~The Remodel~

So...my kitchen is finally back together, except for the baseboards, which we still haven't done, but that's ok. It's been a fun project and every time I come down the stairs in the morning, I'm so glad that we actually did this. It looks so good and I'm so excited to make the rest of my house look as good. When they say that home improvement projects are never ending, they're not lying! :)

The Before Pictures...

Kitchen

Dining Room

The Demolition


Dexter...what a good helper!

Finally ready to start the tile


First tiles laid

Kitchen tiles are finally down...

Dining room waiting to be grouted!

Dexter chilling while we do the front entry way

The Finished product...except for the baseboards of course :)

~Tile~

Oh my gosh...we're finally done! Anyone who is looking to tile themselves, just remember things. 1...it's going to take a lot more tile then you expect. Even if you bring in the measurements to Home Depot, and they get you with their tile expert...they're wrong...you'll probably need twice that. In our case, 3 times that. 2...take the amount of time that you think it's going to take you...and double or triple that as well. ha! Everytime that we tried to start actually laying down the tile, we realized that there was more prep work to be done. Even after we laid most of the tile, we realized there was still more stuff to be done. 3...when people tell you that walls are never straight, don't dispute it. Even if the walls look perfectly straight to your eye...they are not! The faster you accept this, the less headache you'll have. I've suffered enough headaches for all of you. :) Overall...it was a TON of work, but it looks fantastic! And I mean...FANTASTIC! I love it! the only downside is that now I want to do more stuff to my home...like carpet, kitchen cabinets, etc...but that will have to wait. For now, we're taking a break on the home inprovements and just resting...possibly for a while. But we'll see. I'll post pics in a bit, but since I don't have my camera with me, they will have to wait.

~Vegas Baby~

Yes..I'm alive, Still as busy as ever, but I figured that this last week was worth blogging about. Ever since I started with World Financial Group, I've been told by everyone that I absolutely have to go to Convention. I never really understood why, but after hearing all the great things about it, I couldn't help but get excited to experience it myself. Randy, however, was not so much enthuse (probably because he didn't realize that he'd actually be going to the workshops with me, he thought he'd just be able to read a book by the pool all day...yup..he was wrong!). But, my excitement for the week was high, and I couldn't wait to go. So Tuesday night we made the trip down to Vegas. It was a great drive, we drove at dusk so we were able to watch the sunset, which we haven't done together in WAY too long. Wednesday started the festivities, and it was non stop running since the start. But...it far surpassed my expectation. The speakers were absolutely amazing. Even Randy was getting excited about it. We were both exhausted from the trip down, and not really getting any sleep while we were there, but I think it was impossible to fall asleep listening to these people. The convention was 3 days and amazing doesn't even begin to describe it. Friday night, though, we decided to skip out on a part of it (mostly because we planned things before the convention schedule was up) and went to see O. If you haven't seen this show...it is a MUST see! It was absolutely phenominal! My parents were in town because they were coming back from vacation so they went with us. Saturday, we went to breakfast, and then met up with my brother and his friends (who were down there as well) and went to lunch. I found it pretty amusing that we all planned a trip to vegas at the same time, and didn't really know about it. Anyway, it was a great week and I'm so glad that Randy was able to be there with me.