Here are some photo's of the upstairs hallway and the 2nd bedroom. The Fir floors really look great :)

We we're out of the house for 3 days while the floors were being refinished, but it was totally worth it. The kitchen floor is white oak, that has been stained to a golden brown color....couldn't be more happy with the final results. The upstairs landing and 2nd bedroom are Fir, they were sanded and no stain applied, which looks great, because the floor will naturally amber to a deeper reddish brown color. Because the guys did such a good job, we're going to bring them back to refinish the dining room, living room, rear bedroom, and Master bedroom.

White oak kitchen before refinishing...
And After... so nice and smooth and pretty:-)
and a couple pictures of Stanley.. he's HUGE

It is 9:50 Denver time and I am stuck at the Denver airport waiting for my now delayed flight.. It'll be waay past midnight before I get home. In the 4 days I've been here I think I've slept a total of 12 hours or so.. 13 hour meetings followed by mandatory dinners is just not very fun...adding to the stress, we didn't get to present until Wed so again, not fun. All went well though. the review went well, it was nice to see my peers...But I am exhausted..haven't been this tired in awhile.. that and the fact that I can't go home tonight (hardwoods were sealed today) makes it even worse.. Oh well, tomorrow is Friday.. go in a little late , catch up and it'll be the weekend and i can go home and clean everything again now the floors will be dried..fun fun.

Can't wait until this Denver trip is here and over! I have no desire to travel right now with things going on with the house and work.. but oh well it'll be over soon enough. So we got the floor stain samples and I dont' like any of the ones he put down.. they are more of a red and it almost clashes with the orange paint so I am thinking of doing a medium or golden brown in the kitchen which will be a little better contrast to the orange.. Bad news is that it'll be different then whats in the rest of the house but oh well.. its a seperate room so seperate room, seperate feel:-).. if he does a good job we'll likely have him come back and redo the whole house..

STanley is still not behaving outside so now he goes outside on a leash which is not fun since its been raining.. feel really silly standing out there with him and an umbrella..oh well.

and thats about it.. Brian is "seriously" considering the bathroom downstairs now.. haha..we'll see. I hope he makes some progress soon..it'll be very nice I'm sure when its done;-)

Some progress over the weekend.. got the new water heater installed and our new GE frontload washer/dryers were delivered and installed.. We also finally hired a flooring guy.. He is stopping by tonight to do some stain samples then next week the work begins. We'll have to move out of the house for 2 days while it dries - the fumes are apparently toxic..yikes.. Well brian will move out with Stanley..I am going to be in Denver..hehe... We're going to stain the white oak in the kitchen a shade darker to match the rest of the house.. and Upstairs, we are having the bedroom and hallway done. If he does a good job we'll think about having him come back out this summer to refinish the master bedroom and possibly the guest bedroom downstairs.. then we should be set. The living/dining can't be touched since its all hand nailed down..we'll figure out some way to spruce that up.

And I ordered the lamp..the PB lamp in invory ceramic. I hope it goes with the white but if not I can bring it back to the store:-)

Thats about it I think.. Stanley is getting bigger every day and more of a pain everyday...oh well, he needs to go to puppy school.. and soon! I think brian's going to find one to sign him up for tonight..

I think I've found my lamp!!! Yippeee.. after 4 lamp stores, endless online searching I think I am going to get this Pottery Barn lamp. Funny thing is I looked at it awhile back but didn't catch my eye.. and today it did..who knows. I am thinking the ceramic one. Its on a pulley system so you can pull the lamp up or down closer to the table:-)

Seems like this remodeling thing will never end.. We got 2 more quotes on the flooring.. 1 guy said he couldn't refinish the fir floor upstairs and 2 said yes, we can... so I may hire the 3rd one who quoted us for the kitchen, bedroom and landing upstairs which will be nice. I also didn't realize we had to be out of the house for 2 days while this is going on.. apparently the fumes are really really bad.. oh well. We may do this the week I am in Denver on business or maybe the week after so I can be home to choose the floor stain - we'll have to decide soon.. This weekend we got new washer/dryers...badly needed. Unfortunately there isn't room for a full size so we got the GE front loaders..still pretty good sized just not "super capacity":-) Being delivered by Home Depot this Saturday. And cabinets..sigh.. still more problems.. so we will likely see our Huntwood rep again.. found 2 more doors that need to be replaced and a drawer front. again the good thing is they are working with us on it.. Oh and finally! Brian got the crown up.. makes such a difference.. He had to use LOTS of wood putty but hey not bad for a first timer..hehe..

so my ceilings are finally white again:-) Well almost..they are primed and ready for some white paint... exciting. Amazing how much brighter the room is. The orange ceiling was okay but I'm glad its going back to white. Brian was not as happy..apparnetly painting a ceiling is not so fun. Sunday he and my brother spent the day attempting to put up some crown molding..1 full day and they got half the room done..hehe.. but it looks awesome so the hard work is worth it. Makes such a difference. Oh and it looks like Don dropped off the trim for the windows and door so hopefully that'll be up shortly.. and tonight Huntwood guy is stopping by to put up the replacement doors.. pics to come on the crown.

We are once again at a standstill with our kitchen.. Don was by over the weekend, picked up some trash and told us the molding for the doors has been painted..so now we just need him to put it up:-) Stanley is doing MUCH better.. he still has his cone on and we're putting medicine in his eye twice a day. This Saturday he is going back to the vet to make sure he's healed okay. Lets hope no more accidents. Anyhow, the weekend is here and Brian plans on repainting the kitchen ceiling and putting up the rest of the crown molding around the kitchen..I plan to get some fabric for the bench cushions. Brian cut those to size last weekend so now I just need to get fabric then talk my aunt into sewing them.. dimsum? yeah she's a sucker for dimsum:) Tonight we are meeting with my brother and his fiancee for dinner at Scotts again. Yummy.. maybe John will be willing to come over this weekend to help paint and do crown.. he's a sucker for food.. any type of food..haha.. will post more pics when the crown and paint is up. In the meantime, Brian has been talking to Don about having him do the plumbing/electrical in the bathroom downstairs. Its only been 4 months since its sat like that..hmm..

Fabric Sample I'm thinking of for bench seats

Poor Stanley had a little accident yesterday.. a little cut under his left eye.. at first we didn't think anything of it but by the time we came home from dinner last night it was swollen and did not look good..so we took him to the pet hospital emergency room. They took some xrays and gave us some ointment.. and now he has his cone on...eye is still bad and if it doesn't change by tomorrow, he'll be going back to the vet:-( That pet insurance is looking real handy right now

So the kitchen has been usuable now for about 3 days and what did I cook last night as my first meal in the new space?? Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup!! thats right.. haha.. Brian was sick and didn't feel like eating so I had soup.. and since the granite isn't sealed yet I didn't want to make too much of a mess..not to mention, all the drawers are still emtpy and I still have yet to find my silverware.. its in a drawer in the house somewhere..?? I hope.. So I spent some time yesterday lining the drawers and will finish tonight..then about 10 loads of dishes later we should be set:-) So whats left on the kitchen? Crown moulding, trim work, flooring.. and a new light fixture.. pocket door install.. and that should be it.. oh and I have to talk my aunt into making some bench cushions... then onto the bathroom..then the fence, and roof, and back porch.. ..haha..never ends.

Lots of progress this weekend:-).. The granite came in on Friday and it looks awesome.. and saturday and sunday, Don put in the faucet so now we have running water.. and we moved the fridge, stove and dishwasher into place.. minor mishap..the moving of the refrigerator from the dining room to the kitchen caused a bunch of scratches on the dining room floor:-( oh well, we'll figure out how to get those out soon..but amazing what a difference having the appliances in makes. Tomorrow he is back to finish up installing everything so by the time I get home we should have a fully functioning kitchen.. today Brian and John picked up a nail gun and compressor and are trying to figure out how to put up the crown moulding.. harder then it looks apparnetly so nothing was put up but they did figure out how to get the angles in correctly so next weekend they are working on getting it up...FINALLY, its starting to come together.. I am happy happy:-) Oh and Stanley is fine:-) He came home on Friday and was as frisky as ever. we were so afriad he might hurt his stitches but he could care less..

No updates on kitchen..so how about some photos of Stanley instead.. these were taken last month and of course he's grown since then... the granite guys come tomorrow but I won't be here:-( Don our contractor will hang around for them. I really wanted to stay home for this but my calendar filled up with meetings..oh well.. It'll be a surprise I guess when I get home. Tomorrow Stanley is being dropped off at the vet's office at 8:30 to get his little surgery.. poor guy.. he'll have to wear a cone when we pick him up later in the afternoon.. He wont like that at all..hehe.. evil me is actually looking forward to seeing him wear a cone.. Today was the most beautiful day..55 and absolutely sunny.. maybe we brought it back from San Fran:-) Hope it hangs around for this weekend. As this kitchen thing is comes to a close, the next project is the downstairs bath which is gutted.. poor Brian still cna't get the plumbing so we will be hiring someone..I'm hoping to talk Don into doing it. We'll see.

just got a call and the granite is ready! I'm shocked.. that is about 1 week earlier then expected.. so we may have a kitchen this weekend!!! There is still alot of work to be done but at least we'll be able to use our kitchen again in the meantime.. sooo happy:-)

No kitchen progress at this time.. Waiting on granite to be installed which will be another 2 weeks or so. We chose a granite called "steel grey" .. its a black granite with some silver specks. We were going to do brown granite but thought the black was a better contrast for the orange paint and dark floors.. Heres a pic of steel grey. I also got a call from Steve at Huntwood and he is coming over on Saturday to meet with Brian to look at the defects in the cabinets and either fix them or order replacements so thats good.. Don has to still finish up the chimney but the weather here has been so bad that he can't get up there. Hopefully it'll settle down next week. Tonight we have dinner plans at our neighbors - very nice of them but we're having lamb and I"m not a fan of lamb:-( but it should be nice. and looking forward to this weekend - visiting Elaine in Cali.. she has lots of plans for us already.. Tainan for Taiwanese food on Friday then a comedy show.. Saturday, we pick up Eva, then lunch, shop and head to downtown to check into our hotel.. followed by sushi dinner and dancing at Studio 181.. and Sunday we have superbowl at a friend of hers and back to sEattle.. Phew, Monday will be tough.

Hmm...these photos don't really show the true color..its a true burnt orange/brown.. and in these photos it looks more red..oh well, I'll try again maybe in better lighting.. and it was decided that we will repaint the ceiling white..it should open it up.. and now we also need a new light for over the dining area.. something smaller then the original Pottery Barn one I bought. Oh and some bad news.. bad storm last n ight and we have a small leak in the roof where the rest of the chimney is... sigh, its neverending.. new roof I guess might be the answer:-(

Gong Hay Fat Choy! (happy new year)... So Don painted our kitchen on Friday...lOVE the color - sienna clay but he painted our ceiling which I didn't want:-( Oh well, Brian says he will repaint and we have to put up crown and repaint that too so it'll be okay. Brian also sanded down the round kitchen table and painted that white for the kitchen so that should be nice. I ordered some foam for the seat cushions. off ebay for 50% what JoAnne fabrics wanted...once that comes we'll start getting those ready.. lets see..what else...Went to Ikea and found a stainless steel panel for behind teh stove..a whopping 18bucks! Yippee..the Kobe dealers wanted 80 for it so what a find. Got to love Ikea. thats about it.. the granite guys came on friday and took measurements.. and wanted extra money for the edging I wanted so that was unexpected..oh well, knew there was a catch somewhere.. "free granite".. live and learn. and some problems with the cabinets.. so they will come out and inspect..actualy lots of problems with the cabinets..quality isn't there which is not typical of Huntwood so lucky us. Sounds like they will take care of it but that means more time and more construction... so maybe in another 3 weeks we'll have our kitchen back? haha.... Pictures of painted kitchen to come.. This remodeling this is harder then I thought.. We will love the new kitchen but boy its tough ... this weekend, we did clean up some which is making the house feel better..not as dusty and much more organized.. and plus the kitchen is now free for us to walk through so we can use the backdoor which is nice for Stanley. This weekend, I went with some girls to the stampathon..made 15 cards ..then next weekend, Wai and I take off for San Francisco and Eva will come down on Saturday. Its Elaine's 30th! We have dinner plans and a big party at some nightclub..then Sunday we head to a friend of hers to watch the superbowl/BBQ then back to Seattle Sunday night..should be a blast.

So things are still moving.. Don called last night and he has moved the gas line for the range and today he is installing the disposal, cutting holes for the faucet and putting on a coat of paint.. I guess he plans to paint for us too so I have to go find a color that we like. - it will be orange..just not sure which shade of orange yet.. I hope he can wait until this weekend. I also just spoke with the granite installer and he is coming out tomorrow to take a template.. finally..geez, its hard to get these guys going.. and thats about it. nothing else new... I also found some fabric I like in the Cottage Living magazine but unfortunately its mail order only so this weekend, we are headed to Calico Corners to see if I can find something..I"m thinking something brownish/blue to tie the dining room into the kitchen..

well its been a week since the cabinets were installed and no progress:-( and I'm getting a little restless.. The contractors have been by but not sure what if anything they've done. Today I need to get in touch with the granite people so they can come out and take a template then 2 more weeks for that...this is week 5 now..geez, so much for the 3 week to 6 week completion..now its looking like 7.. I want my kitchen back:-(.. tired of eating out.. we've had all we can take I think for a looong time.. oh well.. Today I am headed off to an all day employment conference then we're meeting up with Wai and Brandon for dinner at Scotts in Edmonds.. poor Stanley can't come of course so guess he'll have to stay home again.