What I'm Loving

I'm too busy for a real post - but here's what I'm loving right now:

1. Kitchen is coming along. Heating and Air guy coming out tomorrow to vent our dryer!
2. Going out dancing this weekend for a girlfriend's birthday - soooooo excited!
3. Had my performance review yesterday at work. It went alright (I'm a perfectionist so it wasn't good enough for my standards...) but I might be getting a work laptop - yes!!!
4. Walmart had veggies trays for $4.88 this weekend with carrots, celery, snap peas, broccoli, and MINI PEPPERS! Those things are SO cute! And it came with yummy buttermilk ranch dip. We bought 2. :)Mmmmm!

5. We took those veggies and some PB&Js out to Piedmont Park this past weekend and had a picnic and took the doggies to the dog park - so much fun!

Ready for the weekend!

Monday...you suck.

I had a crazy-busy weekend and now I'm exhausted. Not really feeling work today. I wish I could take a little nap at my desk. The only good thing in this miserable Monday is that I have a doctors appointment at 2. Which means I should prob leave around 1:30. And it also means I prob won't come back to the office once it's over. So yay for a half day!!

Oh yeah - and Happy Valentines Day! Too bad my hubby is working super late tonight and I won't get to spend any time with him. Boo.

Man, I'm whiny today. I need to go re-read my "be positive post." I promise I'll be better the rest of the week! :)

Break it Down Now!

Now that we are nearing the END of the kitchen renovation (which I still can't believe we're so close to being DONE!!!) I figured I would break out the costs. I'm actually a little scared to see how much over budget we went...here goes!



Demo: FREE!
Dumpster rental: $215 BGI Waste Services
Cabinets: $3411.58 Ikea
Extra stuff: $103.63 (Drawers that were out of stock when we purchased the cabinets, plus dish drawer organizers and spice drawer organizers) Ikea
Cabinet installation: FREE!
Cabinet pulls: $161.59 Ikea
Cabinet dividers: $38.83 Ikea
Countertops: $1,280.40 (Including installation – awesome deal!!!)
Faucet for sink: $147.66 Lowes
Fridge: $1622.98 ($1593.10 plus $29.88 for delivery) - We splurged. :) Brandsmart
Oven: $754.32
Microwave: $234.20 Over-the-range venting microwaves are expensive! Brandsmart
Stovetop: FREE! (We kept our old one)
Materials for new wall: $100.06 Home Depot
Labor for new wall: FREE!
New door for pantry: $83.51 Home Depot
Pantry shelving: $161.98 Ikea
Installation for pantry shelving: FREE!
Paint for pantry: $37.64 (Including supplies and chalkboard paint for the door.)
Plumbing: $550
Appliance electric work: $140
Flooring: $638.27
Flooring installation: FREE!
Misc charges: $153.96 (random things like nails, paint rollers, caulk, hacksaw, etc.)
Grand Total: $9,835.60

Wow! I really thought we'd be more like $12,000 in right now!

Of course, we still have the following to do:
Lighting electric work: ??
Backsplash: ??
Backsplash installation: FREE!
Labor to vent dryer: ??
Lighting: ??
Ceiling patchwork: FREE!
Ceiling paint: FREE! (A gift from our real estate agent)
Labor to paint the ceiling: ??

So I know we're not going to come in under our $10,000 budget. But I'm still pretty impressed!

When we met with a contractor, his quote was $8,071 for labor alone. Then, when you add the rest of stuff we would have paid for separately (the cabinets, countertops, flooring, appliances, etc.) to the $8,071 - it comes to around $16,600! So I think we've saved about $6000 doing the kitchen ourselves. Sweet!!
Josh's dad is coming down tomorrow to help us finish up some stuff. Woo hoo!

I'm so ready for my kitchen to be DONE!

I love you like pickles and chocolate milk

No I'm not pregnant.

But I do like pickles with a glass of chocolate milk. Something about the combo of sweet and sour - yum! I think my mom ate pickles and chocolate ice cream when she was pregnant with me...maybe that explains it.

Anyways, last night I went to Taco Mac for dinner with the hubs and some friends. (French fries and homemade ranch...yum....) I was saving my pickle until the end of the meal and when I was finally ready to eat it, I went to pick it up...............and I dropped the WHOLE pickle on the floor!!! I didn't even get one bite! :(

I. Was. Devastated.

"MY PICKLE!!!" :( *sniff*

Well, life went on and we started talking about other stuff and having a good time.

But then the waiter came over. And my SWEET hubby asked him to bring me another pickle! I mean, he just asked him! Without me even saying anything or telling him I wanted another pickle - nothing!!!

It was so sweet! I almost cried!!

And the waiter was so nice that he brought us all another pickle.

I love pickles...but I love my hubby more!

Athens!

Last Friday, we drove up to Athens to visit with some friends. I LOVE going back to Athens...even if I do feel a little old compared to all the college kids. :)

We ate at a yummy sushi place called Shokitini and then did some bar hopping. I made the mistake of ordering a drink other than my usual rum and diet. We basically told the bartender to make us something and since there was blueberry vodka on the shelf, we said make us something with that. Not the smartest idea... He made a "blueberry muffin" which wasn't terrible...but not very tasty. And it was super strong!

But we had a great time!

Yummy!



Silly Aubree! :)

Those are fried oreos - yum!

Blueberry muffins - not recommended.



Kitchen Renovation Weekend #8

Geez! When are we going to finish this kitchen?!?! It feels like it's taking forever!

The weekend before last (Jan15th) we we finished up most of the flooring. Just one row left! Too bad it's the hardest row since you have to cut every piece of laminate lengthwise...which is why we still haven't finished. Boo.

Last weekend we hit up Ikea and bought the EXPEDIT bookcase in white. We decided to use this for shelving in our pantry instead of building shelving or buying cheap looking wire shelving. And I have to tell you, it looks AWESOME! I painted the wall behind the bookcase a butter cream color (so pretty!) and then loaded it up with food, paper towels, dishes, bake wear, and all the other crap I haven't been able to unpack since we've moved because I have a ridiculous amount of that kind of stuff and not enough storage! :)

Anyway, here's some pics!

 Pantry 

Stocked up! 

Pretty yellow! 

6 foot tall by 6 foot wide.  

The redneck way we're venting our dryer. :) Gotta call the heating and air specialist soon! 

New tablecloth! 

Kitchen with the pretty new flooring. 

Other view...man we've got to get the ceiling painted. It's ugly!  

Still needs lots of work!

Busy Busy Busy!

My long lost blog! I've been so busy at work - I haven't had time to breath, let alone blog! So sad...

But here's what's been happening in my world:

First, Atlanta got almost 6 inches of snow that lasted almost a week. I'm officially over snow. Brrrr!

While we were "snowed in" I baked a chocolate cake from scratch. And it was amazing. Yum!

I stayed home for 3 days, but had to go to work on Thursday. Josh had to shovel ice out of the driveway for me to get to work. It took me 2.5 hours to get home that night...and I live less than 10 miles from the office. Lame.

We had a date night and saw Beauty and the Beast at the Fox Theatre. We LOVE Disney!

We worked on the pantry a little bit. Still needs paint and a vent for the dryer. But the shelving looks AWESOME! (And yes, I was SUPER excited to organize all the food. Call me a loser, but it was so much FUN!)

My niece turned 6!!! I can't believe she's 6! She was just a baby!

My nephew had way too much sugar at the birthday party. :)

Still trying to decide on a backsplash for the kitchen. I'm leaning towards something like this:

Bought some accessories for the kitchen and dinning room. Including this CUTE rug!

Bought an XL wine glass that holds an entire bottle of wine. (Like on Cougar Town) I've named him Big Ed. :)

We booked our flights for Las Vegas in April - so I'm counting down the days!!

-Holly