Christmas in March!

I got a Christmas present in the mail the other day!!!



My Mom offered to make me a sweater this past Christmas, so we went and picked out a pattern and yarn. I had no idea she was even close to finishing it, but suddenly it arrived and surprised me on a day I needed a surprise. :)



Apparently I picked a very difficult pattern. She went around to all the expert knitters she knew, and even to many knitting shops and no one could help her figure it out. So she just worked it out HERSELF and it turned out FANTASTIC!!
It came out even better than I had ever imagined!!



And since we woke up to THIS on the 9th day of spring...



I've already worn it a couple times already!



Thank You Mom! I LOVE it!!!
Can I order another in red?! ;-)

inheriting china

I thought it was time to post about something more beautiful than the ugly bathroom remodel!



This past Christmas we were out in Washington and Adam's Grandma offered us a set of her china! And i said YES, ABSOLUTELY I DO!!!!



We never registered for it because we wanted to make sure we received everything we needed. Later on I was a little sad (because when would ever actually go out and buy it for ourselves!?) So this is so exciting for me!



And this set that Grandma gave us is EXACTLY what I would have picked out for myself! I love it. It's a called Baroness by Noritake. It has a pretty white on white floral pattern with platinum bands around the edges.



Right now we only have 4 place settings since we didn't have much room in our luggage. But we'll collect more pieces next time we go back. Each setting has 7 pieces: dinner plate, salad plate, soup bowl, fruit bowl, dessert plate, cup and saucer.



This fun book was a wedding/shower gift. I hardly ever used it, but now with our china maybe we'll have more formal dinners!



Thanks again, Grandma!! I LOVE IT!! You can come out and visit it us ANYTIME and we can use it together :)



In the meantime, any two people want to come over for dinner?!! We're all set for you...

demolished.

It's been a while... but we've been hard at work on the bathroom.

The last shot you saw was of the awful tile in the shower that did not want to come out. Well, instead of fighting it, we decided to take the entire wall out!





Because the wall was cement/plaster/wire mesh, Adam had to use his angle grinder to cut through it. Using it made a HUGE dust cloud with basically 0.0 inch visibility that was no fun. Poor Adam came out every time covered in dust head to toe. This is him going in...



Next, we discovered that our lovely pink tub was CAST IRON!! So Adam took a 16lb sledgehammer to it one night and we both carried it out in 2 hefty pieces.





The toilet is gone and now we're completely finished with demolition which is a great feeling.



Since then, Adam has been perfecting his plumbing skills and entirely re-plumbed the sink and shower.





Under the tub was a uneven mess of wood and cement so we had to experiment with some filler products. FYI, "self-leveling" is the way to go!! (We figured that out after 3 trips to home depot and 4 to menards.)



Just this weekend Adam started framing a shower niche, putting up drywall and test fitting the tub. I wasn't much help- I have a big proposal due on Wednesday so it was a working weekend for me :(



YAY for drywall! (this is where the recessed medicine cabinet will go)



We're getting there...
Our goal is to be finished by April 8th. Think we can do it??

M.S.

Look what I got in the mail the other day!



It's official.



But the Lord has been reminding me a lot lately that true wisdom is not from books, education, or degrees, but from knowing God and obeying his commands.



As I work towards the next three letters, I will strive to soak in the Lord's Word:

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
(Proverbs 1:7 )

Haughtiness goes before destruction; humility precedes honor.
(Proverbs 18:12 )

my Valentine

Last Saturday, after working on the bathroom all day, we went out to Graziano's to celebrate Valentine's Day.



We were pleasantly surprised when our pizzas arrived in the shape of hearts! How fun!



Love and pizza.
What a great combination. :)

I love you, Adam! Thanks for my awesome water bottle!!

in demolition...

We dove into remodeling our bathroom a couple weekends ago!







And boy what a tough project it is- quite possibly worse than the kitchen! We are still in demolition phase and this is why...




(This was the only the progress we made ALL last weekend!)



The tile on the walls around the tub was NOT meant to be taken off!! The tiles are set in mortar on plaster walls which has this metal mesh built into it meaning it is nearly impossible to tear it out!

But we are trudging along one chip at a time and building fabulous arm muscles!

Here are a few photos that are serving as our inspiration for how our new bathroom will look eventually. (I look at them daily to remind myself why we're doing this to ourselves!!)


[This Old House]


[This Old House]



[BHG]

That's all for now. We'll keep you posted on our progress!