We have old people carpet.

Today bad weather finally hit Oak Lawn. It is snowy, icy and cold outside. What a perfect day to stay inside and hang some art!

But first, today we had an appointment with a place called Creative Mirror & Shower Door to discuss options for a shower door for the upstairs bath. What seems to be the best option is something called a "Euro Spray Panel", which would look something like this:



It seems like a good idea, but we are planning to get some other estimates for comparisons sake. Here is a snippet of a funny conversation this morning between us and Bob, the shower door guy:

BOB: So, how long have you lived here?
US: Oh about a year and half.
BOB: Did an older couple or family live here before?
US: Yes.
BOB: Yeah, I can tell from the carpet upstairs.

?!?!?!?!
Now, those of you who faithfully follow the blog KNOW our carpet is BRAND NEW! Apparently, we have "old people" carpet. Oy vey.

Anyhow, as I mentioned, we stayed in almost all day today because of bad weather. So we decided to take care of some outstanding decor projects around the house.

UPSTAIRS BATHROOM:
I am faithful reader of Domino magazine. In one of their issues, I read about an illustrator named James Strouse who has a postcard series called "Superheros on the Toliet". I thought, "What would be more perfect for our upstairs bath?!".

Here is Adam carefully measuring...


The finished product:


Here they are in all their glory... I had to post a clearer image of these illustrations, because they are so funny! I even labeled them, in case you are unable to identify the hero:



Buy your very own "Superheros on the Toliet" by James Strouse at www.occasionalplanet.com

LIVING ROOM:
I have been shopping around for a large piece to hang in the living room for quite some time. I finally settled on a fabric wall hanging from Textile Arts (also found through Domino!). I am very pleased! Here are a couple of pics:




UPSTAIRS GUEST ROOM:
Earlier this summer, my friend Sabine gave me a really fun owl print from a local art fair. We recently found a frame and hung it today in the upstairs guest room. Some pics:



HOOO!! HOOO!!

Bye for now :)

Yes... it's official... we're suburbanites!

I never thought this moment would come.

We... have...
A HOLIDAY SOAP DISPENSER!

HOLY COW! This is big time. We must truly be settling into life in surburbia. This soapman was so cute, I had to buy him. Adam loves snowmen, you know. He is quite cute... and smells of Vanilla. We'll call him froth-ty!

Today, we ventured out to get our first (as a couple) REAL Christmas tree! For years, we've been using a fake one from Walgreens... it kinda resembled the Charlie Brown tree. This year, we decided to go for the real deal.

Here we are, at the Lion's Club Tree Lot in Worth. Trying to find the prettiest tree.

Adam tells Carole all about how to select the perfect tree...


Carole: It is freezing. I like this one.



Adam and Mr. Lion's Club man carry off our tree to the car.


Into the trunk you go! And it's off to the house!


Adam puts together the tree stand.


And puts the tree in the stand... how manly :)


A little actual tree trimming so it fits in its designated spot...


And now for some real tree trimming! The skirt...



Remember Frosty, our only yard decoration from last year? He's come out to help decorate. Pink sparkes! His favorite!

Carole hangs her 13th ballerina ornament of the night.


The finished tree! Looks a little lopsided here, but hopefully the branches will drop a little overnight.

That's all for now!

One last thing... We just saw the movie Lars and the Real Girl on Wednesday. It is fantastic, and also has a wonderful score. I highly recommend this movie! Check it out!

And the new addition is....

Sorry to disappoint all you pet lovers. We did not get a kitty. We can't -- Adam is allergic.

However, we got a new iMac, which runs the new Mac operating system, Leopard. Meow!!! Look at it in all it's glory.

I am so excited. You might have heard about Leopard...

Anyway, I sit here at my new iMac typing up this blog entry and I am happy as a clam...


That picture was taken by the camera built into my iMac. As was the picture from the last post... kind of a neat feature... You can even add funky backgrounds behind you... Seeeeeee....


Neato!

Now, enough about the iMac. It doesn't really have to do with our house renovating, but it makes my blog writing fun, so it is very deserving of a mention.

On to what's been up with the house since our last post in JULY!!

Upstairs bathroom: almost complete!
In July, we hired a company to come in a refinish our bath tub. The rest of the bathroom was looking so nice, we thought, why not spruce up the tub.

Here is a before pic:


During the refinishing process:




And now here is what the bath looks like today! BUT first, remember our original upstairs bath??



And here is the bathroom today!





We have some special artwork for the bathroom, along with a few finishing touches, but overall we're done. A big improvement. Oh, still have to figure out what to do about a shower door for the shower...

We also have done a little work on Adam's comic room...
We bought a futon. I am not a huge futon fan, but it is nice because it is functional for when we have guests. We also hung some of Adam's vintage comic posters on the wall


Upstairs bedroom:
We got a new papasan cushion. Bargain!


And, Adam and his father finished the trim work around our new windas! Beautious!


Random notes:
I have taken a small liking to owls. So I find/collect/pillage them and use them in the house. Here is one... Auntie Rena, remember this guy?


My parents are ready to reclaim their closets. Here is a delivery of my childhood keepsakes. Gotta find a place for this stuff. Hooray.



Oh! And here is the new home of the old computer. The basement. Notice the arrangement. I can surf, while Adam sits on the couch and plays the Wii. Quality time I say. This computer had a good run... I got it back during my senior year of college in 1999.



And here is a bargain find. A vintage table I bought off Craigslist for $7. It has cool glass panels on top, with some wood carving underneath. Adam picked out new knobs for this guy at Anthropologie. Sadly, the knobs cost more than the table. Gotta love Craigslist!

And this brings me to the end of our blog update. Not a whole heck of a lot going on here. We are kind of on a renovating break until next spring/summer, when we hope to get started on the overhaul of our kitchen.

Until then, it will just be about accessorizing :)

We plan to get a real Christmas tree this year for our front room -- that should be interesting.

This is us... signing off :)