Final railing pics

Dan finished the downstairs railing today and it looks great! He even vacuumed and cleaned the entire hourse after he was done so I came home to a wonderful surprise.

You did a great job Dan, you are the best!

We got a call from Direct Buy saying half of our furniture was in - the crib is still not there. But, we'll go pick up the bedding and dresser this weekend and get that put together next week. Then when the crib comes we'll be done. I didn't get a call from my Dr. so I passed my glucose test, whew!

Finally, I suppose I should post something about the fact that we now have Favre on the Vikings. I'm not that excited because I never really liked the guy, but I suppose he's better than the other two QBs we have so I'll get used to the idea. Dan is excited and thinks we have a shot at the Super Bowl. Friday's game will probably be one of the most watched pre-season game of all time for the Vikings. Should be a fun football season!

Fun summer weekend

Dan's friends from Best Buy came out to the lake this weekend and although we had some stormy weather, Saturday afternoon was a beautiful day to be at the lake swimming! Today Dan finished up the railing and I put together an IKEA bookcase for the baby's room. We went swimming at Lifetime with my parents and then relaxed and watched a movie. What a great weekend!
Week 24! Only 107 days to go!

Carpet and railing

The carpet came this Friday! They were really quick at installing and now we have carpet downstairs in the living room and guest bedroom, stairs, our bedroom and the baby room. It looks great and it gave us an excuse to do some extra cleaning with the furniture moved. I love it!

Our bedroom with the new carpet, much better!

Here is a picture of the carpet in our bedroom before it got replaced. Very glad to finally have that gone :)

Dan worked on the railing this last week and then this weekend stained and finished the wood railing part. Here are some of the spindles that we are going to use that Scott gave us. We ordered more and they arrived this past week. So, the project should get finished either this week or next! Good job, Dan!

Here is a view of the railing before it was stained
The rest of the weekend Dan stained the closet doors and started the finishing coat and we'll see if we get the final coat on tonight or tomorrow night. I spent time cleaning and getting a car load of stuff to take to Goodwill. With all the baby stuff we are accumulating we have to get rid of our old stuff. It feels so great to have things more organized!

Hardwood flooring and crib shopping

Last weekend was a perfect weekend to be inside working on home improvement projects. Dan decided to tackle the upstairs at our house and install hickory hardwood flooring in the kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway. Last week we spent our evenings pulling up the old flooring and carpet - it was a lot of work! He borrowed a finishing nail gun from Scott and rented a staple gun from Home Depot early Saturday a.m. and got to work. My dad came over for a few hours and my sisters husband Brent stayed all weekend.

Meanwhile, my mom and sister and I went crib shopping! Babies R Us was definitely the best, and we got a few good ideas. I may end up buying it at Direct Buy because they have the same brands but it is cheaper with their buying club. We also brought my paint sample and picked out bedding! I didn't think I'd get that done this early, but since we were at all those stores anyway we checked them out. The room is peach and I want to stay fairly neutral either way. We found a few cute monkey ones and I'm drawn to the green and brown colors. We stopped at JCPenny's last and found the cutest jungle theme with the right coloring and most importantly it does have monkey's on it.

Saturday afternoon Amber and I helped the guys a little bit and made dinner, took a nap and watched a movie. Sunday we helped a lot more and helped pull up the last of the carpet and sanded the edge pieces Dan cut for the flooring around the stairs. We took Bella to the dog park and then they headed home Sunday evening while Dan and I finished the project with the nail gun. Last night we used the finishing nailer for a few more pieces and trim and I started cleaning the floors and moving the furniture back in place. It looks great!

Tonight once I sand the last few pieces and finish cleaning I'll take some final pictures to post. We are so happy to have this project done! Thank you mom for shopping on Saturday and Dad for helping the guys! And, Amber and Brent we appreciate you giving up your whole weekend to help us, it looks great!

The next project will be the railing and closet doors for the baby room. The carpet should be coming in the next few weeks!

Ripping up the carpet!

lovely original laminate we found in the kitchen

Brent and Dan thinking about the closet

Amber bringing Bella in to see what all the commotion was

Sanding

Final view of the kitchen

16 week belly shot

View of the entryway and edging

Mulch and Granite

Last week we finally had the granite countertops in our house put in! They look great. Then this weekend on Saturday it was sunny so we were able to get the mulch down to protect the plants as they are starting to poke out of the ground. We are hoping a lot of them made it through the transplant process and will grow this spring.

Have a good week!

Microwave and Cabinet door pulls

The microwave came early! We thought we wouldn't get the microwave for another month but it came in on Friday! Friday evening we helped Dan's parents move into some pod's while they wait for a closing date on their house in Mound. It was a chilly night so it was so nice the company let us load inside one of the warehouses. There was still a bit left so we finished loading on Saturday morning. Dan's parents are staying with us for now and once they get internet hooked up at the lake they'll stay there until they get into their new house.

Saturday night we went with Dan's co-workers to the Monster Truck rally and it was actually kinda fun. Lots of fuel fumes though :) I couldn't believe the Metrodome was packed for this! People have their favorite Monster Truck and cheer when they go head-to-head or do their freestyle demolition stuff. I thought Grave Digger was a funny one and Tazmanian Devil was pretty cool.

Today we went out to the lake to park one of Dan's parents cars there and start to take a load of things they'll need until their house is done. When we got back Dan installed the microwave above the stove and it looks great! Then we put some door pulls on our freshly completed black cabinets. I am very happy with the results. Now just the sink and granite once Dan's parents move in and we all get countertops at the same time.

Dan showing off his skills at putting up the microwave

Door pulls are on!

Another weekend of projects, I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow :)

Transforming Cabinets and other projects

Dan's mom came over this weekend to help with yet another project! Friday we started taking off the kitchen cabinets doors at our house in Minnetonka and we just finished putting them back up and its Sunday night. We stripped the old stain, cleaned them off, and primed them on Saturday and today we painted two coats and put them back up. It looks great!

Here is the before picture:

Priming, we tried to tint it black but they wouldn't go that dark so the primer was blue!
Working on the doors in the basement
The finished product!

Now we just need to put on door knobs and pulls and then Dan moved up one of the cabinets so we can have an over-the-range microwave. He ordered it and it should be here in a month. Then when Dan's parents get into their house and order granite countertops we'll do the same and with a new sink and faucet our kitchen will really be transformed. But, this was a big first step!

Over Christmas break, Dan's mom came up again and we painted the living room a delicious color of green called sweet daphne. It really brings out the black furniture and now the black cabinets in the kitchen! It made me so excited to have freshly painted walls that on New Year's I painted the basement!

A couple weekends ago Dan decided to put lights under the cabinets at the lake too. The extra light on the countertops is so nice. Good job, Dan!

Labor Day weekend

We took Labor Day seriously! Friday we had Annandale Rock deliver a load of riprap and fill to the lake to build a retaining wall around our septic in the front yard. The riprap was supposed to be rocks between 6 and 14 inches in diameter but when it arrived there were quite a few really large rocks that were more like 3 feet in diameter! My parents came Friday night so we could get an early start on Saturday and that is when my dad and Dan decided to look into renting a bobcat to help with the project. Luckily Big Al's Rental in Annandale had one available so Saturday a.m. they started tearing away at the hill.

Tom and Becky came that afternoon and then Jeremy and Allison arrived with their kids and some friends. With the bobcat it actually went pretty fast and we got the retaining wall and another little wall around our firepit done before dark. Jon came that evening and stayed over to help us finish up leveling the yard and filling in ruts in the backyard. Dan was able to have the bobcat returned Sunday so we only needed it for one day, when originally we thought we'd need it all weekend.

Dan's parents came up Sunday afternoon with grass seed and some hostas and other plants to get those started this fall before winter. Monday was the work day digging out places for the hostas while Dan tackled fixing the patio.

It was a busy and tiring weekend, but we are really happy with the results. Now we're considering getting some crushed granite for the driveway in a couple weeks, but we've made great progress on the landscaping!

Before picture
Dan digging out the wall
Dan and Tom spreading fill on top of the retaining wall

Allison and Hunter

Tom and Dan leveling the firepit area

Finished firepit wall

Finished retaining wall and view of Roger and Monica planting hostas

Hostas around finished septic area

Jon leveling out the driveway

Cleared out area for hostas