The kitchen is almost done!

Sooo…the kitchen cabinets.

They’re done!! With the exception of a few knobs; we are waiting for another shipment of them to Lowes (yes, we bought all their stock).

I wish I would have taken more photos of the painting process. Since it was chilly this weekend we turned our master bathroom into a cabinet door painting room. It was really tight in there with all those doors (we had 21 doors/drawers), but we made it work with our shimmying skills. It took a lot of shimmying!

Even though it was time consuming, I will venture to say it was sort of fun. We did a lot of talking about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Frank and I had an assembly line going- he would paint the sides and grooves, I would roll the rest…and then we’d switch it up every now and then. We ended up doing 3 coats. There are still a few spots I might touch up later on, but we were so ready to get them done that we went ahead and hung them.

Here is what our kitchen looked like before we closed on the house…

Kitchen before- lots of tile, dirty looking cabinets, appliances that did not work and a wall blocking off a lot of natural light from the dining room.

 And here’s a photo of what the kitchen looks like now (minus a few knobs and some touch up paint that is needed above the cabinet trim):

White cabinets, new drawer pulls, appliances, paint, light fixtures, island bead board, window blinds, and open to the dining room!

Now that I'm looking at this photo I'm seeing a lot more stuff I need to fix (hmmm...light bulb out, island needs touching up in the middle where you can see the seam in the beadboard for some reason...etc, etc.) You are always your toughest critic. We are super happy with how it has turned out so far. We really wanted to replace the counter tops, but they are in pretty good condition, and aren't horrible, so we are keeping them for now.

Next on the list is the hallway bathroom. We ordered a vanity/granite top that got here today!

Granite counter-top for hallway vanity

We bought this vanity, just waiting patiently for it's arrival :)

This weekend we will be spackling, sanding, priming the rest of the bathroom and getting it prepped to paint. I might actually buy some paint this weekend and get started on that as well.

Other than renovations, things have been going great at home. I’m cooking a lot and loving it (pretty sure Frank is too). Since he’s been flying nights lately, he’s been getting up in the morning and cooking me breakfast, which is really sweet of him. We’re still waiting to hear from Fedex as far as his job goes, could be a few months (or never), but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll hear back from them sometime this spring. I have a feeling there will be a lot of changes this year :).

SANTORUM 2012!

Had to throw that in for the fun of it.

That is all! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Overdue

We’re still here! Just busy…we had a whirlwind Christmas/New Years trip (drove about 3400 miles). We visited my family in Texas for Christmas and then drove on up to Michigan for the New Year. I went skiing, for the first time ever, yay! I LOVED it…can’t wait to go again. Here are a few photos from the trip:

Sister and Tyrel opening Christmas gifts- gotta love the bow hats ;). Also note the retro Justin Beiber folder I used as a best buy giftcard holder for my sisters boyfriend...I crack myself up sometimes.

Frank and I stopped by my alma mater for a walk through Fantasy of Lights. I remember this bubble blowing robot from when I was about 5. I even wrote about him in my diary once..ha

On our drive from TX to Michigan we got off the highway in Joplin, Missouri to see the tornado damage from last years horrible storm. It was bad, but it looks like the rebuilding efforts are doing really well.

The night before skiing my sister-in-law and I snagged a midnight ride on the snow groomer up the mountain. It was actually a pretty fancy contraption!

Hitting the bunny slopes hard! If a 2 year old can do it, I better be able to!

I managed to get off the bunny slopes,and green runs, and onto what was classified as blue run. I'm sure the blue's here do not compare to the blues out west, though! I'm proud to say I never had a "yard sale"! It was an absolute blast and I'm so glad Frank was there to teach me how to ski for the first time.

Frank and I at his sister's for more gifts and food!

Frank playing with Justin's new toy...I got him the football hat, so cute!

Luce with her owl hat

I pretty much failed at taking photos at Christmas this year, so this is all we have.

I’ve been battling the worst cold ever for about 10 days now. Sucks getting home from a long vacation only to feel like crap for the whole next week. The house is in shambles! I still haven’t put away Christmas decorations, much less Christmas gifts. Hopefully that will all get tackled this weekend!

Frank had to work last weekend and I basically sat on the couch and drowned in Kleenex, vicks, and trash tv. As much as it felt good to do nothing, I’m ready to get back in the swing of things. Frank flew a jet out to Salt Lake on Sunday and he’ll be home today- hooray! He skied all day yesterday , can you say- jealous!? I’m sitting at work in my cubicle and he’s sending me photos from the lifts and talking about how good his mocha-choca-carmel-frappe-latte is…booo. I guess I still love him :)

No plans for the rest of January. I like the sound of that. We need to get going on this house again. I’m ready to get the cabinets done so I can put my dishes back in them! My new year’s resolution is simple this year: don’t be lazy. I have a million and one things on my to-do list, time to start knocking them out!

Looking forward to 2012!