Kitchen

Some things about our "new house" were so bad that I refused to take a "before" picture of them -- the kitchen was one of those. I did, however, take a picture after we "gutted" the kitchen (Picture #1). We just had the cabinets put in on Wednesday (Picture #2). Although we still have no counter top and we haven't finished painting or tiling, the kitchen is finally taking shape.

Windows, Doors, and Carpet

Putting in new windows and a new front door really brightened up the front of our house. (See the "before" and "after" pictures above.) It still needs new guttering and major landscaping in the front, but our "remodeling budget" is about gone. New carpet was installed Friday and Saturday, we're installing floor tile Monday and Tuesday, and our kitchen cabinets should be installed on Wednesday. We're almost ready to move in.

Michael's Family Arrived

Michael, Emily, Mary, Joseph, and Katie arrived from Georgia on September 4th. They will be living in our basement until they can find a house of their own. Michael is in the management level of a software company, but works from home by phone and computer, so he can live anywhere he wants. Since all of our family and all (I think) of Emily's family live in Utah and since Mary is getting to the age where she needs to have more church friends and opportunities, they moved here. They are living at Emily's parents' house until our house is ready to inhabit. The work has really sped up with their help. Michael and Emily have removed the old carpet and painted the whole downstairs this week. Alice and I have been painting the walls and ceilings and tiling the floors of the upstairs bathrooms. The picture, above, shows Michael (nearest the truck) and two of Emily's brothers who helped unload two 26-foot U-Hauls.

"New" House -- First Residents

The first residents at the new house are the horses, Legend and Misty. Alice sold Beauty back to her original owner because it was too hard to give personal attention to 3 horses. Picture #1: Alice with Misty and Maryn (in disguise) with Legend. Picture #2: Almost everyone who visits us (from family to subcontractors) says, "This doesn't look like Utah!" We're half a mile from the freeway and all the commotion of the city, but all you can see from our house is rural landscape -- horses, pastures, a creek, a pond, and geese.