2011 April | Permission to Peruse

Carpet and Cabinet

April 29th, 2011 at 4:02 pm / Amy Bennett / 3 Comments »

Today we got carpet! And since Scott was home you know he couldn’t just sit around…all the furniture got moved stat! This is no final reveal but we sure are looking at a bedroom now!

Did you catch he hung the chandelier last night? Yes, that was #3 in my blog post!

The girls got home and were stunned. They took turns doing a happy dance (and run) and pretending to sleep on the carpet. The carpet is SO SOFT. I love it so much. The girls kept saying it looked like a hotel room and indeed, I hope that’s what we end up with!

And another near miracle, we got part of our cabinet installed today. This cabinet has been the biggest pain. The guy that did it is one of the worst communicators I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. We called at least 4 times over a 5 day span about the install date with NO return call. My mom finally stopped in one day when she was going by and found out it wasn’t ready AND he was going to use the WRONG stain. It took 48 hours for him to produce a sample, on the same day he said he would install it on, in the mean time ignoring at least 3 cell phone calls. All this time I’m having to push back our template appointment with the countertop. Finally today he shows up, 2 hours after the last time he said he would show up and only brings the base because the doors and drawers won’t be ready until next week. Holy cow. I don’t even want to give his name. But of course the guy makes up for his lack of communication skills with his woodworking skills. I suppose that and his price make up for it. I can already tell I am going to be in LOVE with this cabinet.

I think we are nearly done with everything. Everything that was on the list this week is done! We’re just waiting on the last bit of the tile to come in so he can finish the shower and backsplash (after the countertop is set next Friday) and measure for the shower doors and mirror. Oh and I need to decide on some lighting in the bathroom and closet. Oh! Which reminds me…you can see the carpet got installed in the closet there to the left in that last picture. Which really reminds me, what really will be next is figuring out the configuration of the closet and then moving that stuff over so the girls can get into our room! Whew!

In the meantime, I will be having my first night in the room tonight. Too bad we don’t have A/C (which reminds me, that’s on the list for next week too) because I’m not about to turn that fireplace on!

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Toilet and Hardwood Fireplace

April 28th, 2011 at 4:06 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

As I thought he might, Scott hooked up our toilet. The girls thought it was HILARIOUS when I used it the first time. I’m not sure why, but they were just giggling. I think partly because the window was open above my head.

And if you remember this is the fireplace I said I wanted in this post.

And LOOK

Oh my, oh my! I can not wait! Did I mention I got that fireplace for $75??

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American Idol Top 6

April 28th, 2011 at 12:00 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Jacob – There’s not much about that that I enjoyed. I wish Simon were around because I think he’d say it was a mess.

Lauren – I wasn’t a big fan of that song but I loved those high(er) notes she was busting out. More! Give us more, Lauren! And can we all just remember she is only 16? It’s so crazy.

Haley and Casey – Brilliant. I’m shocking myself to say again that I enjoyed Haley on this.

Scotty – I disagree with what they did with Scotty on this song and I disagree with the judges. Instead of stepping it up I think it sounded like he was holding back. Even physically I kept wanting him to stand! up! I’m no professional singer but I just did not hear what they heard. I mean, it was good singing but not my favorite. What’s wrong with his baritone voice? That’s what we love. A few weeks ago I though Scotty had this competition but the way James has been coming out and Scotty holding back, I don’t know.

James – Now, THAT beginning was holding back but making it more. So gorgeous, I was hanging on every single note. And that last few notes? Holy cow. It made me laugh and clap. He actually reminded me of Jon Bon Jovi tonight. That rocker singing a love song. That needs to be recorded and put in some movie.

Lauren and Scotty – I love these two. They need to make a Garth and Trisha or Tim and Faith move and just get hitched. Maybe not my favorite song ever but I loved hearing their country voices together.

Casey – I was glued to Casey just to see what he was going to do. So entertaining. Am I going to rush to download that? No. Should it on the radio? I doubt it. But it does play well to the American Idol stage and that was FUN to watch and he sounded great.

Haley – OK so I’m not on the Haley train but I think after last week and this week I’m not begging Haley to get voted off. I thought she did great and thought her voice was perfect for it.

James and Jacob – I totally wanted to throw a T-birds jacket on James and have him take off and rock it out. I don’t think Jacob added too much to it.

Favorites: James, James and James

In trouble: Jacob

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Hardwood Hallways

April 27th, 2011 at 8:32 pm / Amy Bennett / 3 Comments »

love

with

new

hallways

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Missing Carpet, Finished Tile and Inaugural Lighting

April 25th, 2011 at 7:08 pm / Amy Bennett / 3 Comments »

A few small updates today.

First, Scott took up the carpet and part of the hardwood from the entry way

Second, Scott hooked up the lights and got bulbs! Really exciting to turn those on. Lots of clapping and high fives!

And finally, he finished the tile! Here are some pictures with all the pot lights on (still no chandelier and all the vanity lighting)

And a picture with just the shower lighting

I know it’s hard to appreciate with all the dust, but we’re getting there!

Upcoming items:

Grout the tile
Another coat of bathroom paint
Hardwoods in the hallway
Cabinet is getting set on Wednesday
Template for countertop on Thursday
Bedroom and closet carpet on Friday
And as a bonus, I’m going to guess Scott might hook up the toilet after the grouting is done.

Whew! What a week!

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Weekend Recap

April 25th, 2011 at 4:30 pm / Amy Bennett / 7 Comments »

We had such a great Easter weekend. My uncle and his family came to stay for the weekend and I’ve been missing my out-of-town family (everyone but my parents/sister/in-laws) something fierce lately so it was so good to spend time with them.

Friday we met up with them at Sonny’s BBQ on Friday night before heading to Concord Mills to shop. However, I had to work for a few so off to my nearby office I went. Thankfully it was super quick and I was back browsing the stores before any really knew I was gone. I refrained from shopping except for buying the girls new bedding. I would show you a picture but it’s in my van which is at the body shop as we speak. More on that later.

Saturday morning was a wonderfully lazy Saturday morning. Mid-morning we headed to my Mom’s to spend time with everyone. We did, well, not much! The kids played, we watched TV and just chatted. After lunch we headed to a festival across the street from their neighborhood but it was small and had all sorts of activities the kids liked like face paint, hair color, petting zoo and one of the best balloon animal-makers I have ever seen.

Best of all, all proceeds went to the Children’s Attention Home. It’s weird when I think of that place now because I think, our son could be living there now. Weird, right? The rest of Saturday evening was spent back at Mom’s. The kids dyed eggs and did an Easter egg hunt.

Sunday morning was of course church for Easter and then Easter dinner with my family.

We scooted off to Carowind’s for the afternoon with the whole family. We branched out past the kiddie part and it was a real treat. Emma rode her first loop-d-loop roller coaster, The Cyclone.

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Emma is sitting to my left. I wish you could see her smiling and our fingers linked!

We linked our fingers on her handlebar and halfway through I looked to find her head down through the loops. I thought she might be getting sick or scared but at the end, you couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. She really enjoyed getting a big congratulatory hug from her daddy.

Sunday evening we spent with Scott’s family eating dinner, doing an Easter egg hunt and just watching the kids play together. It was a nice relaxing evening.

I certainly did not want to get up this morning but the kids were off to school and we had to get the cars to the body shop to get all that hail damage fixed. We got a toy car for a rental (Chevy Aveo, to be precise). Scott hit his head on the ceiling handle bar trying to turn and see what was behind him to his left. But the best part of it is Emma asking me what those things were:

Oh dear. Next thing you know those darn kids won’t know what a steering wheel is!

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Bathroom Tile

April 23rd, 2011 at 8:57 am / Amy Bennett / 3 Comments »

It’s getting really hard to take decent pictures. It is really dark in the bathroom. Good thing we designed lots of lighting for it!

OK, so see these neon mats? Those are HEATED FLOORS. Heck, yeah, I’m getting heated tile in my bathroom! And as Scott pointed out, I could leave my towel on the floor as I shower and have a heated towel too! I feel so spoiled already!

And here it is all covered up:

And, here, is our in-process shower. I know it’s difficult to appreciate with that red.

Now just imagine frameless mirror door and wall to the ceiling.

Can. not. wait.

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Bedroom Paint

April 21st, 2011 at 12:02 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

A quick mid-day post

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American Idol Top 7

April 20th, 2011 at 8:42 pm / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

Was it just me or was tonight all discombobulated? I felt like my frontrunners weren’t the frontrunners and I liked people I don’t normally like.

Scotty – I think it was clear this was one of Scotty’s weaker moments. But come on, that verse he sang waaayy doowwn there was amazing and to borrow a phrase from JLo tonight, he just has so much character to his voice. He truly is a storyteller I can visualize what he sings. I think the weak part was more the song choice than the vocals or performance. And I have to say after my tweet about it last week, I was CRACKING UP about them giving him a hard time about the flute holding.

James – I’m not sure it will be fair for me to judge this. I’m not a Muse fan. I mean, it’s not that I dislike them. I just am not that familiar with them. But whatever I heard tonight was pretty amazing. That part he sang waayy up there was craziness. Also, thank you for addressing the tail/scarf thing.

Hailey – Hold the phone, I loved Hailey tonight. And that’s saying a lot because I puffy heart that song and Adele and JLo was right, at some parts, I would say she topped Adele. Or at least gave a respectable spin on it.

Jacob – I wish Simon was around for this. I thought it was a disaster. Even vocally I couldn’t respect what he was doing. I could barely understand the words and almost had no idea what the song was about for all his jibberish.

Casey – I love Maroon 5. I’m not sure how that’s really going to affect my opinion here except to say that was no Maroon 5. Parts of it I enjoyed but give me the original any day.

Stefano – Dude is starting to gross me out. I’m seeing now what I didn’t like is what I never liked in Adam Lambert. He’s so full of himself! Vocally, it may have been one of my favorites of his but ugh, I just can’t watch him or listen to him talk.

Lauren – Lauren is a sweetheart. I think she has the full package as far as looks, personality and voice. And that will take her far. I wasn’t giving any standing ovation for that performance but it certainly was pleasant to listen to.

Favorites: James and holy cow, I think I’m going to say Hailey

Going home: Oh please be Stefano. Since I still didn’t get that right last week (but did pick James correctly as my back up since someone is clearly voting for Stefano to save him) I’m going to go with a second again and say Jacob.

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Finished Stone and Bathroom Paint

April 20th, 2011 at 5:33 pm / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

Do you hear that? Yes, that’s me squee-ing from my office. I did not expect it in the least but our bathroom got painted today! Woo Hoo!

First off, these are the paint colors I picked. The light is the bedroom and the dark is the bathroom.

Pictures aren’t really doing it justice but here it is on the wall

So. excited.

Also? The stone got finished today.

So. excited.

And tomorrow all the tile goes in the bathroom. Cue more squee-ing!

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More Trim and Primer

April 19th, 2011 at 6:56 pm / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

Starting to go fast here! Today he finished up the trim, primed the walls and painted the trim. I handed over my wall color selections. Eek!

Toilet room/Shower

Vanity

Shower

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Doors and Trim

April 18th, 2011 at 7:17 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Today I was happy to come home to much of the crown molding and baseboard in as well as 4 of the doors in! It is really looking like a room!

From the closet into the bathroom:

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Mary Kay Deal

April 18th, 2011 at 11:00 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

So this post is more of a deal post than anything. If you are a Mary Kay makeup user you need to listen up!

If your Facebook stream hasn’t already been bursting with the news, Mary Kay has a deal to sign up as a consultant for $50. The thing is you get all of this stuff with your start-up package.

Full price just for the full-size product shown would run you over $100. It is a no-brainer to go ahead and buy this up at this price. On top of that, if you put in a $200 wholesale order during the regular year you get all your product 50% for the next 2 full months.

Now, I swore up and down to my consultant that I would never become a consultant but if you are already using the product, I think it’s silly not to sign up even if you just get that starter kit.
If you don’t use Mary Kay, I highly recommend it. I’ve been using it off and on for about 15 years and I always, always return to it. There is just nothing better than make-up that stays where it’s supposed to, I love their skin care products and I love that you can try on all the colors before purchasing.

I signed up in just minutes last week. Completely painless process. If you’re interested in signing up, let your consultant know or if you don’t have an active one, I can point you in the right direction. This only lasts until April 30 so you’re going to want to jump on this.

Now don’t worry, dear local friends, I’m not going to be calling you up to book parties and I have no desire to earn a pink car (ok, I wouldn’t complain about it) but if you need something, I now have the magic order button available to me.

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Weekend Recap

April 17th, 2011 at 8:05 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Wow, what a weekend. The last 3 days have accomplished more than I thought possible. Four of five of my prayer requests were answered in just 48 hours.

Friday afternoon we barely squeaked into the granite shop for my mom to sneak a peak at the original cream colored (crema marfil - going to look a lot like this) marble remnant I had seen a few weeks ago. We took our floor tile this time and it was a perfect match. I felt really good about it.

Dani stopped by Friday and was a gem and took my inspiration picture and helped me pick out colors from that and the floor and shower tile. I would be a good blogger and post a picture of this but I’m trying to sneak this post in before the morning.

Friday at lunch I picked out and bought our carpet. This is truly a miracle because I picked out a carpet AND color BY MYSELF in all of about 10 minutes. It was the easiest purchase of this entire addition.

Saturday the guys came back to do round two of the mud and when they were finished, had a little surprise for me. ”Can we come back tomorrow and sand?” Uh…..sure. If you recall, we weren’t expecting sanding until Monday, maybe even Tuesday. As soon as Scott got home we kicked it into high gear and emptied our two bedrooms, bought some plastic and tape and went to town. I think at one point I was putting plastic over plastic, just to be sure.

Saturday night we had everything taped down and spent the night at my parents. Scott was working this morning so we had to have it all ready for them to show up at noon. The girls and I went to church and then spent the afternoon at my mom’s, all the while wondering how much cleaning we’d be doing this evening. Either way, I was so happy that they were able to do it today since tomorrow I’ll be at the office and not home until 6 and then wanting to crawl back in bed by 8. Well, I didn’t have too much to worry about because our finishing crew apparently had some sort of vacuum on their sander and left almost no dust behind. It was a super good thing that we covered in our rooms and taped off the hallway, but beyond that, you wouldn’t have even known anything had happened. And even in the rooms, it was just a light dusting. I was SO, SO grateful. The bad news is I had taken so much stuff down in preparation that I had to really hustle to get the house back in order tonight. But not too much complaining. As they say, better safe than sorry.

Our washer is still not fixed but honestly, it was quite a blessing for my mom to take on ALL our laundry this weekend. I think she must have washed 8 or 9 loads so far. I completely enjoyed the smell of home and putting away unwrinkled clothes this evening.

So between getting all the big decisions out of the way, getting this huge hurdle of the walls out of the way and all the clean laundry, I have to say I feel so FREE this evening. I really feel like we’re out of the woods with this addition and now everything is just tying together loose ends.

As for a loose upcoming schedule:

Doors, trimming and paint go up first of this week.
Vanity goes in after that
Next week will be the tile, countertop and carpet!

We’re on the home stretch!

I’ll do a more detailed post with pictures of the room and paint picks soon. I’m getting really excited about all the finishing touches!

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Dry Wall, Light Switches, Washers and Countertops

April 15th, 2011 at 11:00 am / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

Well, here we are on Friday and I haven’t given a bit of an update since Monday. Click through if you’d like to read on because I have a lot to get out.