Which do you prefer?

So everything has gone pretty smooth in the housebuilding process, except for...the rock. It's kind of a long story, but this is what I saw one night after work...
Needless to say, I had a little bit of a breakdown. The swatch I picked was definitely not that brown. Anyway, Brody and his wonderful, wonderful friend ripped it all off and put up some pretty gray rock...
We also replace the icky cream dentil molding with white. I am SO SO SO much happier with the result. And now the house is officially done - the rock is fixed, the blinds are installed, and we're moving in!

The house is done!

Master bath

Master bedroom

Kitchen

Upstairs family room

The house is officially done! These are just a few pictures - more are posted on the facebook. We are closing today and will start to move stuff this week!

House Update

Little bit o' sheetrock

Tyvek wrapped and the roof is done

Paint

siding and shutters

So the house is coming along great! I've been told that everything is still on schedule for Sept. 22. I'm finding that I often can't go to sleep at night because I'm arranging furniture in my head. How do I turn that off?

SHVEEDEN

So I just spent the last week getting pictures of our trip up on facebook, so I'm not gonna lie, the blog will suffer. I would like to refer you all to my facebook page for amazing pictures of our 2-week trip to Sweden, Estonia, Russia, and Denmark - captions included! Here are just a few highlights:

Cruising the Baltic
Cruise ship food
Way too many old and overweight Swedes in bikinis (not a highlight)
Being able to say we've been to Estonia
Old Estonian churches
Seeing St. Petersburg via two guided tours (to protect us from the Russian mafia)
Old Russian churches
Driving through beautiful Swedish country-side
Having to sit in the backseat between my long-legged brother and broad-shouldered husband...
Viking ships
Visiting family members and having them feed us
Eating the exact same meal at all four family member's houses
Going to 8 different H&Ms
Finding a really cute owl shirt at the very first H&M and then searching the following 7 trying to find it again...and finding the owl shirt the day before we flew home!
Old Swedish churches
World's largest Dala Horse, World's longest bench, Sweden's oldest Church
Hot dogs with mashed potatoes
Pear-flavored anything
Swedish candy
Going to a Medieval festival and jousting tournament
Riding bikes along the ocean
Getting to visit Jonkoping again and show the fam where I used to hang out
Canal tours
Nutella and banana crepes
Changing of the guards
Climbing to the top of old churches

It was such a fun and exhausting trip. We had a great time, but are also glad to be home. Though I do miss the candy...

Framing...

Yard Sale!

Everyone come to our Yard Sale this Saturday, July 18th, from 8 am to noon. I will be joining forces with a couple other friends so the selection will be spectacular! Here is a brief list of the awesomeness that this yard sale will have:
-Bar stools
-LOTS of home decor
-Women's clothing that has mostly likely been worn only once
-VHS movies (wahoo!)
-George Foreman grills
-Dutch Oven
-Computer desk(s)
If you don't know where I live, then maybe you shouldn't be reading this blog...kidding, just let me know and I'll hook you up with the address.

This Clock Rocks my Socks

So a couple months ago, I found this clock online...
It is made by Steve Cambronne - a metal sculptor. He has amazing stuff - check it out here.
So instead of paying the $250 for it, Brody and I embraced our inner craftiness and total ripped off his design.
I started by drawing the shapes and tracing them on to a piece of wood.
Brody cut out the shapes with some fancy wood-cutting tools and then I painted all the pieces...
We glued the pieces together using some super-sticky wood glue...
and Voila!
I'm so in love with it! You can't tell from the picture, but it is very 3-D. Coolest. Clock. Ever.