The Room

I have been meaning to put up some pics of Oliver's room, but as it turns out, time flies when you have a new kiddo around.  We went for an international-ish theme.  Stuff we have collected over the years from trips, safari kind of animals, maps, world attractions - you know.

That decal on the wall took a surprisingly long time to put on... We like it though.  Sara's sister made the quilted wall hanging and her mom made the quilt on the bed.  We refinished and re-upholstered the rocking chair and stained the dresser there, which I really like.  The stain is a really light, semi-clear/grey finish so you can see the grain through it.  Sara sewed the changing pad cover.  The room is fun because it is for him, but packed with a lot of our memories from over the years.

All is well that ends well

So one small upside to catching part of our kitchen on fire (I find it is best to start stories with potentially startling information that people may not already know...) is that we were able to do a remodel we have been talking about for a long time but didn't think we would ever really do.  Our kitchen was always kind of like a cave to the side of the house.  Sara's dad and I already took out part of the wall where there is now that pillar/column, which made a big difference, but we always wanted to cut a hole in the wall over the stove.  

We did so during the fixes from the fire.  Here are some before/after pictures from both sides of the wall: 

From inside the kitchen (there was a microwave above the stove before, but that had already been taken out by the cleaning people):