Pantry Complete

 Mat and I have finished the pantry.  We built the shelves for the food.  And we built some decorative shelves to fill the walls on the opposite side.  It came out beautifully.  It was just as I imagined!

The pantry shelves are about 20 inches deep.  We took 6 IKEA bookcases and attached them together.  IT was a lot of work but totally worth it.  Mat did a great job.  I have been scouring antique shops for cool boxes and antique items to use to store out food.  It has been a lot of fun planning out.

Mat built me 4 shelves made out of reclaimed barn wood.  They are gorgous.

A few years ago I found this hymnal holder from an old church at an antique store.  It makes a perfect holder for my favorite cookbooks

I also took two of the old cold mining lanterns we inherited from Mat's grandpa - derusted them and added them to the pantry.  It was a fun project to bring them back to life

The before

The after!

Arlington starts her Sophomore year of college

 This weekend Arlington started her second year At UMass Amherst.  She is still an Animal Science major and was excited to get back to campus.  This year all classes are going to be in person, the campus completely open, and all students invited back.  It should be a more college experience this year.  They are still requiring masks in all indoor spaces and everyone has to be vaccinated, so fingers crossed things go well.

Mat's parents were here to help her move in which was very special.  Arlington is in an on campus apartment this year.  She has her own bedroom but three roomates.  It has two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room so a lot of space to spread out and relax.

Scooby Turns 10

 Happy 10th Birthday to our Scooby!  I cannot believe he has been with us a whole decade.  He is still silly and goofy and a big old dumbo.  We are so lucky to have such a good dog

Jim Gaffigan Show

 For Arlington's birthday in 2020 (yes you read that right) we got her tickets for a live Jim Gaffigan show.  We love his comedy and were so excited to be able to see him in person.  However Covid hit and his show was postponed until August 2021.  We were so glad to be able to go this past summer.  Cainan didn't come with us  - chosing to spend the evening with his grandparents instead.  The show was amazing and it was so cool to see him in person

Foundation Fundraiser

 We were able to do a fundraiser for Finley's foundation this year because we are coming out of this pandamic, AND we are more settled back in the United States.  Our whole RDH12 Fund for Sight worked to gether to sell golf ball tickets and we made:

$49,233!!

Do you see that number?  That was our biggest fundraiser for Finley to date.  Such amazing support and the golf ball drop was a ton of fun

My kids did an amazing job separating over 3700 golf balls to make sure we had every number accounted for.  

Thank you to the Connellsville Fire Department for lifting all 3700 of those golf balls and dropping them over the golf tee

Tile work

 Mat and I have been working hard on the mudroom tile and we are nearly complete.  However what that job has shown us is......this isn't for us.  It is extremely time consuming and hard and frustrating.  So we did the wise thing for the other tile projects we had left for our kitchen remodel and hired someone to do it.  We got a great price, they were super quick (they installed our backsplash in the same amount of time it took Mat and I to hang our dining room light fixture) and it looks beautiful.  We had our kitchen backsplash, and our two front entrance tiles done

Our tile in our pantry.  This was the tile we originally picked out for our mudroom.  Mat was so excited that we were able to have it installed in the kitchen. I was a little unsure at first how the color would work but now we love it.

We chose an accent for above our Range (which will come eventually!)

The full project.  We did from our pantry to our peninsula.

This is our secondary front entrance tile.  We chose a pricier option for these two options because they are the first thing you see when you come into the house. 

Our main front door.  A darker version of the other tile.  IT almost matched our soapstone perfectly.

New Tractor

 I had to take a picture of Cainan using our new mowing tractor because it is just so darn cute.  Mat decided that going electric might be the way to go for us.  We did a lot of research and found one that could handle our size yard.  Our old tractor died and after battling the oil and gas and belts, etc. - it was time for a change.  It reminds us all of a go cart

Moving Day

 Time to unload boxes and boxes of Kitchen stuff into our new space.  Most of this we left here in storage while we were in Switzerland.  So it really is like Christmas opening a lot of these boxes.  I have many treasurers from my grandmother and it will be fun to find permanent homes for all of her beautiful dishes

Special visitors

 After a year and a half I FINALLY got to see my brother and sister law for a visit.  They were in New England for a whirlwind tour and stopped for a visit.  

Renovation END

 Well - week 18 and the rennovation is at an end.  For now.  The major players are in and complete.  The house is sparkling clean.  (our contractor brings in a cleaning crew when they are done and they were magnificent).  We can not place our furniture and start to move into our new space.  We are so excited!

We are still waiting for the Range - we understand we still have a few weeks to go for that unfortunately.  And the side panels for our island and peninsula are on back order.  BUT otherwise we can use the kitchen.  

What an experience.  After almost 5 months of living through dirt and grime and people being in our house from 7-5 every day, we are going to have some peace and get to enjoy our beautiful new space.  

Our dining room.  The only thing that changed in here was the flooring and I restained the mantel.  Oh and we painted the walls a deeper blue/gray than the rest of the house.

Our new kitchen looking into the pantry.  Our fridge, and range hood are up and running.  I cannot wait to start to fill those drawers!  I have also oiled the counter tops to a deep black

Our giant island and looking into our breakfast nook area.

Pantry

Looking into the kitchen from the hallway from our mudroom and side entrance.

So much open space now

I painted our inserts on the side of our giant two sided fireplace to a white.  I have ordered white shelves as well to replace the glass.  Look open and fresh now.  Also took the old doors off

The full kitchen.  Looking forward to filling it

Our built in microwave will continue to get well used especially while we wait for our Range

Our living space now.  Without all the walls it is so big and spacious

50th Wedding Anniversary

 We interrupt this run on remodel pictures of my parent's 50th wedding anniversary.  On June 5th they celebrated 50 years of wedded bliss.  We couldn't be with them then so we celebrated when they visited us here in August.