Your a Winner!

All I have to say is.... Best... Week... EVER!
Dan secured the bathroom cabinet's.

My dad wired for the oven and put in a new ground wire.

They then installed my new double oven, which we then had to pull back out, because somehow.... the cat got trapped in the crawlspace under it. After we got poor Charlie out, and checked if he was okay of course, we reinstalled the oven!

We were so excited! And I made pizza!!!! 2 pizza's! In 2 different ovens!!!!!!

Then the countertop guy came from Precision Countertops.

He laid out a template with these thin slats of wood and hot glued them together with the raddest glue gun I've ever seen! He also did the bathroom. We should have countertops installed within 2 weeks!

The best part of this week came when I read my email.....

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay.... riiiiight. But then I thought ??? How could they know I went to the Portland Home and Garden Show, or that I did indeed enter to win a set of furniture? So I googled the phone# and it did indeed belong to Furniture Connexion. Then I googled the company and they were indeed legit... hmmmm. I called. The lady was so nice and said it's all waiting for you! I said... what do I have to do? Nothing, just come pick it up! The owner wants to meet you and congratulate you and take some pictures.... hmmmm.

I hadn't told my husband yet. So I sauntered out to the living room and said... uh... honey? I just won a $4000 bedroom set! It hadn't hit me yet. It took about until we had rented the uhaul and my stepdad and brother had come over to help us move it. Then I started bouncing up and down and squealing like MAD! We drove to the warehouse and met the nicest husband and wife team you'd ever meet! We took tons of photos with them and their employees. You could really tell they cared for their staff, they even insisted the warehouse loading crew get into the photos with us! You can visit their website here. They asked if it was okay if they posted the pics on their facebook page. I of course consented! You can visit their facebook here.

We got home and the boys started unloading the uhaul. At this point I was squeeeeeing and bouncing and jumping and almost in tears! Was this really happening?

Boy this stuff was heavy. Good thing I didn't have to carry any of it!

I mean look at that box!!!!

I think that's a dresser.

Go boys GO!

We could hardly move in the bedroom it was so packed with furniture!

Then we realized... we have to assemble it. LOL This was fun. Including this first part where Dan is assembling the headboard which is two pieces. Well, apparently a screw had been dropped on the floor directly where that headboard is lying, and while he worked on it, it put a big gouge in the front. Ah well, stuff happens. I just happened to know where the wood filler wax stick was for the kitchen cabinets. I patched the scratch right up, and you can hardly tell it was ever there.

I did get in on some action. I put in the middle support. Yah, that's all I did... but it was help! The footboard has two drawers in it!

Our platform, and slats. Oh, Dan just reminded me. I did also install the slats. I screwed them down! :) Gizmo dog was a HUGE help... NOT!

Step by step you see... Mattress!

And of course we HAD to test it out!!!

The dressers both have these feet on them which raises them up and makes them oh so chic.

The tops of the dressers and end tables are so very pretty. Instead of a one piece top, there is a framing and inlay.

Dan's tall dresser is so tall, I have to stand on my tippie toes to see inside the top drawer! My wider chest does come with a vanity mirror, but it would block a window no matter where I put it, so I decided to leave it off. I haven't even opened the box yet... thinking of mounting it on the wall somewhere?

A better shot of the top of the dresser. Soooo pretty!

The end table is lit under the drawer with a touch lamp! It's so wierd! Kind of like a nightlight if you wake up at night? It has 3 brightness settings.

I think they approve. Baby girl spent about an hour learning how to fling herself all over the bed. She now can climb up and slide off all on her own.

And this is what we are left with. Did I mention about 2 days ago we finally burnt all of the moving boxes and cleaned this room? SIGH.......

Oh... this picture reminds me. This furniture is Legacy Classic Furniture, the owner of The Furniture Connexion said it's a set they purchased from Macy's collections, and is a discontinued set. I am in heaven. I think I forgot to mention the state of our old furniture. The bedframe broke months ago and we've been sleeping with our mattress on the floor inside the old frame. In the move, my dresser broke and the entire bottom was broken off, the bottom drawer wouldn't function anymore. This really was a lifesaver for us. After all of the amazingly bad luck we've had over the past year, I really couldn't believe something nice like this happened! I'm still in shock!

All I can say is.... I'm grateful. Incredibly grateful and blessed.

What a week. I've always known that moving is hard. I had no idea what it would be like moving into a half finished house, with a sick toddler in tow. So, with all that in mind, I will not apologize for my lack of posting this week. I know you all understand.
But I finally have a moment before I take said toddler to the doctor. Sitting here in my office, which is currently a pile of boxes haphazardly strewn across the floor, sipping my coffee and finally posting. This post hopefully will catch us up. Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride. I took so many pictures this week!
Where to start?
I started unpacking onto my new shelves. This is a temporary arrangement. But on the top shelf you can see my goodwill finds, a new red fondue pot, and a new ceramic double boiler!
On the bottom shelf is my great grandmother's pink depression glass. I was given it on my wedding day, just like my mother was. I think we've all added a piece here or there to the collection. I recently re added a cake plate that was my favorite growing up, but somehow got lost or broken. I was able to find the exact one online and purchase it.


Our washer and dryer arrangement in this house is opposite of what it was in the old house making it difficult to get into the dryer. So Dan pulled the door off and made it open in the other direction.


And quite possibly the most noxious project this week has been expanding the hole for the double wall oven. It ended up being taller and wider than we had hoped, but Dan got on it and expanded the hole. First he knocked out the excess bottom bricks.

Then he took a grinder to the sides.

To do the other side easily, he had to crawl in the hole. I believe the cat helped him a little at this point by crawling into the hole with him.

He was cramped in there for quite a while, it was hilarious watching him trying to get out.

Doesn't he look proud? We still have to expand the width, but it'll have to wait until we have some more time.

We had an unfortunate involving our coffee pot, it also involved coffee everywhere... and purchasing a new one. Which I LOVE!

Have you ever imagined what it'd be like to live in a house with no kitchen? Well here ya go.

For cooking, I have a burner that screws onto a can of propane. This is how I boil water.

We've been eating a lot of easy comfort food.

I also picked up this cow teapot. Which I am in love with. Don't ask.. I have an obsession with cows. My mother asked my husband why in the world he allowed me to put barnyard animals in the kitchen. It's only a teapot mom. Not a collection of roosters.

Ahh the bathroom. Yes, it's a huge mess. But we have cabinet's! The countertops are getting ordered today!

And then there was the living room. This huge room had no lighting fixtures. Which is actually very common in the northwest. I have lived oh so many years in dingy apartments with one floor lamp that hardly lit the room. I swore that wouldn't happen again. After a few days of being in this house I told my husband and my dad I couldn't stand it any more! Let there be LIGHT!

What a good hubby. My dad is in the attic drilling, and Dan dutifully is keeping the dust vacuumed.

What a beautiful sight!

When they started tag teaming, I got very excited.

Then I realized, the chandelier was indeed to low to go in the living room. So I had Dan remove the shorter one from the family room and swap.

I helped.... sorta. Then... I realized the dome's that matched the chandelier didn't match the other chandelier.... and told Dan he had to remove all of the lights in the family room and transfer them to the living room. He stared at me for what felt like an hour... in silence... then said, "You suck."

But look how lovely they are now!!!!!! Wasn't it all worth it?

And the family room which is sunken, and therefore has more head room, looks beautiful too.

On to the outdoors! We've had some gorgeous weather. So I decided to take some outside photos. This is my tree.

This is the bird I can't identify... can you see him?

Here's another picture of him.

Every morning I wake up and look out and these little chickadees greet me.

Isn't he adorable!

And on to my favorite part of this week. I keep a notebook that I paste my favorite decorating ideas in. This was one of them. I am so excited to finally do it! It's a clock! I ordered the hands yesterday and started hanging the photos. Each photo replaces a number on the clock! I still have a couple of frames to purchase. But I think it's going to be so neat!

As I was doing some yard work, I started uncovering numerous bricks strewn all over the neglected lawn. I decided to try and salvage the good ones to see if we had enough to rebuild the sides of this knocked down planter. It's right outside my kitchen window. I want to dedicate it to fresh herbs.

My white crocuses budded just before we moved, so I dug them all up and popped them into a planter. I found these gorgeous pansies at bi-mart and had to have them.

I am so in love with these trees. They are directly across the street from my driveway, and just burst into bloom as if to welcome us home.

I have buds popping out everywhere.

This one lonely daffodil is my first bloom. What a cheery little face it has.

I can't wait to find out what this little bush/tree is.

And this one... I'm hoping it's a lilac... I'm dying to know if it's a lilac. Lilac's are by far my favorite flower in the whole entire big wide world. Especially the light purple ones.