99.9% Complete!

The floors are finally in and they are beautiful. Matt has to come back and put the kickboards in and seal around the edge of the countertop. The only thing left to do is replace the baseboards all around the kitchen, dining room, living room and down the hall. I haven't yet decided what I want so it will probably be awhile before I get that in. Oh, I forgot, I also have to re-paint the foyer. The carpet color wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be and it clashes with the paint in the foyer! Not sure exactly what color to put down there so that will be awhile also!

I have floors!

My floors were started on Monday. On Tuesday they still were not done. I think they will probably be done with the wood today. I'm not sure whether they will get to carpeting the stairs today or not. The flooring is really beautiful. Of course, the pictures don't do justice to the floors. There are a lot of knots and veining that are black that really tie my furniture in. I took these pictures when it was dark out and only used the flash for lighting.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve. I haven't posted on here in ages. If you can believe it, I'm still waiting on my floor! Hopefully, it will be completed next week.

What I do have, are new dishes! I've got service for 6 right now and am planning to order more but am waiting for a coupon! I went to Zanesville Pottery and got a lot of serving pieces. The dishes are multi-colored - sage green, gold, red and ivory. They look beautiful behind my glass cabinet doors.

I also bought myself a Roomba (the robot vacuum cleaner) to help take care of the wooden floors. I'm impressed with how it works. I questioned whether it would do a good job but I've gotten LOTS of dirt out of my carpets and from the plywood floors! Opie barked and barked when I first turned it on but I told him he better get used to it and there was no sense wearing himself out. Now he just looks at it.

As most of you who follow this blog already know - I'm having the traditional pork and sauerkraut dinner today. There will be ten of us here - Mom, Dana, Bryan, Clayton and Tiffany, Jodi and Eric, Jane and Sam (Tiffany's mom and her boyfriend) and me! I made a cheesecake yesterday and made a chocolate raspberry sauce and a regular raspberry sauce to serve with it. I also made breadsticks last night. Today I will put the sauerkraut, pork and smoked sausage in the oven and am making an apple glaze to go over the pork. We are also going to have homemade applesauce and, of course, mashed potatoes. Sounds good, huh?

Carla and Sarah will be here on Sunday to stay with me for a couple of weeks. If you don't know what I'm talking about - Carla moved here I think 3 or 4 years ago from Texas because of her husband, Dean's, job. I met her when she was hired to work at the office. She's just a fantastic person and very artistic and stylish! She helped me tremendously in the creation of my kitchen. Anyway, her husband now got transferred to Arkansas. He has been living out there since September or October. They finally sold their house in St. Clairsville and found one in Texarkana. Sarah is a sophomore in high school this year and wanted to finish out the semester here. Since they moved out of the house in St. C. right before Christmas, they had no place to go. So when they return from visiting family in Texas, they are staying with me! I'm looking forward to having them. It is unfortunate that they will have to put up with the installation of the hardwood floors but - oh well!

I wish you all a healthy and prosperous (yeah, right - in this economy?) New Year. It's amazing how the years just fly by. This time next year Jace will be walking all over the place and probably talking up a storm. Happy New Year!

The Old Kitchen

I have had several requests for pictures of the old kitchen for comparison. Believe me, there is no comparison between the old kitchen and the new one! Just to accommodate all of those people that don't remember the old kitchen, here it is:

Now - aren't you sorry you asked? I even forgot how ugly it was! My goodness what a difference!

Thanks for a great Thanksgiving!

I haven't posted the grouted tile which completes the kitchen but I think I want to wait until the floor comes in. My family all saw the final results at Thanksgiving and the girls at work will be seeing it on Friday! My kitchen made for a great Thanksgiving food preparation place! It is very functional and everything turned out very tasty. Well, with the exception of the pumpkin pies - I forgot to put any sugar in them!!!

Hopefully the floors will be in soon and I can do the final posting of the completed kitchen! I put the shelves in last night that Clayton built. They turned out great! Now all I have to do is fill them with pictures. I have always wanted a photo gallery and this will be it.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

P.S. My great nephew is not only a beautiful baby but he is a very good baby. He only cried when Clayton held him! Not sure why that was - Clayton was probably nervous as he says he has never held a baby before.

I Have Tile!

Eric came on Saturday and put up the tile. It is absolutely gorgeous. He did a fantastic job. He'll be here early this week to grout it. I've also got a picture of the finished island. I don't think I had one before.

Almost There!

The corian was delivered yesterday but there was a problem with the outlets on the backsplash and they couldn't put it in. Matt fixed the problem - of course - and the Corian is in place. It is absolutely beautiful and the integral sink looks great. The plumber is coming tomorrow to put in the faucet, garbage disposal, dishwasher and connect the stove. Then it's done!! I got the dining room cleaned up and put back together. It looks so different. It's definitely going to take some getting used to.