and afters

Now that we have so much of our house completed (or nearly complete), I thought I'd show you how far this little house has come,
from before we owned it,
to now, almost 9 months later.

There's a lot of pictures, so I'll show you room by room,
a sort of mini-virtual home tour.

Today I'll show you the living room.

Come back tomorrow for a peek at our master bedroom.

new carpet

It was time for this gold carpet to say goodbye.
It had some funky little stains, discoloration, and a general old-carpet feel, and after we did the tile it no longer met evenly with the kitchen and entryway floor.
And the gold clashed with our wall color.

It just wasn't working for us anymore.


Kent and I spent Monday night clearning out the furniture and wall decorations
and tearing up carpet and pad.


It all seemed oddly familiar-the whole "furniture-crammed-in-the-wrong-places" idea.
Didn't we just do this,
like a week ago?
Look! It's a baby on a giant quesadilla!
A very, very cute baby, too.
How delicious!

At the end of the night, when everything was cleared out,
we made sure to leave our mark on the house. If anyone ever decides to replace this new carpet,
they'll know that we lived here and loved here.
Awe.

(Oh, and don't worry, Nicholas's middle fingers aren't uncharacteristically long-it's just really hard to get a 7-month old to make a handprint.)

And then, only three installers and four hours later, behold!
The fresh, unbelievably soft,
glorious new carpet.
We love it!

And it's just one more reason you should come visit us. We'll let you sprawl out on our soft, fresh carpet for as long as you want.

medina lake

We drove out to Medina Lake for a Sunday afternoon picnic.
Yes, the water was a bit cold.
But I just couldn't resist the classic "baby crying with toes in a lake" picture.
We all have one of those,
at least I know I do.
Good thing Nicholas has Daddy to calm him down after being so wrongfully dipped in a cold lake.

And it wasn't that cold, really.
Kent always tells Nicholas that he is
"the cutest and the smartest"
and today he amended that with
"but not exactly the toughest."

We had a delightful picnic,
complete with sandwiches and fruit and graham crackers with frosting-
those are the best, especially when they get a little bit warm
and soft. Mmm.

We also enjoyed the blend of country music and the mexican radio
playing from trucks on both sides of us,
seeing some of Texas' famous Hill Country,
and burning a hole through our picnic blanket
because Kent sat on a hot coal.

(We were unaware of the still-smouldering coal beneath the blanket
until Kent sat on it and noticed a peculiar warmth
that just got warmer and warmer.)

We stopped on the way home for a nursing break,
and took an "everybody close your eyes!" picture.
Perfect.

young love

Never before has one boy had so much love
for a waterbottle
as Nicholas does.

He's always held a special place in his heart
for waterbottles
of all shapes and sizes.

After waterbottles, his next favorite thing
is knocking on things
with his chubby little dimpled fist.

So to knock on a waterbottle,
well, life just doesn't get any better than that!

"Uh oh! Mom, I dropped my waterbottle!"

"Right there, on the floor. Won't you please
pick it up for me?"


Nicholas, you sure are one silly little boy.
And ooh do I love you!

finito

The kitchen is finished.
Or nearly.
I almost can't believe how different the kitchen looks with the new tile, baseboards, and hardware on our cupboard doors.

Oh, and I'm doing a happy dance about my shiny new dishwasher. I can't wait to pull a dish out of the dishwasher and have it actually be clean!

Today, we rest.
Tomorrow, we'll finish up the entryway and bathroom, cut the rest of the baseboards, and replace the toilet and sink.
Huzzah!

laying tile

Otherwise known as "Our lives as Rednecks."
Welcome to our backyard. You're going to love what we've done with the place.
And we've rearranged a bit inside, too. Now we can get food whenever we're hungry...without having to walk all the way into the kitchen.

But don't worry, we're just following the neighborhood trend in home decorating.
Our next-door neighbors have the same idea, and they are refinishing their floors this week too!
There's a toilet on either side of our fence. I'm not sure how I feel about that.


And this is where we used to have a nice pedestal sink.
Unfortunately, here is that sink post-removal.
We bought a new one. It's sitting next to the fridge, in front of our tv cabinet and next to the dinner table.

But, as of this morning, we are grouting the kitchen. I'm amazed at how fast Kent and his Dad have been working. We should have all the tile done by tomorrow afternoon.
Then we're going to replace the baseboards.
And possibly replace the carpet.
And paint the kitchen.
And add hardware to the cupboards.
And...well, you get the idea.
The fun just never ends here at the Andersen's!

in Utah

Nicholas and I spent the last 10 days in Utah.
It was beautiful, and not too cold. We must have brought some of Texas with us.

Nicholas got to watch the birds at the birdfeeder,
Play with Great-Grandma and Grandpa Murray,
Build towers and spell words with blocks,
Spend lots of time cuddling,
And he even learned to play the piano!
While we were gone, Kent successfully tore up our kitchen and entryway. We are going to be adventurous and install tile. Tile.

Luckily Kent's parents are here to help us.
"How long can it take?" Right?