12 Steps To Greatness

Well maybe not greatness but, no yeah let's go with greatness.

We decided to try and pull off a living room redesign before Christmas. It's something we've been talking about since summer that would give us a little more breathing room in there and with family coming for the holidays, why not. Unfortunately, or fortunately come to think if it, it's not as simple as moving the couch & the TV. Each move affects another move and then triggers another move which avalanches again into yet another move reaching out to other rooms all over the house, til before we knew it we were neck deep in a five room switcheroo that we had to break down into an easy 12-step process.

1. clean/organize the mess of photos and cards in the upstairs back bedroom on the oval table and entertainment center
   
2. take down the oval table and entertainment shelf in back bedroom
3. move the green table from the dining room to the office
4. move all photo-related materials (e.g. photo scanner, photo printer & photo albums) from upstairs back bedroom into the office
5. move the bar out of the downstairs back bedroom to make room for boxes & Christmas stuff
   
6. bring the Christmas stuff in from the shed to make room for the oval table & entertainment center we took down
7. move all guitars and amplifiers and any related materials into upstairs back bedroom
8. take down and pack up all CDs and the shelves they were on
   
9. store CD shelves in the attic & remaining shed space and boxes of CDs in downstairs back bedroom
10. remove the patio chair cushions from under the landing, clean them off & bag them up to go in the shed for the winter
    
11. rearrange the couch, leather chair, coffee table & cubes, and move & rewire the TV under the side window
12. ...... maybe you only need 11 steps to be great

Either way, we're halfway thru step 9 and we just started this round 8 last night. Not bad. Here's just a couple photos as we have been busy.

What? Doesn't everyone move they're furniture upstairs like this?

This may the last time any of us see this display.

These guys didn't really do anything other than stand around eating our grass.

Glorious Triumphant!

The lawn mowed!

After living here for 16 months, breaking four lawnmowers, and many many feet of growth, the lawn is officially mowed. And not with a weedwacker or with a sickle, but a bona fide lawn mower, that works, and mows, and whose handle doesn't snap, or belt brake, or crank shaft snap. For crying out loud. I'm not gonna lie, I shed tear. A little one. And to mark the occasion, a freshly cut lawn photo shoot.

We went and got a Carvel cake too, this is a celebration people, and even after it was left in the refrigerator for hours and melted into a blob we still decorated it appropriately (but not for this blog).



Then we ate venison hot dogs. Interesting. Lotsa mustard.



Labor day indeed.

A Cinnamon Cherry Kinda Day

Spring cleaning, a little late. We tore the downstairs apart yesterday. Those rooms didn't know what hit 'em. I even cleaned the chimney. We collected enough cat hair to fashion a new couch in the living room. Gross. We even organized the shed which was much needed. For fun we hung a few things near the kitchen.



Around 8pm we started painting the hall up the stairs. It's a reddish-purple. Kinda bloody. Home Depot calls it cinnamon cherry but it doesn't taste that good.



Painting on stairs is rough. I almost fell a couple times. Laura stayed safe for the most part. Just a few paint spatters.




Not done tho. Today is the upstairs, which may be even more of a mess. Five rooms down, five to go.

Breaking Up The Backyard

I have a lot to do on this little weeks sabbatical. The lawn has grown back with a vengeance and we'll see if the weedwacker is up to taking on the whole yard. But the biggest change is the stuff that is no longer there, or maybe there but destroyed.

Yes.

We got rid of a few things, and against our neighbors suggestions we sold our swingset/jungle-gym/eyesore to the new couple down the street.



They left a nice tire trail in case we want it back and have to find them.

And when they asked we jumped at a decent price to get the hot tub off the property as well.



Thought we might regret this but we didn't use it once this past year, and if we really want one now we can go pick out a nice new one, someday.

But how's that for photos of nothing... anti-photos.

And on top of all that the pool imploded.



Laura came home form work one night and the yard was flooded. So in one week we managed to rid ourselves of all these things we weren't really sure we wanted and now have a clean slate to work with when it comes time for redesigning the backyard and back porch, whenever that time may be.

Reggie & Flynn

We have ducks. This here lady is Reggie & Flynn is the drake. We named 'em, yeah. What else we got to do out here in the woods?



Sorry about the sketchy photo. We couldn't get too close or they'd fly away (which they did) and it was dusk. Deal. We could have kept it a secret altogether but that wouldn't be very nice now would it?

Detailed Planning

The Vegetable Garden


The Front Yard


I defy you to find any landscaper who could draw up more detailed and thorough sketches. And to scale!

These rule!

Commemorating A House Found

Apparently we, or I, am obsessed with anniversaries, but really it's just another excuse to post a photo on here. Anyhow... Yesterday marked one year since we found the house we now call home. We almost missed it. Busy day.

But I remember driving up the drive and laughing at the horse cart like some many else have since. I remember Laura walking in the front door and getting a big stupid smile on her face and whispering "This is it." I remember not wanting to look any further.

Yay Buffet!

Thanks Mom & Dad. Good times. Good Pizza.

Love The Freeze

"Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot"

Our Very First Fire

In our very own fireplace

Tyler Was A Birthday Boy

...and was it a doozy!


Sunday, Tyler (Melissa really) had an action packed day planned for everyone on my little brothers big day. I think he turned 46 or something. Not sure. Neither here nor there, it was the first time our whole family has gotten together to celebrate a birthday in probably, hmm....15 years. So that was an event unto itself. And what better reason to eat and play some Wii.








There was a whole other chapter to this day, one comprised of adventure, intrigue, skirmish and soggy socks. Maybe one more fitting for this particular days' original reason for being celebrated, way before Tyler was twinkle in anyone's eye.

A brief glimpse of the story to come...

The Estler's Visit

My parents got to come up today. They'd been to the house but not since we bought it. Only for the inspection, for curiosity. So round 8am they passed thru the water gap and we jumped up and tried to tidy what we could to relatively no affect. But with my parents it was just about relaxing. They came in and planted on the couch. We talked a bit over some cheese danish & coffee and then watched Batman Begins. They were unaware of this new set of caped crusader films. We had to clue them in.



We turned on a few sports games, Giants & Mets, and threw some steaks on the grill. Getting fancy. Added some cob corn on the grill and some Amish style potato salad and you got yourself a full belly.






A quick tour of the house and meeting the new kittens and they were ready to go. Long day and a long drive ahead and they had to leave time for ice cream at the After(glow). Good to see them. They helped us talk thru some future plans for the property and the house. We're excited for that 'someday'.

Yardwork Woes

The honeymoon is over. In the yard anyhow. The first try at it we had a good ol' time, mowing & weeding & raking. Today; misery. I only managed to mow the right side of the front yard and a two lane perimeter around the back before a bolt broke and the handle came off the mower. I gathered myself and managed to pull out the weedwacker, but only got about 35 seconds into that before the wacker broke off and flew into the woods. And no, of course I did not buy extras.


But we did get a lot of weeding done and manage to hang a lot of stuff inside, which we think look really nice.

And right now Fran is marinating some chicken and making that chip dip that I love so much and we're gonna eat & watch the Mets game so.... it is a good day after all.


Oh! and we saw a bunny. Elevated to great day.

Flowers @ R House

this post could be more appropriately titled...

Things We've Found Growing In Our Yard That We're Trying Not To Kill Because They May Be Pretty Someday Or We May Want To Pick Them And Place Them In A Nice Vase With Some Water, If We Ever Unpack Them

Some of these may be weeds or just strange looking grass, I dunno. I just thought I'd take a few shots & throw them up here before they're no longer around. We haven't yet acquired a green thumb.