A whole lot of new

So a few weeks ago, I can't remember the exact date at the moment, Cassidy entered the big girl stage. She lost her first tooth. Bottom left central incisor. It's not so obvious when she smile as it is on the bottom, but boy was she excited to show all her friends the night it happened. After she finished crying because of the small amount of blood.

Sean got whacked good Sunday morning with a wooden train track thrown by Molly. He instantly got a nice bruise and now has a scab. Right in the middle of his forehead. Oh well. It's bound to happen ... again.

I got some inner Bob-Villa channeled this last week. I finished two projects that we have had in the works for years. Yes, years. The first was the appliance built in. It was an open space accessible in the dinning room that was built under the stair landing to accomidate kitchen appliances, to free up pantry space. Well, that was dry walled and painted with the remodel in 2011. Now it's 2014 and it's done. We had the drawers built and I "stained" them. That's not the right word, maybe finished is. Three coats of clear polycrylic, with two sandings. Those were done a couple of months ago. Then it was time to wait, more waiting, for the doors. Those were a complete surprise last Tuesday. I had until Friday to do four coats and sand between each coat. That's when the handy man was coming back to install. He came, installed, and left. Somehow in the chaos they weren't opened and the slide out drawers pulled out, so when I did that very thing about an hour after he left, I found, the doors blocked the drawers. Talk about frustrating. Here I've waited years and just when everything is perfect, it isn't. So after a few rants and hours at HD and on the internet I found the hinges I thought were the right ones and ordered them. (I hate ordering unknown things on the internet because you can never be quite sure they are the right thing I would much rather go to a store and see the item before buying.) They arrived today and I quickly changed out the old bad for the new good and now.... perfection.  Man, I LOVE how the doors turned out. I love how the whole thing turned out. The doors are so smooth and gorgeous. They match the newel posts on the stair case in terms of style and the color is just slightly different. I love working with wood. If I had more free time...

Just when we found out we were pregnant with Sean I completely revamped my closet with Elfa components from The Container Store. Now I can fit EVERYTHING in my closet, I don't need any drawers in our lone dresser. So I thought Joe's closet should be "fixed" too. Well, I bought the components during their 30% off sale in January and they have sat in the closet waiting to be used ever since. I had our handyman who built the cabinet/built in cut the grooves to accomidate the supports and then spent two hours installing and voila!! All done and so much nicer looking then before. Somehow I had miscalculated when I purchased the items and was short two shelf supports so it's not 100% done, but it's 95% done and 100% useable.

A number of years ago Joe's mother bought him a heavy duty 24 volt cordless impact driver. It's got lots of power, but weighs a TON and is pretty bulky. We have gotten a lot of use out of it, but I hate having to use it because it really does weigh about 10 pounds, and when you are trying to hold the screw, the item to be screwed, in a tight space, and that behemoth it's just a pain. Plus you have to charge the battery before you use it, every time. What a pain. So when my dad asked what we wanted for Christmas the answer was super simple. He's a machinist, journeyman, handyman, tool guy and so I knew he'd pick out just the right replacement to our monstrosity. Enter the bright green Ryobi impact driver. I love it. What a difference it has made in these little projects. We have charged only one of the two batteries and it still is on that first charge. Thanks Dad.

 My cousin stopped by yesterday with an Easter gift that is one of my all time favorite things in the world... Easter lilies. I love how they can fill the whole room with their beautiful scent. I have it on my kitchen counter so I can see it's elegant blooms and smell it's heavenly fragrance.