Our Concrete Home

 

The wood is done!  Stained to match (as close as possible) the cupboards:

George turned that pile of wood into this: After the family read-a-thon at the elementary school I went to the house to work.  George has stained and laid down the first coat of varnish.  It is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l! We love it! I will take a picture tomorrow.  You will say "wow" too! Tim came to do dry wall patches.  He had to put scaffolding up to reach the ceiling above the stairs (ah...look at Brent and Cole's pretty banister!).   Did I tell you that ceiling light story?  One of the workers in Home Depot stopped us in the lighting section and steered us to the clearance section.  We found two pendant lights, each $24.00.  They had been over $100.00.  Brent and I couldn't find anything that "wowed" us so we bought the $24.00 special.  Someday we will replace them when we find the perfect lights.  At this point, the lights get us into the house and that's all we care about.  So when you visit our house, just know...

Brent took the day off of work to be at the house.  First we cleaned out the living room to make way for the wood! It was delivered today since our house is now breathing (YAY!  We finally have geothermal heat!). The wood is now all spread out in the living room.  Just waiting.  Soaking up the awesome environment of our concrete home.  I had to buy an oscillating fan to circulate the air. That's trickier than you would think in January.  With all our freezing temps these days in Utah, cooling off doesn't seem to be on a lot of people's minds.  Last night Brent and I installed the range hood.  No, it's not white...it's just the protective plastic coating.  It's beautiful stainless steel, just like the other appliances.  (I wonder when I will look at the stainless steel and think it's outdated.  I remember clearly thinking about a new fridge "and it's a beautiful almond bisque, not white like all the other fridges".  Yep, Al...

Ta-Dah!  It's a fridge!  Just delivered 15 minutes ago! (A dishwasher came along too) We also have a partial victory...the electric back up on the furnace is working!!  When I walked into the house this afternoon this is what I read:   Now that's some good news!  

This is what appeared today: More cupboards!!!!  We have a few bugs to work out...like some of the cupboard doors don't meet in the middle.  We'll get it fixed, as has been our tradition for the past few months.  Brent and Rob spent the evening on that ol' furnace.  Brent was dumping gallons of water in the tank as I left. Brent is taking the day off of work tomorrow.  I will take Brent here:  Arizona Tile in SLC (West Valley)!!!  http://www.arizonatile.com/locations/locations-utah.aspx   It is an amazing show room filled with granite and marble slabs.  I've been to quite a few show rooms lately, but this one was my favorite.   Pretty sure that White Springs is the winner!  Tomorrow at 11:30 they will pull out four slabs/two sets of "twins".  We have to pick a set of "twins" for our kitchen.    Our cupboard stain looks so red against the granite.  White Springs is a light granite with gray, bl...

 I feel like busting out with the Hallelujah Chorus!  Celebration!  The cabinets are being installed!   This is a little nook/bookshelf that will snug up to one of the windows.  The DeWalt stereo will not make an appearance in our final kitchen.   Randy is almost done with the tile in the master shower.  He just needs to grout!  It looks great!  Brent and Rob and soldered yards of copper tubing.  They are getting closer.  Getting this furnace up and running has been a monumental task.  Yesterday the fellows from Geo Comfort came and charged our lines.  I really wanted to watch them fill the lines with water and methanol alcohol (the anti-freeze).  Instead Brent and I went into crisis management mode. Two of our apartments flooded--frozen pipe.  It's been a crazy two days trying to get that all semi-resolved.  Since we have so much going on we have contracted with a restoration c...

For as long as I can remember I wanted quartz counter tops.  I love the look of quartz, it's controlled, it's precise, and it's not busy. But as I have been shopping around I changed my tune.  I still LOVE quartz, but have discovered that it is much more expensive compared to granite. As I visited one of the showrooms they pointed out  a fireplace with a quartz surround.  They fired up the gas stove for a fairly good period of time.  The quartz cracked.  Split from corner to edge.  The resin in the quartz couldn't take the heat.  This is a showroom that sells granite, quartz, all types of counter tops. They have nothing to gain by showing the problems with quartz.  It changed my mind about quartz.  We cook SO much as a family and we are generally tough on our counter tops, so granite it is. My head is spinning with the choices. I still want something simple, controlled, not busy for the eye and one that will compliment the rest of th...