House Updates!

Life has been ten kinds of crazy these past few days. I apologize for the lack of updates. It makes me so happy to know you guys enjoy seeing the pictures of our hard work though (Thanks Nathalee!) So here are some updates.

So we are still living without a proper kitchen, but the addition of the fridge has made life much more comfortable. I get to have instant breakfast again! But yes, this looks pretty much the same.

Here is our other "kitchen." This is our dining table, which is currently in the office, and stores all our pantry stuff. High class. We were also installing those roman shades in the foreground that day, so it doesn't usually look quite as construction zone-ish.

The kitchen. Still looks like this. But I cannot even begin to describe how much work has gone on in and under and above this room. We are done with all the plumbing and electrical, and we PASSED OUR INSPECTION! This is so so so exciting. I am so impressed that Trent managed to learn from a book what most people dedicate their careers to learn. The inspector was blown away that we did it all ourselves, and we were very proud of ourselves.

This is the future laundry closet. We are getting stackable ones and this will be completely closed off. Look at that beautiful plumbing. Gorgeous.

Trader Joe's has been an absolutely integral team player. You can pretty much buy any complete dinner, frozen and ready to go. And frozen bananas?!? My favorite. It has been fun being reintroduced to technology, you realize how much it really does improve our lives, and I definitely have much more respect for it.

Trent is the most naturally talented person I know. His soldering is a work of art. Mine.. gets the job done. Here he is doing as much soldering outside as he can to avoid doing it under the house. Which is a real treat. We had some awesome team work going on under there.

The BIGGEST success we've had was passing the inspection. Which means.. drumroll please....
WE HAVE HOT WATER!

This is such an accomplishment. We plugged this bad boy in and held our breaths and instantly had 107 degree water. It is SO amazing, that this water is running through pipes WE laid, being powered by cables WE installed, and totally totally works.

We have been showering like crazy, it never runs out of hot water, it us just plain fantastic.

And just in time, since our first houseguest Lesley, arrived yesterday.






I love this picture. There goes Trent up into the attic to vent the microwave!






























The bathroom is totally done, which is awesome. It turned out very nice, clean and crisp, lots of blue and chrome. And again, great to be done before Lesley arrived. It is starting to feel like a real house. And she has been great about being excited about what we are doing, and not minding sharing the guest room with 4 bikes and lots of boxes. She is here until next Wednesday, we are going up to the mountains on Saturday to watch Trent's crew team race against Ohio State, and then lots of antique shopping and showing her around. Trent's parents arrive the day she leaves, and we have big plans to perhaps get the fence up when they are here, but we will see. I don't want them to work the entire time they are here!

Otherwise, our "other" lives are keeping us quite busy as well too. I have been giving tons of presentations and have one more here before I leave for San Diego on the 2nd of April for a big conference. And then vacation! My parents rented a house in Coronado for the week following the conference and I am going to sleep, and read non-science stuff, eat lots of yummy food, and run like crazy for this upcoming marathon. I absolutely cannot wait. I also get to hang out with one of my best-est friends whose wedding I am in this summer, so there will be lots of shoe shopping and cake tasting. Sounds absolutely unbelievable.

Expect big changes in the house in the coming weeks as well, now that we passed inspection we are going to start putting the kitchen together. Drywall, tile, paint, install cabinets, move our appliances, and presto.. a real kitchen. I can't even imagine.

Hope you all have a lovely Easter!