First Haircut

The little girl is almost 20 months and she hadn't yet had her first haircut. Although her hair is very cute long, it was beginning to get tangled and a bit ratty looking at times. She had her first haircut yesterday at Fantastic Sam's. The lady who did it was very sweet. Little girl behaved perfectly (I would have lost a great deal of money on that bet). Jewels says it was because she had a mirror and combs.

The first picture is a before. The rest are during and after shots. I didn't have it cut much - just evened it out.

Kitchen Pantry

The guys assembled the kitchen pantry. It is large and will be very useful. The second picture is installation of "mistake" cabinets that now have a home in the utility room.

Trim (again)

The theme for the past two weeks has been "finish the trim." On Friday the Trim Master (aka Jewels) finished all the base installation. The rest of the week and weekend was spent painting. Chris is coming this week to install the rest of the shoe moulding. This allows us to move in furniture.

The hot water still is not running, but I had enough cold water to clean the bathtub. It now sparkles.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Happy Birthday to ME! The 14th was my birthday. I'm much closer to 40 than I like to admit. One thing I don't understand about aging - why does my face still breakout at the same time grey hairs are sprouting all over my head? Just doesn't seem fair...

Ignoring the fact my hair follicles and pores don't understand "working together towards a better you" I had a great birthday. All kids were in school. I had my teeth cleaned that morning (boring yes, but well overdue), and great lunch, and my range was delivered.

Penske decided a piece of equipment that large and heavy needed 4 guys. After a few tense moments and me looking away, the range made it into my kitchen unscathed. It now sits in the middle of the room. We will put it into place once the back splash is installed (still looking for the perfect tile).

Jenn-Air Range - How NOT to Unload

My range was delivered Friday. I have to say, it is a beautiful piece of equipment. I inspected it on the street - perfect. Once in my kitchen - no so perfect. The delivery "experts" did everything the installation manual said not to do. They tipped it on it's side and brought it in on a fridge dolly. 600 lbs and a dent later...I refused the delivery. The two guys who struggled bringing it (and out) of the house weren't pleased. Hopefully I'll have my new one (that is brought into the house correctly) by this weekend.

Granite Slabs

Pictured are our 2 granite slabs. We'll use a left over piece for the hall bath vanity. The color is "New Caledonia" which means New Scotland.

Kitchen Ready for Granite

Jewels and Kenneth did a great job decking the kitchen cabinets. The original granite guy did a no show. Jewels asked family friends who they used. We took Kim's parent's advise and are using Jorge. This also happens to be a famous neighborhood realtor's guy. Randall gave him high praises. If all goes well and the weather is nice, we should have beautiful counter tops in two weeks.

Ingvar the Cabinet Elf

After mastering the IKEA cabinet literature (stick pictures), Bill now carries the name "Ingvar the Cabinet Elf". His job is not finished. The lower cabinets still need racks and/or shelves and doors. We have not purchased the pantry cabinets yet.

Counter Top Decking

The granite guys (I don't know the name of the company) are coming in the morning to measure. Jewels and Kenneth worked until the wee hours decking the base cabinets.

First Day of Pre-School

The youngest child started pre-school today. She is in the Butterfly class. (As you can see, she was not interested in staying still for pictures this morning.) There weren't any tears when I dropped her off, but she had plenty during the day. We'll see how tomorrow's drop off goes. I am back to my "full" work schedule.

Play Time

We got the fort kit out of storage last weekend. The kids had a blast making rocket ships, castles, and houses.

Trim Work

Jewels was busy this holiday weekend with crown, casing, and base. All of the bedrooms and their closets have base. The kids' bedrooms are finished with casings and crown. The master bedroom is only lacking crown.

A special recognition goes to Todd's Ryobi saw. The trim work at the house could not be accomplished without it!!! Thanks for the loan!!!!

Jewels plans to deck the kitchen counter tonight. The granite guys are coming tomorrow morning to measure! We tagged the 2 granite slabs needed for the kitchen and bathroom (the hall bath will have the same granite - the scraps from the kitchen).