Here's the downstairs/basement living room and that workhorse of a wood-burning stove:

The Hubs is becoming a lumberjack, bringing in logs and starting fires that are so hot they put the cats in comas.

This is probably a good time to introduce you to our children, "The Girls." Zara on the left and Gigi on the right. We've got our fingers crossed that the remodel won't stress them out too much.

This week has been bananas. Let me just fill you in on what's been keeping us busy:

Saturday, Ryan's mom (Jane) and I went up to Nashville to narrow down the granite. We went to OHM International and their stock is overwhelmingly large, but a good place to go if you have no idea what you want. There's marble, there's granite, there's quartzite...and to confuse you even more: nothing has a price on it. It has a fancy name, and they tell you, "just pick out what you like." Well, you know what that means! Damn near everything I pick out is a material I wanted to avoid (i.e. marble) or an out-of-budget price. 

This is a beautiful granite, and Jane said it looks like a shark's tooth got stuck in it. I think, "love it! It'll go great!" Then I find out that this granite is crazy expensive...okay, that's out.

 The picture above and below show two different granites. One neat thing at this warehouse is they had the large slabs in the warehouse, and then they had these pieces on rolling trays where you could see how they would look in different light.

 Then we headed over to the Ferguson show room, looked at faucets, appliances, countertops, lighting...you name it, they had it. I even found some pendant lights that I think will work really well.

                                 

 A place next to Ferguson had this beauty:

 Here it is again, with our cabinet door sample:

I am IN LOVE! Perfect colors, lots of movement; we may just have a winner folks. And for anyone that can read my mind, you'd see I've been driving myself crazy about getting the right countertop.

Sunday, I was on call and didn't get called in, so it gave me a chance to research granite/countertops (again), and also to pack up some of the kitchen. Monday I worked, and when you have a 12-13hour shift to look forward to you just sleep, eat, and go clock in. But I did pick up some more packing boxes on my way in. After work Tuesday morning, I went by Sherwin Williams and picked up some of these 3M sticky mats, in hopes that they will catch a lot of the dust that gets on shoes and paws, and keep the amount of dust that makes it into the bedrooms to a minimum.

Tuesday afternoon: Mike comes over and we sign the contract!  It's legit...it's happening...damn, that's a lot of money. Seeing those numbers is definitely overwhelming, but knowing your budget, and where the money is coming from ahead of time is very helpful and smooths out (some) stress. That said, I'm still picking up extra hours here and there because every little bit helps.

Wednesday is Moving Day! A few friends and family came over to help get the bulk of our furniture down to the basement (HomeBase) and from there I'll be able to find temporary homes for all the small stuff.

It's getting close!