my nieces

Tiffany Burke of Follow Your Art Photographpy is amazing! I had so much fun being a baby wrangler yesterday for my twin nieces. Go check out the sneak peek of what fun we had.

how many guys to hang a mantle?

Well before we get to that I have to bring you from the beginning. Prepare to be amazed....for those who had been in my apartment in Connecticut new that my tv spot was inside the fireplace. Well I graduated to above the fireplace but it still was "temporary" for me. I had grand schemes of how to cover in the horrific cove above the fireplace. It just wasn't me. I had to argue my side many times of why we should even do something like this. Well...you will get to see the proof. I WON!!!!! Without further delay...... the dreaded BEFORE pic












and some transition photos for your viewing pleasure. Though no one will get as much pleasure from it than ME!

























and the drum roll please......



















ohh did you guess how many guys it took to hang a mantle?????

sneak peek..

of my mantle....






I am beyond excited about this. I LOVE how I can do crude drawing of what I want and voila the finished carpenter is able to produce something even better than I had roughly pictured in my head and attempted to draw. I can't wait to see it in person tomorrow when they are installing it. I went to the stone place today and picked a couple of samples to see how the color works with my house. I will definetly need to repaint that room. (YIPPIE! goodbye pink (oops I mean beige) walls!!!) These pics were sent by Kirk's iphone. I get a kick out of these old school builders who embrace technology :).

eventful week

Well this week flew by and I can see why. So many things happened this week.....
Monday: Carpet installed, I don't think I have ever experienced new carpet. I LOVE IT!














Tuesday: my sister had her twins!!!!





















Wednesday: Started construction on the fireplace off the kitchen and












had some dear friends that I met in CT over for lunch. (Thanks for being understanding of all the construction going on around us.)



and spent the night in the hospital with my sister and her new twins. I have a new appreciation for what she will be going through but man they are too cute and I got to snuggle both of them for long periods of time and sneak in some interupted sleep.

Thursday: I think we had just about every type of contractor over here trying to get their work done. I had to leave for a pta convention in Provo, luckily Justin was able to come home. I haven't seen that many trucks in front of my house before but it feels good to see some progress. Crash on the couch at 7pm nothing could stop me.

Friday: waited and waited for contractors to show up finally they start trickling in, in the afternoon. Granite and sink installed, then others show up but it is Friday afternoon and no one wants to be here so they all left without being very productive.

Saturday: wake up early to go on a 6.2 mile run, not even a block into it and my hip started burning and didn't stop, was able to push through a little over 3 miles and then it was over and I had to walk the rest of the way. (Wondering if I did some serious damage, it still hurts) Crash on the couch for a midday nap. Yard work and moving stuff around, chucking boxes that we have accummulated. Our friend Marc stopped by and we had a great visit and ate Molcasalsa (yummy mexican food).BBQ at our friend's house and an unintented dip in the pool for me. Someone pushes M in and it was where she couldn't touch. She knows how to swim but she panicked and so naturally in goes mom fully dressed to her rescue.

Sunday: the babies came home yesterday so it was photoshoot time. Was really hard and had limited amount of time. I can see why someone would need several assistants. I couldn't pose, pacify, change and snap pictures fast enough. Church, could hardly keep my eyes open, luckily they needed help in the nursery so that kept me awake. Then crash in my bed for a nap...ahhh. Justin made a yummy dinner and his parents joined us. Now I have my little one saying "please hold you mama, rock-a-rock." so I am off to get him taken care of.

painted

Yep we finished up this morning at 2:30am. It was hard work but I love the result. I don't think I want to paint an entire basement again but I haven't completely sworn off painting.

so here is a portion of the theatre room, we are still waiting for the wall sconces that are on order and the rope lighting above the crown molding has not been installed yet and the rubber molding for the curved wall. I could seriously lick the walls, the paint color is bitter chocolate (behr)and it looked like chocolate syrup when we were pouring it into the paint trays.







I love the way this turned out. These are my happy colors. I have already had "Why did you chose those colors?" well the truth is I really don't care what others have to say about it. I just smile because they make me happy! Above the bead board is fossil butte (behr) and the trim is stowe white (glidden) I had a behr paint picked out and bought a five gallon bucket of it and when we started painting it was the wrong color. I was freaking out and couldn't understand why I would have picked a color like that, well apparently there are two different colors, so FYI if you chose Artist Canvas make sure it isn't Artists canvas. There is a huge unmistakeable difference. I couldn't find another color that I liked so I matched the ceiling paint, we had the paint leftover from painting an exam room in Justin's office. Thank goodness I picked out the color at the time because I love it.

















My office...ahhh I love it...wild mushroom (behr) and I love my ceiling fan. I can't wait to move in.






The carpet installers are downstairs pounding away....I am too giddy to think about how tired I am!