I'm a slacker.

Hi everyone.

Yes, I know... I am a slacker. BUT, in my defense, I did say we'd be MIA for a little while.

Not much has happened since September. But here is a little somethin' somethin'.

In chronological order:

AUGUST:

Adam got me *new* Crate & Barrel coffee table (*new* to us from Craigslist!) for my birthday:

(Thank you Joann for the bee-yoo-ti-ful birthday flowers!)

SEPTEMBER:

Our less-than-one-week-old-super-expensive fence mysteriously gets a hole in it (?!?!). Thank heavens for warranties.


We finally mowed our lawn. See how pretty the new fence is?



OCTOBER:

Fall came. Barry changed color. Pretty.


Our fence gets ANOTHER hole in it. Good golly miss molly. Again: bless you warranty. (Is any one suspicious of the hoodlums? I am.)


NOVEMBER:

Our front door -- which we purchased in the summer of 2006 -- is finally installed! Praise the Lord! And Adam's dad too! (BTW, have no idea if this happened in November. Just trying to follow the pattern here).



Here it is, though unpainted (I picked an olive green paint for it. Just waiting for a warm day to paint.)


Adam's dad passed down to Adam his prized Christmas train. Here the proud men are with their handy work:


While trimming the tree, I dropped Spider-man on the ground and broke off his feet. :( It's okay though, he'll hitch a ride in the train. (And, Adam's got about 23 other Spider-man ornaments).


I know you are jealous of my snazzy Las Vegas sweatshirt. AHHHHH YEAH!

DECEMBER:

For one of Adam's Christmas gifts, I decided to commission an artist off Etsy to create a portrait of him as a boy.

The story:
. When Adam was small, he liked to chase birds.
. Adam's mom would require him to wear mittens when trying to catch said birds -- so as to not catch a bird disease, of course.
. So, it would be summer -- Adam in his shorts and all -- walking around the backyard, trying to catch birds with his mittens on.
. Said mittens have been displayed in our house, unceremoniously, until now:

Framed and hung:


Adam checks it out:



Ready for bird catching:


Find the artist brighthousegal at Etsy.com


In terms of gifts, a close second was the Spider-man alarm clock I got Adam as my yearly contribution to the comic room. Spidey's head projects the time on the ceiling (so you can tell time, in the dark, without getting up). Here he is setting up Spidey:


And testing out Spidey (this is just after he ripped off the wrapping paper):


Adam got another snowman item for the house. Thanks Aunt Karen and Uncle Frank. He loves it so!


Here it is, blocking the draft in our bedroom that comes out of Adam's closet (old house, little to no insullation). They look so happy and now Adam's feet do not freeze when he gets out of bed!



Adam and his bro Joey put up some lights. Adam fell off a ladder while doing this. I had just pulled in the drive and screamed really loud. He was okay, thankfully :)



On Christmas, we saw reindeer at Adam's parents, in the front yard!




And lastly, Adam and his mom Sue enjoyed a Christmas sword fight (WARNING: wrapping paper tubes can cause big paper cuts. Try at home, but with caution!):



I know. I know. Not too exciting.

What can I say. It is cold in Chicago, so we are not doing much around the house except for making "heat tents" (blanket. heat vent. bliss.) and watching TV.

We are managing to escape for a long weekend in Cabo next week. So we'll post some pics of that soon after. As for the house, we are saving, dreaming of how we might spend our tax return, and sketching our basement renovation plans out on a napkin while out for pancakes (don't get too excited. That project is YEARS away. A girl can dream, right?).

Until next time. Aruba, Jamaica, ooo I wanna take you to... Oh wait. That is the Carribean. Uhhh... Mexico... Mexico... oh yeah!



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)