Hutch Videos

*Disclaimer - I do so solemnly swear from now on to take any and all videos from the other angle because apparently the orientation on them just can not be changed. I've tried for two weeks now to no avail. Anyone who can help, please do! *

Hutch Video #1: Chris and Dad try to put the hutch in. And fail. Sighhhhhh. 

Hutch Video #2, approx. 15 hours later: Chris and Dad put the hutch in. And succeed. Huzzah!

Leo's in the Box

About a week ago, we were over at Tom & Ashley's for some football (with Penny and Leo, of course). They had a big box in their hallway and I got the big idea to plunk Leo in it and see how long it would take him to get out. Well, he didn't seem to think that was an option. He spent almost 5 minutes in the box before Tom went over and sprung him. What was funny, though, was that once he saw that he could, actually, escape the box, he would get out of it within seconds. Enjoy the before and after...further proof that our little man sure is handsome, but not too bright!

My Hutch is so Hutchilicious

Are you ready for this jelly!?

You may recall that a certian house flipper who will remain nameless screwed up the plumbing job in our upstairs bathroom. That meant that he had to re-route the toilet vent through the downstairs ceiling, meaning that he had to cut an access panel in the wall he had just crudely built. He decided to make lemonade and create a lovely little hutch area - without a hutch. So we can just call it a chunk out of the wall.

Nook on move-in day. Note that Flipper did put lighting in there to make it seem less, well, ghetto.

We painted the dining room, plunked a piece of really terrible furniture that my parents had kicking around in there, and called it a day. Lather, rinse, repeat for about two years. 

Until one day when my parents came for dinner. My Dad was CONVINCED that he could build something custom to fit in the space and to give us more storage. He took copious measurements and spent massive amounts of his own time (and some of Chris', too) building us the most incredibly detailed, meticulous cabinet I've ever seen. It makes me a little teary eyed to see it every day, honestly...this house is really shaping up around us. When he started this project (remember?), he kept saying that it would fit so well that we could un-install it and take it when we move. I didn't hold my breath. I also never plan to move, so it wasn't on my list of thoughts. But when installation day came, a whole new list of challenges presented itself. 

The walls in our house are all bowed. Badly. So no matter how many times Dad measured, this was destined to be a nightmare. Never did we expect, though, that Chris would have to remove drywall in order to get it in.

 Once the wall was opened, we realized just how much space there is in this wall - he could have given us LOADS more room in these two spaces. Argh. Curse you, Flipper!

Videos of the Installation that Wasn't and the Installation that Later Was will be coming soon, once I figure out how to get them off of my phone. For now, though, feast your eyes on what my men were able to accomplish!

Obviously it still needs some work. I need to go have glass cut to size for the doors and the shelves. But just look...just one more time...

Before

After!

NO, my father is not available for custom work. DO NOT take him away from us! Thank you, Dad, for your long hours of work to make this perfect piece of art for us. Great job!

F in Blogging

I deserve an F in blogging over the last month. I realized today that I'd better get on it before I went a whole month without a single update. We have been doing stuff, but not much was of note until the last couple of weeks. Leo pretty much sums up November:

If you can't tell, he has food all over himself. We spent most of November preparing for our first Thanksgiving at this house. It went off without a hitch, even Chris and my (horrifyingly tenuous) plan to brine the turkey before roasting it. We got a beautiful 17 pound turkey from our local butcher, made a couple of gallons of secret (okay, it's Alton Brown) turkey brine, and put the whole thing in the downstairs shower for about 14 hours. The possibility of ruining the Thanksgiving turkey gave me heart palpitations but luckily everything came out fine, thanks to Chris' brother and his turkey-savant skills. 

Brine, baby, brine!


Other than that, I've been really busy at work and generally crashing when at home. I've been trying to run again in the extended warmth of this global warming trend Indian summer in New England. We've been cleaning and de-cluttering only to clutter up other spaces. Not much of note around here. 

We did, however, take some nice family photos recently. Enjoy! Should be another post shortly about the awesomeness taking shape in our dining room...

Photo Friday

Did you know...that I have a license to carry?

PEPPER SPRAY! I got my license in the summer and never got around to buying some until I was in the Great State of New Hampshire today and realized that you could buy it anywhere. And it's pink. Worry not for my safety, internetians!

Happy Halloween!

Leo is a scary ghost! See?

Photo Friday

"Our" cemetary, where they are paving paradise and putting up a parking lot...literally. We walk here almost every day and are so sad to see part of the land destroyed for a football stadium. 

Leo is clearly the most incensed. 

Bedroom Makeover - Part One

We needed help in the bedroom. Tee hee hee all you want, but the room was a mess. It was a dumping ground for unwanted furniture, dog hair, you name it. It was one of the last rooms we cared about looking nice - if we could sleep in it, who cares. Here's a before shot. Note the vintage 'Princess Bride' movie poster looking all college-y above the bed. 

Here's the closet before. Still a mess, just more organized. 

Recently, we've decided that you know what, we're almost thirty. It's time to sleep somewhere that looks half decent. It's also time to have a bedroom with an actual closet instead of just a hole in the wall where we stick stuff. So in the last two weeks, the curtains have been replaced (twice, actually...oops), the duvet is new, we have ordered new furniture, and we organized the closet, all thanks to our friends at Target and Lowe's. It's been a busy couple of weekends, but the bedroom just makes me sigh happily now. Here's how she came out!

Look closely - beyond the laundry, duh - to see all the storage that Chris put together!

There's still more to do, though. There is a brown chair in the corner that has got to go. Chris is anxious to ditch my old dresser for something that matches. Clearly, closet doors are in our future. But for now...how nice to sleep in an adult looking bedroom. Updates when the furniture comes!

Curtains - Lowe's, clearance (Chris found them. Yes, they're perfect and I hate him for it.) 

Duvet - Target, coupons

Closet storage - FOUR separate units from Target, on sale for $25 each. We found them later that day for $45 apiece at Lowe's. Hooollllyyyy cow!

Art - Framed poster of 'Master Bedroom' by Andrew Wyeth. Love. An obsessive Pinterest find. 

Photo Friday...and voting Friday?

First photo has a plea along with it: please, please, please go to this website and VOTE FOR PENNY's Halloween photo! She is the saddest Santa ever. And I really, really, really want a free year of our premium, expensive dog food. Yes - it's worth it, especially since the dogs look like supermodels and they don't eat too much. We love Blue Buffalo!

As an advanced thanks for voting, here's a lovely shot of our beloved cemetary during an afternoon walk this week. Love this time of year and the light on the trees...

More blog updates coming soon! Bedroom remodel, closet organization, etc!

Organization. and Wallace.

I've never been a great blogger...but this is just sad. Honestly we've had a pretty quiet fall so far. We're squirreling away our money and time to try and get some big projects out of the way. The only real project of note is my attempt to organize and clean out our upstairs. Yes - the whole upstairs.

You may recall that we have a total of three closets in the house. Most of our storage got shoved out of sight - behind things, into corners, etc. My idea was to take Colombus day weekend and just go through everything - out with the old! Well, it did take Colombus day weekend. And it will take this weekend. And probably the next. Because we have so much CRAP shoved into about 700 sq ft up here that it's just about impossible to get through.

But in all this crap-sorting, we've found some treasures. A DVD I thought I lost years ago. Drawings from when the girls I nannied for were teeny tiny. Teaching materials from my UNH internship. And of course...

Wallace.

There are not many things that Chris and I argue about, but the location of Wallace is one of them. Mainly because he always shows up in a totally creepy, horror-film style way anytime I'm looking for something. Wallace is the racially ambiguous Cabbage Patch Kid that Chris has had since infancy. I'm sure his mom had to go to all-out war in the Christmas of 1983 to get one for her precious baby boy. It's something from his childhood that Chris just likes to know is around. Unfortunately, I'm the one who always finds it. Looking for sweaters? Oops, it's just Wallace. Hunting for ski clothes? Holy crap, it's Wallace. Awake at 4am? Look into the beady eyes of Wallace. He is at the same time everywhere and nowhere. I finally took him out of the back of our closet last weekend and threw him, in a fit of rage, into Chris' study. As I was cleaning his study last night, I found Wallace again ("AAAHH! WALLACE!"), bottom-first in the back of the closet, where I patiently but sternly said to Chris, "What (expletive deleted) are we going to do with (e.d) Wallace?"

Chris proceeded to ball him back up into his plastic grocery bag and stuff him, bottom side up, into the closet. Apparently Wallace is something we will never truly lose.

*As as side note, the fact that this doll is named 'Wallace' always makes me shake in my boots, reminding me of one of my most favorite and most tragically lost characters on 'The Wire' - oftentimes when I find Wallace, I will reenact this scene. Yes, there is language in here, so parents, ye be warned.*

This weekend, I'll keep plugging away. We had a last-minute shopping spree at Target last weekend for new bedding, curtains, living room furniture, etc, and much of it is going back. The red in our bedroom is so hard to match to another color. I'm working on organizational AND decorative solutions for both our bedroom and offices - check out my pinterest for ideas!

Oh, and here's a pic of the man himself. Wallace.

Note: I have never actually take Wallace out of his plasticy grave. I just realized that he is unclothed. Penny' s Santa suit was the closest thing I could find to fit him, for propriety's sake...

Photo Friday

Here it is! A photo Friday!

Penny and Leo eating together, in the kitchen, at the same time! Amazing!

The Great Rug Debate

It's established we need a new rug. Chris doesn't even want me to post a picture of the current one because it's so gross. So we got the awesome hook-up from Chris' cousin Debbe who brought us to a nearby floor covering warehouse where we frolicked amongst about a zillion types of carpet.

Here are the runners-up:

We want a red rug. The choice is: red diamonds or red flowers? We're leaning toward the diamonds but the choice is hard....HELP, blogosphere, help!! Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Plumbing update

I wish I had pictures of this, but we were too in shock to believe it ourselves. The plumber pulled about SIX FEET of tree roots out of our pipes. He said this is common in old homes and we were lucky to have avoided a total flood. Moral of the story is - preventative maintence! He suggested to have the pipe drilling procedure repeated every 5-7 years to stop the roots from getting too big. Kudos to the plumber for getting here at 8pm on Labor Day Sunday!

Thanks, Dave the Plumber!

DIY Art Project

For the longest time, I've felt like the kitchen needed a little 'something.' At first it was a tile back splash, which Chris firmly refused to allow me to attempt. (Stay tuned, I might win this one before we pay the mortgage off.) I did, however, talk him into helping me put up some fantastic found art above the big window!

My mom has subscribed me to Cooks' Illustrated for years now. The back page of their magazine always has the most beautiful hand-drawn illustrations of foods in the same categories - fish, herbs, vegetables, etc. I decided (okay, I ripped this idea off of my mom) to cut them to size and frame them. We have a total of 11 illustrations and I'm going to swap some of them out seasonally. Right now we have pumpkins, Mexican herbs, chile peppers, mescalin greens, and carrots. In a few weeks I'll swap out the peppers for some autumn corn. We keep complimenting ourselves on how much it dresses up the room. We paid under $5 apiece for the frames (booyah Michael's teacher discount!) though I did have to buy a paper trimmer for this project. For a total investment of about $30, we have some lovely wall art! Thanks mom!

Joys of Homeownership

Yes, I missed Photo Friday. We were visited by some out-of-town friends who ended up staying the night and Photo Friday slipped my mind completely. I do, however, have some pics for this Friday of a totally awesome DIY art project!

Today is Sunday. We don't have work tomorrow. My parents came for dinner. And at 5pm, I opened the downstairs bathroom door (to let the AC in so that my parents wouldn't have to pee in the humidity) only to find the floor covered in water. "Ughhh, the toilet overflowed," I sighed. Oh no. IF ONLY the toilet had overflowed. I walked in to find the pan of the stand-up shower absolutely cascading water onto the floor. Apparently we have some sort of clog in our main drain and currently we are crossing our legs and waiting for the plumber.

This is the kind of situation that makes me really glad that I didn't burn a bridge with our contractor buddy. Even though I wasn't 100% happy with their last job, I didn't say anything, having some faith that we just were using them at a really busy time. Tonight, in my moment of panic, I called our previous contractor asking him to recommend a plumber who could come out on Labor Day weekend. Ten minutes later, I was on the phone with the plumber who is excusing himself from a family event to be here by 8pm. So glad we still have that connection.

And now...we wait. Updates on this coming...ahhh, the joys of homeownership!

What Could It Be??

Below is a picture of Phase One of something my father and Chris are building for the house...what could it be?? First guesser to get it right wins fabulous bragging rights...

Porch Progress

Well, the Craigslist gods have again shown me their kindness, because...

WE GOT OUR PORCH FURNISHED!

I found this set listed for $400 on craigslist and offered $250. (I later found it brand-new on walmart.com for about $400, so I'm glad I lowballed). For that price I got the chairs, loveseat, cushions, four throw pillows, and rug. The black table was a yard sale find for $20, and the blue stripey pillows were $5 at the Depot. I kind've hate the rug as is - it's a bit busy for my taste. I'm planning to find something (check my pinterest for obsessive ideas) that matches the aqua blue in the pillows and design around that. But for now, it's fun and functional - just what we wanted!

SO! The total porchvestment is...

Paint (3 gal Kilz+1 on hand): $60

Spackle (2 gal. Seriously): $20

Labor for sanding (thanks Rob!): $20

Flooring: $180

Furnishings: $270

= $550!

Our original budget was $1000 for flooring only, nevermind another $500-1000 for furniture. A little hard work and a bit of internet finagling goes a long way. And let's just take a trip down memory lane to see where the porch has been...

Many thanks to Chris' cousin Debbe for talking me down the "sectional porch sofa" ledge. This space is so small and strange that we just barely fit all this stuff in it! There's still a bit of a ways to go but the progress is there. I can go back to school tomorrow knowing that my summer was spent in a noble pursuit! Honestly, this is the first summer that I never got bored and antsy. Between this old house and these two wacky dogs, I've always got plenty to do. 

Stuck in my head...

The hatches are battened and we're dancing on the porch...pics to come! Hope everyone stays safe!

*PS: I use this song in school during an 'Art of the Civil Rights Movement' unit. Such a powerful expression of indignance!

Photo Friday

Here's how I've been contributing to the decor of late...post its. It's making Chris insane to say the least. Where do you keep important reminders? Like remembering to shut off the stove?