The Continuing Saga of the Kitchen...

So here's a kitchen update. The cabinets are in (minus some finish work), the plumbing is all done so we have a working dishwasher and sink now and the painting is all complete. Flooring is set to be insalled on Monday and Tuesday of next week and our window coverings are set to be done on Wednesday of next week. The house is looking mighty fine if I do say so myself! Dad vL is coming over tonight to hook up our new microwave/hoodfan as well as hook up all of our new lighting fixtures and doorbell. My pullout shelves in my pantry should be done tomorrow morning (that has been a bit of a gong show with trying to co-ordinate a time to have it done because I need to be here in order to make sure my pantry is organized how I want it). We also went shopping for tile for the backsplash and have two choices that we are currently mulling over. I will post pictures once everything is complete.

The Zoo

Today the girls and I went to the zoo with my friend Angela and her son Christian. It was a really nice day (aside from the wind being a bit strong) and the kids had a lot of fun together.
Our friends Matt and Andrea also welcomed their fourth child - Annamarie Joy - into the world yesterday. She weighed 9 pounds 7 ounces and was 24 inches long. Proud big sisters are Grace, Samantha and Rebekah. We are very excited that they have a new little one and I cannot wait to meet her (they live out of town a ways so we only really get to see them at church).

Kitchen Update

We are now on day 2 of living with no kitchen and my house upside down. Its not as bad as I thought that it would be. I'm not having to cook at all so that is a bonus although I think that I will be pretty near sick of eating out by the end of this deal.

The kitchen on Tuesday night - after all goodies had been cleaned out of the cupboards

The kitchen after everything had been removed - mudding and taping has begun

The taper is here right now putting the final coat of mud on the walls. Tomorrow he will come by and sand the walls down and then they will be primed. Our new cabinets will start being put up on either Monday or Tuesday.

Just Stuff...

Emily and Danica started swimming lessons on Tuesday night. This was Danica's first swimming lesson ever and Emily's first time in the pool without Mom and Dad. They both did really great and I was very proud!

Our kitchen demo starts a week today - yeah!!! I'm praying for sanity while it is happening but am very much looking forward to the finished product!

Greg also cut down two huge cedars in our front yard. Each one took up practically the entire side of the house that it was in front of.

Not Much New Here

It's been a while since I last posted but honestly, not much new has happened. Greg has started working and on Friday we got paid for the first time since the beginning of January. It was so nice to do our budget for the next two weeks and not have to struggle with the numbers!! It has been beautiful here - the weather is warming up and I can't wait until the backyard is dry enough to play outside. I've been busy preparing tax returns as usual. I don't mind them to be honest - they are easy to do and don't take a whole lot of time. I even finished ours last week - usually we're the last ones that I file so that is a definite improvement.

Our kitchen still looks the same as it did - one wall removed. The cabinet guy is coming over on Monday night to make sure that nothing has changed in our design and then should be back in a few weeks to start the demo of the rest of the kitchen. We have hired an interior designer to help with paint choices and such (as I have absolutely no ability to see the big picture when it comes to paint and flooring and window treatments, lights and whatnot). She helped me pick paint colors - we're going with a few shades of green (green makes me feel good). Then we are getting custom window treatments made to pick up the secondary colors that we chose - chocolate brown and purple. The window lady and the interior designer will be fabric shopping soon and will bring me some samples to look for. If they can't find anything that they like, then they will make a day trip down to Grand Forks to look there.

We celebrated Keizer's third birthday at the end of March as well. Emily and I baked him a cake - the things you do to keep a two year old occupied. It was fun anyway and she had a good time watching him eat his piece of cake!

Other than that, our neighbours put their house up for sale this past week. We knew it was coming but I really like them and will be sad to see them go. They put their house on the market for $205,000 so once we are done with our renovations, I think we will have our realtor come over and give us an idea of what our house is worth these days - I have a feeling it has gone up a lot in five years.

Happy Easter and Other Stuff

This past Easter weekend was a great one - filled with lots of eating and family time! Our kitchen renovations also got under way. On Wednesday morning, the girls and I got out of the house and the walls started coming down! I can't believe how much it has opened up our kitchen even by just doing that. It looks so much better (and I'm saying that with studs showing on one wall). Our new kitchen window is being installed tomorrow and Greg and I took some time to go and shop for new lights for our bedroom, kitchen and hallway. We found ones that we really liked and ordered them today.

Today was also Danica's 6 month doctor's appointment. 6 months already - where does the time go? She is in great health and is now 27 inches long and 16 and a half pounds. She has grown three inches and put on three pounds in just two months. Emily was also weighed and measured. She now weighs 32 and a half pounds and is just over three feet tall. She's only two and is already wearing size 4T clothes!

One of my best friends also welcomed her first child into the world on Wednesday of this past week. Pam gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Jacob Andrew. He is so cute I could just pinch him!

Happy Easter!!

Jacob with Auntie Julie

It's Been A While...

Wow - it's been quite a while since I've last posted. We have been so busy and have had some great things happening here that blogging has kind of taken a back seat. I think that this might be a bit of a long post!

Where did I leave off - my birthday. We had a lot of fun having friends over and then family the next day for lunch. It was nice to be able to see everyone at the same time for a change.

But the biggest thing that has happened is that Greg passed his training course and is now a corrections officer! We are so proud of all of his hard work! He had ten weeks of (unpaid) training and he had 12 exams along the way that he had to pass (and a pass was a mark of 70% or more). He did awesome and we celebrated his graduation this past week. Today was his second day of actually working at the jail and so far he is really enjoying himself. The benefits are amazing too. Some of them we have to wait a bit for but really, working for the government has some definite pluses (the pension plan is my current favourite).

We have also began the long process of our kitchen renovations. We had an interior designer come in and help up choose our paint colors as well as window treatments to make sure that after all the time and money spent on the upstairs that it all looked good. Our kitchen guy is fabulous as well. I had a really good feeling about him from the moment that I met him and he has worked hard to make our dream kitchen come true (well dream kitchen in the limited space that we have and on our limited budget - hehe). He is coming tomorrow to start the first phase of the renovations - demolition and removal of one of the walls. We had a high efficiency furnace and hot water tank installed a few weeks ago so the stack that you normally need to get rid of the exhaust gasses is no longer necessary. The wall that surrounds the stack is being removed, then the stack inside is being taken apart and then the backside of the wall will be fixed up. That will open up our kitchen more and also give us room for a nice pantry. Our new window will be installed next week and we have chosen our flooring as well. So our timeline once the demo is complete tomorrow and the new window is in next week is the first week of May for the cabinet guy to come in, remove all of the old cabinets and tiles, prepare the walls and then install the new cabinets and get all the plumbing done. He tells us that this should be done the first week of May so I am hoping that will be the case. Then the painters will come in and paint the entire upstairs (with the exception of the nursery). Then the new floors will be put in and then just a few finishing touches like quarter round and such and we should be all done!

So that is us for now - I'll leave with a few pictures from the past month.

Emily trying on Daddy's new handcuffs

Greg receiving his diploma

He made me promise that I would take them off right after this picture was taken!Danica loves her jolly jumper (and Emily loves to help her jump)