festival of flowers!

i hope you are ready for pictures! it is officially the festival of flowers at the biltmore. mom and dad made it down on friday and we spent the afternoon at the biltmore. we took a "behind the scenes" tour at the house and the winery and in between those tours we visited the gardens and the conservatory. the weather was beautiful and we were able to get some fantastic pictures. i took the new camera jay and i bought for christmas and played with a few different settings. we were very thankful the wind and rain held off.

my favorite flower is the tulip and there was definitely no shortage of them. i have always wanted to go see the tulip gardens and now it is much more convenient, since they are just down the road. there is so much to see at the biltmore, that it is impossible to see it all at once.

after we were done with our day, jay was finished with work so we met him and ate at one of our favorite little mexican restaurants, don papa's. then it was back to the apartment and we were all tired and ready for bed.

(remember if you click on a picture, it will open larger in a new window!)

i still cannot imagine living in a house like this now, much less at the turn of the 20th century.

the servants' entrance. in this courtyard, also, is the depositories for the coal for the furnaces.

the architecture is beautiful. george vanderbilt also had his copper flashing gold-plated, for a double color effect after it oxidized so you would still be able to read his initials and see the acorn trees in the larger pieces of flashing.

we were on a balcony for this picture. this is the top of the atrium/solarium in the house.

if you look above the window, you can see the G. and V. carved into the stone.

all of the stone was carved after it was on the house. the stone work took a total of 6 years to complete and was left up to the artists doing the carving.

this is my favorite picture from the entire day.

they have beautiful hydrangeas in the conservatory, along with many other flowers and trees.

beautiful orchids

the pineapple tree had two little pineapples growing!

the daffodils were blooming along with the tulips.

the conservatory is just as artistically made as the house.

this is only one side of the garden.

dad took this one of me on the other side.

i loved the "black" tulips growing tall in the back of all of these.

more snow?

seriously. we have snow in our forecast for sunday night and monday. how crazy for one weekend. oh well. mom and dad (anita and jerry) are leaving at an early 6am tomorrow for their weekend visit. jay will be working on the ambulance from 7a-7p tomorrow. i plan to come home and nap for 4-5 hours and should be getting up around the time mom and dad roll into town. we are planning a trip to the biltmore tomorrow. dad has never been there. we really are hoping the rain holds off b/c the tulips are blooming and the gardens should be beautiful tomorrow. we are planning a "behind the scenes" tour and also plan to tour the winery. saturday will entail brunch at mayfel's and going down to the house. mom has seen the lot and dad has seen only pictures. everything should almost be done so that is nice that they will be able to see the almost finished product. and i'm sure mom and i will find a little shopping that can be done. :) and sunday will just be sunday. we are continuing to make a little more progress with packing. we plan to use movers for the furniture and appliances and tvs and such... all the heavy and bulky things we don't want to carry up these stairs ourselves! but we plan to move the little things ourselves so that we can save some money. and we don't have to be out of the apartment for 2 weeks after our closing date, so we have plenty of time to get things done. but for this weekend, at least, we are looking forward to some family and fun and maybe some snow! we will have some pictures to post later on this weekend, too.... i think we get carpet tomorrow!! hope everyone is doing well. email/call/write and update us on you soon.

cute templates

ok. so i found a great website that makes finding a unique and cute background way easy for your blog. i have the link over on the side. i love my new background and hope you find one you like, too!

busy bees

we are so thankful that things keep moving right along with the house. there is still something little and new every day and we were told by our field manager that everything should be done by next wednesday for inspection purposes and everything. so our closing is definitely still on for april 22nd. that date is one month and one day shy of our one year of being here in asheville. time flies! my mom and dad, anita and jerry, will be coming in town this weekend. we will spend some time friday afternoon and evening at the biltmore, so please pray that the rain/storms will hold off until that evening. and then saturday will be leisurely with brunch and seeing the house! jay's dad and stepmom, larry and mitos, may be coming in town on saturday as well. we aren't sure about that yet, but they have some things they want to do in asheville, so it may be a family affair on both sides. anyway, here are some pictures of what is new....

kitchen table light

dining room light

bathroom fixtures

linoleum in the laundry room (also in both bathrooms)

laminate in the kitchen and foyer

bathroom sinks and faucets

even the kitchen sink!

something new every day

things with the house are rapidly changing... it seems like something new has taken place every day. it is very exciting to see everything come together. we are so used to driving up and seeing external changes that now we really have to walk inside to see what else is happening. here are some pictures of the new additions.

beautiful maple cabinets (the dishwasher goes on this side)

the stove and microwave and refigerator go on this side

our fabulous faux granite countertops

our front door is painted black to match the shutters

our doors have knobs! all of our fixtures will be the same brushed nickel

bathroom sinks

master bath cabinets

guest bathroom vanity

recessed lights are in in the kitchen

and we have outlets and switches

doors and paint and concrete

i am very aware it has been a couple of weeks since you all have had an update... not much has been going on until just the last few days. the mudding and sanding process took awhile but things are moving in full swing again. i don't have a ton of pictures to show you, but things will be changing rapidly now so hopefully i can post more frequently. we really need to start packing and cleaning out again. that is one good thing about moving... getting rid of things unused! we will be gaining roughly 500 sq. feet of space when we move and cannot wait to feel like we can breathe and have space to live in. the flowers and trees are starting to flower and bloom here and the promise of spring and a new, fresh season is just the right addition to our upcoming change for us. the closing date is still set for april 22. we plan to move on april 29th and finish up on getting the apartment "clean and tidy" for the final inspection the following week on may 7th. the days are flying by quickly!

this was about a week ago... we had our mantle placed.

we now have a sidewalk and driveway.

you can barely see it now, but the day they poured the driveway, jay put our initials in the driveway, right near the corner of the house.

they put up the first coat of interior paint. it was a bit dark in the house as the windows are covered with plastic so i didn't take too many pictures just yet. they will add more paint next week.

this is the kitchen again, but you can see through the doorway... the little hallway between the garage and the kitchen is where the washer and dryer belong.

the standard size patio they place for you is 3 feet x 3 feet. "standard?!" is what we said. so we made ours 10' x 10' and now wish we had expanded it even larger. but it's a start.

we have interor doors now. this one belongs to the master bedroom. the one in the hall that you can see to the outside of it is the pantry. if you exit through the master bedroom into the little hallway, you will walk straight into the living room area or turn right into the kitchen. and if you really want the grand tour, you will just have to come for a visit this summer or fall!

all since tuesday....

we have walls! and ceilings! yeah! it is nice to be able to walk in our house and not see from one end to the other. the pictures of the smaller bedrooms came out sort of dark, but i will share them anyway.... and some of the pictures are a bit crooked, which i will blame on my tiredness. :) so here is our house with walls!

the kitchen

living room (kitchen is to the right)

dining room and front door

front/guest bedroom

back/office bedroom

master bedroom (closet is on left, bath on right)

another view of the master

view of the storm clouds from the kitchen window, and the back yard

vaulted ceilings in the living room

the garage (through the door is a hallway where the washer/dryer will go)

dry wall day

today the drywall begins its ascent to our framed walls. this process will take about a week... and then the painting will begin. (and since all the walls are the same color, it won't take long!) we'll go by and take some pictures later this week.

and the day will be.....

.... april 22nd. that is our closing date for the house. it will work out perfectly because it will give us two weeks to get things moved out of the apartment and cleaned up. things are moving along smoothly with the house. drywall will go up starting monday the 10th. won't be much longer!

good news!

we will know our closing date sometime this week. we have our pre-drywall orientation one day this week (yet to be determined) and we will sign off on our closing date. of course, as soon as we find out, i will let you all know!