Long Overdue...

It's been a while. Here's what happened. Bren and I sort of killed ourselves trying to get copious amounts of stuff done before a) our year anniversary of homeownership came and went, and b) Grammie came to visit and see the house for the first time.

The year came and went, Grammie came and went. Our last "wind" came and went. We're officially on break until after we get back from our trek to Oregon, but here's the latest scoop:







We put up double crown moulding (not shown) and wainscoting in the master bedroom. I did the wainscoting myself, cutting by hand. It's all finished now, and it looks like it's always been there. This room housed Miles for a few days of late, as he was in between residences, and now serves as Arwen and Brandon's vacation home away from home.

In the bathroom, we're down to the finishing touches:



Now, Bren is not a high-maintenance person, but TP placement is a crucial issue to him. It took some consideration to determine the perfect position.

In the kitchen, we have begun laying the cement board over the subfloor.



Almost ready for tile -- black and white 12X12s. In other kitchen news, we couldn't stand being without an oven anymore. We are cooks, and we miss baking, roasting, broiling, etc. Actually, we miss frozen pizza. So, Bren scored a brand new (if ugly) range on Best Buy's employee auction for $60. It's "biscuit" colored (gag), but by God we had frozen pizza tonight. And it was glorious.



Starting on Thursday, the hardwood floors in the living room, dining room, master bedroom and hallway will be repaired and refinished. We got three quotes, and knew we had the right guy when he walked in, looked at the floor, looked at Bren, and said, "So, what instrument do you play?"

For fun: the quotable quote of the month, courtesy of Adele, Carra and Jesse's beautiful little girl. When Chevy got tired of playing and hid under the table, she said matter-of-factly, "I think there's another happiness kitten upstairs." Incidentally, Chevy is suffering from teen angst and refuses to pose for pictures as "happiness kitten."

Instead, here's Bren:



Kids, this is your brain on Guitar Hero. And yours truly:



In desperate need of vacation. We're off on another nerdy literary adventure as of Saturday. Perhaps we'll still make headway on the house, though -- there's an IKEA in Portland. Shakespeare, bacon donuts and IKEA.

[Angelic choirs]