I Feel Connected

The title of this blog is a reference to a really awesome Barbie movie (note the sarcasm). Elsa has a doll from the aforementioned movie that sings the "connected song" that sometimes gets stuck in my head. I find that sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night, I hear the "connected song". It is a little disturbing. I want all of you who read our blog to know that Audra and I did not introduce Elsa to Barbie. A girl Audra babysat did the job.
I actually do feel connected now that I have hooked up our computer. It may only be temporary since I hooked it up in the living room that still needs texture, painting, light fixtures, trim, and the hard wood floor refinished. But, I am connected, if only momentarily. This situation has really made me want to buy a laptop.
Well, we moved into our new house. We no longer call it the "work house". Elsa still thinks our old house is called _r_y___l_ which is the city we live in. Here are some pictures of the house the day before we moved in.
The upstairs bathroom:

For our faithful blog readers, here is a picture of the stairs that once had really funky orange carpet all over. You can see it here if you forgot.

Here are some shots of the basement. This is where we are living while we finish the upstairs.

A good friend gave us this cheery yellow color. We though it would help lighten up the basement.

Here is the living room progress

And now for the kitchen:

Here is a different view of the kitchen: The kitchen now has texture and is a lot cleaner than in this photo

I took some pictures of our crown jewel. It is our glass tile back splash for the kitchen. Unfortunately, I can't find my transfer cord to get the pictures off my camera.

The move went well. We had a lot of help from our church friends. Audra and I were/are exhausted. Our big push now is to get the kitchen finished. We are currently eating a lot of cereal, sandwiches, and stuff that doesn't require a lot of prep. We do have our oven hooked up in the garage. We are washing our dished in plastic tubs in the bathtub. Some of our friends were appalled when they heard our living situation. I just keep thinking that a lot of people live without the modern conveniences our society thinks are necessities. I am grateful that we do still have hot running water.

As for the kitchen, we are getting closer. A friend showed me how to do some cool ceiling texture so I finished that last week. Then another friend came yesterday to spray some texture on the walls. Tomorrow morning at 5:00a.m. (which is actually close to the time I have been going to bed the last few weeks) I have a friend coming to help me put in the underlayment (sp?) so that on Tuesday we can have our vinyl installed. Also, tomorrow night, I have a friend coming to spray a coat of primer on the walls and ceiling in addition to spraying the ceiling paint on. If all goes well, we may start installing the cabinets on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then we just need to do the plumbing for the sink and dishwasher, put in some electrical for the disposal, dishwasher, and island outlet. By then it should be smooth sailing with just light fixtures, trim, banisters, tile back splash, etc. Our goal is to get the kitchen functional by the time my parents come on the 20th. Well, that is probably enough rambling about the house. I am really grateful for all the family and friends that have helped and continue to help us. It has been on of the best experiences of my life.

On a final note, it snowed today. Yes, on June 7th it snowed. It has since warmed up a little bit. The snow only stuck for a brief period and then melted. There is still snow on the hills just outside of town. It is kind of cold in the house since we disconnected the furnace and took out some of the duct work.