Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

Wow! It has been over a month since my last post. I didn't realize it had been so long. I guess I was waiting for something noteworthy to post. I finally have a couple of things!

First, we are fresh off a plane from our vacation to Oahu and Maui. It was great! The picture above was taken by my sister Christine who just moved to Oahu with her hubby and two kids -- who needs a better reason to visit our favorite vacation spot?

We spent one week in Oahu where I managed to catch a wave at Bellows Beach:


And Adam was a daredevil (he is that speck on the cliffs):


And then, we spent the next week in Maui, where we had this beautiful view from our room at the hotel:


It was glorious! But, now we are back home and did not waste anytime getting back to business.

But first, another update:

I turned 30 last month. Whooptydoo! Here we are, on my birthday :)


And, Adam made me a birthday cake with homemade icing! AND... we even were fancy and put it in a cake dome. Lovely! Made me feel like a real adult! (Please excuse our wonky hair... must have been humid that day)


For my birthday, Adam got me a great house related gift! He powerwashed and stained the deck! We didn't have a great picture at press time, but I did find this one:

A giant praying mantis on the back door screen -- newly stained deck in the background!

I also got a coffee table (pic to come) and -- every girl from the 80s dream -- tickets to see Dirty Dancing the musical when it comes to Chicago. Hootie hoo!

Anywho --
As I mentioned, we flew home yesterday and promptly got back to business:
I literally got back to business by returning to work.
Adam had one more day off -- so he supervised two house adventures today.

Window Repair
We've finally repaired the window in the front. Hopefully tomorrow I am not posting a sad story about how it is broken again. *Fingers crossed*

Here's the window guy assessing the damage from the inside:



And in goes the new glass! Only 15 minutes to fix! We saved the receipt in case the hoodlums come back and want to pony up for the damage. Ha.


Fence
In more exciting news, today the back yard fence went up! We ended up going with Cedar Rustic Fence Co. So far, we are pleased with the job. Our yard looks a little trashed because of all the rain and the fact that we've been gone, so we need to weed and mow.

Here are some pics:





Note: ever since we cut down our original tree, little baby trees sprout up from the old roots (that's what all those little green guys are on the ground). Since we were gone, they are everywhere outside. Couldn't do any yard work yesterday with all the rain...

And, our flower beds need weeding badly.... Here is the gate:


Gate next to the garage:


Gate open!

Another big project checked off the list!

Lastly, we just realized this evening that, while we were gone, the Home Repair Fairy visited our house and installed motion sensor lights near our front door and garage! Wow!



Wow! Thank you Home Repair Fairy!

Now what? I think we done with projects for now. It might be a while before you hear from us next... so, here is a cute picture to remember us by. Enjoy!


Aloha! Mahalo!
C&A

A Misadventure in Homeowning

The yellow circle above indicates a hole in our front bow window.
A hole that was caused by a rock.
A rock that was thrown by an angry teenager.

Yes, C & A had a misadventure in homeowning.

Good Lord.

Summary:

1. C & A come home from the gym to find a swarm of rowdy kids fighting in the neighbors front yard. The boys proceed to move into the other yards, the street, C & A's yard... A tries to break up the fight but this only angers the boys -- who threaten A, C and to "break the house" if we call the cops.
   
2. One boy is getting severely roughed up, so C calls the cops.
3. Cops come. Boys run. Cops can't find anything and leave.
4. A minute after the cops leave, one rock hits the window. Then another. C calls the cops again. Two more rocks hit the window.
5. Later, when the cops show up we find out that one of our neighbors was heading to his car to grab something when he saw a boy in our drive getting ready to throw a landscaping brick -- either at our house or car. Yeah, real nice. Thanks to the neighbor for stopping that one. Ugh.

Anyway, there are more details to this story, but all in all, at the end of the night, we were left paranoid and with a broken window. Awesome.

Lesson learned: If you see a situation, quietly go inside and call the cops.

Here is a zoomed out pictures of where the window is broken:


After our misadventure, we decided it was time to take some protective measures with our home sweet home. Thanks to A's Dad, we now have motion-sensored lights...

One behind the garage:


And one on our deck:


Up next: time for a fence... we must protect Barry!

We got our first estimate Saturday and will be talking to a couple of other vendors. Anyone have any good fence advice? I was just talking to my sister, who advised that a 6' privacy fence isn't always a good idea, since it makes it so no one can see who is in your yard, if you are not there. I never would have thought of that.

Oh, the drama.

In other news:

We finally hung some of the art/mirrors that I've been collecting. It's not perfect, there are some holes, but it is looking better, me thinks:

View from the front of the front room:


Blue/brown/white bird is from a thrift shop. $8. The blue matte was tan, and the frame was gold. I spray painted them both. The birds on the sides are from my sister, Christine. Another vintage find.

Another view:



Dining room:


"Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining" print matted on Martha Stewart wrapping paper and in a frame from Michael's. Surrounded by vintage metal frames, spray painted silver.

Another view:


Entry way mirror:


Salvation Army. $25 and some change [ for spray paint :) ]

View from front door:

New mirror over buffet:



Another Salvation Army find. $40 (yes, it is spray painted too).

Also, A and I now know how to hang a 100 lb. mirror if anyone needs lessons. It only took us 2 hours and 2 trips to Home Depot to figure out.

More adventures soon...
C + A

Meet Barry!

Hi Everyone! Long time no blog. I am here to provide an update--and, to introduce Barry! But, first things first...

THE KITCHEN!


Note the matching appliances!


The backsplash is finished! The paint is a light blue.

I am still trying to decide if I should keep the poster up. I like it because it has sentimental value (a gift from Adam early in our courtship). Plus, the red in it picks up on our red appliances. Not sure if it works with the blue though. We'll keep it for now.


Our new table and chairs... We still need one more chair (from Ikea). The table is from Dania and has to pull out extensions that are stored in the table. Nifty! Adam will stain the legs of the chairs to match the table.

One of our first meals cooked in the kitchen!


Note the makeshift curtains!



Just waiting on a few odds and ends to get finished up. We are waiting on 1 new drawer front and 1 new door front for the corner bottom cabinets. We also are waiting for pricing on replacing the cream colored outlets/switches/faceplates in cream with grey so they disappear into the backsplash.

Also, in a late breaking development, our cabinet under the sink is stinky. Most likely from the garbage disposal. However, when you stand over the disposal, and sniff, there is no scent. Strange. We've got a call into Bill to see if perhaps there is a broken seal or something that is letting out a smell. Who knows.

On our end, we just need to get a couple of rugs and some blinds for the back door. Oh, and Adam will paint the back door as well.

We are happy campers!

Now, on to BARRY! Who is Barry, you ask? Barry is our new backyard tree. He is a Red Maple. Someday, he might look like this:


So, if you recall, back in October 2006, there was a huge storm which knocked down half of our big backyard tree:


We subsequently had the tree cut down. It was sad, but the tree had carpenter ants and was dangerous:


Since then, we've been wanting a new tree in the yard. We miss our shade. So, we invited back Ken's Tree Service to grind down the old stump:


Rented a Uhaul pick-up truck:


Went to our favorite local nursery:


I contemplated what the personality of our new tree should be:


Sadly, the new tree is too skinny for a face. A girl can dream...

We selected our new baby. Adam helps the Fasel guys load up:


Adam studies the diagram for how to stake a tree up:


Look at how tall he is! We decided to call him Barry! He is currently about 7-10 years old about about 15 feet tall:

Adam also loads in some fresh top soil:


We make our way home with a tree hanging out of the back of our truck:


Adam strategizes for how to get Barry to the backyard:


Success! Luckily, the tree stump grinders have left us a hole:


Just a little more digging to do:

I assist moving Barry into his new home:

And there you go! Quite exciting!


Barry, in the night...


In other news, you may remember Adam painting some wood planks red back during kitchen construction. Those planks are now a shelf running across his comic boxes, so he can display more comic goodness:





Also, Adam hung his final two posters on the wall:


His TV stand, complete with gaming systems and... WHAT'S THIS? 90210!! WHAT?!?!?


And, last but not least, our flower bed is filling in quite nicely:


Till next time --
C (&A)