Getting Settled...

This time last week, the house we were living in had mauve and country blue wallpaper, curtains & blinds.  I don't think I'll miss it.

...and our garage had this larger-than-life poster of Alan Jackson on one wall. Someone even went to the trouble to frame it, that still makes me giggle.

 Now our living area is much calmer.  Well, it's calmer except for all of the boxes.  Here's what the island looked like this morning....

...and here's what the living room looked like this morning...

But we've been hard at work all day, and I mean hard at work.

We went to two furniture stores and found a couch and extra-large chair and ottoman for the living room, then we went to Sam's and bought some necessities like French bread pizzas and watermelon.  I mean, what't the point in having all of this freezer and refrigerator space if we aren't cooling things?

When we arrived home the granite guys were working on the outdoor kitchen.  We didn't intend to have a granite countertop, but remember our too-small island? That granite was re-fabricated to be the countertop for the outdoor kitchen.

We couldn't believe how long it took them, I know they were out there for at least six hours, maybe more.  Tomorrow the stucco guys should come back and apply the stucco so it will match the house, but tonight, it looks like this...

I feel as if this is where I've spent the last five days...standing behind the island cutting shelf liner mats.  I keep running out and having to run back to the store.  I thought the first batch I bought might be too much and I intended to return some, but I think I've been back five times.  I've saved all might receipts & when I'm all finished, I can't wait to total it up and see what I've spent on that silly stuff!

Back to the hard work we've done...we are able to park my car in the garage, with room to spare-I predict tomorrow night we will have two cars in the garage.

But wait until you see this...here are the end-of day pictures I have for you today...

The game room bar: 
Shane did all of this organizing, doesn't it look great?

...and the game room:
We have a pool table and two bar stools on the way, and a gazillion football decorations for the walls that will be on the walls soon.

The upstairs spare bed room:

The sheets are all clean and ready for visitors.

The upstairs shower:

The office/storage room (for now).  It still needs some work:

The wine room with a few bottles on display and lots and lots of empty storage places:

The laundry & Bo's bedroom:
We discovered a couple of nights ago that you can't put him in here for the night when the dryer is going.  He whines and whines-maybe it hurts his ears? We certainly won't do that again.

...and the living room:

All of the boxes are gone, the paper has been pulled off floor and the floors have been swept. We are ready for our OU chairs to go into the garage so our furniture can be delivered tomorrow.

Here's a view of the island at the end of today...

It looks 1,000 times better than this morning, doesn't it?

...and the cooktop area...

Both sides of the vent-a-hood have been decorated with some items we happened to have on hand.  The glasses are champagne flutes that I carried all the way home from Prague in my backback almost twenty years ago.  I know they will collect dust, I'm just glad they are finally out of their box.

Well, we are loving the house and Bo and Minnie are, as well.  Minnie had a rough time with the floors at first, but she's doing fine now.  We still  have tons of work to do, but it's coming together. 

We had movers who moved the big furniture, but there was still a lot that we moved ourselves.  By ourselves, I mean Shane & I and our families. Thanks to both of our families, this was the easiest move I've ever had.

...they lugged our stuff over and even baked us homemade cookies (among other things).

You can't beat that!

Thanks so much to all of you!