And then the Kitchen

Since we were doing one, why not the other.

After the bathroom was completed, we took to tackling our kitchen. I don't have any "before" pictures, but here's the setting. We had a full kitchen with a "U" shaped counter in the middle of the room. There were two sets of slidding glass doors on each side of the U. There was also a full bathroom off the kitchen. Why one would need a shower off the kitchen, I'm not too sure. there was also a side laundry area in the kitchen.

So, the bathroom was supposed to be a 3-5 week project, and it took 9 weeks. The kitchen, which was done by a different firm, was a 10-week project, and took six.

First, we removed the bathroom and took the room down to the studs. We also removed the sliding glass doors, and the bay window.

In it's place, we created a new cooking/appliances area, added sliding french doors and a smaller window.



View from the front hall:

View from the "old bathroom"

Middle island, and notice, the laundry/mud room has been walled off:

Bathroom Changes

Our Master Bedroom was fairly large, but had a huge amount of dead space. On the other hand, our master bath was a closet. In order to get to the toilet or the shower, you literally had to manuever around the door.

So what did we do? We actually turned it into a closet. The old bathroom is now Alison's walk in closet.

We took that dead, completely unused space, and created a brand new bathroom.

Not only do we have better utilized space, but we now have a great stand-in shower, actual vanity space, and a nice tub.

I've been imagining having a new master bath for close to three years. This came pretty close to what I pictured.

Considering there are three exterior walls, and an exterior floor, I do have some concerns about the temperature in there when it turns -10 degrees outside. However, I am assured the toe-kick heater will keep the room at the right temp.

We'll see...

$27mm man?

Reports are that A-rod is crawling back to the Yankees who have offered $270mm over 10 years. Somebody has to be willing to pay more than that, don't they? I'd take him on the Sox for that.

Plus, everyone talks A-rod vs. Lowell. They have it wrong. You sign both. A-rod at short, and you let Manny go. Ellsbury moves to left, Coco in center, and the lineup loses no power, but defense gets much better.

New Car

After returning our Volvo XC90 upon lease expiration over a month ago, we finally have purchased a new car. We got a 2008 Buick Enclave SUV. It's a pretty cool car, and seemingly in high demand. The local dealer had two in stock, but claimed that was rare. Sounded like BS to us, but we called a bunch of other dealers and it was true. No one else had any in stock, and one dealer told us that it would be probably four months before we could get one.

The 2008 is the first year of the Enclave, but essentially its the exact same car as the GMC Acadia which started last year. The Enclave is slighly less "Truck-ish" than the Acadia. It has all the bells and whistles - DVD with wireless headsets, GPS Navigation, Auto-start, electronic rear door, Satellite Radio, OnStar, rear captains chairs, third row, iPod connection, rear-reverse camera, backup sensors, a real human consierge - ok, not that.

Frankly one of the reasons we chose to not to get another XC90 was the fact that it had almost NO gadgets. Every detail of the 2008 XC90 looks exactly like the 2005 XC90.

We came "this close" [holding my fingers an inch apart] from getting a Honda Odyssey, but couldn't bring ourselves to get a minivan. In the end, we liked the Enclave more, but we could have gotten a 2007 Odessy at a pretty good lease rate.

Our car is white rather than what is pictured above.

Halloween

We had a fantastic Halloween. The weather was perfect. We started with a neighborhood pizza party on one of the cul-de-sacs, and then headed out in a few groups when darkness arrived. I do believe they hit every house on three seperate streets. The girls, at the end, were complaining that their bags were too heavy. May that be their biggest problem ...

Both kids collected for Unicef, and with a little parental push contributed some of their own monies.

Katie dressed as Mulan, the Disney Princess, and Emily was Minnie Mouse.