Science Fair Time Again!

We are again preparing for the Science Fair. August is doing some psychological testing on his guinea pig, Puzzle. He is interested to know whether he can get Puzzle to go through a maze by using food (Puzzle's only passion) to guide her. We shall see how successful this experiment is--and whether our unmotivated Puzzle will walk the maze!

Katie is now also old enough to enter the Science Fair and will be exploring the properties of crystals. We have done some preliminary research and found some different ways to grow crystals using sugar, alum, borax, and some other materials. She is especially excited about growing sugar crystals for a tasty treat!

Hopefully we'll have some interesting pictures to share soon!

Countertops!!!

They're here! And looking kind of snazzy (if you ask me)! The long-awaited counters are now gracing our cabinets. Still more ends to tie up--it didn't help that they had to remove some of the trim and had to cut out around the sink. But...wow! I'm delighted. God is so good!

Below is my favorite part (the dark wave running up to the backsplash) and they're so shiny! You can see the light reflecting in them.

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!!!