This and that...

Combining a few different things into one post to save time... it's another snow day around here and as you can imagine, Max has no time for me to be on the computer; he wants to PLAY!

First, we spent the last few days of our Christmas vacay working on the kitchen. We painted it, and then repainted it cause I hated the color I chose, and tiled the backsplash with the help of a few friends.

The paint. Our house is all warm, earth tone colors and for the kitchen I needed something a little different yet something that would blend. I chose gray, thinking "it's neutral" so it would work, plus our countertops have gray, our appliances are steel... how could I go wrong? Well once we got the first coat on I knew; it was TOO BLUE. Gorgeous color, just looked horrible in our kitchen with the green/gold color from the great room butting up next to it. So we regrouped, made a trip to the hardware store, and got a more green/brown/gray color. LOVE.

Painting was done. Next up, tile. Chris has never tiled before. Thankfully our friend Andrew came over with his saw and helped Chris for the better part of Saturday. I bought him a case of Sam Adams for his help but man, after spending 7 hours here working, we owe him BIG! (thanks, Andrew) Our friend Rob came over after Andrew left; he made sure Chris finished the job well, gave advice, etc. After 9 hours of work, the tile was up...

Sunday was time to grout. OMG what a mess! Again, Chris spent most of the day working on this. We used natural slate tiles therefore grout gets in every nook and cranny, so cleaning the tiles afterward took up most of the day. We are finished though and YAY, we love it! Ready to tackle the kitchen in the basement next!!!!

Before... (right when we moved in.)

After... (see the paint by the plants? Should have taken pic of the nook area)

On Thursday we got dumped on by a big storm. SNOW DAY!!!! Max spent a few hours sledding, shoveling (and earning money), and playing in the snow. It's really REALLY cold outside but he doesn't care... just bundle him up and he's ready to go! We'll be heading out again this afternoon, hoping to find some major hills to sled down! Wish us luck!