GRUB HUB!

In year one, we had the attack of the carpenter ants. This year: you guessed it -- Grubs! And maybe, a mole.

Our front yard had been looking pretty sickly. So, we took a picture and brought it into the local Nursery:


The Nursery guy said: "That grass is dead and it ain't comin' back."

He said we probably had grubs. When we described the ground's bumpy texture, as if someone had been digging it up , he said "You probably have a mole. Moles work close to the surface and are looking for meat".

Apparently, to moles, meat=grubs. Hooray for us. Moles are freaky.


So, a day of shopping turned into a day of yard work. We collected our supplies and set out to digging up the front yard. Boy, was it good times. I got the luxurious job of raking out the clumps of dead grass while A overturned the soil (eventually A helped declumpify).


Sure enough, we's gots grubs. Yum.

Here I am after the discovery of one of several bazillion grubs:


Grubs are pretty gross looking. For awhile I was collectin' my grub friends in a bucket, to see how many I could collect. After hours of this, I got sick of that game (not to mention, disgusted) and dumped my squirmy buddies in a bag of dead grass. GRUBS: you made the bed, now lie in it!! Darn you grubs!

Three grueling hours and six Advil later, the yard was successfully dug up, seeded, grub protected and fertilized. Here it is, after:


Now it's just water and wait.

We should see some new grass in about 10 days, if this works. Fingers crossed! The neighbors are probably so glad we finally did something about our disgraceful yard.

In kitchen news, today our shopping plans commenced and we were off to the tile shop to select backsplash tile. Jamie the tile lady helped us pick out a super contemporary tile that I am pretty pleased with. Here is a picture of it in a sample room (tile behind toliet area):



Here is a close up of the mosaic:


We will do the top half of the backsplash in the above mosaic and the bottom in big blocks of the same tile, to save our budget:


With the wizardry of Photoshop, I have created this picture of what our finishes will look like together:


Pretty sweet. We are getting excited.

No permanent decision on the floor, but we are thinking it might be this:


We know we are getting a Wilsonart floor, which is a floating, tile floor. This color is mostly grey with a little bit of warmth in it. I think it will compliment the other finishes well.

I think that is about all for now... we'll be back in at least ten days with an update on our grass (see NEW POLL above)!! Wish us luck!

C + A

PS: Still waiting to find out the answer about our LG appliances....

Happy House-aversary!

Today marks the two year anniversary of our move in!
Happy House-aversary to us!

We've been starting to think finishes for the kitchen. So, this weekend we went to the granite place to choose our countertops.



We took a stroll through the warehouse and there was only ONE I liked. But guess what?


The price grades of granite were not indicated and of course, I picked an exotic stone (Azul Arun, to be specific) that was about two price categories above what we were supposed to be looking at. Oy vey. It was a beautiful, big patterned stone, silvery grey with some warm flecks of color. It was very nice.

However, we wanted to stay away from an upgrade. So I described what I was looking for to the granite lady and this is what we ended up with:


It is called Blue Pearl... although the stone we picked isn't so much blue as it is grey/black with silver/pearl flecks.

Here is a picture of a kitchen I found online that shows a modern cabinet (wood color is close to our cabinets) with blue pearl counter tops:


Now, we gotta figure out our floors and back splash!

We also went to Abt Electronics in Glenview to check out the Maytag appliances that Bill the Kitchen man suggested.

Of course, we like to be difficult -- we ended up finding a suite of LG appliances we liked better:









A little bit sleeker, cool handles and cool fridge. This means I had to email Bill and say, "Can we please get these instead?"

See *NEW* poll above... what will Bill say? Will he "okay" the move to a different suite of appliances? Will it come with stipulations? I will post a follow up after he responds. It isn't so easy, switchin' this up. Appliances have not been ordered yet, but we have to make sure these will fit in the layout and also -- find out if we can get these for the same cost (they are comparable in price).

Oh the drama.

Does anyone out there have LG appliances? Any thoughts? Good? Bad? All I know is they look cool but the price is right. I likey.

Two final things:

ONE: it is good to have a husband who works in special events. He brings home pretty flowers for the house when the events are over:



TWO: Here is a new print that I ordered from Keep-Calm.com.


I am super excited about it. Frame is from Michael's... Instead of matting it, I mounted the print to a piece of Martha Stewart metallic wood grain wrapping paper (also from Michael's).
They have really cool MS wrapping paper there. It is cool and CHEAP! A buck for two sheets. I am planning to hang this behind the dining room table (near our swanky silver chandelier).

Now, just gotta figure out what to do with the rest of the barren Living Room/Dining Room wall...


More to come...
C (+A)