Nothing says "Summer" like a good bedhead...

While our plate has been overflowing this summer, we have still managed to take advantage of the fact that summer is a time you may sleep late.  Although my children do not fully understand this concept yet.  Their idea of sleeping late is 7:30, but that is better than their usual 6:00 rise and shine.  And on the positive side, it still gives us plenty of time to have a productive day.  In true relaxed summertime spirit, Claire was sporting the best summer bedhead one day.  It reminded me how relaxing summertime is.  It also made me make a pledge to myself to try to keep that relaxed atmosphere going after school starts back in August.  It is usually a time when we are crazy busy and our schedules get out of control.  But if we keep the right mindset, we should be able to keep that relaxed summer spirit going well into fall... just without the bedhead of course (as adorable as I think it is)!

Renovations Continued - Kitchen

If you are just checking the blog, be sure to go to yesterday's entry - Renovations! - for the first installment of our renovation tour...

Okay, so I left off with the floors being installed on Day 12.  At this point, we were still dead set on getting the kitchen move-in ready by our D-Day and were putting in very long hours to make it happen.  On Day 13, the kitchen cabinet installation began.  Let me clarify - the kitchen cabinets were installed by two very handy homeowners named Brock and Amy. :)  I should also tell you that while it was very tedious at times (mainly because our house, like every other home in Florida, is built on a slab thus making the floor far from level) doing the work ourselves saved us another chunk of change.  I think it was our determination and the fact that we are both perfectionists that enabled us to get the cabinets installed.  The granite company that installed our countertops (some things should be left to the pros) said that the cabinets were the most level and plumb installation that they had dealt with.  Also, those compliments came before they knew who installed them.  So kudos to us!

Here is a photo tour of the cabinet installation:

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets)

Off to a great start...

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets)

End of Day 13...

Kitchen (View #4 - Cabinets)

I love my appliances... If anyone is in the market for new ones, I highly reccommend Electrolux.  The stove has a double oven.  The lower oven is small, but the perfect size for bread or pies.

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets) 

 Making headway - We relocated all of the appliances, but we left the sink in its original location due to both the cost and labor-intensive task of moving plumbing work in the slab.

Kitchen (View #2 - Cabinets)

The island is installed - To begin with, I only wanted an island that was just a little bit bigger than the one in our previous house, but ended up with one twice the size because this kitchen had so much more floor space than I thought.  I was able to get a 5'x4' island and still have just over 3 feet of walkway around it.

 Kitchen (View #2 - Cabinets)

The empty spot on the left side of the photo is where my refrigerator will be placed and the door opening is the pantry.

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets)

 This is Day 15 - It took us a while to get everything installed, but we did it.

Kitchen (View #2 - Cabinets & Granite)

 Our granite countertops were installed on Day 16.

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets & Granite)

The island has a 10-inch overhang which is the designated area for the girls - breakfast and lunch is enjoyed here as well as all of the homework that is accomplished while Mom is cooking dinner! :)

Kitchen (View #3 - Cabinets)

The trim was installed to the top of the cabinets.

Kitchen (View #3 - Semi-finished Kitchen)

The kitchen was move-in ready with a few outstanding to do items (installing the drawer pulls, installing the remaining baseboards, etc.) by the end of week 3!  Even though we still have a few things left to finish, I love my kitchen!  It is a great room for entertaining!!!

Kitchen (View #2 - Semi-finished Kitchen)

You can now see my refrigerator on the left side of this photo.  I have another picture below...

Kitchen (View #2 - Refrigerator)

I chose the Electrolux French Door refrigerator.  It has so much space and works very well for our family's needs.  The freezer on the bottom is great and has much more useable space than our previous side-by-side.  Again, if you are in the market, this fridge is fabulous!

I will continue the tour of our renovations in other parts of the house in my upcoming posts.  So check back soon!

Renovations!!!

Okay, so I admit it's been a bit too long since my last post. In my defense, we have been very busy with all of the renovations to our new house. I am going to use the next few posts to recap our progress thus far... with photos (for those of you who have been waiting so patiently to see them) :)

We closed on the house on March 13th. And I am sure that this will be a complete shock to all of you (total sarcasm used there) but we started our demo that night! With my mother-in-law helping with the kiddos and my father-in-law helping with the demolition, we were able to tear out about 60% of the drywall throughout the house, tear out two walls, completely gut the kitchen and trash out the vanities in both bathrooms and gut every closet in the house. All of this was accomplished in three days! :) Now that three days consisted of starting around 6:00 am and going until 1:00 am, but we did it and we saved a nice chunk of change by doing it ourselves.

I will start the renovation tour with the kitchen...

Kitchen (View #1 - Before)

(The wall in this photo will be removed during demolition)

Kitchen (View #1 - Before)

(The drop down ceiling in the kitchen will be removed during demolition)

Sidenote: Drop down ceilings and tall husbands are not a good combination

Kitchen (View #3 - Before)

(The golden yellow shag carpet, drapery and lighting will be removed during demolition)

I am sure that you are asking yourself what happened to view #2... Well, no worries... I have labeled the different views of the kitchen (1 - 4) and unfortuately view #2 did not have "Before" photos because of the wall that divided the kitchen and dining area.  You will see photos from all of the views throughout the renovation process.  Each view will be consistently numbered so you can get the "lay of the land" so to speak.  It will also make more sense when I put together a final slideshow from beginning to end, but we have to get to the end first. ;)

Okay, so if you are still with me, I am going to take you through the photos of the demolition of the kitchen....

Kitchen (View #1 - Demo)

(The wall has been removed and the flooring is in the process of being torn out)

Kitchen (View #2 - Demo)

(Wall down, drywall removed, flooring ripped out, electrical is being sorted and it is just a few hours into our first full day!)

Kitchen (View #2 - Demo)

(This is the former stove location and where the new refrigerator will be placed)

Kitchen (View #3 - Demo)

(It's the end of Day 1 and we are off to a great start!)

Kitchen (View #3 - Demo)

(They said "Vintage" was back, but Harvest Gold vs. Stainless Steel - not much of a contest!)

Kitchen (View #2 - Drywall)

(So, this is Day 5 and the new drywall is in and we are waiting for the texture to be added)

Kitchen (View #3 - Drywall)

(New electrical is in place - outlets, lighting, etc)

Kitchen (View #1 - Paint)

(So we have the walls textured and painted - Believable Buff)

Sidenote: One should be careful when explaining things to young children.

This is how the conversation about the paint color with Audrey went...

Mom: So do you like the paint color?

Audrey: Yeah, it's cool. What's the name of this one?

Mom: Believable Buff

Audrey:  (Laughing) So our house is "in the buff" (still laughing)

Kitchen (View #2 - Paint)

(We will paint all of the trim throughout the house white)

Kitchen (View #3 - Floors)

(So this is Day 12 and floors are in!)

Kitchen (View #1 - Floors)

(We found a great wood flooring to go throughout the main living areas)

So, now you are almost up to the end of Week 2.  We accomplished a lot more work in other areas of the house, but that work will be showcased in other posts.  I will finish the kitchen tour in another post as well. 

Our Music Lover

Last night, we discovered a new weekly family outing - Thursdays @ Beef's! Beef O'Brady's is a local family sports bar. On Thursday nights, they have live music on the patio and we really enjoyed it last night. The girls love a lot of different types of music and the band played lots cover songs from a variety of genres.

When Audrey asked for some paper and a pen, I thought she was going to draw and doodle like she usually does while we wait for our food. But this time, she surprised me. She drew a "You Rock" sign for the band. Of course the band, which is two guys - Chris and Dave, loved it and they talked about it off and on throughout the night.

Chris (from the band) and Audrey (their newest fan!)

Her Own Style

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this one proves that to be true. Claire, a child with her own sense of style - decided that the matching pants to her polka dot top simply would not work with the style she was going for (a style I still haven't quite figured out, but I digress...). So she replaced those pants with knit stockings that have roses down the sides and her new cowgirl boots. Talk about a statement! Now, the best part is that while I had been at the school with Audrey, Claire decided to make all of theses changes. I came home and found her in the backyard with Brock - fishing! Yes, fishing with style! I love the clothing choices that she makes - they are definitely original! :)

I know... I know...

I have been a very bad blogger lately.... but in my defense, we have been renovating our new house (quite a bit more than we originally thought we would attempt), packing all of our belongings (it's amazing how much you accumulate over five years... I couldn't imagine trying to pack up everything after living somewhere 25-30+ years), also getting everything moved to the new house (we decided to to that all by ourselves - we did have the help of our friends one weekend), getting our old house ready for our new tenants (I will post about the experience of becoming landlords in another post)... oh and did I mention that my computer decided that during all of this craziness would be the perfect time to die on me... oh yeah... this very digital girl was without a computer for about two weeks... Not good! Thank God for my BlackBerry! I now have my new computer and I am loving it... :) So as everything begins to come together (we still have lots of work on the house to get accomplished) I will try to be a better blogger... I hope to have some before, during and after photos up soon...

-Amy

It never fails...

Next week is FCAT testing for all students in Florida. Next week is also when we close on our new house. So next week is going to be crazy. But I feel that it's my job as a mom to make sure that life in our house runs smoothly through it all without incident. Right? Right! So, when Audrey tells me that she lost her glasses and hasn't had them at school for over a week, I do what any mom would do - search the house high and low for them. Okay, did that and no glasses! Yes, the thought that they may have found their way into any of the umpteen boxes that I have packed all over the house crosses my mind, but I am definitely not unpacking any of them to find out. So, I check my car in and around Audrey's seat. No glasses! I have Audrey check her desk at school and the lost and found just in case. No glasses! So, again like any mom would do, we go to the eyeglass store to get a new pair. Well, we are in luck, the store is running a special for kids' glasses - buy two for a great price. Deal! Audrey selects two really cute frames and her prescription is in stock so the lady at the store told us they would be ready in about two hours. Great! We get in the car, run to Target and then stop to grab some dinner. I get a phonecall from our agent. While I am on the phone with her, Audrey and Claire climb in to the back of my car where the third row seating is folded down. They are having a great time playing so I let them have at it while I finish my conversation. What happened next is why I say "It never fails..." Audrey says, "Uh... Mom... Guess what I just found?" Oh yeah, it's what you are thinking - her glasses! The ones that were lost... the ones that we looked everywhere for... the ones that we just replaced! Yes, those glasses! This is where the adage "you will always find what you lost as soon as you replace it" rings quite true! Darn Murphy's law! Well, I learned my lesson - check everywhere in the car! In my defense, the reason I didn't even think to look in the third row seating cupholders was because the third row has been folded down for a while - for the loading and unloading of packing boxes I have been getting for our move. So, now Audrey has three pairs of glasses, but the new ones are really cute, so I will just smile and laugh as Murphy's law wins again!