Green is making a come-back!

The yard is starting to grow again :-) It makes me so happy to see progress in the garden beds /trees, especially after the crazy winter we had! 20 year record for bad winter in NH for those keeping track!

lilacs and daffodils along the garage

flowering pear tree w/dogwoods in the background

iris and possibly flox (against the rock) in the triangle bed

buds on the maple tree in the triangle bed

iris in the all-but-empty raised flower beds along the back of the house

This is going to be completed this spring! I can't wait!

lilacs planted last summer along the back fence

Salmon and Kale in coconut cream sauce :-)

it was SUPER delish

and not all that hard either

kale was steamed, salmon was baked in the cream sauce

TA DA!

I've been pretty good about keeping up with my new recipes every week. I don't always use a new one every night, but I try to incorporate them in each meal - the sauce was new for this meal :-)

Dinners last week

My goal last week was to have something different every night. It sort of worked? We managed to try 3 new meals/recipes. The two pretty ones are shown below. The third, while it tasted delish, didn't photograph well and looked kinda like mush - LOL!

 Monday: steak w/yellow pepper, onion, pineapple over romaine hearts

 Wednesday: chicken fajitas in bib lettuce wraps

Thursday (not shown): cauliflower risotto w/mushrooms, chicken sausage, onion and broccoli

For those curious people, Tuesday was leftovers and Friday was Thai take-out!

I'm Calling IT!

DONE! stick a fork in it - DONE! FINITO!
Yes, the basement has a few more tiny projects - putting up shelves, adding some storage behind Matt's desk, but let's face it, that stuff is kinda boring anyway ;-) What's more exciting are before and after pics - WAHOO! especially when they are almost 6 months in the making!!  Can you believe it's been 6 months?!

I apparently didn't take any good photos of the stairwell before
so here's partway thru construction

AFTER :-)

bottom of the stairs before

part-way thru construction

AFTER :-)

Before

AFTER :-)
Isn't my double pantry beautiful?

Before, but cleaned for construction with none of our mess!

AFTER :-)

Before
(Is it wrong that throwing out those carpets
made me incredibly, unbelievably happy?)

AFTER :-)

Before 

AFTER :-)
LOVE that Matt can work on grad school and work from home
without being wrapped up like a mummy in blankets to stay warm!

pardon the messy desk!
I don't touch it or he'll never find anything again - LOL

This was an amazing project for us in so many ways: learning how to juggle work, holidays, family, Reese and all those workmen in our home (communication with all those workmen too!), not to mention all the shoveling and the freezing weather we had this winter. Some stuff we did ourselves and I think we made good choices on what we could handle vs paying professionals to do the work which saved us money! We both agree that trying to live in an unfinished space and then move everything to finish it and then put everything back is a huge pain. We should have left the basement as dead space until we were ready to renovate because over the years it became our dumping ground for all kinds of stuff. Stuff that had to be cleaned out/organized/given away/sold/donated before only the items we truly wanted went into storage during the reno and then moved back into the finished space.
All of that aside, this was our first construction project, in our first home and we ended up with all these experiences to put towards future projects and a BEAUTIFUL new space that we both absolutely LOVE!

Patching & Painting

Last time I posted pics of the basement stairs they looked like this:

Top half all white aside from the splotches of test color swatches

the lower half started but not finished

I worked on this project for 3 nights after work this week.

I started by filling in all the holes

and patching the corner where furniture and boxes had taken their toll.

to be honest, at first I wasn't happy about the unfinished stairwell,

but it ended up being a smart move because I would have had to repaint

large sections of it anyway!

After sanding down the dry patches (conclusion of night 1)

I finished sanding, took off the railings and started cutting in/edging (night 2)

by the way, that little corner on the upper right hand side of the picture where the wooden shelf ends in the wall? That tiny little space? What a pain to paint! I used a craft brush to give me better control :-)

the shelf made for a lot more cutting in/edging work

and the funky ceilings :-)

see the swatches on the wall? that's with spray paint KILZ over them.

consequently, I'll never buy spray paint KILZ again :(

the door frame. super awkward. I'm tall, but not that tall!

I ended up doing it all with a brush, standing on a stool in the doorway.

This does show you how the color pulls the hallway and floors together. 

The majority of the house is this color now: 

the basement, first floor, hallways, stairs to the second floor and second floor hallway.

my variety of paint supplies. The card worked better on the shelf than tape

Reese wasn't super happy with the situation, but the low/no VOC

made it comfy enough that he hung around

painted wall

painted upper corner of landing

painted wall at the top of the stairs - I took a ton of pictures

because the color doesn't really photograph well - it just doesn't look white.

looking down from the top of the stairs (conclusion of night 3)

The finished color is called Cream Puff - hilarious I know!

I love that it takes the edge of the harsh white and makes the stairway

kinda glow a happy pale yellow. Gives the molding an extra umph too!

it took me SO long to finish that Reese fell asleep (all of 2 hrs to roll)

it kills me when he does this :-) I think it's so funny!!

his head and nose are super squished - he snores like crazy! 

It was great to split up the project as it meant I could work on it during the week and it also gave spackle/paint time to dry in between :-)

I hope to have a few more updates concerning the basement shortly!

OK, crazy catch-up!

This might be a long post - picture heavy with few words - but I'm sure you'll enjoy the slideshow from the past few weeks!

co-workers daughter Fawn visited on 3/28/14

Brunch w/Mum at Modern Diner on 3/30/14

visit w/Catherine & Sandlin on 3/30/14

loving my white tulips! 4/1/14

baby shower gift for Ashley & Billy 4/2/2014

Reese (left) and Jonas (right) hanging out - practically holding hands!!!

 new gluten-free, vegan, no-bake chocolate peanut butter balls

I tried out for our double-date night with Ashley & Billy (4/2/14)

They were SUPER delish!!

Sooooo, Matt and I went away for a long weekend to sunny, warm Cozumel :-)

 sunset view from our balcony

we had what they called the Junior Suite! 

 drink/entertainment center

 hammock and chairs on the balcony

 new towel animals every day :-)

 the weather was wonderful! NO bugs!!

And while we were away enjoying the BEAUTIFUL blue water, pools, sunshine and temps in the 80's

Reese was home hanging out with Jordan!

and snuggles with Melissa and Fawn!

So that pretty much brings us up to date. It's been a bit crazy the last few weeks and it looks like things won't be slowing down any time soon so we are SUPER grateful for the long weekend away :-) First time in 4.5 years!! and well overdue :-)

I'm hoping to be patching walls and painting this weekend so I'll be sure to post pics - below is a current pic of our soupy/swampy backyard!