Cabinets

Please pardon the dusty floors and the tools scattered everywhere. We finally finished installing the cabinets, but the counter tops are not on yet. If you notice the cabinets match the board and batten around the room.

I thought this bump in would be a good place to add extra cabinets since our kitchen isn't huge. Jared designed this nice desk layout. There are outlets inside them so we can keep electronics out of sight. I'm big on hiding clutter. It will be fun to find an antique chair to sit at this desk.

Here you can see the bar and the wall cabinets.

Here is the other side of the bar. The sink will go in the middle. You can see the laundry room through the doorway.

I wasn't sure what I wanted for a railing and we didn't have it in our budget. We loved this newel post when we saw it, but it was a lot more expensive than the others. After trying for an hour to pick everything out we came across this newel post that was all broken up. They let us buy it for half the price and we were able to fix it. We really like how it turned out and think that it ties into the board and batten.

Someone should pick up that broom and use it.

Paint Dilemma

These are not great pictures, but it shows some of our progress. The night of Valentines Day, Jared and I stayed up late to install our flooring. We weren't feeling like we had made any significant progress for a few days so we decided to burn the midnight oil. We had a lot of fun.

Here is my paint dilemma. I fell in love with this color sample. It is Martha Stewert's Morning Fog. The sample is a really, really light gray- blue with a hint of green. I loved it so much that I didn't think to get a sample and try it on the wall before I bought a whole gallon. As soon as I rolled the paint on I knew immediately that is was not what I had in mind. It turned baby blue on the wall. I was afraid they hadn't mixed the color right. Jared (the artist, who is an expert at mixing colors) told me that it was an exact match. I even put paint on the sample and let it dry and sure enough it was a match. I want to close on the house sooner rather than later so I'm trying not the think about it right now, but it's driving me crazy. It's such a small room that it would be no big deal to repaint it, but there are so many other things to finish right now. Lesson learned: try out paint samples on the walls before you buy it and then paint the whole room. You can see in the picture where the natural light hits it, it turns baby blue.

Journal Entry

Jared is still working hard on the house and his computer work. Working on the house is not as labor intensive as it used to be though. In the beginning, Jared's muscles had really filled out. It takes a lot of hard work for Jared to build muscle. I think he has to burn through all the excess energy first.

Jared has also added a new painting to his already full plate of things to do. We are really excited about this painting. It will be a special one with Christ in it. I love how Jared works hard to make something unique, but sticks to the truth of the scriptures in his paintings. I can't wait to show you the work in progress.

I have been working on the house more now that we are down to the finishing touches. Getting the paint on the walls was the last big hurdle for me. I'm so glad that is out of the way. Jared and I took a whole day and worked into the night to get it sprayed in one day. Often, Kendi will come with me and help, which is so much fun, but I hate being away from Aydri so much. It will be nice when this is done. It's getting more and more exciting and a lot less drudgery.

Kendi had a proud moment today when she had to give a scripture in primary. She worked hard all week so that she could half recite and half read John 3:16. Everyone was so impressed that she did so well on her own. Her love for learning excites me to start homeschooling this year.

Aydri was being really whiny one morning and I was ignoring her negative behavior. Kendi got annoyed and finally told her, "Aydri, mommy doesn't listen to whining, go try Grandma."

Aydri is approaching the "terrible two's" and I don't know how to deal with it. Kendi was the sweetest two year old. I think she was making up for her terrible first year. Aydri seems to think she is in charge all the time. To me it is funny, but to her four year old sister it is not funny. We often have days where Kendi is always asking me to put Aydri to bed. Fortunately, Kendi is figuring out ways to play with Aydri more and occasionally when it's time for Aydri's nap Kendi will ask if she can stay up longer to finish playing whatever game she has made up for the two of them.

Aydri is loving her glasses now. She started to run off without them after a bath one day and came running back and asked for them. Her eye's still aren't tracking together so we are taking her back to the eye doctor in a couple weeks. He doesn't think it's anything to worry about, but wants to keep checking on her. I can't say enough good things about this eye doctor.

My mom was watching Aydri while I worked at the house one day. My mom had gotten out of the shower and got dressed. Aydri started rubbing grandma's behind and my mom thought she was just feeling the soft fabric. She turned around and realized that Aydri had found the lotion and was rubbing lotion all over her clothes. Aydri has eczema really bad so we've made a routine where she lays on a towel after her bath and we lather thick lotion all over her. Apparently, it was Grandma's turn.

House Update

Here is a sneak peak of a few finishing touches. It is getting exciting to see how it will finally look. Hopefully it will be ready to move in in a few weeks.

Kendi loves to help. We sprayed on most of the paint, but I wanted one bathroom a different color so we had to roll it on.
Kitchen cabinets will be delivered on tuesday. We are excited.