It's FINISHED!

The apartment is finished....well, close enough. Woo! We've been married a little over 4 months and 2 of those we lived with Jeanie. Pretty crazy. I have to say that it's great having our own space, with a fully furnished kitchen. What a blessing!

I know y'all have been impatiently waiting to see all of Shane's handy work, so here it is!

The kitchen. I'm standing at the door between the garage and the apartment. You can see Shane's door, our STOVE, pantry, table, and nicely painted floor.

Jeanie repainted the cabinets and they turned out great. There are a few brass knobs that we are going to take off and replace with glass knobs that match the other ones. Sorry for the mess.

Jeanie picked out a new countertop and sink, so Shane cut the countertop to fit PERFECTLY between the walls. He also cut a hole to put the sink into that was perfectly aligned with the cabinets above where the microwave sits. Very impressive.

Our new fridge and cabinet. We still need to paint it white to match everything else. I went grocery shopping for the first time in a while last week and I have completely forgotten how to shop. I came home and Shane asked what was for dinner...I couldn't put a meal together with what I bought. So, we went out to eat. Pretty sad. I took Shane shopping with me last night and he was very helpful. We cooked a yummy dinner tonight.

Our stove. It's so nice. Notice the cookie sheet with no cookies on it. We can't cook dinner and not cook dessert.

And now for the upstairs.

Shane watching TV on our new couch!

The bedroom without a wall separating it from the couch. It's nice, we can watch TV from the couch or the bed.

SHANE!

Shane's really happy we are living in the apartment. So am I.

Thanks for keeping up with all of the house updates. We are really happy with how it turned out and I'm pretty sure Jeanie is too. Shane worked so hard and we are thankful for the help from Matt Wall, Dad K, Dad P, David, Jeanie, and Tim.

Shane's birthday was last Monday. Mom and Dad P had us over to dinner and David and Sarah joined us. Mom made london broil, sweet potato wedges, zuccini and onions, salad, and lest us not forget the made from scratch Red Velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Mmm, mmm, good.

We opened gifts from everyone there. It was very special.

One of Shane's new pairs of shoes.

On his actual birthday he got some mail from family, opened gifts from me and from Mom and Dad K, received lots of calls, and Tim Gregory came into town and surprised him. I told Shane I had a surprise for him at 4:30, so he thought we were going somewhere. Tim pulled in right around then and surprised Shane. The 3 of us went out to Cracker Barrel for dinner and then drove out to Durham to say hey to Tim's mom. It was a fun evening. He felt very loved from everyone, so thank you for all of the calls, cards, and gifts.

That's it for now. We are loving our place and would love everyone to come by sometime and see it. Hopefully we will get rid of whatever is biting us before you come. We'll have to get a bug bomb or something.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET BOY!

Happy birthday to YOU, happy birthday to YOU, happy birthday to SHAAAAAAAANNNEEEE, happy birthday to YOU!
Love you Shane!

Pictures!

You know how people take pictures of their baby to document all the changes and growth and then email them to family and friends? I feel like that with this house...except it's not our baby OR our house. Hmm. Moving on...

Protecting ourselves from fiberglass. I think some snuck into my nose considering I've had quite a few nosebleeds. Gross.

Shane mudding. I think this was hour 88.

Picking at the bubbles in the wall upstairs for Shane to re-mud. He used an old piece of drywall so it was kind of messed up.

Mudding.

So dad was building a fort while Shane was working...just kidding. The camera lens got covered with drywall dust so you can't really see dad. He was helping put up the remaining pieces of drywall. Pretend Dad K is in the picture too because he did a lot of work the weekend before but I didn't get any pictures. :(

We decided to get the air compressor out to blow the dust out of the lens. After we cleaned the lens, we blew air on ourselves. I think we are going crazy.

David came over one night and had dinner with us, and before he left Shane had him help take the cabinets back off the wall.

Upstairs is FINISHED!

The beginning of priming downstairs.

Jeanie painting. I caught her off guard.

The interior door with molding.

Shane dropped the ceiling because of some 2x4's that were in the way. It was a pain, but it looks awesome!

One of the new light fixtures.

The cabinets and the light fixture above.

Ceiling fan in the kitchen.

All we have now is:

- a few more places leading upstairs that need to be painted

- painting the floor, bathroom, and stairs

- fixing the railing

- installing a smoke detector

- installing appliances

- moving in!

We are so close!

I'm assuming I'll be able to put pictures up in a week of everything completed with all of our stuff in place, etc. Very fun! Hope you've enjoyed this.

Close to finished...but not close enough.

Alright, time to get on your knees in prayer. We are ready for this project to be finished. Jeanie scheduled a final inspection for Monday morning, so we are hoping to have everything done by then. The final inspection will allow the electricians to finish their work, and it'll give us a certificate of occupancy. My dad is over there now working on it while Shane and I are at work. We are thankful for his help. There are a few little things that need to be done in order to pass (put up a hand rail for bottom part of the stairs, mud the side of the wall facing into the garage to make it fire safe (I think?), and other things I can't think of. Stuff we need to finish up that doesn't have anything to do with the inspection is caulking, priming, and painting the walls (which Jeanie has been working on the past couple days), mudding in some areas to smooth the walls out, and painting the floor downstairs. Jeanie picked a really neat color that I forget the name of (reddish, orange) that looks really good. The walls are cream and the cabinets are going to be painted white. She got a great new countertop and sink as well. Shane worked for a while yesterday cutting a hole in the counter top for the sink to fit into and cut it to the right length, he also put in the spray hose and faucet. I'll put pictures up soon. Thank you all for keeping up with everything and keeping us in your prayers. Please pray that we finish everything up by Monday so that it passes, and that if we don't, the city will be available to come back when we are ready. It'll be so fun to enjoy the space once we move in!