the kitchen is in!

Dave Grimm, our beloved carpenter, is in his element with cabinetry.  I was delighted to return from Dallas and see our kitchen is in!  We are amazing and delighted by his workmanship and craftsmanship. We are also amazed by much bigger the kitchen seems WITH the cabinets in.  Go figure.  The island will go in after the floors are refinished.

Today Dave and I actually wrote down the PLAN for the final four weeks of work on this two year dream-come-true house project. Larry Shelley & crew arrive next week to paint Dave's amazing cabinets, then JJ will set the marble counter tops, and Mark will install the kitchen back splash tiles.  The Renz crew will tackle final plumbing and electric needs right before Jens Anderson refinishes the floors throughout the first floor.  We really might get to move in at the end of June... Lord willing.

mike was busy.

While I was away doing Grandma Bunny duty with Eleanor Grace in Dallas for 9 days, Mike was busy.  I came home to the garage re-roofed and his basement workshop cabinets installed.  He also made some progress on the front porch trim, but we will wait for a photo until the job is all done.  It is amazing how much was accomplished in under two weeks, which is good since move in date is fast approaching.

Nathaniel Dixon and his hard working sons, Jeremiah and Jacob, made the roofing job a reality.  I would wager that you could not find four harder working men than the four that tackled this project.

Top Photos: New Garage Roof

Middle Photos:  Basement Workshop Cupboards

Bottom photo:  What I was doing

naked...and dressed.

 Naked...

...and dressed. The Girls' Room is taking shape.

sneak peeks.

We started moving our furniture into the upstairs! Mike said "We should wait until the house is all done to show photos on the blog" to which I said "That's no fun."    I can't resist a couple sneak peeks... like the three bears welcoming guests in the guest room. (There's a crib in the corner for the babies!)

I honest to goodness bought thirteen pillows last weekend to make up all the beds.  You know how pillows kind of wear out and flatten to nothing? It was time to recharge the pillow collection.  We actually moved all of our beds into the new house... and it is more like "camping" at Casa Blanca now. Ha. Not really.  We are all still sleeping on beds, but we are using the second-string mattresses.

 Is this the cutest bedding or what?  The Savannah Collection from Pottery Barn Kids for the Girls Bedroom AKA Sleeping Dorm.

Mike and I can just sit in this Master Bedroom and be happy.  Our current bedroom held the bed and two night stands with about 30 inches clearance around the bed. The spaciousness of this room is intoxicating.  Karen has wanted the double chaise lounge in the corner for at least ten years... finally a room perfect for this ideal reading-chair-built-for-two.  Is this all a dream??

marble.

Our kitchen counter tops will be Carerra marble and the island top will be soapstone.  This friendly fellow is J.J. Schueth from Granite & Marble Interiors in Fremont.  We decided that he is our guy for our counter tops. He can measure our space and order our marble as soon as the cabinets are set... Baby steps.

where's dave?

 For the past 5 or so weeks, our beloved Carpenter Dave Grimm has been making our kitchen cabinets in his shop.  I stopped by last week to make a decision on the garbage can drawer and got to see all the beautiful cupboards for the first time...
And on Saturday Dave and his sons delivered them to the house!

On Wednesday Dave will start setting them in the kitchen.  Six weeks and counting until move in. Lord willing.

new lawn furniture.

We had much action at the new house again this week... but mostly during the wind storm.  We got a call from our neighbors at 1:17pm on Friday that one of our big trees in front of the house snapped off into the street.  In God's good providence, it landed in a perfect spot to do no harm - toward the street and between the neighbor's trees.  (We are profoundly grateful that there were no cars parked across the street and no pedestrians walking by.  It was a big tree.)

We had all of our trees trimmed after we bought the property and tree specialist Ned Boyle had told us that the tree was "hollow" when he trimmed a large dead limb with his bucket truck.  We are learning that it is not uncommon for Sugar Maples to have hollow centers as they age.  We had plans to remove both large trees 'sometime soon' after we planted two new trees in their place.

City worker Bryan Johnson was on the scene shortly after Mike and I arrived to push the limb out of the street.  Mr. Chainsaw was on the scene to "dissemble" the limbs for easier cleanup.  In one hour the three of us pretty much had things cleaned up and out of the street.  Mike bribed Bryan with two loaves of his homemade bread if he hauled the biggest part of the trunk away for him.  (You can see that Bryan took the bride by the photo above.)

After we moved the brush out of the street, Mr. Chainsaw had some fun.  With a few quick swipes of the saw and the finishing touch of a "B" monogram - we have a new custom lawn chair!
Note: It is fun being married to this man.