Why is there a hole?

I now no longer have to explain to people why there is a hole in the floor of the middle of our kitchen! For those of you who have not visited our house or do not know, we purchased re-po home and the prior owners took miscellaneous things when they moved out, one of which was the kitchen island.... 

It has taken us months to get bids from cabinet shops and shopping at the hardware stores to make a decision. Since 97% of all other home improvement projects we have decided to tackle have been DIY, we figured why should this one be any different! 

In-stock cabinets from Lowe's were super quick to install, the concrete counter-top however was a little more labor intensive.... 

Form for counter-top

It's gonna get just a little messy!

Mixing

Pouring & troweling

 Stain added for highlights. Then LOTS of elbow grease, 

wipe on & wipe off's before we got to the next step.

                            Up close of the finished product!

And last, finished!

I have to admit the whole project did not turn out EXACTLY how we had it pictured in our heads, but we are quite pleased with the end results! We will be tackling the remaining counter-tops throughout the house in the future since they are all a lovely shade of blue.... but it will be done a little at a time! :) 

With 2011 gone bring on 2012!

So I am a little behind on posts..... *Disclaimer, a tad bit of a lengthy post*

We had a wonderful Christmas, nice and quiet for the most part if you don't count being woke up at 4:30AM by a 4 year old. I do however have to give her a little credit because she did tip-toe in our room before she blurted out "SANTA CAME!" I love how excited they are at this age about Christmas! 

This picture pretty much sums up how our day was!

New Year's Eve and Day were VERY quiet, in fact we were all in bed and asleep by 8:30PM. Hey, we have 365 days to see 2012, who needs to stay up all night to see the first minute of it right??? The only eventful thing that did happen is our dog Sadie apparently did decide to stay up all night and morning....and thought a round of hide and seek was appropriate for the day! Don't worry though, we found her.

Well lets see, what else has been going on..... MANY home improvement projects. I am taking advantage of the fact Utah has no snow right now so that means Brian is home and not snowmobiling! So lots of honey-do's are in the works! 

We have almost completed the "guest-suite" downstairs, it's no longer painted black & grey (except the floor) just have to order carpet and it's done!

After months of headache's and such we finally have the starts to a kitchen island!!!! 

Gotta love Lowes and in-stock cabinets, half the price of any cabinet shop. We are going to get really creative and do our own concrete counter-top for it too, I will make sure to let you know how this project turns out.... oh and the highlight for the kitchen is the new garbage pull out (it's the little things in life that make you happy!). 

I still have LOTS of painting to do in the rest of the house so if anyone is board, come on over! :) 

After 2 years or maybe a little more, Gracie has her bunk-bed set up and could not be happier!!!! 

And last of the important news (see I told you I was behind). We decided to change doctors and clinic's so our needs were better met. Baby Dennis #2 is doing great and we love our new doctor. Baby has a really strong heartbeat, is measuring a little ahead of schedule and is moving like crazy! As for mom, I am feeling much better and gaining a little more energy each day.  

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!