Updates

We went out to the house last night, and they've done a handful of changes: they cleaned & graded our front yard, installed our toilets & faucets, put in our overhang counter top in the kitchen, put in our oven & dishwasher, put in our under cabinet lighting and stained the banister. Fun stuff! Here are a few pictures of the kitchen:

Anniversary & Paint...again

Today is our 1 year anniversary - we made it! It's been a fun, but trying year. We went out last night to celebrate. We ate at a Brazilian steakhouse, and Jason declared it as his new favorite restaurant. It was yummy.

I also went this weekend and painted our bedroom. It's a pretty light blue color, and I love it. It will need a second coat, but after 5 1/2 hours of painting in slience, I had had enough!

Countertops!

They put most of the countertops in! They told us it would take 2 weeks from when they measured, which was a mere week ago. Very exciting - they look great. They also have all of the lights installed and about 1/2 of them are wired and turn on with their switches. They fixed our hardwoods, so now they appropriately go all the way down the hallway. What else? Oh, they installed our microwave. The stove & dishwasher will be delivered Sunday, so that, along with the rest of the countertops will pretty much complete the kitchen I think.

It's all happening so fast now that it's the last few weeks (2 weeks from tomorrow, to be exact!). We are VERY excited!

In other news, Cyndi & Todd closed on their house today, so they are officially the winners of the contest. We went by tonight, and their house is fabulous! They were painting their bedroom (while Jason & I watched...while drinking their beer - it was great), and the color they picked is awesome! It's a milk chocolate-ish color, or kind of like chocolate milk. Going to look great with their new bedspread.

Anyway, here are tonight's pictures from our house:

From the outside, still missing the last couple rows of siding:

The kitchen with microwave & countertops:

The fireplace (actually looks great, despite the screw-ups) and the 1/2-built banister:

We went out to the house last night, but because I had worked late, it was already pretty dark when we got there. That presented problems for my photo taking, and it was pitch black in our house. We thought we'd be able to use their work light, which has been plugged in to an outlet in the basement, but those darn workers took the cord with them! Jason's parents were our saviors and brought over a super duper flashlight and an extension cord. Phew!

Anyway, the picture above is the best one I have - the new brick on the front looks awesome! They obviously still have to fix the siding (where you can see the board above the brick in the picture) - they may have done that today, we're not sure. They also finished the brick for the fireplace, installed almost all of our lights, put in the outlets & light switches (though they're not yet wired to the circuit box downstairs - hence the sea of darkness) and put in our shower door.

Things are moving very quickly! Hopefully I can get out there early enough to take decent pictures one of these night, but more likely it will have to wait until Saturday (darn year-end!).

Little changes

Jason went by the house tonight, and they put up the wooden gate thing to block the drop-off from the back door (required until we build steps), they hung the mirrors in the master bath, and they cleaned up in the spare bedrooms - he thinks in preparation for coat two of white paint. They also put up all the brick on the front of the house and he said it looks really good. He said the mortar is a little darker than the stuff that's already there, but our friend Steve Kuehler (a brick expert) tells us not to worry until it dries completely - probably a whole week. I can't wait to see it - we'll go back out tomorrow night, and I'll take the camera, so we'll have some pictures to post I'm sure.

On another note, this is the second time in the past few days that they've left our house wide open - I'm talking garage door open, front door open and windows open. It's pretty frustrating because so much is done in our house and some kook could just go mess it all up. Somebody will be getting a phone call from us tomorrow (AGAIN!).

Hardwood floors

They installed the hardwood floors in the foyer & dining room, but they didn't go all the way down the hall like they were supposed to, so they'll be bringing that guy back out to fix it. Our other dilemma this weekend was the brick for the fireplace - apparently the one we picked won't work, so we had to go today and pick another one. Not a big deal, but frustrating nonetheless.

They also installed our closet shelving and our towel bars and toilet paper holders, so that's exciting.

They started working on the front - ripped out the siding where we decided to add brick, so hopefully tomorrow they'll get the brick finished. Can't wait to see what it looks like!

Our very dusty hardwoods:

Pantry:

The newly ripped up house:

Closing Date

Well, we finally got our closing date today - October 5th! Yes, that's 3 weeks from this Friday - craziness! We're ecstatic! Note to all the St. Louisans who are looking for a good workout: I know just the place on Saturday, October 6th. Also note that all movers will be rewarded with free booze and a gourmet meal (such as pizza). Thanks in advance to everyone who helps us!

I made it out to the house a little earlier tonight, so I was able to get some better pictures of the cabinets. Other changes are: trim and doors hung in master bedroom, bathroom sinks installed and the beginnings of a step at our garage/laundry room entry.

Master bathroom (his & hers vanities):

Kitchen (picture on left is where microwave & stove will be, on right is where sink & dishwasher will be, and bottom is where fridge will be & the white part is the pantry):

Hall bathroom & entryway to master bedroom (notice the dark hinges):

Cabinets

Our cabinets are installed! I didn't get out there until it was getting dark, so my pictures are not great. I think they're going to look great. They made a mess of a couple of our freshly painted walls, so I guess we'll be doing some touch-ups. Bummer.

Hopefully I'll get out there a little earlier in the next few nights, so I can take some better pictures.

Paint

I know I haven't posted anything this week, but we only went to the house Tuesday night, so there wasn't much to report...until this weekend. We painted the kitchen and both bathrooms this weekend! They look great (in my opinion, of course). I really LOVE my chocolate brown master bath, and the hall bath is a mustard/goldish yellow color, which is going to look great with our new shower curtain. The kitchen is a pretty bright gold color, which is a little overwhelming right now, but I think it's going to look awesome when they get the cabinets in (hopefully this week, since they're in our garage already) and you can't see as much yellow. I'm so glad to have it out of the way, thanks to Melissa & my dad, who donated their painting assistance and to Greg & my mom for their lunch delivery services!!

They've already installed our linoleum floors, which are in the kitchen, both bathrooms and the laundry room, and they've starting hanging the trim and interior doors (so far, just the 2 spare bedrooms are finished). This should be a big week for changes, and we're hoping to get a closing date early this week, so stay tuned!

Here we are hard at work Saturday:

Here is the master bath:

Here's the completed kitchen - notice the floor too (kind of covered in dust):

And here is the hall bath (kind of hard to tell the color):

Sports weekend

We had a busy weekend filled with sports. Friday night we went to the Cardinals game (thanks again Steve & Shea!). No celebrity sightings this time, but we saw a great game, which included an Ankiel grand slam. We also got to try out the new camera's 10x zoom feature:

We also had the pleasure of sitting next to a very unique tattoo:

Saturday I went with my coworkers to the MU/Illinois football game. It was a great game, and the good guys won! Lots of fun was had by all. Oh yeah, and there was a lot of beer too. I broke out my dad's "Spider" hat from circa 1970 (some of you will remember the hat from the last MU/Illini game a few years ago), and there was a man at our tailgate with the same hat. Funny.
Jason's weekend also included 2 rounds of golf, so of course he is a happy man.

Driveway, etc.

We have a driveway! It's exposed aggregate, and it looks great!

They also installed our thermostat, which is programmable (Em - tell Adam we won't be needing his newly-developed thermostat expertise as it turns out) - very exciting since we didn't specifically request programmable, so we weren't sure what we'd get. They've also delivered our bathroom vanities, our interior doors & the trim. It's going to come together in no time!