FIN!

Hello everyone from 5112!

Many of you have been waiting for the final chapter in our home renovations, and here we are! Mike and his guys completed their work Tuesday, October 27th, by removing the stoop that used to lead into the kitchen.

While the contractor's part is done, Dave and I still have work to finish. We spent this past Sunday installing the baseboards and painting trim. Dave worked very hard and got all the baseboards done- they look great! Oh, and another great thing? No one lost limbs or fingers in the process ;-)

We've gotten curtain tie-backs and the really make the windows look 'finished' when they're pulled back. We're still working on getting some stools for the bar; we can't find anything that we like *that* much. Rather than settle on something we're not 100% happy with, we'll continue looking until we've exhausted all options.

Hey, bartender....

Oh! The POD is gone! Dave made one last push to get out the rest of the 'stuff' that was left in the POD last week, and the fine POD folks took it away. I can't tell you how fantastic it is to have full use of our driveway again! I'm sure the neighbors are happy too.

We're slowly moving back into the den. As you can tell, the desk is back in (and not in pieces on the back porch and in our bedroom!). Once we seal the floor, we'll get bookshelves and all the books that currently line our spare bedroom floor will make it back to their rightful home.

I've made dinner in our kitchen EVERY day this week, and even baked a pie tonight. It's nice to be back into a routine and not eat out every night. I have to admit that I kind of like using the dishwasher, even though I resisted having one for so long. It's a great convenience, especially when you're cooking every night. And note the fancy wine rack Dave installed last night.... *loves* it!

We started to re-hang the pictures on the 'family walls' in the hallway. It's really starting to look comfortable in here again, and the echo (ehco! echo! echo!) is slowly going away. There's just a couple of boxes to empty in the spare room, but that can't be done until we get the surround sound installed.

What else is left? Well, there's the painting of the bathroom and kitchen, painting the outdoor trim around the 3 new doors and some smaller outdoor cleaning projects that always seem to be hanging at the bottom of the 'To do' list.

Dave and I are thrilled with our new home! We can't thank Mike, Trent, Andy and Adrian enough for their hard work and the skills and talent they brought to our renovation. In the long run, it really didn't take that much time to bring our little house from outdated 1957 to 2009 chic. We also would like to thank our friend Scott, who's architectural designs and plans were the inspiration to start the renovation in the first place. We owe you a bottle of the Captain my friend!

People have been begging for more pictures, but to be honest, you have to come visit to get the full effect. I tried taking pictures for over a half hour last night, but there's nothing different from what I've already taken and shown. I mean it when I say you're all invited to the housewarming on December 5th (if anyone other than Bill and crazy 'anonymous contractor' are reading the blog?). Evites will be going out sometime next week. If you don't get one, drop me a line and I'll give you the details. After all....

'The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it'

-Ralph Waldo Emerson