Finally, a Sunny Day in Seattle!

Today was the first sunny day we've had in Seattle in a long time! Mom even asked me yesterday on the phone if we've been surviving the cold weather we've had in Seattle--I had to break out my wool winter coat again last week. Thank goodness for sun! I was starting to forget what sunshine looks & feels like...

We've had a busy few couple of weeks. Last weekend, Barry & Cindy were in town. They were helping us with a few things around the house, and we all helped out at Steph & Dan's new house.

Here's our new ceiling fan that Barry installed in our bedroom. Chelsea is in heaven, she loves ceiling fans! This one is nice too because it has a reversible feature, which helps keep the heat down during the winter. We love it!

He also installed a new toilet in our guest bathroom. When we bought the house, the inspector noticed a hairline crack in the toilet and although it wasn't leaking yet, he recommended getting it fixed. So here it is! I know, it's kind of weird to take a picture of a toilet, but I'm so impressed with Barry (and his hard-working assistant Chelsea) for installing it!

Here's our first day at Steph & Dan's house last Saturday morning. Friday night, we discovered the sweet hand knocker on one of the front doors. We were joking about it being a little Addams Family when the stager for the sellers came and knocked on the door--we all looked at each other and Barry says "It's the hand!" as we all started laughing. Hilarious! Chels is not too big of a fan of it, but I think it could be cool on the right door. Cindy said she could see it on an old Victorian style house, definitely!

Here are the Toby women, getting started putting contact paper in the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. The new house has a big, beautiful open kitchen. It has room for a kitchen table, has a sliding glass door out to the patio, a window seat (I'm so jealous, I LOVE window seats!), and a bar counter that looks out into the living room.

Steph & Dan, the happy new homeowners!

We painted their master bedroom a soft light blue, much to Stephanie's delight. It was previously a burnt orange color that the sellers had painted it before putting the house on the market. Blue is much more soothing. Steph said she couldn't sleep in an orange room--it was a little bright!

Here's Chels hard at work with the primer. This was good practice for us because we are going to paint our TV room as soon as we get rid of the hideous sofa we have in there now. We got a sleeper sofa from one of my bosses last summer for free--she was moving into a smaller home and down sizing. Well, since it was before we bought this house, Chels and I thought it might be nice to have a sleeper sofa as additional guest room space in our future home. Unfortunately, this one was just too big for our new place. Not to mention that the fabric is a loud 90's print, which would have been fine with a slipcover, but it's a good 10" too big so it has to go. We'll post pictures as soon as we have that room together, I can't wait!

Here's poor Dan with his head stuck up in the ceiling! As the new washer and dryer were being delivered, we ran into a little hiccup with the hookup. Apparently the previous exhaust hose was not the correct material (it should be metal), so Dan got his first taste of new home housework--he and Barry got to cut through the sheet rock to remove the old plastic hose and replace it. Barry made at least one trip to Home Depot each day, and they were only here Thursday night through Monday!

Dan is a little dirty but smiling after a job well done! Great job guys!

After all of our hard work last weekend, we went out to a nice family dinner Sunday night. Steph and Dan recommended Seastar Restaurant & Raw Bar in Seattle, it was great! http://www.seastarrestaurant.com/

Here's Chelsea's dinner, yum!

Sushi for the rest of us. It was delicious!

We had a fun, albeit busy, weekend last week, but it was fun! Steph & Dan's moving truck comes today, so I'm sure we'll have more updates soon. Barry & Cindy, next time you come to visit Seattle I hope it will be to relax. We appreciate all the hard work you've done for us!

This weekend is a little more low key for us. Today, we had brunch at Grandpa's with cousin Claire & Sean. They made homemade waffles and they were delicious!

Sean is the master chef

Claire displaying the fresh waffles, yum!

Everyone is enjoying the waffles

Here's an action shot of Chels--I told her to smile, I should have known this is what I would get... We had a nice time at Grandpa's. When we go over to visit, Grandpa usually has out an old family photo album or two to share with us and further our "continuing education" on the Nunneley family history. Today, we saw Grandpa's baby book and Aunt Cathy's. We also saw an album where Chelsea's parents were really young, where her Dad was graduating from law school, and Uncle John had long hair when graduating from college. They were so fun to look at!

Last but not least, we have a few pictures of Kitten snuggled up with her stuffed animal friends on the guest bed.

So cute!

More Pictures of Our New Place!

Oh my, I can't believe it's taken this long to put up more pictures of our new place! Well, it's hard for me to show pictures when we're still in transition, but I guess we'll just have to post pictures later after everything is finished and looking gorgeous.

Here's the dining room & living room, we have curtains, yay! Things are definitely coming together in these rooms.

We're doing a gallery of family pictures in the dining room over the buffet. It's about half-way complete. I love it already!

Here's the half bath on the second (main) level, where the kitchen, dining, & living rooms are. All we've done so far is hang up one print...the red was not our color choice, it may have to go!

Here's a shot of the guest bedroom/office on the third level. As you can see, we're still in the process of getting this space organized.

This room was also painted prior to our moving in, and coincidentally Chelsea's desk happened to be blue as well. So this has become quite a blue room!

This is the guest full bath on the third level. We're happy about the granite counter-tops, and the nice tiling.

This is the hallway leading into our master bedroom. We have a full bath with a good sized linen closet off of it.

And we each have our own closets! How exciting! I think I was mostly excited about this, whereas Chels was glad my clothes couldn't "crowd" her side anymore.

Here's our bedroom

A shot from the other side, looking down the hall with the guest room at the end. Our laundry machines are at the top of the stairs, hidden in a pretty good sized closet. We're thrilled to have nice, new laundry machines in our home!

Here's our master bathroom. Chelsea was as happy about the double sinks as I was about the separate closets--apparently she was crowded before while brushing her teeth! Ha ha, the things you find out later...

Another shot of our bathroom.

So there it is! It's still a work in progress, but we're having fun decorating our first home together. Can't wait to have our first visitors of our family & friends to come and see it! We're planning to have a housewarming party sometime in the near future, cross your fingers for us that we get our act together before 6 months has flown by :) Thank you to everyone who has sent cards and well wishes for our first home, they are all very sweet. We love our new place and will keep you all updated!

Chef Todd's Final Project

Friday was Chef Todd's final project at Seattle Culinary Academy. He made a four-course fine dining meal for 12 family members & friends, and 4 of his professors. It was delicious! Friday also happened to be Todd's birthday, so it was an extra special day for him. Todd and another classmate were the first to present their final projects--our two parties were in a private dining room, next to one of the two restaurants at the school. It was really neat to see the student chefs working in the kitchen, practicing their fine dining skills for paying customers from the public.

Here we are in the dining room. In attendance for Todd's event were: myself, Chelsea, his parents, his roomie Laura, our boss Brenda, Todd's two aunties and one cousin, his cousin's wife, and this third quarter chef instructor.

In addition to the planning and executing the menu, they also have to title the meal and add table decor to match the theme. Todd's was titled "The Washingtonian", so fittingly he displayed a beautiful bowl of apples surrounded by green and white mums.

The first course of broiled oysters, presented on rock salt.

Next up is a grilled pear & beet salad

Very impressive display, Todd!

Cider braised pork belly with butternut squash puree and pickled root slaw

Dessert, the favorite course of all! It was a delicious apple cobbler with salted caramel ice cream and caramel drizzled over it. YUM!

Chels and I sat near Todd's third quarter instructor, she was very nice. It was great to have an expert opinion--she knew how everything was supposed to be prepared, so her compliments were especially highly regarded. The rest of us thought everything was great because we love Todd and are so proud of him!

At the end of the meal, Chef Todd came out to greet us with his sous chefs, other classmates of his.

Hip hip hooray for Todd! Great job!

Chef Todd seems relieved that the project is successfully accomplished

Afterward, we were able to go on a tour of the kitchens at the school and see where he has been working. In each kitchen, the students would stop and cheer for Todd and his classmate whom had just finished their final projects. It was great! Way to go Chef Todd!

Snowy Wonderland & Teaser Pics of Our New House!

Well, it's true: today our governor declared a state of emergency for Washington, due to the weather. Yikes! It's been an interesting week. I've had half days at work yesterday and today, and Chels' work closed Tuesday and hasn't yet re-opened. My bus, which I refer to as "the snowmobile" has been running uninterrupted this whole time so I haven't had an excuse to miss work this week. However, on the ride home this afternoon, I saw two other buses on my route jack-knifed and abandoned while trying to get up the hill, so we'll see what tomorrow brings...

Here's a picture of our street. Luckily we have a garage, so our car doesn't look like these!

Here's a snowy picture of our townhouse--I promise I'll try and take better pictures once the snowflakes aren't flying in my eyes!

The backyard actually has a little snowdrift! Kind of funny, I hadn't seen a snow drift in Seattle yet before this...

Here's Kitten enjoying herself in front of the gas fireplace in the living room

Here's the living room. The windows and balcony face out over the backyard.

Check out the snow! It's a pretty good amount for Seattle. I went to Ace Hardware to buy a shovel and some salt on Sunday morning and the guys there were all trying to talk me into a different shovel. I ended up going with my first choice, even though one guy said he thought the snow would make the shovel too heavy for me--guess I should have told him I'm a farm girl from Minnesota, and I've seen the likes of snow & shoveling many times before!

Here's a shot of the dining room and kitchen.

A close-up of the kitchen. That's all you get for now because we are still unpacking. Some of you have been so patient (ah-hem, Ashley), you'll just have to wait a little longer to see the rest! We really are loving our new house, it's nice to have a place of our own to call home.