John and Ida's Wedding

The 2nd marriage this year in the Bennion family! John and Ida were married September 26, 2008 in St. George, Utah. Ida is from there and we were thrilled to be there on their beautiful day. These two make such a wonderful couple. I couldn't help staring at them all day :) Adam took a few (or something like 200) pictures, just trying out the camera. I LOVED her dress. Bennions

Everetts Aren't these faces funny? Ida was taking a rest from smiling. My dad looks great. John was probably resting his face too, but it looks like he's transitioning to husbandhood/manhood. I don't know what I'm doing. Jane wanted "in" on the boys' shot.

Christian brought his girlfriend so we took some teaser photos in front of the temple.

The family luncheon was catered Cafe Rio!!! I had all my wishes come true :) Who else thinks John and Ida are cool now?

Jane and Audrey missed out on the Cafe Rio.

Uncle Richard just got home from his mission (Mexico) just a week earlier. I was pregnant with Jane when he left, so he, Jane, and Audrey all got introduced.

The girls at the reception: dancing and socializing!

Jane coached everyone on catching the bouquet. I think Ida's sister caught it.

Fashion

Jane had rather voluminous hair after her bath. She was pleased.

Also, she has stepped into the realm of choosing what she wears. This 4th of July dress marks her fashion independence; for the first time she brought me her clothing choice for the day. She has been wearing it for two days now. Even to bed.

Kitchen's AFTER

Here's the final product! New floor, cabinets, sink, walls, and harware. Some boring FYI: we treat the counters with a protective oil every few months and use cutting boards. The benefit of using the oil rather than putting a hard shellac on is that if we do accidentally cut it or stain it we can sand that spot and reapply the oil rather than having to treat the entire shalacked countertop.
I love having more cupboards and counterspace!

These lower countertops are perfect for kneading bread and sitting down to a computer for recipes while cooking.

Housework Continued

This isn't exactly a recent makeover, but we may as well showcase the whole year on the blog while we're on topic.
Before: Our bedroom was blah. I came home to find the aforementioned coffee table finished and our bedroom painted this lovely blue that we had previously chosen for the kitchen, but decided against it because it was going to feel too dark and small. I LOVE how it turned out in our room. This picture isn't quite a true after, since we've since hung things on the walls, but I didn't feel like cleaning it this morning to take another picture :)

And here is the kitchen before we moved in. Yes, that is floral wallpaper, and a hot pink stripe on the edge of the countertop. Let's not even start on the lack of counterspace and cupboards.

We borrowed the missionaries to help mount the upper cupboards after Adam gutted the kitchen, except for the dishwasher.


All that you see, except the appliances, are from Ikea: the cupboards, countertop, and sink.

I was so thankful to go from washing dishes in the tub...

to washing dishes in my brand new kitchen sink! I get to take the credit for taking the wallpaper down and for helping to paint this time. Do you like the yellow?

Housework

Adam has been doing SO MUCH to our house since moving here last August. How about a little before and after show? Let's start with the back room. Here's a picture from the dining room looking at the back room's door. It was originally the back door of the house and the previous owners built an additional room onto it. The room eliminates most of our backyard, but since it's mostly winter in Wisconsin, we'll take the extra indoor space!

The weird shelves and cupboards that made entering the room feel like going down a hallway and moving a couch in tricky, if not impossible. The far left doors covered a bar area.

These bookcases were an ugly color, with orange 70's carpet attached to the back of that left center one...gross. We decided to keep these bookshelves but take out the others by the doorway, along with the entire wall they attached to!

First came the demo. We had to take the ceiling down because 1) It looked like elementary school tiles, 2) We needed to put more lights in since we could barely see with them on. They were dim and VERY recessed, and 3) It looked like it could be asbestos. We hired Igor--now that's a good story--to take down the doorway and put support beams up. Igor also took care of the new lights/electric work and hung the ceiling (and from then on, Adam has done everything). Adam tore down the wood paneling. We weren't against just painting them, but the ceiling situation gave us no other choice. While we were at it, we took the carpet up to reveal hardwod floors.

Adam hung the drywall, taped mudded, sanded, primed, and painted! I just stood there holding Jane in one arm and paint samples in the other. You can see the spots where the cabinets used to be--where the blanket is in this picture. We called those the "holes."


Jane crawled through the debris far too often for a 9-month old. Any health issues will be attributed to this period of her life when she breathed in drywall dust and tried to eat nails. Because of this, we recommend not living in the home you're working on if at all possible.

The room freshly primed.

Freshly painted and carpet pulled up.
And finally, re-stained bookshelves, new moulding aroung the windows, Ikea window treatments, couches, rug, some ornamental books from the "free" shelf at the library, and voila, we're living in the back room even though we're still not quite done.

We had to replace the dining room chandelier. We found a great one at Costco at an awesome deal. I made those curtains--my one and only sewing project for this house.

While I was in California, Adam decided to make a big coffee table for the back room so that both couches could share it for drinks, magazines, and feet. It was inspired by his parents'.

Can you believe all this stuff he's done without having done it before?? He's amazing!!!

Now about those "holes." This is why I am posting this huge run of pictures about the back room. We are thrilled to finally have new wood flooring in place of those holes. Hooray! Jane, as always, liked to help Daddy out.