Merry Christmas!

Our last Christmas before we become a married couple! We hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and enjoys time with family and friends. Check back soon...we' ve done even more with the house and are anxious to share our progress. Merry Christmas!

Viva Las Vegas!

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! Much love (and a BIG thank you) to Jen, Melissa, and Jillian for making the weekend unforgettable! A thank you to Gabriel, the limo driver (yes, a limo was involved!), for taking this picture!

Oh the stories we could tell!

Tea For Two

Faithe and I got together on Saturday for a fun day of shopping the boutiques along Main Street. Faithe found success at The Bel Air Country Store with the purchase of a beautiful wreath and we both enjoyed browsing in the Pink Silhouette. We finished our afternoon with high tea at Tea By Two. It was nice to take some time out to relax and chat! Looking forward to the next get together!

As promised...

These pictures are from a few weeks ago, so there have been even more changes, so we'll be adding more pictures soon. It has been fun setting up house! Enjoy the progress!

First Things First

The first piece of furniture in the new house was the piano. From start to finish it took the movers less than two hours to disassemble the piano and move it and put it back together at the new house. We love having the piano!

Bridal Shower Brunch

Yummy specialty punches! Hey - it was 5:00 somewhere!

The fabulous spread with the Omelet Man hard at work!

Almond and chocolate cake

Bill Henry from Acoustically Sound sang some great tunes. Melissa and Miss Laurie having a serious discussion in the foreground. Perhaps about the song? :)

Natalie, Lori, Kaira, and Courtney (Thanks to Ross I can count these girls as friends!)

Shelby, Miss Peg, Miss Pat, Miss Mary Jo, Michelle, and Sonia (Shelby and Miss Peg, you've known me a LONG time and still love me!) These ladies are friends of mine and Mom's.

Miss Pat, Miss Jo, Marian, and Mary (Secretary buds of Mom's and now I work with Mary at Ring Factory!)

Heather (with newborn Aubrey), Cynthia, Stacey, Shanna, and Kellie (with newborn Kaiden) I am excited to be joining the crew!

We have not forgotten about the blog!! Things have been very busy as we tie up loose ends for the wedding, continue to get the house ready, and start moving in. We have lots of new pictures of the house (which is now furnished!!) so check back soon. Since I was feeling guilty about not having posted in over two months I have some pictures from my bridal shower - which was truly an awesome day. We celebrated with brunch provided by the Omelet Man, and music provided by Acoustically Sound. October 25th was a rainy fall morning, but we had a wonderful time. Thank you Mom for all your hard work putting together a perfect celebration. Thank you to Jillian and Dan, and Ross for helping with set up and clean up. Miss Pat - the drinks were divine - grazie! Melissa and Jen - you are wonderful gift recorders and photographers, respectively. Thanks for sending these pictures along. Ross loved the video you took! Thanks Miss Mary Jo for being on call all day - you helped to make the shower possible! Thanks Jen for all of your help packing up and then organizing all the beautiful gifts back at the house (and to Gabe and Noah - for being so patient!!). You are right - we're all grown up! And to everyone there who has been sharing in all of this wedding excitement - thank you!! I have the best friends! Enjoy the pictures. I love that the wedding is providing all of these opportunities to celebrate my friends. Check back soon for pics of our house!

Laboring on Labor Day!

The past few weeks have been busy. Not only has it been a successful transition back to school, but we accomplished much at the house. The walls in the house are now painted (we still need to paint trim and doors), new trim was placed in the great room, and we have some of our lighting in the kitchen. We purchased new countertops for the kitchen and the next few evenings and weekends will be devoted to painting trim and doors. Enjoy the pictures of our most recent progress!

This is a close up of the baseboard trim. We picked a colonial trim that suits the style of the house.

This is the new "S" shaped track light in the kitchen. It's pretty and provides great light. We'll also have three pendant lights above the kitchen sink.

A close-up of the new countertop. Ross is currently in the process of cutting out the kitchen sink. We love the color and think it coordinates well with the cabinets.

New trim around the kitchen window. Ross installed...Jacqueline painted. We love that teamwork!

Ross built the trim around the back door to match the trim around the front door (below). It looks awesome and I am planning to put the Cats Meow Bel Air houses (thanks, Mom!) above both doors.

The new (and improved!) kitchen so far! We've come a LONG way!

Transitions

It is hard to believe that we are quickly approaching the first day of school. For me as a teacher, late August and early September always mark the start of my new year! I officially started my new job today as a teacher mentor. I spent the day with a new kindergarten teacher who is absolutely delightful. We attended a professional development session at a sister elementary school and were able to get some great ideas for how to set up the classroom. We got back to the classroom and I was thoroughly enjoying putting books, blocks, and games away. As I turned to look at what we had accomplished this afternoon, seeing the sun pour in through the windows across the rocking chair and bookshelves, I did feel a small tug at my heart as I thought about all the wonderful late summer days I spent setting up my little learning community and preparing for my charges.

I will miss having my very own group of students, and my own classroom, but I am looking to this new phase in my career and growing as a learner myself!

We had a great weekend and were able to spend some time with friends last night. That always refreshes and renews us and we are very much looking forward to the days and evenings when we are entertaining and the laughter is ringing through our cozy home!

We'll be posting more pictures soon, as the house is being painted this week! Yay!

Hurray! Hardwood Floors!

These pictures capture the sequence of events that led to us walking barefoot across our beautiful hardwood floors this weekend! Much of the dining room boards needed to be replaced and special care had to be taken in placing wood down where we had removed walls. The floors look great and the hard work to meet this deadline was totally worth it - although Ross is looking forward to slowing the pace down just a bit! Next up on the to do list...painting.

Fabulous Finish Work

Ross's good friend Bob spent many evenings at our home completing the finish work in the house. Bob did an excellent job, it looks great and the walls are ready to be cleaned and painted. We are so grateful to our friends who have donated time and effort to help us make this house a beautiful home. We are especially grateful to Bob (and to Lori and little Ross, for letting us borrow husband and daddy!) for helping out with this big project!

Pretty as a picture..framing in the door frame!

Ross removed the door from this living room wall. Now the entrance to the bathroom and bedrooms will be on the other side wall in the sitting room area. I'm practicing my Vanna White!

The wall is completed and you can see the door that we'll use to access the rest of the house.

Drywall Mission...Completed!

This pictures shows the completed drywall in the living room area. The ceiling was the big project here, as it needed work after taking out the wall. Note the fine home furnishings...Shop Vac, Utility fan, sawhorse, IKEA's newest line...Home Improvement Equipment! :)

This area will be our sitting room/den area (the refrigerator is only there temporarily!!). The sliding glass doors enter into the Florida room.

View into the kitchen

We had the kitchen down to cinderblock and wood. This is where we got the idea for the new ceiling in the kitchen.
After some insulation and drywall, it looks a little different, doesn't it? :)

This view shows the completed drywall in the kitchen and exposed beams.

Kitchen Ceiling - Cathedral Style

Once we took out all of the plaster in the kitchen, we discovered that we really liked the cathedral ceiling style. We left some of the beams exposed. It really has opened up the kitchen and has made a small space look a little larger!

Delightful Drywall!

Sunday morning Ross, Chris, and friends worked hard to put in the insulation and drywall. It looks great and now the house has that "new house smell." Which, if you had visited when we first bought it, know that it is a very welcome change!!

This week, Bob will be doing all the finish work and on Sunday the process of replacing and refinishing the hardwood floors will begin. It is almost unbelievable to think about all that has been accomplished! Again, we are SO grateful to all of our friends that have helped to make this big dream a reality. We have been working with an electrician friend of Ross' to make decisions about the lights for the kitchen. We have to be creative now that we have added the cathderal ceiling. We will be putting in three pendant lights over the sink (my idea...*smile*), ceiling fan, and a good bit of track lighting.

I've posted some pictures of the most recent updates! Enjoy!

Weekend Warriors in the Kitchen!

The before picture of the kitchen... all the appliances and cabinets are resting in the basement!And after a few LONG hours of work... We found a window! The view...the inside of our siding. I think we'll keep the window that actually looks outside! *Smile*

Back Door Guests are Best!

This was our back door entrance. Note the black and white subway tile...

The after picture of the back entrance. There was a good bit of plastic black and white subway tile on the wall next to the door. Directly across from the back door is the door into our basement.