Kitchen Progress

As I have promised, here are pictures of the kitchen to date.  There are quite a few details to complete before it is finished, but we are so close.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Obviously we have not installed the new flooring, finished all the touch-up painting, built the island, installed the shelves, or finished installing the vent hood, but from the photo below we have come a long way!

What's for Dinner?

Tonight I did something I have not done since the end of May last year;  I cooked dinner at our house.

I got the recipe for Pan-Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri from Cooking Light.  I have a stack of Cooking Light magazines I collected while the kitchen was under construction and I cannot wait to try all the recipes out!

Today the plumber installed the range.

Last weekend Britton and I installed the refrigerator.  It was quite a task.

I love the French doors and the freezer drawer.

Would you believe that the bottom was bolted  to the wood platform?  We had to turn the refrigerator over on its back to unscrew the bolts.  The instructions clearly said to do this, but we pulled and pulled on the platform and it would not budge before reading the instructions.

This is the kitchen with the refrigerator installed from Angie's point of view.

A similar view as this picture taken back in July by my Britton's sister Ashley. 

Back to School

It took us a while to settle on pendant fixtures for over the island in the kitchen.  Knowing my husband I knew he would want to be able to us the screw in fluorescent bulbs in the pendants to save energy.  For me that meant I wanted a pendant where you would not be able to see the bulb.  I love the school house fixture.  It is so simple and classic.  

This house featured in House Beautiful sold me on the school house fixture.

 I ended up deciding on this fixture from Savoy House.

Backsplash Tile

To celebrate New Year's Day we started a new project in the kitchen - tiling!  We started out with a blank canvas.

We were grateful to have some help.  Whitney and Boston stayed with us and helped us tile the backsplash.  We truly appreciated their help and were so glad they came to visit! 

We ate some good luck for the New Year!

There was way to much tiling fun to fit into one day so on January 2nd we tiled some more and watched the Ole Miss Rebels win the Cotton Bowl!

 

I was so happy to put the last piece of tile in its place.

And we finally grouted the tile.

Snow Days

On Thursday morning we woke up to a blanket of snow. Our first big snow in our new house (and yes in Mississippi an inch of snow is a big snow). It has been five days since the snow and we still have traces the winter wonderland in our yard.

The snow did not keep us from working on the house. We have much progress to report on the house. I will post those pictures later this week.

Forecast for Snow

There is a forcast for snow tonight!  It has been really cold outside!  I would love to curl up and read a book.  Many people have recommended the book Same Kind of Different as Me.

 

Resolutions for 2010

The top of my resolution list for 2010 is the same one that topped the list for 2009; maybe I'll actually get it done this year! 

- Pick out wedding pictures.  (Yes, it has been almost a year and a half since we got married but I have not yet selected our wedding pictures.  You see this is an impossible task because of the magnificent job Allison and Jeff Rodgers did a at capturing the events of our special day! I want one of each of the 1,000 photos!)
- Join a gym and go.
- Drink more water.
- Remember birthdays and send cards or call.
- Finish the kitchen renovation and maybe some other renovations around the house!  (I'm not going to set the bar too high on this one.  I thought we would finish the kitchen before Labor Day when we ripped it out last May --- I was way off!)
- Continue to blog.
- And most importantly daily remember my priorities in life.

Yesterday at church we sang the song "In Christ Alone."  I think the lyrics are good to dwell on as far as the last resolution goes.

In Christ Alone

by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

IN CHRIST ALONE my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied –
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!

Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2001 Thankyou Music

Goodbye '09; Hello Twenty-Ten!

2009 has been a great year! It started out in Dallas with an Ole Miss victory over Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl!

Cotton Bowl 2009 - Hotty Toddy!

Britton and I moved into our new house at the end of February. The same week we moved we traveled to New Orleans for the weekend! It was a trip Britton had promised me for Christmas, but, while we were there I took a class for my professional interior design test and started studying for the test that I would take in October.

Our First House

We spent most of our weekends this summer working on the house. I have enjoyed doing the renovations. I'm learning alot about patience and learning how handy my husband really is. He never ceases to amaze me with his construction knowledge.

In August we celebrated our first anniversary in Clarksdale, Mississippi!
I spent Labor Day weekend with my wonderful girlfriends from college in Cape Cod....that was so much fun!

Barnstable Inn, Cape Cod Labor Day Weekend

Angie was a welcomed addition to our family in October.

Our Baby

My test finally came and past in October. By the fall we were in the middle of football season which is quite busy for us. We had season tickets to both Ole Miss and Mississippi State football games so we were at a football game almost every weekend. And one Saturday we made it to two games: Ole Miss vs. UT and MSU vs. Bama! We are dedicated fans!

Ole Miss vs. Tennessee - Morning Game

Mississippi State vs. Alabama Game - Night (my cousin J met us in Starkville for the game)

Thanksgiving and Christmas gave us an opportunity to relax and spend time with family.


As we toast in the new year and eat black eyed peas, I look forward to what 2010 holds for us, but I also cherish the memories of this past year! Happy New Year!