Countertops and a blessing!

If you double click on the image, you can see the lovely wave in our chocolate wave more closely. We fell in love with this piece of granite and maybe you can see why. These pictures show just one piece of the counter. There are four in all. I think this is the prettiest part below.

So, something kind of tragic happened...they cut our granite slab with the wrong sink template. Argh! When they called to tell me this my heart sank. I didn't know what to say. At first they were going to look for another slab of the chocolate wave--which worried me because I really loved the one we picked. But...instead God turned our problem into a blessing. We are getting a sink upgrade and we are getting it for free. The countertop people said they were very sorry for the mistake and offered us a free sink (nicer than the stainless one we had purchased) and all I had to do was make the 1/2 hour drive to choose a color (I chose the lighter one which kind of looks like a glittery stainless) for the granite composite sink which fits the hole they cut in our new counter. Thank you Lord. A tragedy turned blessing.

Finished cabinets!

Well here they are! All the cabinets are in!!! Today the countertop guys are coming to measure and in about a week they'll be back to install! We're almost there. We still have a little trim work to do and appliances to install. I have some art we picked up in Australia in 2005 while visiting Stephen and Heidi. I finally got it framed and will put it up when all else is done! Lots of cabinet space!!! I think I'll get everything I own put away and still have some room to spare!

Cabinet Installation Begun!

Katie is checking out the under-cabinet lights. (We were just checking to see if the lights work, they're not installed yet) She stayed home sick yesterday (and today) but is doing better so she'll hopefully be out of the house and off to school tomorrow! Below you can see that the cabinet installation has begun. Yay! Yay! Yay!

Cabinet guy came and, bless him, brought his dad to help him install the cabinets yesterday. He plans to be back to finish on Friday. Yay. Friday afternoon I'll call about the counters. We still have some trim work to do and will be cutting trim to size and priming and painting it this weekend. Just another couple weeks or so and the kitchen will be ready for cleaning!

You can see where the fridge will go. The large cupboard on the left is a broom closet and the other is a pull-out pantry. Can't wait for Friday!!!

a quintessential childhood experience

The kids finally dragged Dad out on a mild mid-February Saturday in the late afternoon. The snow was so wet that they couldn't lift the middle as a whole unit. They had to build the middle onto the top piece by piece. It was fun for the kids, but I think Dad got into it too! A quintessential childhood experience--building a snowman!

The cabinets are in the house!!!

Granted, they will not be very useful piled up like this in the library, but I feel like a little girl at Christmas who got more than she hoped for! Below you see the kitchen space with actual light switches and outlets. There is still a lot of trim work to do, but we have to wait until after the cabinets are installed. By early next week, I will hopefully have new pictures for you all to see.

Check out the smooth glide drawers in the video below!

Yay!!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

This morning we spent a couple hours digging out from under about 2 feet of snow! We spent all of yesterday and will be most of today under a blizzard warning. Thankfully Bret got the snowblower working last night which made clearing it up a lot easier!

Shovelling snow is generally a family affair (although Bret generally does the snowblowing). We all pitch in where we can and August has become very helpful. On Tuesday morning Bret went to work before the snow hit and August helped me shovel enough to let him back in the driveway after work. Our total snowfall for the last two days was about 2 feet! The drifts in our driveway and yard are up to 3 or 4 feet!

When you're bundled up being out in the snow's not so bad! Reminds us a bit of Labrador!