House Project No. 2...

Tonight, we went rock shopping. Found a great deal on some natural blue granite (actually has hints of green and brown in it too) that we ended up buying! That, with a little pea gravel and crushed limestone, will begin our new retaining wall/landscape beds in front of the house.

Thus begins house project no. 2......

Releasing Emilie's Inner Diva!

On Saturday, Emilie and Dianna came up to Omaha to participate in the American Heart Association Heart Walk in downtown Omaha. Emilie stole the show in her red threads and hot sunglasses! :)

Mission Accomplished!

Grant and Padraic got an early start on Saturday and painted the finished shelf - took some time off to watch Yankees vs. Red Sox (of course) - and then painted the wall. It's exciting to have our first "project" done!

Spring Cleaning... and then some...

And then came the cleaning... Even though we had plastic taped and pinned everywhere, there was still a ton of drywall dust after Grant finished sanding. Grant was covered, the wall/shelf was covered, everything was covered (my only known down-side of an open plan house - we couldn't shut doors to contain it). We also hosted Mother's Day at our house on Sunday, so most things were cleaned 2-3 times before the dust was abated. And, as you can see below, Mia was very helpful. :)

Birthday Tree!

True, it is not yet my birthday, but I got an early present this week... a tree! Grant had asked me what I wanted, and I said a tree. So he called up our friend Tom from Ahern Hardscapes and Garden Design - and he and Grant walked a nursery and picked out this Red Point Maple. It's so exciting to see some growth - my new tree and our grass are the first color, other than brown, on our lot since we've lived there! Plus, I had no idea it was even happening! I came home from drill in Lincoln, and surprise - a tree! :)

Mud, Sand, Mud, Sand, repeat.

And the war on our wall wages on! Grant has finished all the gyp board and is now on to the mudding and sanding phase. (I just stay out of the way.) We're actually liking the white look, so we may end up painting it a lighter color and painting the wall behind a dark accent color - opposite from what we originally planned. You can see the acutal war zone in the last two pictures. We have everything taped off and covered to limit the amount of dust migration. Yes, we've trapped a lot, but there's still al light coating everywhere - of course. :(

Viva Vdara!

We're back! Have been for about a week now, but have slowly been getting back into the swing of things. We went to Las Vegas last weekend, April 8-11, as a pseudo-family vacation. We met up with Jeane and her boyfriend Matt, and Greg & Collette (Grant's parents) at the MGM Grand on Thursday. When we arrived, we were even upgraded to the MGM Signature Towers - no objection here! Thursday night we walked the strip a couple times and feasted at the MGM Grand Buffet. Friday morning, we went out to Greg and Deb Wolfram's house for breakfast - it was nice to see something off the strip! If I remember correctly, Deb is Collete's cousin. During the afternoon, we walked all over the strip, ducking in and out of casinos, from the Wynn back to MGM. Friday night, we ate at Todai, an amazing seafood and sushi buffet. Mmmmm! Saturday, we walked around even more, and scored some free tickets to Blue Man Group from Bill Lager, a close friend of Greg's. Thanks Bill! I've posted a lot more pictures on my facebook profile, most of the ones in this post deal with the following paragraph...

Saturday morning, we cleaned up our room and the MGM, and Grant and I headed over to Vdara in CityCenter for our one night there. I worked on Vdara for my first 2 years at Leo A Daly. It was so amazing to see something you draw stand before you in built reality! When we checked in, were were upgraded (again) due to availability to a panoramic suite! Basically, a room with 3 walls of glass, 270 degrees of views! Check out this site to see a description and floorplan of our suite: http://www.vdara.com/suites/panoramic-suite.aspx. Enjoy these, and check out facebook for more from the rest of the weekend!

Vegas!

As of noon today, we'll be off work, leaving for a weekend in Las Vegas! I've never been before, so expect to see a lot of pictures on a following post. Jeane (Grant's sister), her boyfriend Matt, and Greg & Collette (Grant's parents) are all going - so I'll have plenty of qualified tour guides!

Happy Easter!

Last Sunday, we celebrated Easter in Lincoln with my extended family. As you can tell, it took four men to operate a grill (sometimes up to eight), and we all had plenty to eat!

Paul, George, Grant, & Ken checking one piece of steak. :)

My cousin Natalie McCormick, her husband Bill, and the boys Caleb and Jared.

My cousin, Nichole Mulcahy, and my niece Emilie.

Emilie eying mommy's food! (My sister, Dianna)

My grandparents (Granny & Pa), Leonard & VeraGene Hill.

Entertainment Center: Wiring and Gyp Progress

Little by little, we're making progress on the Entertainment Built-In. As long as I stay out of the way, Grant gets work done. :) He has run flexible conduit throughout the component shelf for surround sound speaker wires. He also wired (with a little phone help from my dad) a small spot on the left wall for future wall art or a photograph and a recessed rope light under the component shelf for "mood lighting." Following all the wiring, he started hanging all the gyp board (last picture). We're actually all done with gyp board, and he's already started taping and mudding the whole built-in. Kinda messy - and I definitely dust way more often with all the sanding going on!