One Year and counting!

Not much to report as the year comes to a close. I just wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday season!

Looking TALL!

Well It's been one year, well since the middle of December, that I've been an owner of this wonderful home. It's hard to believe all the work that has been done and where we are now from when we started. Just gazing back at previous posts here really makes me realize all of the work that we have done! It is actually very satisfying to see. It's actually quite hard to imagine everything that has been done up to date. We've been taking things slow lately and enjoying the snow, skiing, family, and friends.

What would Christmas be without a tree? When i was home with my family for Christmas my father told me an interesting statistic that something like 35% of people do not even have a Christmas tree….In the past 5 years I would have been counted within that percentage. This year, The first in my own home for Christmas, I needed to get a tree. I've always had real trees growing up so that's what I wanted. The only other requirement is that it goes to the ceiling! So that's just what we did!

Before the cut down

We found the tree in our local tree farm "Bargain area". All these trees were too large and were going to be cut and removed in the spring, perfect! Once we found the one we wanted and cut it down it was measured….16' tall! we needless to say we cut it again so that it would fit in the house at 12'. After we loaded it on my little car and drove it home it was set up, lighted, and decorated! YAY love the smell of a fresh tree. The star at the top tickles the ceiling! Christmas is here!

The haul home.

We also added some lights to the house, in super cool blue LED fashion. I didn't want to overdo the lights so i just hung them on the horizontal lines of the house. One snowy evening i had the chance to take a few photos.

Back to the housework, I've been working on finishing the cabinets and floor trim, nothing too photogenic here...moving on.

The BIG news is that we've got the counter tops installed and they look AWESOME! I'm so very happy with how everything turned out. Removing the old counters was fun, and actually pretty easy. Living without a kitchen sink, cooktop, and counters for 2 weeks was not so much fun, but totally worth the wait in the end.

The removal!	Good riddance Tile!
What a mess!	Prepped and ready.

More Info and Photos After the Break >>>>>

I may have said this before but the counters are soapstone from Brazil….Here are some photos of the counters for your kitchen viewing pleasure.

They are here finally.	thats a big piece!

The install took the guys about 7 hours, The under-counter sinks were the biggest problem. It took 5 people to lift and install the large island piece too. This really starts to give a finished look to the kitchen. The final step is the backsplash. Although this has not been started, I have an idea of what i want to do. Thanks for everyone on wright chat for helping me work through this decision process. I plan to put soapstone tiles on the back above the counters, Mahogany below the cabinets, and A Stainless Splash behind the cooktop running vertical to the range hood. I plan on getting this started very soon so i can check the kitchen off the checklist…so far so good though. Everything is finally starting to come together in the kitchen and an end is in sight!

Also I've got some new pets! I set up a small aquarium with some shell dwelling chiclids in the office...these guys are fun to watch!

Well that brings us up to date. Thanks again for everyone with your comments, help, ideas, inspiration, advise, and stories over the last year. I've really learned a lot within the last year with hopes to learn more in the future.

Catch you all next year! Happy holidays to everyone from both Dawn, Mishka, and I.

-IM