Sweet Progress...

Lovely window in the shower...it was so gross when we first moved in...

I would have sworn that this sink was the original in the house...or at least the vanity. Also pretty gross... one of the previous owners tried to make an improvement by adding the bead board. It was just a bandaid for a much needed remodel.

Our floor was a tile laminant on top of some other laminate. The pieces were loose and would sort of squish under your feet. This toilet overflowed on us once and after that, I always had the bath mats down. Squish...squish...
Demo...
Removing the cast iron tub was the toughest part of the project. Now, notice that in the original picture, it was some vinyl tub and shower over the orignal tub and tile work. They have these guys come out and give you a new bathroom in a day. Another bandaid solution...

Ahhhh...sweet progress...I went with the subway style tiles. I love it. You can't see it but I had them tile out two ledges for shampoos and stuff. They're about 8"x 12" in size. I also had them put the floor tile on diagonally. I really like how it turned out. New toilet...comfort height. Granite counter with undermounted sink, java colored cabinets, and Delta Victorian hardware. I'm so pleased. The color looks baby blue in these pictures but it's more of a light blue gray...close to Restoration Hardware's silver sage color. It's a great contrast.

Still working on finding the right hardware for the vanity and the wall storage cabinet. These are not the final pictures. We still have to hang the mirror, light, and wall cabinet above the toilet and the bathroom accessories. So although the major work is done, we are still not using the bathroom. And it needs a major cleaning too.

And here is our new entryway kneewall and column. We will have two more just like this upon entering the dining room. The painters have done an amazing job at fixing up the walls. We have painted wallpaper in every room of the house. (one of the those things I wish our real estate agent would have picked up on. ) And all the flaws are showing. It was a ton of work to fix up the walls in the hallway, and soon the living room and dining room walls will both be smoothed as well. Demo on the kitchen starts towards the end of the week. I'm suppose to be packing up. It's been really exciting to see the transformation. The new trim work looks wonderful. I love the new base trim.

Stay tuned for future updates and a tour...

Snow Day Forecast...

On Thursday, Connor came home with a notice that there would be no school the next day because of the expected snow storm. I found it quite funny to get a notice of no school on a sunny winter day. Later that afternoon, we received a call from Aaron's school also cancelling school. I think it's a bit ridiculous how quick the school district is to cancel school. Plenty of schools around the country function just fine with a little snow but apparently New Jersey schools just can't handle it. Well, sure enough we got dumped on.

Mike worked a few hours this morning and then came home early to play outside. We built a snow man and sledded with the boys. We had a blast in the snow. This was the first real snow that we could actually play in. It was perfect for making snowballs. I must have thrown 100 snowballs at Mike today and I think I hit him maybe 5 times. We totally intruded on our neighbors back yard and went sledding down the hill into our back yard. It was a ton of fun.

So unsuspecting...

Unser deutscher Schneemann...I knew that scarf would come in handy one day.

See the covered barbeque at the back of the pink house? That's our starting mark. Mike would give us a big push to get us going. The boys enjoyed standing on the back of the sled behind either Mike or myself. We only had a few wipeouts.

Where has the time gone?

So much has happened in the last few months and we have had absolutely no time to blog. The kids are doing great and keeping busy. Aubrey is certainly growing and she is now as busy as ever! She continues to put smiles on our faces and we all just love to give her affection. If Aubrey is awake before Connor, you can be sure that she will be the first one to get a good morning from Connor! It's so sweet to watch him give her loves in the morning. This morning, I had Aubrey on my lap and as soon as Connor started down the stairs, he saw her and with outstretched arms runs to her with the most endearing voice says, "Good morning!" and gives her a hug. Then, I said, "Hey, what about me?" And it's like, oh, yeah...good morning. I have totally been thwarted from my pedestal by our own adorable Aubrey. I figure it's okay because I think we've all taken the backseat in some way or another. She is our little darling and we just love her. She is on the brink of crawling all over the place. And with our house in the midst of construction, it's not exactly the ideal time for her to be mobile. We definitely have to keep a close eye on her now.
















Call us crazy but after living here for seven months, we finally made it to the BIG APPLE a few weekends ago! I know it's shameful, but it is, what it is! We drove downtown and enjoyed strolling along Time Square and we checked out the Big Apple from the observation deck at Rockefeller Center. Aaron and I watched Chinese New Year Splendor at the Radio City Music Hall while Mike, Connor, and Aubrey went took the subway to the Natural History Museum. We didn't have time for too much more but had a great time checking out the big city. The boys want to go back and ride the ferris wheel inside Toys R Us at Time Square. So can you guess what our next family date will be?

Remodeling Update:

We replaced the front door, storm door and the back door, tiled the hallway downstairs leading to the backdoor, and replaced two linen closet doors. Still working on finishing up the trimwork and spackling in those areas and then painting will finish it off. We have one bathroom that is 95% completed, another bathroom that is 60% completed and a kitchen that is on hold until two weeks before the cabinets arrive which isn't until the week of March 17th. Nice birthday gift, huh? So I think demo for the kitchen will be around March 3rd. In the meantime, we will be refinishing the hardwood floors upstairs, updating trimwork in the living room, and also painting, adding kneewalls and crown molding. There is still more shopping for me to do and now I'm working hard at finding the best deals I possibly can to help skim down some of the costs. Here are a few snapshots of the work so far.

Aubrey at sweet six months

Our little Aubrey continues to grow and to keep us smiling. She has a happy little smile and always wakes up with a twinkle in her eye...unless I have to wake her up to take the boys to school. Her new little trick is rolling over onto her belly while in bed and then not being able to get back onto her back. So some evenings we take turns going up to her room and rolling her back over. She keeps her hands busy by grabbing at everything and has the most fasinated look when she runs her fingers through my hair. She's just a joy to our family. Oh, how we love sweet six months.

Thank You Thanksgiving!

We have this little book called Thank You Thanksgiving and that is exactly how I feel about Thanksgiving this year. We were so thankful to have had the chance to fly out to Seattle for the Thanksgiving holiday. We enjoyed spending time with my mom and sisters and we also had a nice visit with my dad and his girlfriend Elke out in Sumner. And it was also nice to see our dear friends again! We are so fortunate to have such wonderful people in our lives. The boys loved playing with everyone! We had such a nice visit and it went by so fast. Getting together with family and friends make the holidays so much more meaningful. So THANK YOU THANKSGIVING!

Nanna with her grandkids Seth, Aaron, Blake, Aubrey, Hanna, and Connor

Jen with her mom and sisters

Grandpa and Aubrey

Aaron just had to hold both Aubrey and Jason on his lap.

Aaron, Aubrey, and Connor with our good friends the Christensens, Sadie holding Brynlee, Dallin, and Camry.

Aaron and Connor with their good buddies, Aaron and Andy McCurdy.

First Snow!

Well, here I am, finally posting! We had our first snow of the season the day we left for Seattle for Thanksgiving. The boys were so excited to see snow and quickly asked to go out and play. This picture was taken early in the morning before Aaron went off to school.