1 Year

Our wonderful baker doesn't believe in freezing cakes, so she made us a deal... if we gave her professional photographs of our cake from the wedding, she would re-make the top layer of our cake for our anniversary.  It's just a delicious as the first (which we ate when we got back from our honeymoon... never frozen)!

I can't believe it's already been a year.  We're still loving married life and looking forward to many more years and all the adventures those years may bring.

And So It Begins...

John and I bought our house in September of 2010.  We've been living here for 1.5 years now, and we think it's about time to do the things we said we'd change when we were touring the house before we put in an offer.  We waited a while to save some money after that down payment, but now we're very eager to finally make some changes.

I'm planning to do before and after shots as we go... but this "before" shows probably our biggest motivation to get this project going:

No - The floor is Not dirty - that's gouges in the ugly vinyl flooring; No - My flash did not change the hue of the counter top - It's blue; No - You're not imagining that the middle drawer doesn't match the other 2 - It even feels different to the touch

No offense if you like your blue counter tops... I actually have had a couple people come in my house and say that they like them (Thank you for your kindness if you're reading this).  I love bold colors, but in my vision of a kitchen, blue does not belong as the counter top and matching back-splash.

Thus, we are undertaking a project to:

• Replace all the floors in the house (except the master bathroom that we upgraded last year due to some mildew misfortune)
• Paint all the walls (except probably the closets, but it does include removing or texturing over wall paper in 4 places)
• Refinish all cabinets in the kitchen and in both bathrooms
• Replace the kitchen counter tops, which will also require replacing the kitchen sink (so I can't even say "Everything but the Kitchen Sink")
• Change out some light fixtures that look like they're 10 years older than the house
• Update the other decor in most of the house after all the remodeling type work is done

For anyone who is worried about us after reading that list, don't worry too hard; we have guidance and a budget.  We just decided it would be better to do everything in one blast... like ripping off a band-aid.

And so it begins... we went last Friday to visit 2 places to pick up samples and schedule people to come out for estimates.  We have folks coming for estimates on Wednesday, so for now, I'm just waiting and staring at the pretty samples.

The front runners of the samples.

The probable winners for back splash (darker color of big tile on far left, but in the size of the smaller tiles), granite (center - obviously), and floor tiles (right - these would go from the entry way all through the kitchen - most of the rest of the house will just get new carpet)

Here's hoping it's not a month before I have something else to post on this project... I know things take a while when you're trying to schedule workers, but hopefully, we'll start to see some progress soon (probably painting first).

Perks

Recently, my company consolidated all the gifts, rewards, etc. (basically any non-monetary compensation) to this website where you get points.  There's a wide range of things you can get with your points for a very wide range of point values.

10 points = about $1 (shipping is included so it's hard to tell exactly). There are items from 50 to 50,000 points. I had accumulated 1750 points from the company Christmas gift and a gift with my promotion, so I decided to see what was worth getting...

Yes, that is my finger in the picture.  I took this with the camera on my phone and I'm too lazy to crop it out... so sue me... actually please don't because I don't think that actually breaks any real laws and that frivolous lawsuit would be a waste of money.

Now we can grill some meat and John has a nice place to sit while he makes sure not to burn the food I prepared. :)