We got Floors!

Well, we sort of have floors. The kitchen is coming along as quickly as a three legged turtle walks backwards slowly but surely.

Recently, we've taken on two major projects. And by we I mean my dad and J. So the first thing was the electrical work in the kitchen. The entire kitchen had to be rewired. And J apparently is also an electrician now, because in two days, it was finished. Impressive in my book. He is a responsible business man by day (and evening), and an electrician/kitchen builder by night and weekend. I married the best guy ever.

Here is all the wiring of the walls.. and the very very empty kitchen. Oh, see that floor? Maybe asbestos. We actually don't know 100%... but guess what happens when your wife thinks it MIGHT be asbestos and doesn't want you to get lung cancer??

Yep, that's right, you get a professional grade respirator mask. And we weren't even touching the asbestos, just covering it up. So J used this, even though it mayyyybe was not necessary. But better safe than sorry. This is how much J loved this part of my neurotic personality:

So they quickly covered up the asbestos with some sort of "magic board" that apparently makes the surface smooth for tiling. Or stone-ing as it were. So.... this is in the process.

Hello to the ugliest floor in the world. Old school grandparents tile, and some cement to seal off the wood, and then some peel and stick tiles to even out the level. Wow. This looks sooo awful. But, it all needed to be done. By using the peel and stick tiles, we had a completely even surface to work with. They are uber cheap and well worth the quick stickiing to make it work.

In process using Hardie Backer board.

Most of the floor finished in the board.

Dad laying out the flooring to see how it will look (THANKS DAD!!)

After that part was finished, we watched the UCONN game (again, Go Huskies!) Today after brunch with J's friend Chops who was in from Texas, we went back to work... J did most of the work but I was in charge of clearing the thin-set and the clean up of anything on the tiles. 

We decided to go with a tile or slate on the kitchen floor because our wood in the eating area is old and we could never match it well. We bought the flooring at Tile Mart of Delaware.After perusing the racks and the examples for awhile, we couldn't find anything we loved. I wandered back to the "Clearance" area and it was as if a light was shining down from heaven. Okay, it was just recessed lighting shining down. But directly onto these dark chargoal grey tiles that were rough and gritty feeling- perfect for the kitchen. And perfect color too. And the very very best part of all? We totally expected and were willing to pay $4-$8 per square foot of tile. This tile? 99 cents. Ding ding ding! I win the award. We were totally thrilled with my find! And brought it home that night.

So today, J went at it... and did the best job ever. We also realize the hop-scotch pattern works entirely better than straight lines of tile. Better because if you are 1/16 of an inch off, you can't tell. And better because it looks cute. Who do you think picked out each of those positive aspects? You are correct if you guessed I like it because it looks "cute" and J is pleased that his accuracy can be slliiiiiightly off.

He looks good even when he's doing manual labor. And look how nice the tiles look. J went through one big bucket of thinset before calling it a day today. This is where we are so far:

Here it is against the hardwood floors. I think it looks fantastic. I am so excited about going from demo to reno FINALLY. We are building it up!! We have about a month and a half before our deadline of this being finished, so we better pick up the pace. But this is some good movement. Sorry for the rando trash can in the picture here.... 

Charcoal grey, you've won my heart.

Time Out from the House: Here Comes the Bride(s): Part 3

The other day it occured to me that it had been 6 months since my friends Sarah + Chris tied the knot. I brought you and Here comes the Bride(s) Part 1 and  Here comes the Bride(s) Part 2: Foran-Tuller Wedding. I promised Sarah's would follow and then our own, but I never followed up. Lately, I've been (gasp!!) missing the craze of wedding season and the hours spent choosing eggplant vs. purple. So, I decided to revisit Sarah's wedding events as a tribute to last spring through fall starting around this time.

So Happy (Belated) 6 Month Anniversary to my favorite Vermont Wedding love birds.

I met Sarah on day one of grad school, as we previously talked about. I actually still remember the first time I heard Sarah and Chris talk on the phone. It was that same day- day one. I overheard some nauseating cute nicknames and I still remember thinking at that time I bet they had a fantastic relationship. Correct. Chris is an amazing guy, but even better, Chris is 100% the right guy for Sarah. He loves her like I am certain no one else in this world could. I also remember when Sarah and I started talking about weddings. We thought this Amsale dress was the best thing since sliced bread. Looking back... umm really? Amsale, yes. Dresses that show so much skin and are not flattering? No. Our journey to our weddings (only 3 weeks apart from each other) was hilarious, tense at moments, and included a bazillion trillion hours on the phone.

Moving on to Sarah's big events. First, we had Sarah's bridal shower at her parents house. I love the warmth of bridal showers in a home, and this was no different. Sarah's mom and Aunt Donna did an amazing job with the shower and the special details. Oh yeah, I handmade Sarah's shower invitations. I cannot for the life of me find a picture of them, though. Sad. But here are some photos of the shower.

 

Loved these labels!

 

Love these two!

 So cute! Favors are VT maple syrup

I reached back into my scrapbook days for Sarah's shower and pulled this out. I forgot how fun (and yet time consuming) scrapbooking can be. One of these days I'll maybeee get around to making another one for our own wedding but that doesn't seem like it is in the near future.

Fast Forward to June. I'm living in Ohio and have to figure out how to get from Cbus to the Hamptons in NY. Ummm sooo I flew to White Plains NY, Kelly picked me up, and we drove another 2 hours to the Hamptons. My flight was late- surprise surprise- and on the way home I think I had a grand total of a 13 hour trip and a 8-9 hour delay. Yikes. None the less, the weekend was absolutely fantastic and we had the best time. A great big Hamptons beach house + 9 girls + lots of food and wine = bachelorette party extraordinaire!

The weather did not cooperate fully, but we managed to squeeze in a short trip to the beach... and an afternoon nap. What more could we want?

Awesome huge wine glasses. And homemade guac. A little pre- evening out dinner and apps at home. Mmm.

All of us post eating some delicious dinner!

There are more pictures somewhere, but these will have to suffice for now. I miss being tan. And the beach. Thank goodness it is spring winter reincarnated and there is some hope for warm weather... sometime... somewhere....

So we went the rather long stretch from June to September until S+C's big day. I loved this wedding, and I loved a weekend in Vermont. The weather was the absolutely perfect New England fall weather you only dream about. Sarah put tons of effort into her day- and she even brought out her own creative side, making her menu cards herself (with a little help from a nice friend who drove up to Hoboken for the day). We got there early Friday afternoon and enjoyed the town of Stratton for a bit before we headed to the festivities.

Later on Kelly + Mike got there and we headed over to the Hildene for Rehearsal. Hildene is the old Lincoln Family Home in Manchester, Vermont and the views are absolutely breathtaking. I'll try not to include every photo, but rehearsal day was gorgeous with the most perfect weather ever. And great for picture taking.

We only bought this camera the week pre-Sarah's wedding, so there are about 15 of this picture with different lighting. But look how pretty this place is!!! I also brought my good old Anthropologie belt that is my favorite staple to add to any outfit. Just thought I'd point that out.

Have you ever seen people looking more in love? Or pretty? Sarah has my favorite hair ever. Sigh.

Yeah, Dana and I matched. Even though really Kelly and Dana are twins.

love this one!

And there are our hot roommates.

If we were to compare reality tv to internet reality, it would be blogging. And here I am in my very truest form. Looking for a bathroom since my bladder is the size of a 4 year olds.

Hmm also apparently I cared less about food that night and more about the pretty rehearsal venue because I didn't take many actual dinner pictures- and the few that I did take are oddly colored. Again, new camera. But YAY! Saturday morning rolled around with sunshine and love and sprinkles and unicorns. Okay, maybe just sunshine and love, but it was seriously another fantastic day and the wedding was set to be perfect.

Gorgeous day and we are wearing tank tops. Gorgeous warm day. And look at the pretty background. Then  J and Mike played paparazzi and shot a few of these bad boys from our balcony:

We went over to Hildene, got ready, and were waiting for the guests to arrive when the officiant came in and asked Sarah for the marriage license. Sheer terror took over her face as she said "I don't have it!". It was in Chris's car. At Stratton. With no one left there to get it. But, my lovely friend told me before her wedding that only three things really mattered on her wedding day:
1. Chris being there (and I saw him already- so we were good on that front).
2. No rain (sunny skies- check!)
3. No stomach virus (no excessive bathroom use so far that day, so we are in the clear).

So I told Sarah to repeat the three things that mattered. A marriage license is just a technicality, and this wedding was going to happen no matter what. Sarah was amazing and took this in stride. She and Chris got legit married on Sunday in their jeans and t-shirts. That's true love. 

So, I'm not usually so bossy, but I told J like 15 times you HAVE to get a good seat at Sarah's wedding. Normally, this would just be the nagging wife-- but no joke, at Kelly's wedding, J and Chris (Sarah's new hubs) went on a long run and got back late; they barely made it to the wedding. So I told him 15 times. Be on time. Okay wait, sometimes I am bossy. But still, I had reason. So Jamie and Mike arrived early. And were the very very first ones waiting for the bus to Hildene. Thank you husband, you did well. He also took these:

Who knew J had attention to detail? Love the hanging flowers with birch wrapped around them... and the groomsmen's Vans. This wedding was everything Sarah and Chris. After their ceremony, which had the most emotional poems and readings (I cried. A LOT), Happy Hour was held by the mansion and was yum, yum yum! It got a little chillier, and we grabbed our pashminas that S gave us for the wedding:

My lovely grad school ladies.

We got to pick our own accessories, so I chose that flower belt. And S's bmaid Katie made our jewelry!

S + C's reception was just so perfect for them. Between their band, their parents' and siblings' speeches, first dance, and celebration, it was everything they wanted it to be. We had the best time.

Maybe the first bride ever to do the Charleston at their wedding.

loved all the details. menus, centerpieces, and the table names were made by S's graphic artist bmaid, Kristin!

"Sarah, you told me three things matter today. Is that one of those things? No. Okay, let's move on"

Oh yeah, instead of cake, they had a huge container of Ben & Jerry's. Vermont's Finest. So cute.

After the wedding, there was an after party at Stratton. I must admit, I didn't make it too long. We were totally exhausted after the wedding and half hour bus ride back to Stratton. But we did manage to buy S a shot and see Chris' band play for a bit.

Best vermont wedding we've ever been to. Okay, only one. Still, it was fantastic. Sarah and Chris are the perfect match, and their wedding was the perfect celebration.

So here's me sending you two some happy 6 months of love.  xo!

The office. Not the TV show, the room in our house. In progress.

So.... this is not the "finished" product. But, I'm quite pleased with the progress so far. And my mom gets a huuuuuge thank you for helping along the way.

Let's see if I can find a really old school picture of how hideous this room was when we moved in. We called it "the girl's room" because of the horrrreendousss pink color. Note to self: Do not let future children chose the hues of the walls in their rooms. My mom and dad once let me choose a seaworld type theme in my room growing up. I even had a killer whale phone. Ha. Anyway, here's the room before.

Welcome back to  1976. Don't you just love the border in the middle of the room too? Hearts and Love.

So with the rest of the upstairs, those beat up floors got refinished awhile ago, and then this room got (somewhat) painted a yellow color- we left one wall unpainted for awhile because it was my project and I said the desk was "too heavy" to move because I'm lazy I'm such a dainty lady. Eventually that last wall got painted by J. Thank you, sunshine. It became the "office" room, but really was just a place to throw computer stuff and everything else that didn't have a home.

Oh here she is pre-paint with sooo much stuff in there. And here is a picture of the one lonely unpainted wall awhile back:

I think this photo almost looks like two different pictures sliced together because of the ridiculous difference.

Back in the fall, I bought curtains for this room from Anthropologie. They were a bit of a splurge, but they were on sale and I loved them. I think everyone I showed them to thought they were ugly, but I was in love. And the fact that they were on sale did help. The after makes it all worth it.

We needed a chair for this room and I originally wanted a grey one. But I could not find a single grey chair I actually liked, so I went with white and grey accessories. We went for the Ikea Jennylund chair and the Karlstad ottoman. The entire time we were putting Karlstad together (with my dad's help) we were referring to the ottoman as Karl's dad or Karl Sr. We thought it was hilarious. Maybe it was just the hours of work we had already invested. Who knows.  We also picked up a carpet from Ikea that I loved and some new white storage boxes.

So after buying these things, and leaving them in that room with the rest of our junk for awhile, we decided we should get moving. First, we had to repaint all of the trim because it looked like this:

My amazing mother did all of the sanding that needed to be done, and I went around with the paintbrush. A new coat of white paint can do amazing things for a room.

So here is what we were working with in the days before deciding to throw in the being a mess towel and straighten up our act in this room.

Oh, hello, hundreds of psychology books.

Sorry mom, but this needs to exist. This is yesterday morning before we began. The boxes are from other furniture my mom and I put together- we will get to that another time.

We started to clear it out a bit.

And then I took no pictures of the actual during process, because I think in a matter of an hour, we ironed and hung the curtains, set up the furniture, organized the desk area, and put up a few decorations.

How much do you love the Anthropologie curtains? swoon.

I love how the rug, the pillow/blanket, and the curtains look together. Textiles are my new best friends and I am obsessed with finding fun things to mix together. Success.

Wow, my flash worked horrendously last night. I'll try again in the light today. But here is the entire room.

The desk and the filing cabinet will be painted either light grey or white to match the theme of the room thanks to this how to by Centsational Girl. And the two white ikea boxes you see on the right have a lot of friends... still waiting to be built. They hide out here:

I love that little white basket. Somehow it doesn't look messy, even though it contains all the messy- like items that are still waiting to be built and put away. The boxes will go on shelves that also do not yet exist, so this is just the in- progress post, and the finally totally finished post will come in the near future, once our kitchen needs less attention and has things that are important.. like walls... and a working oven. Here is our currently unpainted filing cabinet with one of our wedding picture canvases behind it. Awwww. How Cute.

So that's it for now. I will take better pictures in the light of day. Now maybe I can go finish my presentations for my upcoming conference in that nice comfy chair... and hope I don't fall asleep by accident.

Oh wait, one more thing, my parents helped all day yesterday, and we greatly appreciated it. We watched the UCONN- Kentucky game with them afterwards and those Huskies emerged victorious. 

So, let's just say, on Monday night the fam will be wild with excitement for the final game. 

GO HUSKIES!!!