The first room that we tackled was the laundry room. We painted it a bright blue two Saturdays ago, then took a break from working on the house to fly out to California and pick up Logan, a friend who was planning on spending a week or so back in Phoenix. On the way out to California, we flew through a cloud, which was a first for me! I'll be honest, not my favorite flying experience. I didn't feel particularly comfortable not seeing anything out the window but puffy white. Despite the weather, we had a safe (but quick) trip to and from California, and returned home to the task of installing the washer and dryer. Here are a few pictures of the laundry room and the clouds :)
This picture makes me laugh a lot...it is Rob plugging in the dryer!
Just a few clouds over the mountains...it became cloudier as we got closer to California.
Even more clouds!
Sunset over the clouds.
We spent the remainder of the following week working on installing all of the kitchen appliances and near the end of the week even made a homemade pizza for dinner....our first home cooked meal in the new house!
Rob sawing at a piece of pipe while working on the plumbing for our new kitchen sink and faucet!
Then, last Saturday, just a week ago now, my mom came out to visit and help us unpack, paint and get organized. The first project we tackled was the living/family room that you walk right into when you enter the house through the front door. We painted, and a few days later hung our new flat screen tv on the wall! A special thanks to all of the Andrasik aunts and uncles who (without really realizing I guess now that I think about it) helped fund our tv splurge with a wedding gift we had been saving for a big house purchase. Any one reading this is welcome to come out for a visit to enjoy its beauty. I recommend World Cup action this summer :)
Our house, finally looking like a house!
Hanging the tv! We just had the satellite installed, and so far my mom and I have enjoyed Grey's and Private Practice, and I was even able to watch the Miami Hockey game on ESPN-U this afternoon! Hooray fancy new channels :)
The big project that my mom and I tackled this week was the kitchen. We have a GIANT kitchen! I guess technically it's two rooms, a kitchen and eat in area/sun room if you want to think of it that way, but essentially it's one big room that needed a whole lot of work. Rob had cleaned the front portion of the kitchen before we moved in so that we could install appliances and unpack food in a clean area, but we'd left the back half of the kitchen and the windows/blinds to clean after moving in. We spent nearly all of Monday cleaning...Mom cleaned the windows and blinds all day and I washed down the base boards and walls.
We started painting at a ridiculous late hour on Monday evening, but had been working toward painting all day and couldn't go to bed without starting! It took us two days to paint the majority of the walls tan and for Rob to paint the ceilings, and then we added a dark blue stripe to the top of the walls. Biggest. Project. Ever. We have textured walls, which prevented the tape that marked the bottom of the stripe from sticking evenly. After two coats of blue paint, edging free hand along the ceiling and dealing with the fact that our walls aren't 100% straight, we had some lil areas where the blue paint bled down into the tan. Despite the lil imperfections, the kitchen looks amazing! I am ridiculously excited to share pictures with you all :)
Just a lil bit of a work in progress :)
A completed kitchen looking out toward the backyard!
A completed kitchen looking in toward the cooking part of the kitchen and family room :)
Kitchen table with my favorite flower, a gerber daisy...so much happiness in this room!
Polka dot rug! Also, note our beautiful new sink! It is hard to see from this angle, but we replaced the yucko stainless steel sink with a nice white acrylic one and also installed a new faucet. Rob worked super hard at reattaching all the plumbing.
And my new tilting bookshelf! This is in the back half of the kitchen also, kind of across from the table. The lil entryway you see to the right leads to the hallway.
It was amazing to have my mom out here this past week. We had a great time catching up, working and brainstorming decorating ideas! We explored IKEA and the Olive Mill, which is the cutest local olive farm that makes olive oil in every delicious flavor imaginable. We made a ridiculous number of trips to Target and enjoyed Starbucks free pastry day and way too much Chicago style pizza and pizzookie on the patio at Oregano's last night. I never would have tackled all the work that fixing up this kitchen was without her.
The next project on the house list is to paint in the guest bedroom and bathroom. We are having a house warming party in two weeks and one of my close college friends, Katie, is coming to visit! We have a brand new double bed (with sheets and a comforter!) and plans for a light teal and chocolate brown color scheme in the guest room. I am ridiculously excited to incorporate my favorite polka dots into the design! We are also hoping to install ceiling fans and get rid of some of the weeds in the backyard (though to be honest, without weeds there would probably just be a lot of dirt and a lil burned out grass) before the party as well. The work seems never ending, but it is nice now to be able to sit back in a finished room that looks and smells clean. It isn't so hot yet that it's uncomfortable to sit in the sunshine in our kitchen (the sun shines in the back of the house/kitchen, which will get very hot very shortly) and I love relaxing in the green living room, watching tv on our new hanging flat screen!
Rob and I are both looking forward to Katie's visit in just a few short weeks, and Dad's visit shortly after that. All our welcome (and encouraged!) to visit :) Also, cheer for Miami in the next few days to win hockey game after hockey game and relieve my embarrassment from last year's last minute championship loss. We miss you all and hope you enjoy the pictures of our new house! Love, Sarah and Rob
