Sunday Praise...

Song of Love

Rebecca St. James

Jesus, King of my heart
Father, my peace and my light

Spirit, the joy of my soul You are

Jesus, to you none compare

Father, I rest in Your care

Spirit, the hope of my heart You are

The heavens declare You are God

And the mountains rejoice

The oceans cry Alleluia

As we worship You Lord

For this is our Song of Love

Jesus, You save my soul

I'll thank You forevermore

Jesus, the love of my life You are

Jesus, I am in awe

Of the love that You have shown

Jesus, how precious You are to me

The heavens declare You are God
And the mountains rejoice
The oceans cry Alleluia
As we worship You Lord
For this is our Song of Love

Hooked On...

What are you hooked on? That's what Julia at Hooked on Houses wants to know. There are a couple of things that I'm hooked on . The first is this:

Derek and I rarely ever miss NCIS. We even watch the reruns on USA network. My week just isn't complete until Tony gets "Gibbs-ed" at least once!

The second thing I'm hooked on is reading blogs. My Bloglines list has recently grown to 37 blogs (I know, I know, I have to get a life). I try to check on them every evening after work (its my way of decompressing) and sometimes even at lunchtime. I get so much inspiration from you gals! I often wonder if the dollar stores and Goodwill see a bump in sales whenever someone in Blog Land's post about a thrifting trip or project!

So, what are you hooked on?

The Snowball Effect...

You know what happens just as soon as you get one project done around the house? You start finding other things that must be done. All of a sudden things that looked perfectly fine not too long ago seem in desperate need of redoing now that the new stuff is in place. We're going through this around here. The new floors are done, so we've been thinking that we might need to upgrade a few other things. As you might remember, Derek works in the office of a building supply company. Handy, huh? Yesterday he came home and said that he bought me an early Christmas present: new countertops for our kitchen!

When I was a kid, our kitchen had butcher block laminate countertop. I hated that countertop (Mom still has it today, but she likes it about as much as I did). I always said that someday, when I had my own house, I would not have a butcher block countertop. When we moved in our house nine years ago, guess what kind of countertop the builder put in the kitchen? You guessed it, butcher block. Did I mention I hated that kind of countertop? Well, I've lived with it for nine years, knowing that 1) countertops are expensive, and 2) it was still in good shape, so my frugal self couldn't justify changing them.

But when we put in our new floors, it became apparent that we were now suffering from wood-tone overload. Look at our wood floor, wood cabinets, and wood-looking counters:


Pretty soon, though (maybe as soon as next week), those countertops will look like this:
Its called "Labrador Granite" and its from Formica. Its still laminate, but I think its much prettier than what we have now. In fact, I actually don't think real granite would suit our house. We don't have a big grand house, so laminate will do just fine.
I can't wait to get them installed. I think Derek did pretty well, don't you?

All Dried Up...

Well, the work is finally done! We still keep finding dust everywhere (the Swiffer has become my new best friend!), but it is getting better. I have to say that Derek did a great job picking out this floor. Can you believe I let my husband pick it out without me having seen it until it was already partially installed? It isn't what I thought I'd like (the rustic-look usually isn't my style), but I really do love it. It goes with our house beautifully. Now, granted, it isn't hardwood (not in the budget), but it works for us.

Here are a couple of pictures:

We are definitely in the market for a rug for the living room and for under the dining room table. And boy, a hard floor does make things a lot louder! That will take some getting used to. Let me just give everyone a little word of advice...if your water heater is getting up there in years, better check it out. Ours was just over 9 years old, which is about the time many of them start giving out. And when you do put in a new one, please invest about $20 and install one of these:

Believe me, we now have an overflow pan under our water heater! Hopefully we won't ever need it, but at least we won't have a pond in our house again (at least not from the water heater).

Progress...

The hammering and sawing has commenced! As I type, our very own Handy Mannys are in the living room finishing up the installation of our new flooring. And let me just say I love it! It will be a while, though, before I get all the dust cleaned up. Good thing that I have a sub for tomorrow and can spend my day off cleaning.
I'd take pictures of the progress, but my camera battery is dead. Not to mention that the workmen will probably wonder what in the world this crazy woman is doing snapping pictures of them working.
I'll charge my battery up tonight and after the furniture is back in the right rooms, I'll take a few pics to share.

It's Always Something...

You know what they say, if it isn't one thing, its two. That sure does ring true around here. You see, Tuesday morning, as I was trying to get my children out of bed so I could get them ready for school, I decided that I needed to go in the kitchen for something. As my foot stepped into the dining room, I felt my foot go 'squoosh'. Yes, the water heater kicked the bucket (too bad there wasn't a bucket nearby-we sure could have used one!) and our dining room was turned into a pond. What a lovely way to start the day!
The good part is that our homeowner's insurance is going to pay to fix the damage. And the better part is that we are replacing that old, stained carpet with laminate floating floor. We've planned to do this for a long time, and thanks to an unfortunate situation, it's finally getting done.
Here's what it looks like right now. What do you think-should I keep this look?

There she is, banished to the deck, sitting there trying to look innocent. "Who, me?" she seems to ask...

The vinyl flooring in the laundry closet is going in Saturday morning, and the laminate will go down Tuesday. Until then we're living with the table, chairs, and microwave cart in the living room. Its a little squished, but the kids love eating directly in front of the TV. Hopefully we'll get it all back together before my and Derek's birthdays next week. I'll update you as progress continues.