Falling in Love with Fall + House Thoughts

I'm totally obsessed with Fall and Spring. They're my absolute favorite. The weather is PERFECT, and the colors that come out are seriously breathtaking.

Fall is when I also become completely smitten with Utah all over again. If you live here and haven't driven the canyons to check out the leaves around this time of year... shame on you ;)
Okay, really, you're just missing out. The trees look like they're on fire, and everywhere you turn there's a different shade of red, yellow, orange or lime green.

Lately I've been REALLY into nature, and the beauty of it. Cason says that I've always been, but haven't fully embraced it until these past few years. 

With the move from our old house to this new one, I've felt a lot of disconnect with my surroundings... and yes, especially when it comes to blogging about it. So I think finding beauty in nature is a way for me to 'ground' myself and feel at peace.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this new house, the neighborhood is a dream and all the people we've met have been SO friendly and kind!... but my old house just had a certain kind of personality that I feel like I miss a LOT. There was always a story to tell, something to fix, an area to make more functional... and this new house is, well... new. Things are already so pretty and polished. I don't feel like it needs me as much. 

does this sound crazy?

Truth be told though, that's what I wanted and was looking for when we moved. I was tired of DIY'ing every thing, and I felt like the only reason I did it anymore, was for "THE BLOG". Having to be creative and DIY-up something new all the time, was exhausting and super time consuming. I was ready to just enjoy all of our hard work and put down the tools, paint and plans for a while. 

I definitely thought I would have more time to do this in our old house, but suddenly we were in a spot where moving felt "right", and so we were off!

I wanted a house that I could just finesse with a little "makeup and hairspray", and not a house that needed a full "face lift and hair extensions" (ha!)... and that's what I got! -  but in an effort to find a happy middle ground between DIY'ing the day away, feeling pressure to create something new for a silly blog post, and finding somewhere to live that already was "finished"... I think that I drifted too far away from doing anything AT ALL. And now,  I don't quite know WHAT I want to do anymore. GAH!

*siiigh*

this is turning into a therapy session... I'm almost done. ha!

 I found this quote the other day and I instantly fell in love with it.

I think I've spent too long worrying about trying to make my new house feel like my old house, that I haven't thought enough about how I can build something totally new and exciting, here!

Maybe that means taking a risk, pulling one of those crazy ideas out of my "you're never really going to try that" file drawer, and DOING it... falling in love with it, and making a connection to this new space, like I did with the last (?)

Maybe I'll paint a wall black or purple or something... just to shake things up and get my groove back. LOL

Embracing the "Dog People" Way of Life & Installing a Doggy Door

Hey, hey, it's Cason here! I like to jump on the blog every once in awhile to say hello and give my perspective on being the husband of a blogging wife.

Today I wanted to give a little insight on how two "not-so-dog-people" do a complete 360 to embracing the "dog people" way of life. It's hard believe that we have completely fallen for our little Zaylee so much that we are willing to change our homes structure for her.

If you have a dog yourself, you know that potty training is quite the feat. Initially we trained Zaylee to use a bell by the back door so when she rang it, we would come running to let her out for a 'trip to the yard to do her 'th'ang'. While totally genius at first, because Zaylee never scratched the door or barked, we figured out a bit later that there were a couple of problems with this approach for OUR dog.

1- You have to hear the bell, or there will be an accident.

2- If Zaylee needs attention, she knows that ringing the bell will bring someone running, even if she doesn't really have to go out to the yard for a bathroom break.

Soooo... after a couple of months of that I finally broke down and purchased a doggy door. Shelley definitely wasn't happy with cutting a huge hole in our door at first, but then finally agreed with the structure change because it meant that she would no longer have to keep running upstairs from her office to constantly answer the ringing of Zaylee and her bell; real bathroom break needed or not.

All that said, here are a couple of things that I learned about installing our doggy door. I'm not really going to go into exactly how to do it step-by-step, as the instructions for the door I purchased were pretty good, but more touch on points/mistakes/discoveries that I made along the way, you can learn from. ha!

1 - Research what type of door makes sense for you. The one we went with was for extreme weather, we have HOT summers and COLD winters here in Utah. We didn't want to have to worry about the door affecting the inside temperature of our home. The big difference with this door was it had a middle insulation flap that the other doors didn't. We found ours at Petsmart.

2 - Understand that it is an investment. You would think that a simple plastic case with some flaps on it would be fairly inexpensive, but we found that this wasn't the case. Even the "cheapy doors" were pretty pricey! So, save up for the right door for your situation, and know that you're going to have to probably dish out about $45 - $100 for a good quality doggy door.

3 - FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS! I'm male, so sometimes a seemingly simple project means just looking at the pictures is enough...ehhhm... not for this project. I forgot to install weather stripping, which was not an easy thing to go back and reinstall after the fact.

Along these same lines, if the instructions say take the door off the hinges... DO IT! I thought I would save myself some time by leaving our door on it's hinges, but in reality, it probably took me three times longer than it should have and made the project much harder.
What? I'm just being honest. You live, you learn, and then you blog about it, right?

2013 Home Trends We Love - Accenting with Animals

Ready for another one of our favorite 2013 home decor trends that we love?

Good, let's do this people!

In our last post we covered those 'Out of Bounds Blues' that we were crushing on, and in the post before that; Gorgeous Gold. So don't forget to check those out too.

  

I'm super excited about today's trend, because I think it will definitely "ruffle some feathers".

:)

ACCENTING with ANIMALS!

(know that I use the word 'animal' loosely. I'm talkin' any sort of living creature that isn't human)

Guys, what do you think? Can you dig it?

Well, WE love it!

Truthfully, I think I like it more than Cason, but he definitely doesn't mind it, so I keep bringing in these interesting creatures whenever I find one that catches my eye.

I've found some fun ones at places like Target, HomeGoods, Down to Earth and Joss & Main. I've noticed that I tend to stick to animal figurines that are all one color, and cute (of course). Oh, and you'll also see me doing a happy dance when I find one of these little guys that serve more than just their sole purpose of hanging around and looking cute. Like for example, if it's a vase, watering pitcher, candlestick holder, etc...

So, without further ado, here are some different ways that we've chosen to display our newest animal accents around our home. For those of you who think this is silly (which is the best part about it for me) maybe it will lighten your feelings towards the trend and help you embrace the animalistic decorator inside of you (rawrr)... and for the others, who already love it and just need ideas on how to incorporate this fun new trend into your space, enjoy!

Light It Up, Up, Up! - One Ceiling Fans Story

Over the past 4 years as our little family has gone through this somewhat dramatic "style-shift" in our home, from deep tan and brown glazed walls, red accents and a sort of Tuscan decorating vibe, to a brighter, airier more personalized/stylized, yet functional look with whites, grays, blues and even golds (!), I can't help but get really excited when I look around and realize that more of my house is actually now how I want it, than how I don't. (eeeek!)

Now that our home sees less and less construction projects, and more and more finishing touches, it makes the butterflies soar in my belly. Will we ever be D.O.N.E, done?... nah. I'm too fickle and indecisive to ever say that I'm going to be "done" with any home I live in. Design is always and forever changing, so in some ways our home(s) probably always will be too.

Today though, I couldn't help but share the story of our living room ceiling fan, one of the very last "old fixtures" in our home left.

Yes... you read that right, I said ceiling fan. And yes, it has a story.

When we first moved into our home our living room was equipt with the standard, builder-grade "boob-light" fixture in our open living room/kitchen area. (we had quite the collection of those babies if you remember) We knew the first few days after living here that we needed a fan in the space to help circulate air, so with very little thought, we picked up this dark brown fan on sale at our local home improvement store. Being absolute DIY newbies we grabbed our ladder, struggled for about 2+ hours trying to get it installed and then once it was up, flipped the switch and realized that while we had a working fan, we did NOT have any working lights.

(insert frustrated look and eye roll here)

Cason was so incredibly annoyed with the whole process, that he threw his hands up and told me that we'd just get back to it again another day.

...

3 kids, a blog, 2 jobs, 1 dog and 6 years later, I'm happy to report that we've FINALLY decided to tackle this ceiling fan project again!

(stop judging us).

As I'm sure you can guess, even in those darker decorating days, that big ol' brown, monstrous fan on my ceiling was never really my favorite. It was way too much of a contrast against my nice white ceiling and almost demanded the attention of anyone's gaze when they walked into the room, so I knew that it had to go.  That being said, this entire year I've been keeping my eye out for the PERFECT fan for this space, to replace the one we had, but it wasn't until about a month or so ago while scanning a Joss & Main sale, did I find it.

I've bought a lot of furniture and decor from Joss & Main, but never a lighting fixture. I was a bit nervous, but took the plunge anyway. This particular fan/light combo ran me about $250 (free shipping). Cason and I were both really impressed with the quality of the fan and loved it immediately! The only downside, was that we were missing a few screws that were suppose to be included to attached the fan blades to the body of the fixture. After a quick call to Joss & Main, they were reordered and sent to our house in about 7 days (free of charge of course).

image posted on our Instagram feed the day of install

Once we had everything we needed, the install started. Bad memories of hours on a high ladder, holding heavy fan motors and tiny electrical parts flooded Cason's head, so I just stayed quiet and as helpful as possible... while snapping a couple of pictures of course.

If you want to read more about how Cason learned the best way to change out all of our old lights to new ones on his own, you can read our tutorial on DIY lighting install.

Unfortunately about halfway through the install I had to jet off to a meeting, but got a text from Cason not too long after that, with a picture similar to this one attached.

Our Perfectly Imperfect Home Thoughts + My Piano Man

This post has been a long time coming.  It was MONTHS ago (around January) when I Instagrammed us making plans for something exciting... which I'm sure you all guessed form this (slightly awkward) photo, resembling something close to the death scene of a semi-grand, that we were adding a new piano to our space!

Well, after a LOT of planning, furniture moving and MONEY to get Cason's childhood piano from his parents home to ours... it's finally here!!!

I'll have to admit, I was a bit lot hesitant on bringing in such a LARGE black, showy piece of decor into our bright, airy, casual, small-ish space. One, because I knew it would definitely become the rooms main focal point, and second, I was worried about it fitting in with my living rooms existing elements.

After playing with a few different patterns, we finally chose a set of new, colorful, designer, living room pillows from The Black Goose Design, that helped us to tie in that big, beautiful, sleek piano with what is STILL one of our most favorite and busiest rooms in the house.

Designer Pillows - The Black Goose

I've said it a million times... I'm not a decorator, but I LOVE to decorate.

It's amazing to me what a stunning new rug, a set of luxurious, custom throw pillows or a  new sitting chair in a bold fabric can do for a space.

Creating your OWN Awesome

This weekend I've had a LOT on my mind and one of those things have been because of a couple of emails from a few of YOU! I won't share any names or particular passages, but let's just say more than 3 or 4 of these emails have the same underlying message:

"I wish I was more creative, but I'm not..."

I have to be honest and say that these sorts of emails kind of break my heart; mostly because then they go on to point out all the things that you wish you were better at, whether it's decorating, crafting or DIY'ing and WORST of all, you start COMPARING yourselves to others. Bloggers, friends, family members, etc... I wish I could just jump through my computer screen, shake you women and yell at you in my best inspiring-Oprah-voice impersonation... "Just be your OWN awesome!!!"

We could beat ourselves up all day long with "I wish I was better at's" or "If I could only do's"... but where does that get us? Nowhere! If anything it just makes us feel MORE lousy than before.

I've said it a million times, but I'm saying it again.

There will always be someone who seems to be better at something, than you are. A better Mom, a better cook, a better blogger, a better photographer, wife, decorator, teacher, scrapbooker, designer... the list could go on for days. I feel like we tell ourselves this all the time, because we know it's true, but are we REALLY soaking it in and accepting it?

Instead of looking at blogs, Pinterest and magazines as a way to compare ourselves to others, turn it around and start asking yourself, "how can this great idea help me to come up with something just as awesome, that works for ME!?"

One of my all-time favorite quotes is by Mary Lou Cook. “Creativity is all about inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”

I couldn't have said it better myself, and I can’t agree more! Creativity to me, is an amazing way to convey individuality and self-expression.

I mentioned this topic before in a guest article I wrote a while back, but  as women, we were literally built and MADE to create, so it’s never a question of AM I creative?  But asking yourself, “I AM creative because …”

Whether it’s your ability to throw together a killer outfit before work in the morning when virtually all the laundry is dirty, decorate an entire house on a budget or simply possessing the skill to whip up a yummy dinner for your entire family, 15 minutes before your significant other gets home, when you haven't gone grocery shopping in 2 weeks… we’re ALL creative, everyday, in our own ways; but rarely give ourselves enough credit!

the only person you should be comparing yourself to, is you!

We want to meet YOU! - Send us your Holiday Card this Year!

The other morning I woke up around 4:30am.

I shuffled to the bathroom, did my thing and then crawled back into my warm sheets.

How is it that even if I don't drink an ounce of liquid after 5pm, I have to pee at least twice in the night... yet Cason can down a gallon of water right before bed and doesn't even take his first bathroom break till after breakfast?

Having kids ruins ya. It's the truth.

Aaaaanyway...

For some reason, all of a sudden, I was wide awake. I tried to force myself to close my eyes and slip off into sleep again, but I had this nagging thought on my mind that I couldn't shake. 

I got thinking about, YOU.

Yup. Our readers.

People who read about what we have to say on a day-to-day, or maybe even just week-to-week basis.

A question flew through my head that we get asked ALL the time.

"Don't you think it's weird that a bunch of strangers know so much about YOU, but you know nothing about THEM?"

My response:

(shoulder shrug) "Meh."

Sometimes I get an eye roll from people who think about how unpleasant and awkward that would be for their family, other times I get an uncomfortable giggle with comments after, like: "Well... you're just crazy" or "I could never do that, it would be so weird."

But to be honest (and I'm going to assume that about 99% of you have gathered this simple fact already)

I'm just an excitable over-sharer.

Didn't know there was such a thing, eh? Well... there is.

Hello

:)

.

.

.

Cason on the other hand... notsomuch. The same goes for his family.

While they are hands down the nicest, most charitable, happiest people in the world...

loud, talkative, giggly storytellers, they are not.

I distinctly remember about 3 months after we were married, hanging out at Cason's parents house with his Mom, Dad and a few of his siblings.

Oh sheesh... look at that goofy couple

:)

I was causally flipping through the latest Better Homes and Gardens magazine when I looked up and noticed almost everyone staring at me. I did the awkward, push-your-neck-backward-open-your-eyes-wide look and said something like... "WHAT? What did I do?"

Cason's Mom replied with...

"Nothing! That's the problem. We're bored, entertain us. Tell us a story."

Ack!

At first I wasn't sure if this was a jab at my overly chatty, fast talking, way too passionate about everything personality... OR... if she was really just simply asking me to strike up a conversation. (?)

Life Updates + Aubrielle turns 5!

Holy bananas guys, these past two weeks have been C.R.A.Z.Y!

Even though we usually have a schedule of posts/topics/projects that we like to stick to, so we can stay on track, I just had to jump in here this week to give ya a rundown of what's going on in our neck of the woods.

1. Being sick is the PITS!

A little over a week ago Cason and I got sick. At first we thought it was just a cold or sinus infection, but within 24 hours it turned into full fledged strep. Arrrg! And not just ANY strep (because I've had strep before) but this crazy, gnarly, make you feel like garbage, find yourself wishing you could just go through the pain of birthing another child, because this is WORSE... kinda strep.

I know I'm dramatic, but seriously, it's taken us about 9 days, TONS of rest and lots of antibiotics and ibuprofen to feel remotely like ourselves again. I wouldn't wish the kind of strep we had, on my WORST enemy.

2. Plankity-plankin'

We've been working on our kitchen nook area these past few weeks and we are almost done with the planking wall treatment that we've been wanting to implement for about a year now. It's lookin' SO GOOD! I initially got the final idea of how we wanted to tackle this project from my cute friend Sausha at Sweet Pickin's who paints all my furniture for me (and does a freakin' awesome job). She did the same treatment in her kitchen and entryway.

I'll be sharing a few things we learned along the way, during our plankin' journey, but for a basic know-how you can visit her wall planking post. 

The actual kitchen itself is still in progress because once we paid for new granite and a backsplash, we had pretty much maxed out the money we'd saved... and we don't want to go into debt to finish our kitchen re-style. We decided to pay a little more for the pro's to do most of the work because 1.) We really didn't want to be in the midst of a kitchen remodel for 6 months (which is how long it would have taken us to install a backsplash I'm sure, ha!) and 2.) We wanted to make sure that everything was done PERFECTLY, because our kitchen is literally the first thing you see when you walk into our home.

Let me Just say...

I've been trying to avoid this post for about 6 months now, but I think it's time I finally gave in and pulled my thoughts out of draft, and actually published them for you to read.

Let me start off by saying, this post will probably have a lot of you thinking... "Hmmm, well... reading that was a waste of my time, bc I don't care. Where's the home projects!?" and to the select few, it may answer some questions and shed some light.

First things first,

Yes, my blog is still hosted by Blogger:

GASP!

I no longer have a "blogspot" URL, but the platform I use for my site is Blogger.com. Does this make me an armature, behind the times, unprofessional or less appealing to companies?

uhhh... I dunno...maybe (?)

I seem to get the same amount of opportunities/readers/numbers/pins/whatever is important to me that day, as other bloggers hosted by other servers, the only difference is... I know how to maneuver, use and manipulate my comfortable blogger-hosted blog just how I like.
:)
Sure there are a few cool features/plug-ins that I've heard about for wordpress and other platforms, that I have thought "Oh, that's neat", but nothing extremely life-changing that I feel needs to be implemented on our site at this time. Am I worried about the hype of Blogger.com shutting down my blog forever and losing everything? Yup! But guess what? So are my other friends who have independently-hosted sites. There really is no guarantee that anything is 100% safe or fail-proof. It's the internet, anything is possible. All I know is that for ME, having the ability and knowledge to work the back end of my blog (changing sidebar features, designing and adding new images, customizing HTML) when I need to, is stress off of me and less time away from my family trying to figure out a new program.

Not to mention that being hosted by blogger is still free!

Secondly

Commenting Ease:

Some of you may have noticed, I've turned on and now allow anonymous comments, which I've never done before. Reason being, some of our readers requested it, due to the fact that they didn't want to open/sign up for separate accounts to comment on our blogger hosted site. Now anyone can comment whenever they please (under an anonymous tag) and just sign their name at the bottom if they want.

Being able to enter you name, email and web address in order to comment like on other sites is definitely one of those "features/plugins" that I wish I had, that I was referring to before.

Something that blogger HAS done, is to make it now possible for me to reply to your comments when you leave them below a post if you have a question. I'm trying to be really good at that, especially if you don't have your email connected to your commenting profile when I approve your comment. So check back if you're waiting for an answer to a question. More than likely, I will leave it under your original comment.

This leads me to my next topic. One that is extremely uncomfortable for me, but I feel needs to be addressed.

I Am Creative; What are You?

Fill in the blank with something positive you love and believe about yourself:

I Am __________. 

What word first comes to mind? Beautiful, funny, fearless, brave, strong, happy?

For me, I choose... Creative.

Not necessarily specifically crafty, handy, or inventive. Just... creative all around. In how I think, dress, approach life situations, write, decorate, etc.

Starting a phrase with, I Am, is pretty bold don't you think? It made ME a little uneasy at first, anyway. When you start a sentence with "I Am..." You are stating something that you believe in. You're telling someone that you are totally confident, and that you ARE what you say you are, no excuses.

I love it.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Happy 4th of July!

I just wanted to pop in say hello, and chat a little bit about why I feel so grateful today. This morning was pretty much the prefect morning. The kids got up quietly and started their own movie downstairs, Cason and I laid around till about 9:00am, just pretty much being lazy and enjoying some quiet time together, the weather is beautiful, and today my Instagram and Facebook feeds were filled chuck-full of 5k photo recaps, happy families at parades and yummy 4th of July food that people were prepping to take to BBQ's and gatherings. 

I couldn't help to think, while flipping through all of these fun, happy pictures, how lucky we really are. 

Talkin' Stripes & Girly Room Ideas!

I have a confession to make...I am obsessed with stripes.

Stripes of ALL kinds! Vertical, horizontal, diagonal, bursting, zigzag (chevron), backwards, forwards, upside down...
You get the idea, right?

I know, I know. Stripes have been around for ever, they're totally "in", they're SO yesterday... blah, blah, blah. EVERYONE has their take on "stripes." Particularly in home decor, and ESPECIALLY when you're painting them on a wall.

Personally, I feel that it's something that will never go out... just continue to be altered one way or another, to fit the current trend. I painted the first nursery we ever had with green stripes years ago, and remember thinking then... I LOVE this! Fast forward 6+ years later and I'm STILL obsessing about painting stripes on the walls in my basement! They won't be vertical OR green, but they WILL happen
:)

That being said, diving into our main area basement remodel is pretty much the last thing on our list right now. Even though it's totally empty (literally not ONE piece of furniture remains) and ready for a fresh coat of bright, beautiful paint, we just have more pressing matters on our hands.

What you ask?...

Our oldest, the twins.

Simple Summer Decor & Learning to Lose the "Stuff"

How's everyone's Summer going!? Like I mentioned before we have a ton of projects going on around here,  and I'm trying to pull pictures together so I can share some fun things this week!

I don't know about you, but I'm a bit obsessed with details. I love the small things that make a space unique and special. That being said, I'm NOT a clutter person. (you probably may not believe me, after seeing my garage sale post, featuring my home decor hoard. ha!) But things have changed...especially this past year. I have been trying hard to ONLY let the things that I really have a space or need for, into my house.

(much easier said than done, when you're addicted to beautiful home decor).

Books: Consignment Store (Home Again), Finial: Rod Works, Decorative Jars: Down to Earth

Taking Risks: Our Video Version @ My Craft Channel

Our latest video is live at My Craft Channel, and it's definitely my favorite so far! I know that a lot of you have read our post about Taking Risks, but now you can HEAR our thoughts too!

PLUS, Cason shares lots of good advice when working with someone who has a more "feminine" style.

:)

Enjoy!

The House of Smiths on My Craft Channel

After a lot of script writing, multiple trips to find enough "nice shirts" for Cason and I to wear for 8 filmed episodes, and LOTS  of nervous-ness (that we didn't know we would have) later... We've finally finished all our shows for My Craft Chanel!

Self Improvement - Working on your OWN Exterior + BeautyMint

This past year as we've been making more improvements on our home I've also been making a few personal improvements myself. It's definitely something that has been in the works for a while and believe it or not, has taken almost as much time and energy as redoing our house!

The whole reason our blog started was because after I became a wife and mother, I realized that it was up to me to create a surrounding and life for our family that was beautiful, welcoming and safe. I also knew that it had to be a space that I felt 'at home', because as a stay-at-home Mom I knew that I would be IN my house, most of the day.

As Cason and I started making improvements on our space and finally found a style that worked perfectly for us, I also felt this overwhelming need to work on myself as well. I don't know if the feeling eventually came around because my kids were old enough and I finally had a few seconds to focus on ME, or if it was because I was quickly approaching the big 3-0 and I refused to feel the same at thirty, as I did at 28...

Whatever this new motivation was, it felt GREAT and after focusing all of my time for the last 4 years on 3 babies and going through the journey of finding ourselves unemployed and having to look for a new job... I was ready to take some time out for myself. Some might say that it's selfish, but I am a firm believer that if you're not happy with yourself as a Mother and wife, then you can't be the kind of caregiver and spouse your children and husband deserve and need.

Funny enough a quote I stumbled upon last year from Dr. Seuss really summed it all up for me...

Deciding to make changes to our home came a lot easier for me then I thought it would. Once we finished our first small space, felt accomplished and excited... it was almost like an addiction and we just wanted to keep going, because it was SO rewarding! The same thing can be said about how I started to feel towards my own personal makeover...

The House of Smiths on My Craft Channel

Yay!  I can finally tell all of you some REALLY fun news today!

It has been in the works for a while now, and I've been bursting at the seems to let all of my readers know! Cason and I have teamed up with the oh-so-awesome Kristine McKay's production studio, and this fall we will be hosting our own little Home DIY show on mycraftchannel.com!

Granite City: Discount Granite & FREE Sinks!

We've had a bunch of questions about our bathroom re-do lately, and one of the most frequent - mostly from our local readers, has been:

"What granite yard did you go to, to get your discounted granite from, for your bathroom vanity counter top?"

Well, in short:

Granite City, in SLC Utah

125 West Walton Avenue

We knew that when we started to re-haul the bathroom, we wanted to switch out our counter top.  You can read more about that here.

So we went searching for discounted granite near our home, and stumbled onto Granite City.

We have worked directly with Doug, who is in charge of retail sales.  He has been amazing through the entire process.  From finding a piece of remnant granite from his yard, in the color we wanted, to checking up on us after the installation was made!