It feels so good when it hits your toes!!

Finally, carpet!

OK, this picture just kind of turned out awkward, but Nicole is seen here burying her toes in our new "frizze" (or is it "frieze?") carpet. It's a little longer than regular carpet but not as long as a shag carpet. So comfy.


The stairs look so much better with some carpet on them. These pics make the carpet look a little lighter than it actually is, but it's a great shade- light enough to overall be neutral but dark enough to not show every stain.


Master bedroom- forget a bed, we can just sleep on the floor!!


A view of the upstairs hallway and extra bedrooms.


And, we have APPLIANCES!!! Check out our new microwave, stove and fridge. Greg is standing next to our stove with a couple of "power burners" that can boil a huge pot of water in about 2 minutes. Making pasta will be a breeze! The dishwasher is on the other side of the counter, which you can't see in this pic.


Washer and dryer! Can't wait to use these. Having to put in a bunch of quarters in the washer and dryer in our apartment every time we want to do a load of laundry has really gotten old...and we won't have to wait for someone else to be finished with THEIR loads!!



They also finished up most of our plumbing! We now have sinks and toilets.



They put on all of our cupboard handles/drawer knobs/doorknobs, as well. This is a closeup of our upstairs hallway linen closet.


Finally, we have a garage door! (Along with a fantastic garage door opener- it's so quiet!) So, as you can see, they really did a lot this week. They also finished our trim, put in our water heater, poured some steps inside the garage, and some other things that we're probably forgetting at the moment. If all goes as planned, we have our final walk-through on June 8th and close on June 15th...but we'll see.
Next week- landscaping!

Local couple completely amazed ceramic tile can "look this dang good."

A local couple walking into their home was completely 'floored' this week to see new tile, linoleum, and wood flooring. Eyewitness news was provided with these exclusive photos:

Above 3 photos- master bath. Can you believe this tile?? Bathtastic!



Looking into the laundry room from the downstairs hallway- new linoleum (but looks like tile, doesn't it?). Downy-rific!



Upstairs main bath with gray ceramic tile...jim-dandy!


Ecstatic woman proudly poses with her newly-tiled fireplace- fabulous, folks.


Elated man is shown here discovering a treasure of shiny, smooth, sparkling hard wood floors- unbelievable!



And finally, studs were put up in the basement. Not as exciting or glamorous, but hey- this couple is one step closer to moving in.
Check back here with all the updates...

And then there was light...

Ta da!! We have lights now! And paint! They did lots of good stuff this week. As you can see, all of our lights are up, everything is painted (a khaki/tannish color in case you can't really tell in the pics), all of the countertops/vanity tops are in, bathroom mirrors, and other electrical stuff like the
cable jacks/outlets/smoke detectors are in.



The kitchen is really coming together...


What do you think of our countertop/snack bar? Isn't it awesome? It looks like granite but it's a laminate.



The upstairs hallway and bathroom with our new lights...


Greg in the master bedroom with the new ceiling fan.



Master bath with new lights and countertop (they also put in the mirror the next day but we forgot to get a pic). Greg is ironically standing right next to where he'll be spending a lot of time sitting...ha!



This is the chandelier that hangs in the entryway- we LOVE it!



They also poured the garage this week.



And finally, in case you forgot what the outside of the house looks like...they also poured our sidewalk and put in the lights on the garage. Next week....FLOORS!!

Stain stain stain...

Well, all of our woodwork has officially been stained this week. We went with a natural stain, which we love- and it's got a little bit of gloss/shine to it. Every piece of molding, every door, and every drawer are all stained. Here's Greg in the kitchen checking out the cabinets. They've pretty much just been drying the past few days...now we're not sure what's next. Paint, hopefully?



They also installed our fireplace- woohoo! Here are all of the downstairs trim/molding pieces airing out to dry. We know, really exciting. :)



Nicole in the master bedroom...that stain was really stinky! We could only stay in the house a few minutes before getting dizzy.



Here's Greg measuring the windows in the basement for some window coverings that we've been shopping around for.



Here's a side view of the house that I don't think we've put on the blog- look at all the nice light we get coming in through the windows! You can actually see the paper they had up on the inside for when they stained the trim.
So, that's about it. It's not going as fast now, since all of the things they have to do now are more putsy and time consuming. But, our house is really starting to feel more like a house now that they're getting this interior stuff done. Hopefully less than 3 weeks til we move in!
P.S. Happy Mother's Day!!!

"Wood" you like to see our new kitchen?? HA!

Fun stuff this week! They're in the middle of doing all of the woodwork in our house- the trim, cupboards, vanities, doors, etc. They haven't stained any of it yet, but we're thinking they're going to do that this week.



Another view of the partially-finished kitchen- is that awesome or what?? We love the staggered cupboards.



Here's a handsome guy standing next to our new railing in the stairway...



These are the french doors to the master bedroom- aren't they fun?



Another view of the banister- beautiful! We love it!


And, yet another cat picture- Tiger was watching his namesake play some golf on TV today. It's pretty funny- he gets totally enthralled watching the ball roll into the cup. I guess we chose the right name for him, huh? He likes to watch golf with Dad on the weekends.

Is it June yet???

Well, here's the latest- it was kind of a slow week as far as progress on the house. But, the outside of the house is pretty much done (minus the lights and doors)! The siding is done, and we now have shakes (the gray, shingle-like things on the front of the house- we had no clue what those were when we started this whole process). The color was a little darker gray than Nicole had expected, but oh-well- it still looks awesome!



They also sprayed our ceilings, though it's kind of hard to tell in this pic.


And this is pretty much where we're at. Here's looking into the kitchen/eating area from the living room. The big news we got this week is that the house should officially be done on June 5th! We'll have our final walk-through that day, then it takes about 3 days for them to do touch-ups and whatnot, and then we close!! So, we should officially get to move in around June 8th or 9th if all goes well- about 3 weeks earlier than the previous date we had.


Also, this past weekend we ran the North St. Paul Detour Days 5K with Nicole's aunt Bobbi and cousin Amy- what a beautiful day!

Holy Sheet Rock!

Lots of good progress this week! As you can see, we now have brick! We were pretty excited to have our address block. Very cool.



Otherwise, not much different on the front of the house...but there is siding on the sides and back of the house right now. Shouldn't be long before the outside is completely done!



And, for the big news...the whole house is SHEET ROCKED!! Woohoo! We couldn't believe they got it all done already. Here is the eating area.



And above is our stairway/entryway. Love seeing that sheet rock.



They also poured the basement earlier in the week. Here is Greg with his mom and dad checking it out.




We just had to throw this pic in...we had a little visitor on our balcony this week. I thought the cats were going to go nuts when they saw this guy, but Tiger just walked up to the window and meowed like he wanted to go out and play. Tiger and this cat even touched noses through the glass- it was pretty cute. We have no idea how this cat scaled the balcony- we're on the 4th floor!

Truckin' along...

We now have shingles! As you can see, the outside of the house hasn't changed too much from last week, but they just finished up the shingles yesterday. Siding should hopefully be next week.



And, we have plumbing!


Gas lines and electric, as well.


These are going to be cool- this is the "can" of one of the can lights we're going to have in the kitchen.


They also put in the duct work this week. So, as you can see, they got a lot done on the inside of the house!

For other "goings-on" this week, we got to see lots of our families! There was Easter at Nicole's Aunt Kay's new house, and also at Greg's mom and dad's. This past Saturday we went out to breakfast with our cousins Nickie, Becky, and Aiden, as well as Elizabeth (in from Washington D.C.) and Aunt Annell (in from Colorado)! Today is the 10-year anniversary of Greg's grandpa's death, so we got to spend the day with Greg's mom's side of the family. It was awesome to spend some time with our families, since we definitely don't get to see them as often as we'd like! More updates soon...