Scenes From The Last Week Of The Year

Most people slow down and relax the last week of the year.  The holidays are pretty much over, it's time to unwind, rest, and reflect- or at least it usually is for me, but not this year!  Things are still going on with the renovation and little by little the to-do list is getting smaller.  Before I go into that, I just wanted to post a few scenes from the last week of 2012.

A curious little kitty touched one of our newly painted doors and then tracked cute paw prints in the hall.  We cleaned it up, but I was very tempted to leave it.

 Our friends Bo and Becca stopped by to see the house and wanted to try out our tub.  I think we should make all of our friends pose for photos in it.

 Wiener dogs love racing across the nubbly hex tiles in the master bath.

 They also love watching us while we take a shower in our big open shower area.  They come in and look at us like we're crazy, then beat a hasty retreat lest we grab them up and wash them too.

 The cats have enjoyed exploring our new antique mantles.  I suspect the far left kitty is the paw print culprit.

 We cooked our first meal on the AGA.  It was just humble spaghetti with marinara sauce, but it was hot, homemade, and tasty.

It wasn't all fun and games with friends and animals, lots got done around the house too.  Our master bath had it's missing sink recovered and installed.

 Reunited and it feels so good.

The tub got it's cabinetry surround and plumbing installed.

Sorry the photos are so dark.  We run out of good light early these days.

Panel for easy access on the tub. I'm sure there's an "easy access" sex joke in there somewhere, but I'm way too much of a lady to point it out.

The tub also had it's stained glass window installed. The shower stained glass wasn't able to be installed because the window wasn't square. We're working on fixing it.

An artsy shot of the window early in the morning with the sun streaming in.  This photo does not do it justice.

The transom that separates the addition from the old part of the house was also installed.  Astute readers will note that this was not the transom we chose back in the summer.  We were somewhat flabbergasted when this was the one that showed up at our house.  Our stained glass designer has been going through some deep and personal trauma that I don't feel I can go into here.  We love her work and thought that the owl looked pretty cool, so we've decided to keep it.

Stone slabs were delivered for hearths throughout the house.

The one in the office matches the marble we have as our desk top.  Also, way to photobomb vacuum cleaner!

This hearth in the living room was a remnant we found at the stone yard.  The browns in it will look great with the reproduction Victorian tiles we'll be using around the firebox (more on that in a later post).

This is the hearth in the master bedroom.  It's the same granite that we used for our kitchen island.  The stone yard cut it too short.  I'm not really thrilled about this (seriously, how hard it is to cut a fricken rectangle?), but our contractor will add some extra woodwork around the hearth to make it look okay.

The big event for the week was the delivery of the kitchen island.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

It really does sort of look like a map of Middle Earth.  I think Frodo had to take the ring to somewhere in that purple splotch to the right.

That's it for this week folks, and for this year.  Thanks for reading this blog and for keeping up with this crazy renovation.  We've got lots more exciting stuff to come in 2013, but until then have a safe and Happy New Year!

New Year's narcissus bulbs, a gift from a sweet friend.