allison and andrew's puppy...

Our christening of the new kitchen was for my baby sister Allison's belated birthday party on June 22. She and Andrew, d and Monie, and mom and dad came over for grilling out and Wii fun. Allison and Andrew also brought their newest addition, Sadie, a weim puppy. She is adorable! I took quite a few pictures trying to get a good one of her and Frannie without too much success, but here goes anyways.

Sadie loved Frannie's huge toys, pretty much as big as she is!

and she attacked my dad on the floor with her needle sharp teeth...

Frannie's mini-me-

Frannie was pretty good and patient with her, except every now and then she got a bit annoyed-

So Cute! Can't wait for more visits to come and Fran will be so happy when she is a full grown playmate!

hb...

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Ray
Happy Birthday to you!

I am sad that you had to go to Dallas for meetings on your birthday, but i guess celebrations can wait... I love you!

finally...

Here are the long-awaited pics of the kitchen/living room remodel- befores and afters...

Up first we have the shot from the far corner of the living room towards the walls in the kitchen we removed...
next we have the shot of the old kitchen standing just inside the walls we removed.
the after is a little further away since we didn't have the wall constriction...
now we have the view from the edge of the old kitchen towards the dining room

no before shots of these last few...
here is our stove, venthood and glass tile
(love that resident tile man Ray, he is quite the profethional...)

the window seat- we love it- so far frandog doesn't think it is her new bed...

we hope to keep it that way
the living room, the curtains are not hung, but we have panels the same green fabric as the window seat cover and valances in the kitchen. Very extited to get those up and get rid of the mini blinds...

in there...

yippee! We finally are sleeping in our house, as of last Saturday night. I think both my parents' dog and Frannie are going through withdrawal... we are having my youngest sister's birthday party at our house, using our new kitchen Saturday night! So, I will post photos of the par-tay, their new puppy Sadie and our mostly finished kitchen very soon! happy friday!

almost time...

Well, we are almost there! Appliances were delivered yesterday... Saturday was spent unpacking boxes in the kitchen, which was really fun for me. I should be able to finish unpacking boxes this week and we are planning on moving the last of our stuff that we have been using at my parent's house on Saturday and sleeping in our own bed again! We might not quite have the range hooked up by then because Ray needs to do the glass tile behind it before we slide it in place. We will have a microwave. By mid-week next week we should have all the appliances hooked up- We are planning on having my sister's birthday dinner at our house on the 21st, so that is our goal to have the kitchen fully functioning, which should be no problem. SO HAPPY!!! :)

the outside...

Here are some pictures of the outside of our house, it looks different now as this was before the fence was installed.

meet the neighbors...

We put up this wood privacy fence before we moved here and unfortunately there is light showing under the fence, which apparently is no good for diggity dog neighbors. Their poor owners have tried and tried to patch holes, but to no avail- you can see one of the concrete block "patches" in the picture below. Frannie really enjoys them coming over to play, but it won't be so fun once we are moved in and having people over for bar-b-ques...

So, this is Allie. For some reason she was being shy and just sticking her nose under the fence to bark at us while we sanded the cabinets.

This is Asher, he would come back and forth all day long and he and Frannie just had a grand old time.

and I must say, wouldn't you want to come over and play in a yard with trees like these? we love it! Such a dramatic improvement over our Dallas McCree house- Fran is definitely becoming more of outside dog now that she can actually get into a full run.

progress...

Huge Progress this week- countertops were installed yesterday! i love love love them! here are a few pics of the new counters and some progress pics. We are SO CLOSE! The color on the cabinets is Sherwin Williams Origami White. I am so blessed to have a wonderful color expert friend. I think the color is a perfect match for our wall colors and countertops. Thanks Monie!

Far right- opening for range this is where we are gong to put the glass tile as well... Then to the left is the window seat and bank of drawers- perfect phone spot. Basically right where the bank of drawers is next to the window seat is where the wall at the edge of the kitchen used to be. under the white painted plastic flooring is our wood flooring. The entire house was wood flooring except for the kitchen so when we took out the walls we had the wood floors carried into the kitchen and all of the floors refinished. Can't wait to see them again!

finished countertops (kind of covered up) and cabinets
The hole in the cabinets is for our microwave and you can also see the spot for the fridge on the far left. The counter runs along where there used to be a wall (left). We took down both walls that divided the kitchen from the living room and added the column at the corner of the cabinets pictured here. These tall cabinets are actually large pull out pantry and spice drawers and there is a bookshelf at the end (by the column) for cookbooks.

finished counters- on the right is the spot for the fridge (you can also see the opening in the cabinets for the dishwasher) and on the left is the spot for the oven- gotta scrape that window!

window seat on the right with a bank of drawers. We are pretty sure that Frandog is going to think this is her new bed... again... the window needs to be scraped- all the plastic straight ahead is protection for our couches, fridge and armoire.

cabinets post paint... window got painted also :) I wish I would have taken pics of the demo'd kitchen- we took EVERYTHING OUT! It was gutted completely for about 1.5 months while we waited for the cabinet maker- apparently this is a very busy time, of course-

Hard to get good work around here...

sanding, sanding, sanding... what a process!

our house.... is a very very very fine house... well not so much in these pics...

So, finally, some pictures of our house (pre-remodel). Here are some quick before pics of the living room/ kitchen. It basically used to be two separate rooms with a doorway from the living room into the kitchen. First order of business, knock down the walls and open it up!

kitchen- love that gray tile with yellow border!

kitchen- standing at the edge of the cabinets looking towards the door into the living room

picture of the kitchen walls from the living room, looking in the door to the kitchen

leed accredited professional...

I am SO excited that I passed my LEED-NC test this morning! That makes me the first Engineer that is a LEED AP in this area. It feels like such an accomplishment and I am totally DONE with tests for good. Although, I thought that when I passed my PE Exam I was done... but I really think I am now :) happy happy happy!

good friends...

This is an old picture of Frannie (our Weimie) and my parent's Yorkie, Tilly (when she was just a puppy). They are quite the unlikely pair but very good buddies. We have been living at my parent's house until our kitchen is done and they seriously play and explore the backyard ALL DAY LONG! Fran is always completely worn out by the end of the day, which is so much better than in Dallas where she slept inside all day. I know they will miss each other when we move out, so I definitely see play dates in our future! My youngest sister is about to get a Weim puppy so it will be fun to see what happens then...

love me some glass tile...

Yesterday we went and ordered the most beautiful glass tile for our kitchen. SO EXCITED!!! We will use it behind therange and venthood (we have ordered the GE Cafe series pictured above). I think it looks so great with all of our color selections (a sample of our countertop is also pictured to the right, but is darker than it looks in the picture), just makes me more anxious to be done! I love to cook and I know this kitchen will be a happy cooking place for sure!

In other news, yesterday we closed on our first investment property! It is located within walking distance from Kyle Field... WHOOP! We did a joint venture on this one with my parents. Dad has already started working on it and I know it is going to be a busy summer between that house and our house.

on the blogwagon...

Well, I guess we are finally jumping on... starting with pictures of our ongoing home remodel (coming soon). The counter top installer finally called back, so it looks like in 2-2 1/2 weeks we should be in really good shape! I can't wait until the kitchen is done so we can live there. It is going to be nice and I know I will love cooking in it.

Unfortunately, I have that LEED exam scheduled for next Thursday and will not have much time to help with the cabinet painting process. I can't wait to be done with that test so I can work on the house and think about much more exciting things! So, photos to come of our remodel process, and our new start down here in Aggieland!