The floors... finally!

Ok, here are the before and after pictures of the upstairs transformation. Crappy carpet be gone!!

The living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Master bedroom

Entry Stairway

So, how does it all look?? Jeff and I have been enjoying it immensely. We are so pleased with the quality of work we received. But, here's a crazy story.... We went to pick up our hardwood the weekend before it was scheduled to be installed. We opened our box and found, to our horror, that we had ordered the wrong wood. We still don't know what happened with the communication there, but what we got was definitely NOT what we thought we ordered. We spent a day frustrated, and then decided we liked it enough to not go through the hassle of bitching at the company and hoping we could get what we originally hoped for (we already had a conversation with our representative about what we would have to go through to get what we wanted). For those of you who didn't get the whole story, let me explain our cavalier attitude by this point. We had been desiring to replace the carpet upstairs with something new for quite some time when my aunt introduced me to the man who owned a flooring company in McMinnville. He took us through the whole process of giving us an estimate, helping us with scheduling etc. We ordered our wood in late October after many conversations with this man to set up our installation. The company we ordered from told us that they would store our materials for 45 days. After trying for three weeks to contact our installer to tell him that our materials were ordered, he called to tell us that we needed to find someone else, he was too busy! Who does that?! We had 30 days to get our floor installed before we had to deal with storing issues. Thankfully we finally found someone who would come out the first week of January and that was the weekend we picked up the wrong wood. At this point we were beyond caring. So, we really like it now and it probably ended up being a good thing in the long run anyway. The wood we originally wanted was a very dark, almost painted, no grain showing, high gloss wood. This is much more moderated and I think will be received much better when we choose to sell the house. Either way, I'm just glad it's done.

In the process we discovered an electrical issue we had to deal with and we also had a plumber come out this morning. So, it's like an entirely new house! Ah the joys of home ownership... constant work. Unfortunately we aren't like the clever Steve and Jenny who can do everything on their own :), they are amazing and their house is beautiful too. But now we know who to go to for consolation on home projects!!

Anyway, on to happier things. I also got a piano! We knew we didn't want to get it until we did redo the floors because it's a pain to move something like that all over your house, multiple times. Once is enough for now; it won't move until we do. I've been happily plunking away, but not spending as much focused time on it as I'd like due to the housework and job situations.

Joy of joys.... my new piano!!

Jeff and I are doing well, and calming down a bit more now that the dust is settling. We have a full house right now with Joy's boyfriend Stephen and his best friend Brian in town with us this week. It will be fun to have a lot of activity about. I only work Thursday and Friday this whole week and am vastly enjoying myself. Hope everyone else is as well! More later...

New Year's madness

Trying to take pictures of the fireworks and slopes at Ski Bowl on Mt Hood on New Years Eve was not easy with hundreds of mostly drunk people pushing and shoving you around... let me tell you. Jeff and I were invited by a good friend to head up to the mountain with her, her family, and new fiance (congrats guys!!) for a few days over the new year. We rented skis ahead of time for a really good rate and went up for night ski on the 31st and the first. It was extremely cold, windy, and beautiful. Watching the New Year roll in to the tune of hundreds of screaming people in 20 degree weather with my BFK being sloshed around by people was... interesting. It was the first time in many years I haven't been warm in a house watching the ball drop. Though my mother did tell me that this year it was hard to watch Dick Clark's attempt to speak. It was a super fun time and yes, I kicked that mountain's butt. For my 3rd time skiing, I did pretty good! I really biffed it once at the bottom. My ski caught an edge on the increasingly icy snow. But otherwise, all went well. My poor toes were really happy when we got warm again. I think I'm going to try to find electric socks before we go again.

Otherwise, Jeff and I have been good. Christmas went well. We were really busy trying to spend time with all the family and it was fun. Saw the new National Treasure for our annual Christmas day movie. I must say though, it was pretty disappointing. Entertaining, but exactly like the first one. I had to work that night so we didn't do as much on Christmas day. I worked six days in a row and now I'm off for 10. I can't even tell you all how nice it is to just stay home and do nothing. Jeff and i have been watching cheesy movies, relaxing, eating, playing on itunes... etc.
For Christmas we received Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure from my grandma, which I was shocked to find out, my husband had never seen. He cracked up. Anyone who can't enjoy watching Gangis Khan ravage a mannequin is crazy. It's the greatest movie ever!! (Ok, not really but I have SO many childhood memories associated with that movie. It's awesome in it's own way).

Oh and one more thing. For everyone who has been asking incessantly about our flooring... we are having our hardwood installed on Saturday. I'll take some before and after pics for y'all to see.

Happy New Year everyone!