A different vantage point

We flirted with just about every possible flooring material (bamboo, cork, vinyl, laminte, linoleum, synthetic stone, and more!). In the end, though, we elected to extend the wood floor into the back. I'm glad we did, as it gives the kitchen + family room a continous look. It's a little more vulnerable to water and a little more work to maintain compared to vinyl. But we do like the look and feel (warm to the bare foot!).

Almost there...

The work on the house is almost done! All that's missing in the kitchen is a few of the cabinet pulls (we decided on a different size after seeing them up close) and the two pendant lights (you can see the holes waiting for them in the ceiling over the peninsula).

The crew is also painting a bunch of things (the deck, the railing, the back of the house, the eaves underneath the roof), so our windows are covered up to keep them safe from wayward paint.

We've started moving stuff in. So exciting.

Sears is sending a replacement piece for the range which was damaged on the way in. They couldn't do the same for the fridge, mysteriously, so we're going to have to swap fridges. I feel sorry for the delivery guys. Apparently they don't make our model anymore, so we have to go pick an equivalent model. Go figure.

Afternoon snack at IKEA

Swedish meatballs and French fries straight out of the fryer. Mmmmm.....

Festive paper lanterns

Nice collection of festive paper lights at the IKEA cafeteria.

Swedish apple cake

Since Cameron and mommy didn't get to come, we got them a consolation prize: Swedish apple cake. Yum!

Mmmmm....ligonberry juice

Colin and Katie enjoy a shared sip of ligonberry juice during a recent jaunt to IKEA. Boy, was it crowded! But the Swedish meatballs, french fries, and ligonberry juice helped keep the kids from melting down.

They were quite looking forward to playing the ligonberry basket filled with grapefruit-sized plastic ligonberries, but alas, it was way too crowded. We did manage to get a $7 flat-bottom wok for our new stove, though. :-)

A little color

We had been contemplating leaving this side wall white, but Rano our contractor suggested matching the color from the wall behind the TV -- and it was a great idea. We love the colors are coming together.

Oh, by the way: we've posted the latest pics as well as pics of the old kitchen on Picasa Web. Alas, I didn't plan well enough to shoot pictures from the exact same angle. (BTW, Picasa Web raised its disk space limit to 1GB, so we'll post some of our pics there just because it's so easy to publish and manage. The rest of them will still be at Smugmug.)

Appliances at the bottom of the driveway

Here are the hardworking Sears delivery guys unloading the appliances from the truck. The kids demanded we keep the fridge box for fort-making purposes.