Follow the yellow brick road.

Well, since the "permanent vacation assignment" from Justin's work happened- we have been working on our house like little bumble bees in a hive. Our house is all "a buzZZ", with drills, saws and random orbital sanders (Ah!, I can smell the saw dust now).

We tore apart the entire master bath and for the first time I layed tile (is it laid? the Websters dictionary doesn't have either form of the word, in what I am meaning). Besides my obvious lack of spelling bee skills, I got plenty of worker bee skills, and I am so proud of myself!

Wait one second while I pat myself on the back-

Oh shoot!

my arms are too sore from all the demolition, and I can hardly lift them!

But seriously I have wanted to lay tile for 6 years. And I finally did it. I decided a brick pattern would look the best and hide any lines that weren't exactly straight. So, while the rest of the bathroom is in shambles - the floor is gorgeous!!(double exclamation)

Justin built the vanity base today. I have been wanting a table vanity base for years, and I finally got it 1 month before we are destined to move, but still. I must admit, I want to take it with us! I am going to paint it all white tomorrow.

We enlisted the local LDS missionaries to finish ripping out the kitchen floor! Thanks heaven for the help! While I paint and Justin works on the plumbing. Then tomorrow I will tile the kitchen floor, then it is on to laying the new oak flooring in the front room and hall! so this blog is to be continued....

Before pictures of the Bathroom (obviously we have taken out a few things)

This kind of cracked me up, so I had to take a picture.

The sun was totally beating down on us, so here is my little "tile cutting oasis".

The work begins

Done now on to grout

( a little while and a day later)

Ta-da!

Here is the vanity Justin built out of scrap wood we got from our church remodel.

All told with my awesome tile buy (1.59 for a box with 11 sq feet), a free new toilet from a plumber friend, Justin's scrap wood vanity, a free mirror from Asheville free cycle and a few regular things we have only spent about $400.00 on a complete master bathroom remodel! SCORE!

Coming out of hiding!

Houston,- we have gone public!

Help!

So I have been trying to fool around with my blog format and when I changed the layout it deleted my friends list.

So i need your help-

If you have a blog and you used to be on my sidebar, and are not there now, please comment with your blog address so I can get back on and see you all. Some are harder to find than others I will be looking to find as many as I can.

And any of you who have a blog that I haven't seen I would love an invite.

The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe

A few months ago I helped Mary and Jerry Hyder do some interior design work. She and her husband had just bought a duplex that they were and/or are planning to move into if /when their house sells. It all depends upon this crazy housing market.

I helped them pick out finishes and give little bits of advice, here and there. In fact, I just saw the almost finished apartment last night and they have done fabulous work! It is looking beautiful, and if they need I'm ready and willing to move in!

The apartment they are moving into is quite a bit smaller that their old house. She had me come and look at their furniture to help her decide what stays and what goes. I was totally blown away! When I went over to her house I couldn't believe my eyes. She had the most beautiful antiques. Crazy awesome!

There was a wonderful wardrobe with a big old mirror on the front, that she was mentioned that, she don't think they'd use this... I was like, Are you sure? Are you serious? Really? It's beautiful and just gushing over it. Actually, all the pieces were the same in that respect, really unique and utterly beautiful.

We worked on things for another little while and one day she called me and said they were going to give me the armoire that I loved! So needless to say I gave her my work for free.

We just picked it up last night. When we drove it home the door fell out, but thank heaven the antique mirror didn't break, so it isn't back together yet. BUT I COULDN'T WAIT to share it with you all. When we get humpty dumpty together again I will update this entry with that picture.

Justin was joking that it is our "Lion Witch and 'the Wardrobe' " - wardrobe, and that we need to get some mink coats. I think that leather might be more budget appropriate Or better yet my old blue furry blanket that had nothing to do with skinning an animal. Kitty can stand in for the lion and the witch (she had the mane and the temper). In fact, she already has an affinity to the piece, since it's arrival she somehow figured out how to get on top of it, maybe she flew her broomstick up there, and has been sleeping up there ever since. Buddy will have to be Mr. Tumnus, he's the nice, passive-aggressive one

p.s. Check out the beautiful "fiddleback" wood grain on the interior. It is on the shelves and all the interior walls. It is all solid wood, and totally authentic. (Jerry said that he got it from his Aunt's house, so I bet it is good and old, and it hasn't been refinished!@&#*!!! thank heaven)

Lights, Camera, Awesome

I have been looking for a cool, semi-funky option for a light above the sink in the kitchen for months now. There has been nothing at the Home Dump-o or Lowes. I even went to a lighting store. While they had one or two lights that would work, I wasn't about to pay $200.00. Yikes! Even if I had the money that feels so wasteful!

We went to the local Habitat for Humanity donation center/store and found a great $10.00 light that matches the finish on our other light. It was brand new and I LUV it. It also gives off a lot of light! So I am more than pleased.

P.S. Obviously from the pictures we still have tons of work to do on the cabinets. We thought we would get a lot done this week now that Justin has some time off, wrong! It has been a free-for-all this week, and we have been getting home everyday after 9:00 or at least working til then. So, nothing has really happened in our house this week. And, we got some new handles and put them on our cabinets to try them out, but we have to fill the old hole and drill a new one, so some are hanging in weird angles.

Oh, also, I did get the bathroom vanity painted yesterday. I decided to spray paint it, although I don't recommend this option, pretty messy. But, it was a be fast project and has an oil finish, like the poly already on it. It turned out great.

We were thinking of replacing the vanity top. If we stay here we probably still will. But if we need a quick sale, it will work how it is, because the white cabinet equals out the white toilet.

We had a plumber friend who got us two free white toilets so we replaced the old almond toilets thinking we would replace the tub and vanity top too, uh, opps.

But since we may not have time this will have to do. I don't think it will be much of a problem. Oh and as you can see, Buddy helped a little, til he was escorted out of the bathroom at painting time.

There are definitely more bathroom changes to come.....

Sur La Table

I have a few house updates to share.


Actually it has more to do with furniture, but they go in my house so.... anyway, a few years ago I got our family table from my brother Rand. This is the table that we ate at, morning, noon and night at as a kid with my six brothers and sisters and my parents. Before that, it had been my father's parents . I LOVE this table. It is huge, but it is soooo wonderful.


The table itself had seen better days. In fact, I remember when I was 10 or 11 I realized the the finish had softened so much I could scratch it off with my fingernail. So, I spent a good half hour scraping designs into the top. I specifically remember a nice bird cage design that really tickled my fancy. But alas, at 27 I did not like the bird cage motif quite as much!


So I started refinishing it, which started and seemed to drag out, and out, and out, beyond belief. But at last it is done. And we have pictures to prove it, and a space to park our car again!

What next???...

Well we had some kind of interesting, a little mortifying and strangely exciting news Friday. The firm that Justin was working for laid off 7 people from his office, unfortunately(?) he was one of them.

Is it totally wrong that I am kind of excited about the news? No offense to Design Workshop, but I really think Justin can do more. We are trying to figure out what we are going to do and possibly where.

The saddest part of the change is that our good friends the Brooks, (Natalie's Family) are transferring and therefore moving to Phoenix. We are seriously considering the move. But each minute seems to bring new options and my "brain is working like sixty" (to quote the Great Brain, best kids series ever).

We are for the time being finishing our house. Luckily we are about 15 days from living here for two years, which means - NO Capital Gains to pay if we sell! Yeah! But Justin is going to focus on leads and sending out resumes. While I am looking at my options and am hoping that we can finish the house.

We will keep you all posted!

Tuxedo Time

So we had this tux, and Justin looked so good in it I asked my dad to take some pictures of him for me. I jumped in with the dress I made for the wedding, but I look so incredibly tired I don't really like much of my own pictures, but boy does Justin look nice.

Yucky! I don't love this picture, and unfortunately I closed my eyes in every other picture we took! URGH! But you can see the dress I made for the wedding. It was fun to make, I haven't really "sewn" anything from a pattern in quite a while.

My eyes are practically closed, not because I was blinking but because I was so darn tired.

Salt Lake City Temple

This is the temple that Justin and I were married in. It is a very sacred place to us, where we believe that families can be sealed together for time and all eternity. What a great thing to see Justin's brother make such wonderful commitments and promises to his wife and his Father in Heaven!

Here is a website that explains a little bit about our beliefs in case you want to check it out - http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/membership-in-the-church/temples-and-family-history or you can go to just http://www.mormon.org/ just click on the link.

We took the opportunity to get some beautiful pictures! Of course when we got there our camera's batteries had died and we left the new ones in the car. But Justin saved the day and ran back to get them. The photographer was a little perturbed that two of the brothers where gone when he started taking pictures, but all's well that ends well, I hope.

This is the Tabernacle on Temple Square, from which the Mormon Tabernacle Choir hails. The building was just renovated. It is really worth seeing. And the construction history is really fascinating.

Here comes the bride... and groom!

Here is Justin's Brother Josh and Camille right after the wedding. The day was totally swelteringly hot, poor guys! I guess when it comes down to it maybe it was good at our wedding in May when it was snowing - at least we weren't dying of heat stroke during all our pictures!

Kristin

Melissa, Garrett and Heidi

I guess Greg got the memo on what to wear, because he and Justin were twins- totally unplanned!

Purple Mountain Majesty

So the mountain is Utah are not exactly purple, but they are majestic.

Here are just a few of the mountains that we remembered to photograph while there.

They are truly awe inspiring!

Cook-out

I would say that we had a BBQ one of the nights, with some old friends. But, we have learned since moving to the south, that a barbecue is not throwing a few hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, that is a cookout. A barbecue is roasting a pig, pork at that point I guess, or ribs. So while we yankees called it a BBQ I felt it important to draw a distinction between the two.


We had a great time getting to know the Eliason's beautiful children. And I cannot believe that Misty had a baby three weeks ago- you look fabulous! We also had Tom and Sara Christensen over. It was so fun just talking with you all! We are excited for all that is going on in your lives!

Improving our short game.

The whole reason for our trip to Utah was to celebrate the marriage of Justin's younger brother Joshua Garrett to Camille! The whirlwind romance (the way we like it too!) came about since our trip home in October. So we had not yet met the darling Camille. We decided we needed to go on a double date. We ate at Cafe Rio! so good my mouth is watering now... then went mini-golfing! We had a great time and got some really fun pictures