Smurf House?

I'm finally updating my blog! The slide show has some new pictures of the house to include our latest projects -- painting and a driveway!

Relaxcation

For the last year, Rush and I have been trying to take a vacation. I know, we live in Hawaii and no one can imagine why we would want to take a vacation but we do! Instead of going somewhere nice and warm like home, we did a complete 180 and ended up in Tahoe! We haven't been skiing since 2007 when we were in Altus together so it has been a little while. 


We met up in Sacramento on Monday and did the drive to Squaw Valley yesterday. I was originally supposed to go to San Francisco but had a little change after my plane broke. Of course that meant my suitcase did not arrive on time. Luckily it came the next day so I can't complain too much.  

 Once I landed in Sacramento, we decided to head downtown and meet up with a friend of Rush's pilot training class. Matt just moved there in the last couple of months so he showed us around and took us to one of the local brew pubs. I had a couple samples shown below...a Pilsner and Monkey's Knife Fight. They were both really good!

After Rush finished up his work at Travis, we hit the road. Here we are on the drive to Squaw Valley. The snow is incredible! I haven't seen so much in a long time!

 

We are staying in the Olympic Village so it's nice we don't have to drive anywhere. We decided last night to have sushi at Mamasaki. It was definitely a great choice.

 

If you know me, you know how addicted I am to Greek Yogurt. I had heard that Siggi's was really good as well so I thought I would try it. I definitely liked it but I think I'll be sticking with Fage.

What we have been up to...

The last week has kept us busy! We had family in town for the Holiday and more house work to cross off our list. Here are a bunch of pictures to show you what we have been up to!

Baking Biscotti

Baking Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Middle Bedroom getting ready for Dry Wall

Great Fun!

Merry Christmas!

Prep

Our Back Splash!!

Freshly painted ceiling!

Bye Bye Jabong Tree

Lunch break for Rush at our surf break :-)

Now we are off to keep working on the house...Check back soon for more pictures!

Another almost complete room

Our shower is complete except for a door/curtain! After watching one too many home improvement shows, I decided I wanted subway tile in our shower. I've never tiled before so I had no idea how time consuming it was going to be! I was definitely surprised! I was able to get about half way finished, but because of time, we had a friend come over and help finish it.

An Almost Complete Kitchen

Looking into the kitchen

Awesome sliding shelves in pantry

Sliding spice rack

Glass Cabinet

Our farmhouse sink...Thanks Ween for flying it out for us :)

The dishwasher will have a custom panel like the cabinets.

Pot and Pan drawers. They are huge!

Rubbish and Recycling, plus the wine rack!

The bar...and beautiful flowers from Rush :)

If you know me, you would know the kitchen remodel has been the most important to me. I love spending time cooking and baking! Plus, it always seems like people end up hanging around in the kitchen during get-togethers. Our kitchen is definitely small, but with the design and layout it doesn't seem so tiny. It opens up directly to the living room and built in bench kitchen nook. (Rush is currently painting the bench so I'll post pictures when it's complete)

Sneak Peek -- Bathroom

Yesterday was a big day for us! Every time we walk in the house and look around, you can definitely see all the changes and start seeing an almost finished home. This renovation has kept us very busy, but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This weekend we will be finishing up our bathroom but here is a sneak peak of what was installed yesterday. 

BEFORE and AFTER:

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The first vanity came with the house so we knew we were definitely getting rid of that! Once I learned how to really use power tools, I decided I wanted to start building furniture. Thanks to www.ana-white.com, I built the vanity bottom. The only problem after that was trying to figure out what to put on top! Luckily, our friend Josh that did our amazing concrete countertops (www.concreteperspectives.com) came to the rescue. Once the bathroom is complete I'll post the final pictures. 

The long awaited Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes

For those of you that know Rush, you understand his need for chocolate chip banana pancakes. Of course it has been a little difficult to have a big variety of meals because of the house being renovated. This past weekend we finally were able to put boxes away and use our range! Rush couldn't wait for his pancakes!