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Kari and I (OK, mostly Kari) have been putting up our new backsplash here and there over the past week or two. It looks awesome, and we’re very close to finishing. A few more tiles to put up and then we’ll put on the grout, hopefully this weekend.

Once we finish with this project, all that will be left is getting new appliances, someday. It’s been our first real home improvement project, and overall we (right, Kari) have done a pretty darn good job, we think, for not all that much money. Here’s a look back at the new floor and the old ceiling.

Guess we didn’t chronicle all of it, but we also put in new light fixtures, painted the walls, put in new countertops and a new sink, stained the cabinets and replaced the cabinet hardware. Not bad in a year and a half.

Well, it was the end of April last year when we lost a huge tree in our front yard. This year we didn’t even make it that long, and this time the storms got us worse. A huge tree on the side of our house split in half and fell on our house. Finally made it up into the attic this afternoon and there’s a big hole in the roof. So let’s hope we don’t get anymore rain before we can get the tree removed and the roof repaired!

We all woke up during the storms (Bailey was wondering what our problem was. He can sleep through anything) but we had no idea a tree was on our house unil the next morning. At least we’re all safe. Bailey is mad though. He can’t play in the back yard. Some other downed limbs knocked the power lines down and they’re laying in our yard. Anyone have an in with the power company? We have to thank our great neighbor across the street who’s letting us and our two next-door neighbors plug into her power. So at least we have a light!

If you want to reminisce with us, check out our blog post a year ago:

http://blog.kjcrane.com/2007/a-stormy-couple-days/

And look, Bailey is famous! I knew he was meant to be a show dog. He made an appearance on the Star-Telegram blog this morning:

http://startelegram.typepad.com/storm_troopers/2008/04/a-fallen-tree-p.html

More photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonlcrane/TreeOnHouse

Ya right! We finally said goodbye to the ugly, old floor that came with our house. We tore it up ourselves and paid someone to come install ceramic tile in its place. (We stuck with the easy part of the job on this one.) The new floor looks a million times better! We went with a nice tan color with plenty of speckles to disguise the dirt Bailey drags in with him on an hourly basis. Next on the agenda: Kari will tackle the backsplash (hoping to install similar tile there). And by that point the old appliances will be very out of place, so hopefully they’ll make their way to the curb for bulky trash day.

Oh, while we’re on the topic of the house, not sure we made an official announcement that our hot tub is up and running. So pack your swimming suit and head to Texas for a visit.

There’s dust. Drops of paint. Little specks of something. It’s the leftover mess after we removed the popcorn-textured ceiling in our kitchen. We’ve been told that home projects are never as easy as they seem. But that doesn’t apply to us, right? Well, the details are boring, but suffice it to say that it was not nearly as easy as we thought. But not, the ceiling is smooth (relatively) and the new light fixtures are up. We’re ordering the first half of the new counters this week (if we can install that, we may do the other counter, with the sink, too) and we’re also painting the walls a warm cream color next week. Wish us luck.