Merry Christmas from Lucy!

So Lucy's doggie day care was offering free photos with Santa. Plus you got a free goodie bag. Even though Chris insisted it was going to be a disaster  we went, and guess what...it wasn't a disaster. It was awesome. Here's proof:

Yes, she is the cutest thing ever and we are super proud. They were also kind enough to print us an official one (titled with Happy Howlidays), which is already on the fridge. 

A Half Done Dining Room

So while I haven't made any further progress on the wallpaper...whoops. Chris hasn't been slacking nearly as much. He has been hard at work on the Dining Room floor. It is practically halfway done. Last week:

And now this week:

So Chris is well on his way of meeting his end of the year goal of finishing the floor. Hopefully I can channel some of his drive into working on that wallpaper. 

Christmas!!! Part 2

So last week we got our outside lights hung, but this weekend we got the piece that really makes the house feel like Christmas...the TREE!

This is my first real Christmas tree and it was quite an adventure getting it. The weather wasn't too kind this past weekend, but that didn't stop us from picking this guy out and bringing him home:

We strung up the lights and hung the ornaments:

Some of the special ornaments that we have already received include two pieces of the Civic Arena from my mother:

It is quite literally a piece of Pittsburgh that we are able to include in our tree. Pretty nifty. We also have a multitude of penguins and a glass wiener dog from Chris' mother:

That isn't the only Lucy themed Christmas decoration we have going on. My Pap-Pap found this cutie who is keeping one of penguins company:

This is getting me super excited for the upcoming holiday. It's beginning to look a look like Christmas...

The Big Chill

This past Saturday I got the opportunity to run in Rutgers' Big Chill 5k with some of my classmates. 

 This 5k was collecting Christmas toys for young children. Although Chris did not run with me (his 'I will only run for puppies and soldiers' rule) he was nice enough to help me pick out a toy. At first, I wanted to get a Barbie, but they only had blondes. As a proud brunette, that simply wasn't happening. I had much better luck with the boys' toys. We found a Hot Wheels set that included a Porsche and a Shark car:

Although this race was called the Big Chill, it was pretty nice out (for December that is). I had a great time and walked away with some cool swag:

I'm looking forward to more running and hoping that it stays a mild winter. 

Yay...Flooring!

So while I was having a very unsuccessful Sunday with the wallpaper, Chris was having a really good day with the flooring. Last week the kitchen looked like this:

The fridge was pulled away from the wall, but he had gotten a solid start. Now it looks like this:

The fridge is back where it belongs and he took care of the difficult part around the cabinets. This isn't the most impressive part of his Sunday. That would be the dining room:

That is really an improvement! Now if only I could steal some of his mojo for that wallpaper this weekend!

Ugh...Wallpaper

So I mentioned last week that I started on the wallpaper in the kitchen and didn't get very far.

Well, I spent the better part of Sunday working on this very wall...and to be honest I didn't get very far.

I'll admit it is much further than last week, but it isn't very encouraging:

The wallpaper just refuses to come off in strips. Oh well, can't get too discouraged...because there is no quitting in the middle of this home improvement job. This is a very visible wall in quite possibly the most used room in the house...whoops! I'll just keep scrapping away. 

Christmas!!! Part 1

So it is December now and I am just starting to get into the Christmas mood. Chris is insistent on doing Christmas this year - real tree and all. The first part of this is getting the lights on the house. When we returned from Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving many of our neighbors already had their lights up - some going much further than others (yea, there is a lighted pig in a Santa suit...idk). Chris has been talking about getting lights for the house for several weeks now. This past weekend we finally got around to it.

We decided to go simple this year. I wanted just white lights, some icicle lights and some for the front tree. Chris wanted LEDs, same brand so we had the same shade of white. Easier said than done. We bought two Targets out of the lights we needed and still could have used more:

Chris strung the lights on the porch and the top of the tree, while I did the bottom:

This being my first light stringing experience, I was shocked at how little one string of lights covers. Four strings and the tree wasn't completely covered - and it's a small tree. Even after all of that, I am happy with how it turned out.

It's nice and simple. And maybe next year when we get more lights we can add on it. Not too shabby for our first year. 

Drowning in a Paisley Sea

So while Chris started work on the Kitchen I thought this would be an awesome time to start removing the black paisley wallpaper:

Oh yea, not sorry to see this go. Not one bit, not even the impressively camouflaged light switches and outlets:

Props to the wallpaperer and all, but this needs to go. That being said, I am in way over my head on this one. Rather than it being an easy job for one or two weekends, I am in double trouble, because guess what was under the first layer of paisley wall paper?

That is right, a second layer of paisley wallpaper. Ugh! The worse part is that this second layer of wallpaper is so old that it doesn't peel, it disintegrates,  which is why after about an hour and a half this is all I had:

Whomp, whomp. They did start out with a nice blue color at some point tho...some some consolation. 

More Flooring...in the Kitchen!

So Chris has done a stellar job finishing up the flooring in the Family Room. This past week he got ambitious and started in the kitchen! Here is a picture of the continuous floor from the Family Room into the Kitchen. 

And now a picture going the other direction:

This does require us to have our fridge a couple of feet from the wall though...but it will be worth it when it is all done. Also, he is committed to doing all three rooms (Family Room, Kitchen, and Dining Room) as one, so he technically has started in the Dining Room too.

I am especially excited to see the nasty carpet in the kitchen go. Hopefully by the end of the year, the only carpet left in the house will be the stuff in the master bedroom. A tall order for a Christmas gift, no?

Happy Thanksgiving!

There is so much to be thankful this year. So far 2012 has been an exciting year of changes for us. Medical school has been time consuming, but actually really enjoyable. The house is coming along and has provided so much more joy than frustration. We survived a hurricane. My family has stayed healthy and happy. Lucy survived her first dental cleaning. Chris is enjoying his new job a great deal more than the old one. I am thankful that after class today, the three of us can hop in the car to visit my family for Thanksgiving. There certainly is a great deal to be thankful for this year. 

Oh, and Chris made it through his first deep frying of a turkey last night. Yep, that is at the top of my thankful list. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! May you stay safe, satisfied, and thankful. 

Bedroom Furniture! Woo !

So as I hinted in my last post, we finally picked up some bedroom furniture. Although Chris has been committed to not filling the house with crappy cheap looking furniture, he did finally decide that a certain line at Ikea was worth it. He also compromised to white furniture. He was all about a dark, cherry wood look, but I warned him it would take the edge off the bold wall color. We picked up two nightstands and two dressers. Here is the short wide dresser that we placed between my closet and the bathroom. It fit perfectly. 

It is a huge improvement over the nothing that was there, both aesthetically  but more importantly functionally. Hell, I finally unpacked two more boxes. But one dresser isn't close to enough space for the two of us. So here is the first dresser's taller, skinnier brother (yes, the dressers are male - it has been decided). 

And lastly we got two matching nightstands for either side of the bed (we had the matching lamps through a lighting set we picked up on sale at the home depot):

I love the monochrome thing we have going on in the bedroom - it looks awesome and makes it really easy to pick out things I think will match, lol. We also picked up much-needed new blinds in a matching white:

Still need to pick out some window dressings, but this was a huge step for us. No regrets on the furniture - it was perfect, and on budget. Feeling so much more like a grown up - can almost overlook that it will be more than half a decade before I get my next 'real' job. 

Ikea Upgrade: Mirrored Headboard

So as many of you know, Chris and I have been really slow about buying bedroom furniture (and honestly, furniture in general). I have just been really stubborn about only getting things we really love. I have passed by many an alright coffee table certain that the perfect one will cross my path in the future. One of the areas of greatest contention had been the bed. I don't know if you remember, but when we first moved in, we almost bought a bedroom set from Bob's (read about it here), but I wasn't in love with it...so we didn't. 

(Picture Credit: mybobs.com)

After the mattress was delivered  I decided that I didn't want a framed bed, but rather just a headboard hung on the wall. I thought this would prevent the very large bed from looking too large for the room (I am simply demonstrating how large the bed really is):

Also, that picture does a good job of showing the empty wall behind the bed (yea, focus on the wall). I had the crazy idea of making the headboard out of square thick black picture frames, with a variety of black and white photos in them. A play off the bedspread and to add a bit more of us into the room. But, on our trip to Ikea to pick up the furniture that we liked (finally - but you will have to wait until the next post). I got the inspiration for a mirrored headboard. After a quick call to Jenna to test the ridiculousness of this idea, we picked up the mirrors. Chris was happy because, although this was a lot of work, it was less work than the picture frame idea I had before. And tah-dah (also a little peak at the new bedside tables & dressers):

It is very difficult to take a photo of a mirror without the flash washing it out, but here is another try:

The mirrors help to make the room brighter and are a perfect contrast to the dark blue of the walls. Overall, I am really happy with how it turned out. It is different, unique, but also clean and modern. 

Finally, a Flooring Update!

So with the loss of electricity after Sandy, Chris' progress on the hardwood floor had stalled...about half way through:

He was also unsure of the molding he wanted to use and therefore wasn't sure how much of a gap to leave. Well, he made up his mind (a surprise for a future post) and got to work over the weekend.

The room looks awesome and he is so close to being done (such a tease, isn't he). Here is another angle (sorry for the glare - the floor is more reflective than I thought):

So all that is required is a few finishing touches and a couple square feet. Then he wants to move on to the kitchen. I had high hopes of taking down the  wall paper and painting before he got there, but with the amount of progress he has made, and the amount of time I spend studying (another two tests this Friday - bleh), I don't think that is going to happen. Who knows though, maybe I will be super productive after my last exam this block (Monday)! *crosses fingers*

Sandy, Good Riddance!

As I am sure most of you know, roughly two weeks ago hurricane Sandy hit the east coast. We fared better than our neighbors but we were not without damage. We lost power for about a week and a half (hence the lack of blog posts...sorry folks). Thought I would make it up to all of you by showing you some of the pictures I took of the damage. First let me give you an idea of how windy it really was. This is a picture of a stick, about an inch in diameter, that is firmly wedged in the deck.

Luckily, those types of flying missiles missed the windows, but one or two did go straight through the tarp pool cover. The only real damaged we suffered was to the back fence when our neighbors trees fell and uprooted the fence. The pictures are more impressive than my explanation:

And from another angle:

In that last picture you can see the tree resting on the neighbors house. Here is a better shot:

They lost three trees, but the other two feel along the fence, so they did not cause any more damage to either their house or our fence:

They have had the trees cut and are still waiting on stump removal before we can really put the fence back together. No worries though, Lucy has no desire to go near that part of the fence. As I mentioned before we did a lot better than some of our neighbors. Here is a shot from the house in the back cul-de-sac:

The next street over (a grouping of small ranch style homes) was much harder hit than our section. I thought it rude to take a photo, but there was one home that had a large tree fall right down the center of it, essentially crushing the one story home. Luckily, the family was able to be evacuated even after the tree had fallen. 

All and in all we got really lucky. The property damage was not that bad, and frankly, the worst part was the loss of power. Even that had a silver lining, I got a surprise visit back to Pittsburgh (where we picked up a generator) and I was given a perfect chance to really clean out the fridge and freezer.  

Studying Again?!?

Yup. Tomorrow and Friday I have mid-term exams for structure and function. Three of them. Tomorrow there are the histology and anatomy practicals. Friday is the big written exam. Needless to say, I have been hunkered down studying this week...Sadly, no exciting updates to report about the house today.
The one good thing about this exam, is unlikely last time it falls at the end of the week rather than on a Monday. This means I actually got to enjoy some of last weekend and will certainly enjoy this coming weekend. The highlight of our weekend was Groupon tickets to see the Warsaw Philharmonic play. This was my first Groupon purchase and it was worth it. The Philharmonic was excellent. Had a great piano soloist. My favorite part was the the third encore where they played almost a mash-up of several favorite songs, like many of the ones featured in Looney Tunes. Many people were clapping along. I really enjoyed myself and it was a nice relaxing break. Well, back to the grind. 

Grass Master

So all of this work in the front yard has made Chris a bit obsessive about the lawn. Our lawn is alright. Better then the guy on the left, on par with the guy on the right, but it pales in comparison to the guy across the street. His lawn is perfect and Chris has decided to step up his lawn game. Now I didn't see any crabgrass, but Chris manged to find and remove a lot of it:

To add to the visual appeal of the whole deal. He cut the grass really short before digging:

Not exactly an improvement at this point. But he put down 'lawn soil' and new seed. He then fertilized the whole lawn.

So we might be the only house with a sprinkler on in Mid-October, but Chris is hoping for a better lawn in the spring. I am filing this whole obsession about the lawn under "Man Things" but as long as he is doing the work, he can do whatever he wants.