Basement Overflow.....

So this is what we started with. A mess on a table ;-)

Some of it moved around the corner with the 4-drawer file cabinet. 

Mostly art supplies.

My desk moved to the far wall and 

I took over some of the bookshelves for storage.

Matt's desk is now on the opposite wall instead of behind the sofa.

He's still hard at work on Grad school - but he's just about halfway through!!

I'm now at 36 weeks and can't wait to meet our little guy!

To Do List 2015

Let's begin with a summary of items that have rolled over from year to year. Some of these we have decided we are not going to do, but here's the full list:

outdoor patio around bottom of deck stairs (moves grill off deck) - no longer happening
walkway from driveway around the lilacs to outdoor patio - no longer happening
living hedge border along far-side of the yard and down the driveway - started but incomplete
flowering shrubs on the inside of yard edge - no longer happening
backup generator for whole house - still a possibility but we are leaning towards no
air exchange unit for the house
new bulkhead for the basement exterior stairs
backyard shed - no longer happening
figure out garage storage
re-paint guestroom
continue clearing edges of yard
1 or 2 bonfires to clean-up yard waste and deadwood

If we take the above list and remove the items that are no longer going to happen, we have:

living hedge border along far-side of the yard and down the driveway - started but incomplete
air exchange unit for the house
new bulkhead for the basement exterior stairs
figure out garage storage
re-paint study which is now the guestroom
continue clearing edges of yard
1 or 2 bonfires to clean-up yard waste and deadwood

Now let's add a new project to the mix.... a nursery :-)

Needless to say, the list needs a bit of re-arranging! I'll fill you in more as we figure things out, but a lot of my absence over the past few months has been due to the ill-named morning sickness. I'm getting better but some days it's all I can do to get up, go to work, come home and eat dinner, so please pardon the sporadic posts!

2014 To-Do List Update

We are halfway through 2014!! So just like in past years, I'm taking a moment to review our to-do list and see what we've accomplished vs what is left on the list!

1. whole house water filter - we have an artisan well and while we love it, we're starting to see some serious mineral build-up in sink faucets, shower heads and appliances. (May)
2. new bulkhead - finishing the basement showed us how truly leaky and unsealed the current bulkhead is and since we've just finished the basement, we want to protect it!
3. fix the granite bar - it has been shifting down for the last few years and is no longer level. We had it looked at to make sure it won't fall off - that would be awful! - but it needs to be fixed.
4. furniture: new living room couch (current couch will be going into the basement) and ottoman, coffee table and media center (with new TV) for the basement. (Feb/March)
5. yard: fill in raised beds in back with big plants (hydrangeas or butterfly bushes), fill-in oak tree flower bed and continue living hedge. (May/June)
6. go on vacation! - we've been very bad at this in recent years but 2013 summer with weekend adventures and camping showed us how much we love to travel and how much we NEED that downtime (April)

All in all - NOT bad!! not bad at all :-D

And just in time for family to arrive for July 4th.... A new wooden flag for above the mantle :-) The stars hanging off the ends of the mantle is the red, white and blue table runner for the dining room table that I threw up there before I crashed on the sofa. Hey, at least it won't get dog hair on it up there!

The metal star painted with the flag is on the front door, but true to form, I don't have a picture for you. Maybe I'll grab one tonight and update the post :-)

Basement Media Center

This was one of the first weekends we've had where a) we've both been home together b) the weekend hasn't been completely booked with other things to do c) one of us hasn't been really sick. HUZZAH! Thus, we were finally able to spend some time putting the basement in some kind order. We didn't get everything done we wanted to due to some uncooperative speaker mounts, but we still made progress!

 TV and various gaming consoles were hooked up

 chargers plugged in and charging, 

extras have been organized in the below cabinet.

 While it took MUCH longer than we wanted, 

we did get the two satellite surround sound speakers up and working 

 I actually took this photo after we got the TV hooked up,

but we also have a clear sofa and coffee table now too!

 Reese kept us company (don't let his pathetic face fool you in this pic)

and happily ran up and down the stairs with me

when I brought empty boxes to the garage for recycling (YAY!)

 Sunday morning we tried a new brunch place. 

Not as good as we were hoping, but not bad.

 Sunday night I made a ham dinner :-)

with green beans and sweet potatoes - YUM!

All in all, a productive weekend as we also celebrated my Mother-in-law's birthday Saturday night, I got my desk cleaned off, bills paid, I'm almost caught up on laundry AND Matt and I still had time to sit and watch FROZEN together in the new basement space - it was epic - it was awesome!

We have some busy weekends ahead so there may not be another update for a while, but at least I can hang out down there and watch tv, sit on my laptop, etc while Matt is working on grad school :-)

February is over?

The last week of February flew by. literally. I started back at CrossFit, we enjoyed a double-date night on Wednesday with friends, my mum was up this weekend - so it was go, go, go! all week long :-)

enjoyed an allergic reaction from wrist wraps.. I'm fine now but
it was a fun surprise! 

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we worked in the garage and basement on Saturday in order to get both cars back into the garage - it took a bit of work as the new Accord doesn't fit in the smaller space, so we switched places as the CRV is just a few inches shorter allowing both cars to (snugly) fit!

we got the side clean

in between the cars is cleaned up so there is room for doors to open

less clean down the other side of the garage, but still workable

The front is still a mess but the important thing is that both cars can live the rest of this winter in the garage. 

I have a garage clean-up already on the calendar for later on in the spring 

when we can pull everything out and get it organized.

Breakfast of champions after swimming Sunday morning :-)

Mum and I had an egg inside 1/2 an avocado with bacon and espresso

YUM!

Basement Construction Completed!

Before the crazy snow storm started on Saturday, the electrician came by to finish up a few odds and ends and give us the all-clear! YAY!!!

So while the snow started coming down fast, I started moving stuff back to the basement from the garage. It was a great stair work-out :-)

The current great debate is whether Matt's desk will go on this wall, with shelves above, or if just the shelves will go there and his desk will sit in the middle of the floor. I'm all for the desk under the shelves ;-)

Start of the fitness area!

And on the opposite wall from Matt's desk area, I moved the two bookcases and filing cabinets in for storage. It makes a great use for this little corner as well as hiding one of our funny bumpouts in the corner! :)

I love that our media center will hold all movies and games, so these bookcases can go back to holding books! I'm still carrying/unpacking more and filling up the shelves.

Sooo..... 9 inches of snow later..... media center delivery was canceled....

sad day

So we hung out inside instead, catching up on movies (Netflix!), enjoying that the amaryllis bulb looks like its going to flower soon, and cozying up for an afternoon nap... Reese is a great napping buddy :-D

I hope you all are staying warm in this crazy weather and I'll be back as soon as there are more updates in the basement!

It's been a bit crazy.....

....around here lately. It's funny, I felt like time was flying this summer when we had family living with us, but ever since they've left, I feel like it's moving twice as fast!! How did it get to be late September already?

I went to return a curtain to a store the other day and they were putting up Holiday decorations. I almost freaked out. 

What happened to fall? apple picking, pumpkin hunting in preparation for Halloween? Thanksgiving anyone? sigh. I LOVE this time of year and it drives me bananas when the stores (and even some people!) try to make it go by faster, get it over with and have it be January already. No thank you! I want to play in the yard in the cooler weather, watch the leaves fall and the geese fly south. I want to smell the wood fires and the yummy baked goods coming out of the oven. I want to feel that first touch of chill when you can reach for your favorite sweater or cozy up on the couch with a hot cup of cider and a good book!

So I'm putting the breaks on, people. There will be no rushing of Fall!

I've started a new routine. Swimming in the wee hours of the morning before work twice a week. Maybe three times... but I'm not going to push it. Because I love it! I love the world before everyone wakes up and makes it crazy. It's so peaceful. calm. at rest. 

I've woken up each day before my alarm goes off, thrown on my swim gear and headed out in sweats. LOVE it. Get to the gym, check out the lane situation as I head to the locker room to drop off my bag. This morning I felt especially lucky as I was one of three people in the pool. Speaking of being at rest. The pool was calm and my brain just unfocused as the laps went by. 

I took these with my phone from out the car window on the way home this morning. When I first passed the lake on my way to the gym, the mist was much stronger and there was no light other than the full moon. It was jaw-dropping beautiful. It was too dark for a phone picture. Just imagine the above in blackness with a full moon in the upper left-hand corner and mist all over the lake, gently rising towards the trees.

Yep. My laundry room. Reality check. My house is not always clean. I may have a Monica closet (Friends reference). Or a Monica basement. And yes, a few contractors have now seen the Monica basement. Which means it is now an endangered species soon to be extinct if all goes well! Cross your fingers!!

Second Floor Switcheroo!

Designs are being finished for our basement project - but since we are headed into fall and the project might spill over into the winter season, we needed to get Matt's office space out of the basement. He can't sit down there, wrapped in blankets with a space heater on his feet for another winter!

So where can we put his office/computer desk? It certainly won't fit in my study..... then I had one of those light bulb moments (think of Despicable Me!)...... what if we swap the guestroom with my study and then add Matt to the bigger room - ie a shared study? I measured.... and thought about it..... and measured again. I ran it by Matt who wasn't sure the difference in size of the rooms would be enough.....and then, I decided to just do it!

Here's what the study used to look like - on a messy day!!

only pictures I could find were when we put the bookcases together

And here's what the study looks like now! TA-DA! Super cozy, but totally work-able guestroom!!

OK, you say, but what about Matt's theory with the other room?

 Here's the first version of the guestroom...

Before we get to the after pictures (unless you want to cheat and scroll down first!) here's the moving process. I first moved the bookcases because I could move them into the guestroom with moving very little furniture out. But as I was moving the empty bookcases, I took the opportunity to finally put the backs on!

 This one even got a fancy treatment of paper down the back!

 After it was emptied, back put on, moved into place and loaded up again....

 I moved the 4-drawer file cabinet. 

No, I did not empty this first. No, I did not use floor sliders.

I used pure muscle :-)

 Then I emptied bookcase 2, put the back on, moved it into place and 

re-loaded it with all my craft & paint supplies. WHEW!

I do not have pictures of moving my writing desk as it was a bit of a puzzle. I didn't want to take the legs off like I did the last time, so I finnagled it until it worked! :-)
OK. So is there room for Matt? The entire wall to the left of my desk (where the Queen bed and two bed side tables used to be) is completely free and waiting for Matt's stuff :-) Plenty of room!! Success!!

Now we just need to move Matt's stuff up from the basement. I'm even thinking we might have room for a comfy chair and a small TV :-)

Memory Box

I saw a cool idea on Pinterest using a shadow box.
So, when one became available (for free!) I took it :-)

using leftover paint from last years Urn project

I gave the frame a few coats - the frame was raw wood so
after a quick damp cloth and a bit of dry time it was ready to go!

Yes, I was in a hurry and didn't put down a drop cloth so we now have
some black rectangles on the driveway. sigh. oh well!

Once the frame was dry - I gave it a full 24hrs -
I put everything back together and started adding cards,
movie tickets and other memorabilia to the box. 

We will continue to add items as we go until it's too full - I'm thinking that will take years! - then I will add the years across the bottom and start a new one!