[Liz H]

Hi Rachel. They look like great guys!

Best of luck on the new house.

Liz

[GardenOfDarwin]

Just wanted to say hi to all the new members and invite everyone to introduce yourselves! We're a friendly bunch, and we love meeting all the new members. Tell us who you are, what brought you here, and what your plans and projects are -- even if they're way off in the future. Like me. Sigh.

C'mon! Time for a de-lurking! Who's first?

Susan

[bustyonion]

Hello everyone!

My name is Nina. I've been married to my soulmate, Mike since Nov. 2001. We have two yorkies, Jedi and Padme. Mike loves Star Wars - can't you tell. hehe

Mike's a mechanical engineer and I'm a SAHW. I love being home to do home projects

It took me four years to get Mike on board to redo our kitchen. We'll be starting demo next week and I'm so excited! I didn't even know this place exsisted so I was so surprised to find this place during an IKEA search.

It's great to find a place with such friendly people. I've been a huge IKEA freak since we bought our house in 2001.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you all.

Happy Renovating!

[GardenOfDarwin]

Welcome BustyOnion.... Ok, so I don't usually pry, but I've gotta know -- what's the story behind the screenname?

Susan

[bustyonion]

GardenOfDarwin wrote:

Welcome BustyOnion....Â* Ok, so I don't usually pry, but I've gotta know -- what's the story behind the screenname?Â*

Susan

Thanks for the Welcome Susan!

My maiden name means "onion" in italian... and well.. I think you can figure out the "busty" part. LOL! Actually my dream is to open a cafe' named The Bustyonion.

[GardenOfDarwin]

Ah, yes, well...I'll work on that. Funny, my mother's maiden name in English is the exact same thing as it was in Italian: apparently, it has no higher meaning. My maiden name (German) translates to silks in English. Make of that what you will. None of this has anything to do with my screenname, though. Just makin' small talk.

Susan

[owens_dad]

I'm Matt from South Dakota. My wife and I are professors and we have one son, Owen, who will be 2 on June 14. We also have four cats, Georgia, Sophie, Jimmy, and Walter. We started late (I'm 41 and my wife is 35) on the family. Owen is our biological child, and we're well into the process of international adoption. We thought we should try to get the kitchen fixed up before we expand the family. The main bathroom is next.

Here's a recent picture of Owen.



And here is a fun video of him hitting a ball directly into our camera lens (you'll need Quicktime to view this video):

http://www.owenandmei.com/movies/OwenBigSwing.mov

[morganrhys]

I'll take my turn now. I've been around for a few weeks now mostly absorbing the knowledge and the flavor and drooling over all the great pictures. I have to say, I really enjoy the discussions here, and I love how friendly and heplfull everyone is.

Ilive in Interlochen, MI.I am 34, married to a wonderful lady for almost 12 years now, and I am the prouddaddyof 2 wonderful kids. (Daughter 11, Son 9)

I am a Kitchen Designer by trade. I currently work for one of those "big box" home improvement stores. (I swear, I actually do know a thing or two about design, despite that fact.) One big plus to designing for a living is that I can pass off my obsession as "research" for work. (Not that my wife is fooled!!)My DW (30) just started back to school to become a RN.

We are slowly working on our 26 year old tri-level 'burb house that we've had for almost 3 years now. One of these days we'll get around to gutting the kitchen, as the current layout isn't very functional or pretty.

Other than obsessing over my kitchen (and the bathrooms, and the living room, and the office...) I play far too many computer games, (no MMO games at present) and enjoy rewatching all of the Joss Whedoncreated programming that we own

I am really looking forward to the Canton, MI IKEA store opening so we can start choosing materials, and colours in person.It is still a bit more that 4 hours away, but much closer than the Chicago stores.

Oh, and yes, despite the fact that I could get my cabinets, etc.. from where I work-I plan on getting my cabs, countertops, hardware, some of the lighting,dishes, cookware... (you get the picture) from IKEA. My two big reasons are money - I can do cabinets and appliances for about the same as cabinets alone from my work, and the fact that I really like frameless cabinetry.

Well, enough blather from me,

Paul

[laurie]

Paul, welcome! It's alway great to have an additional member with an eye for design!

And congrats to your wife for going back to school (must be very hard with two little ones!). My daughter is getting ready to begin her 2nd year of nursing school. Helping her review for tests tells me just how hard it would be for me to ever go back to school (but, who knows?!!). The math, yuck!

BTW, who's Joss Whedon? (perhaps my game obsessed husband and son would know this).

Anyway, welcome to you both!!


Didn't mean to be negligent to welcome everyone else, too!!!! Welcome!!

[morganrhys]

Thank you for the kind words first off , Laurie. I think that my wife is pretty much Wonder Woman for going back to school at 30 with 2 kids and a frequently attention hungry hubby. (and a job , and pushy cats....)

I'm glad that someone rose to the bait on Joss. Joss Whedon is the creator of the television programming that I've enjoyed mostover that last few years: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. He also wrote/directed the movie Serenity and is the writer/director of the upcoming Wonder Woman movie (hence my earlier reference) He was also nominated for an Oscar for his writing on Toy Story.

So as you see my obsessive nature extends beyond IKEA and kitchens to even greater levels of geekiness.