's kind of hard to tell from a picture what it really looks like.

So I have spent the last 5 days looking at every kind of hardwood possible: stains, grains, widths, pre-finished, unfinished, you name it. (Finally got that decided on about an hour ago.) I spent a whole week before that looking at every single light imaginable before I finally picked a chandelier for the dining area, outside lights, entry, hallway, and living room lights, and two ceiling fans for the great room. I spent HOURS online and HOURS at about 5 different stores, sometimes with screaming kids. That was great fun. Now I'm about to order all the drawer pulls and knobs. Next I need to find doorknobs and I still haven't decided on the stain for the front door. Most of the big decisions are finally over now, though. Still have to buy all the faucets, a bathroom light and some towels bars, but we might actually be on the downhill slope now. The only major obstacle left is that the hardwood, which will be delivered on Thursday, takes several weeks to acclimatize (sp?) so it will be REALLY pushing it for everything to be completed by the 19th. The contractor thinks it may go into the week after that (HELLO!!!! Christmas!!), but he doesn't seem to get that that is not an option! If we have to stay off the hardwood for a few days and order pizza for Christmas dinner, we will. Anyway, I am excited to see all the cabinets which will be here on Thursday. Some of them will need to be painted. We're also finalizing on the carpet right now. The electrical work, including installing the lights, should happen in the next several days. Cross your fingers for the 19th!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Tax cuts"

This is a link to a blog a friend of mine posted yesterday. It totally cracked me up and I just had to share. Looking forward to my taxes going up (and no, we don't make more than $250,000). Go Obama.

http://amynaseath.blogspot.com/2008/11/tax-cuts.html

What a relief........... it's over

I thought November 4th would never come. No, not the day a black man became president (that's another story entirely). The day this election was finally over.

Have you ever had a test that you studied for for weeks and weeks? It dominated your whole life, you thought about it every time you went to bed, you dreamed about it, and you woke up thinking about it? You worked so hard and studied with friends from class and got extra help from a tutor and made flash cards and prayed and studied and studied and prayed and knew finally that there was nothing else you, or your friends, could do? Then you took the test (this is really taking me back to Econometrics... UGH!) and waited..........and waited..........and waited, and you could hardly eat or sleep until you found out the results and finally, you got the word. You passed!! You passed and that's all that mattered. That's how I feel today with the news that Prop 8 passed in California. It's been such a long journey for hundreds of thousands of people here and there have been a LOT of road bumps along the way. We've been vilified, slandered, mocked, vandalized, and called bigots and haters. Property has been stolen, destroyed, defaced, you name it. However, we have become stronger and everyone who fought this fight endured to the end. No doubt about it. There are two good articles today on the protectmarriage website that I am going to insert here. One is about the victory, one is about the opposition already filing a petition seeking to invalidate the decision of the voters.
http://www.protectmarriage.com/article/statement-by-andrew-pugno-general-counsel-of-protectmarriage-com
http://www.protectmarriage.com/article/statement-on-proposition-8-passing-by-ron-prentice-chairman-of-protectmarriage-com
There's a lot of great information on that website. The greatest part about this whole experience has been seeing how many people have tirelessly donated so much time, effort and money so generously over the last 3 months. I've never seen anything like it. It's the most organized effort I've ever witnessed. I think our ward alone was tasked with contacting over 45,000 registered voters in one zip code (by phone or in person) and finding out where they stand on this issue. The ones who responded positively were contacted at least two more times by ward members either leaving reminder flyers for them to vote or calling in the last few days to remind them to vote. We also drove around to precincts yesterday to verify who on our lists had already voted and then called the ones who hadn't to remind them yet again. I got to do a little bit of going to the precincts which was pretty fun. This has truly been a rewarding experience and no matter what happens in the future, I think everyone will remember this and we can all feel proud for being a part of this effort. I'm excited to attend an end-of-8-campaign party on Saturday. I went out and found number cookie cutters today and I'm going to make cookies in the shape of an "8" frosted with the campaign colors, yellow and blue. I am definitely in the mood to celebrate! Hooray California!!!!!!!!!!! Now......... can we get back to real life??

Paint colors

I took a few pictures of the paint colors inside the house yesterday. They're done with the inside now and will start on the outside soon. I chose a greyish-bluish for the living room that looked more greyish on the sample, so when I saw it a few days ago, all I could say was , "Oh......wow! That's blue!" The pictures does seem a little more grey. I'm going to hope that once I have furniture, curtains and decorations in there, it won't seem as blue to me.

So after I had picked all the paint colors, I showed them all to Ruel. He's been too busy to be involved in much of these decisions and it's probably best that way. He doesn't seem to like much of anything that I've picked, but I keep telling him to trust me. It will look nice. Anyway, I also had a darker greyish-bluish shade picked out for Andrew's room and he thought it was too grey. He thought he should at least get to pick the color for his son's bedroom. I figured it was easier to give in to that than have him try to change my picks for places where more people would actually see! So, he ended up picking a color called "Brilliant Blue". It looked so bright on the sample, but I did my best to keep my mouth shut and tell myself that it's just paint and maybe no one will see it! (I contemplated calling the contractor and changing to a little more subdued blue without telling Ruel, but decided not to.) Well, after my reaction to the living room, I walked down the hall and could almost see the room glowing before I got there. I let out another, "Oh!!! WOW!!!" and this is what I saw:

I'm not sure Andrew will ever nap again! It's practically neon! I'm thinking about toning down one wall by doing some stripes or something like that. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to pass them along! (Hint, hint: Shelly, Beth, LaRene, Laurel.........) I did take a picture of the kitchen color (LOVE IT!) but, I'm going to try to stick to my plan to make that my "surprise room". It's going to be hard! The great room and laundry area, etc., are the same color our old living room was. It's a pretty neutral khaki-ish color. I'm anxious to see what the outside will look like. It's hard to visualize what something's going to look like from just a small paint sample (as Ruel actually admitted to me after he saw Andrew's room this morning). HELLOOOOO!!! :)

Activists in the Rain

So I've never posted about this before, because every time I form what I want to write in my mind, it ends up being too long and I get too riled up. Today, though, I'm excited about what happened. So if you don't live in California and haven't heard, we have been tirelessly campaigning for YES on Proposition 8 out here for months. A Yes on 8 vote on Tuesday means that it will be written in the California constitution that marriage is between a man and a woman. We did this 8 years ago with Prop 22 and 61% of the voters approved it, but back in May, 4 activist judges on the California Supreme Court overturned that and made gay marriage legal in California. This proposition seeks to end this battle once and for all (although I'm sure either way it goes, it won't be the end of it). Church members have been asked to support this proposition with their means and their time and boy, have they ever! People from a lot of different churches have gotten involved in calling all registered voters, going door to door, displaying signs, writing letters, you name it. It has been a daunting task, but now in this last big push before the election, it seems that we may actually have a fighting chance. Anyway, today we gathered with about 30 other people at a busy intersection and waved our YES on 8 signs. Another group about 3 miles down the road did the same with 60 or so people. I also heard there was a caravan of about 200 cars from Daly City to Oakland today in support of the cause, waving their signs. Well, it was sprinkling when we first got there and by the end (we were there almost 2 hours), we were all pretty well soaked. Here are some pictures:

Emily really got into it, screaming at all the cars: "YES ON 8! YES ON 8!" She will be a political activist someday! Once it really started raining hard, Hannah just wanted to stay dry!

"You want me to hold this for how long??? While I'm getting rained on? Whatever."

There has been a lot of nasty stuff going on here with opponents stealing people's signs, vandalizing their property, calling them bigots and haters, and of course the local liberal media has totally been supporting the no side. I could tell you lots of stories, but I'll refrain. Anyway, I wasn't sure how our message would be received today, but for the most part, it was great! Tons of people honked and waved and gave us thumbs up. There were a lot of really supportive people out there which was encouraging. Of course, we did have a smattering of the opposite side, too. Across the street, some of the others holding signs were met right away by a guy screaming a stream of obscenities in their faces and then he somehow came up with his own handwritten opposing sign and stood there by them the whole time. This other lady came by and swore and yelled at the Catholic nun holding her sign next to me. (Luckily my kids didn't hear either of those people.) There was also a carload of girls that were stopped at a red light right in front of us for probably 2 minutes, one of whom was making a choice gesture at us the whole time. Hannah asked me what she was doing and I just told her she was saying "no". Ruel had a guy in a car tell him he (Ruel) was teaching his kids to hate. Whatever. It was interesting. All in all, a very good experience, though. We kept smiles on our faces and had fun waving at all the people who were honking in support. My only wish is that people who don't agree with us will realize that just because we have a different viewpoint doesn't mean we hate them or hate anyone who is gay. There are a lot of scary things that could happen if this doesn't pass that have already happened in Massachusetts. If you want to check it out and see more information, you can go to http://protectmarriage.com/. Also, my friend Alisa and her family went to the other corner today and did the same thing and also had a great experience. I really enjoyed reading what she wrote about it and thought maybe you would, too: http://schlegelrock.com/. And send your prayers and good thoughts our way for Tuesday!! This is a BIG deal!!

A shocker

This may seem trivial (and I know, three posts in three days....... CRAZY!), but I could not believe this happened today. I decided to go get gas at Costco today after I picked up Emily from kindergarten. The prices have been going down a lot and everywhere else they're about $3.10-ish, so I expected it to be a little under $3 at Costco which is usually around 20 cents cheaper than most other places. So I pull into the parking lot and the lines are so long that they're practically out to the street. I decided I didn't mind waiting and I was pretty close to empty, so I got in line and waited. When I got up close enough to see the price, I almost started screaming! I called Ruel immediately to share the news. See if you can make out the price from my receipt.

That's right: $2.41! Can you believe it? And at Arco 5 hours later, still it was $3.09. WHOA! Talk about exciting! I remember when I was pregnant with Emily (2003) and gas was going up, up, up and I said, "The day I pay $2 a gallon for gas is the day I die!!" Well, I'm still here and as excited as heck about paying $2.41. Back in May it cost me $94 one time to totally fill up my van. Today - $46. SWEEEEEEET!

More house stuff..........

Well, I haven't posted on the house for a while. I found a way to deal with the stress of the plumbing fixtures, decisions, costs, etc. I just haven't done anything on it for a while. Denial works, right?? I do need to get going and order the appliances, sinks, and a few other things really soon, though. At any rate, last week all of the trim went in around the windows and doors as well as the crown molding and baseboards. The interior doors all went in and the front door, too. I just have a couple of pictures, but in them you can see all the trim and what the doors look like. The front door hasn't been stained yet. This week and next, everything is being painted. They painted the garage and the trim today. I'll take pictures of that when there's something exciting to see. I may refrain from taking any kitchen pictures for a while, or at least posting them. I'm thinking about pulling a Ty Pennington / Extreme Home Makeover / Secret Room thing. The kitchen will be my secret room! We'll see if I can pull it off. I may get too excited and not being able to stop myself from posting the pictures! More later.........

Kids' update

This is kind of a hodgepodge of some goings-on with the kids over the last week or so. A week and a half ago, Hannah played goalie for her soccer game. Can't say that it went so well since she was more interested in doing cartwheels on the field than tending the goal, but she did stop the ball from going in a few times! Here's a picture:

This past Saturday, I was watching her game with the other parents and commented how Hannah still hadn't made a goal so far this season (with only 2 games left). Right after that, she got an excellent pass from her team's star player and she happened to be right in front of the goal at the time and she scored! It was very exciting! I wish I had videotaped it. A few hours later, she had a gymnastics "gold medal day" where they get to perform their routines in front of everyone. This is a little wobbly but cute. It's a video of her balance beam routine. Note Andrew running up to the beam during the routine and Hannah's teacher grabbing him. What a little devil.

(Well, I couldn't insert the video clip because it was too big, so here is a picture instead.)

We also had a Ward Halloween party on Friday which was lots of fun. We bought Hannah a Renaissance princess costume this year on E-bay and it looked great on her. Emily wanted to wear a Hedwig costume (owl from Harry Potter) that our friends gave to us instead of the pretty Snow White costume I was going to have her wear. Oh well. Andrew wore Emily's kangaroo costume from last year. Here's a look:

Yesterday, the girls didn't have school because of a Teacher In-Service Day, so I took the kids to a pumpkin patch/bounce house place with big slides. They had a great time and I was the "best mom ever" for at least part of a day! (We even had doughnuts first. Holy smokes!)

Hannah going down / Emily going up

And last, but certainly not least, Andrew's latest haircut. Ruel has been saying ever since Andrew was born that he was going to be the one to cut Andrew's hair. I vetoed that right from the start because I didn't want him looking like one of the unfortunate kids you see from time to time who look like someone put a bowl around their head and then started cutting. So, I've always taken him in for the $8 haircut. Totally worth it in my book. Anyway, a few Sundays ago, I finally relented after all this time (I think the house is making me feel really poor and $8 sounds like a lot more to me than it used to!). Here's how it went.

"Yay! This is so fun! And I get a pink towel, too!"

"Look at me!!!!"

"I'm starting to get a little worried here, Dad. And where's my lollipop?"

"Free at last! Not bad, Daddy!"

Progress update / nervous breakdown

First for the progress on the house. I have pictures of the back patio, front walkway and steps and the side walkway. I think they look really great. There's a small strip on the side that still needs to be poured as well as the driveway. The "junk" (don't know the word) they put on the outside of the house to prepare for the stucco is done and the texturing of the inside walls is complete (what a MESS that was!). Here are the pics:

And now for the near-nervous breakdown. For weeks I have been near the brink of insanity trying to get a grip on (among many other things) choosing everything from cabinet styles, cabinet colors, cabinet layouts, drawer pulls for cabinets, paint colors, floor choices and colors, granite, tile backsplashes and patterns, doorknobs, door hinges, door styles, wall textures, brick colors, every single appliance, window styles, lights, fans, fireplace styles and inserts, mantle designs, crown moldings, window and door trim, baseboards, bar stools, YOU NAME IT!! If you think this sounds like fun, please call me. I will send you to Home Depot or elsewhere with a list and a camera or assign you to 2-hour-shifts doing Internet research or 2-hour shifts looking through every magazine and library book (for ideas) that you can get your hands on. (And then I'll throw a couple of children in for good measure!) :) If you think this is starting to sound like whining and complaining, you are absolutely right. At least I can recognize and admit that I am doing exactly that. This is my outlet, so please know that I am not trying to take out my frustration on YOU!!

So here's the breakdown part. You thought I was already there??? Not quite ........... there's more. So on Wednesday, Ruel and I squeezed in an hour or so to go TOGETHER to the plumbing store that our contractor recommended we go to for picking our sinks, faucets, and a toilet for the new 1/2 bath. We enjoyed talking to the lady there. She was very friendly and helpful and we picked out two kitchen sinks (we'll have an extra one on the island), two disposals, two kitchen faucets, one toilet, one bathroom sink and faucet, and one laundry room sink and faucet. She said she would e-mail the bid to us the next day (yesterday). We left there feeling content and I was glad we had one more thing checked off the to-do list. I was so busy with so many other things, that I forgot about it until mid-afternoon when I checked my e-mail and saw that she had sent the bid. I opened it up and quickly scanned through it down to the bottom line, since that's all I really cared about. I don't remember where my children were at that point or what they heard me say, all I remember is this: $4,695.65!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO, I AM NOT KIDDING! THAT IS NOT A TYPO! Yes, that is almost $5 K for 4 sinks, 2 disposals, 4 faucets, and one toilet! I am seriously saying that if I have ever been close to dropping dead from a heart attack, it was at that exact moment. I absolutely, positively freaked out. I mean, are these faucets gold-plated inside or WHAT? Who pays $500 for ONE FAUCET?!! Well, for sure it is not me. I immediately went on to the Lowe's website and found some other great products for less than half the price. (And just a side note, I checked the exact brands online that we picked out at the plumbing store, and they were, across the board, more expensive online. Those were some fancy shmancy fixtures apparently.)

Unfortunately, the emotional damage was already done. After months of dealing with driving back and forth to school (4 miles each way) 3 times a day, having a cluttered, small apartment for the 5 of us where I can't find what I need half the time because it's in the storage shed, having to drag a 2-year-old up and down the stairs any time we go somewhere because he won't come by himself, trying to keep a 2 and 5-year-old away from a 7-year-old in the small apartment for about an hour every day so she can focus on her homework, and having Ruel be at home for a total of about 6 hours since we moved, I finally LOST MY MIND!!!! Sinks and faucets put me over the edge. It wasn't pretty. No gory details, but suffice it to say that I feel much better now and I am going shopping tomorrow with my sister without kids (window shopping, of course, since I'll never be able to afford anything else ever again as long as I live), and if I happen to pass by a plumbing store, you will know it because you will hear my scream!!!!!!!!!

WHEW! And now that I got all that off my chest, I'm going to go see if Oprah was any good today. :)

Drywall

Okay, so this may not make for the most exciting post, but it's exciting to me and will help me keep a record of the phases of this whole project. The drywall went up on Monday and here is the proof.

Looking towards the kitchen:

Living room:

Garage: (no, that is not a mirror ball in front, just the brightness of the sun!)

And I am getting some help from an interior designer for the backsplash, paint colors, etc., as of yesterday, so I will no longer have to worry about going to the looney bin! (Just the poor house.) I figured it was worth the 3-4 hours of her time to save my sanity. (Shelly, why can't you be HERE?!! I need you!!)