Surround Sound

Chris loves his technology. He does it at work, and lucky for me, he does it at home too. Even when we lived in an one room studio (two if you count the bathroom I guess, but I don't), he wired the place for surround sound. Before it was easy though because we couldn't drill into the walls - the result was a messier look with visible wires, but a simple project. 

But now we own and he was determined to hide the wires. I got my first lesson in snaking wires as he fed them up from the basement to the wall behind the couch. He was frustrated, but I actually thought it was going to be way worse than it was. No matter now though, its done. And the finished product pictures (right and left):

And a big group shot:

And Chris is thoroughly enjoying his hard work already.

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...

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!

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. 

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. 

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*

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. 

Flooring Update III

So last week I left you with a little teaser of what the hard wood floor in the Family Room was looking like:

Well, Chris has been working at it a bit each day. The giant pile of boxes has gone from this:

To this (clearly now a work zone and no longer a foyer - Sad face):

Clearly, Chris is hard at work. And now the floor about half way done!

Ohhh, Ahhh. I think it looks really nice so far. He looked at molding this past weekend at the Home Depot, but he hasn't committed yet. And there is still the other half of the room to finish before he gets to put that down anyway. Still very pleased. I think the wood floor is an even better color than I expected in that room. So back to work to finish the second half!

Fall Football Game

So a couple of weekends ago, I 'tricked' Chris into running a 5k with me. Well, he wasn't so happy about that, but he was more than happy to use the free Rutgers football tickets we got this past weekend:

Woo, awkward cell phone picture with super intense guy behind us...whoops. It was a beautiful day. Sunny, pretty warm, a slight breeze. Oh and Rutgers was 4-0...undefeated...and playing UConn. It was a 'blackout' and we were wearing our free black shirts from the run too:

There was copious amounts of AC/DC playing in support of the blackout. The crowd was good and it was fun with some cool distractions by the band: 

Rutgers played pretty well - it was still college football, with many penalties and botched plays. Rutgers remains undefeated and came away with the win. 

We enjoyed ourselves, but the highlight for me was an in-stadium ad for the red Rutgers R car decal... encouraging Rutgers people to let other Rutgers people meRge if they have the decal. Haha! Only in Jersey!

Flooring Update II

So Chris has been kicking some home renovation butt this month. I have another impressive, in my opinion - I might be biased - update on the flooring. So last week I left you at this:

Well, he went to town tearing up that floor:

Yup, and it is all gone - the baseboards too:

This is impressive, but that's not all. He even started to put down the moisture barrier:

And as a teaser to both you and me, he started to put down some of the flooring:

This is way more progress than I could have hoped for and I have a feeling that this room might even be ready to light up the fireplace for the first chilly days of fall that will be shortly upon us. 

Flooring Update I

So now that the wooden floors have been purchased and are awaiting placement in the Family Room. Chris has already gotten started on pulling up the nasty carpet that was there:

Unlike in the Kitchen and Dining Rooms, it appears that they put down a laminate floor prior to putting down the carpet:

It has a faux wood pattern to it, in 1 foot tiles. It is pretty awful. Better than the carpet, but just barely.  Chris is intent on ripping it up too, so that there is a level base to put the flooring on. Here is a small section he already did:

The black is actually the glue that was holding the old tiling down. It is otherwise concrete. Chris has made more progress than I expected in the first week, but there is still a long way to go. 

Ewww to New

So one of the charms of this late 1960's home is that we have a bathroom in each of the awesome colors that mark that decade, pink, blue, and yellow. The master bath has the honor of being the yellow bathroom.

With the compact size and the sunny color it does remind me of a certain Beatles song about a sea faring vessel, but I think it will look much better (and bigger) once I take down the heavily patterned red wall paper. I am a lover of red, but it is not the complement to a yellow bathroom. I am actually envisioning a grey when I do get around to taking down the wall paper...it's on my list, just further down. Well, my other big complaint with this bathroom would be the icky grout:

Eww! The grout was so old that it wasn't really grout, but more like a sponge...which is gross. It made me shutter to think about it. There was no amount of bleach and tilex that was taking these spots out, and believe me I tried. So I guess I complained sufficiently for Chris to take on the task of removing all of the old grout and putting new (non-porous) grout in. Here is an action shot:

Notice, that while Chris and I often disagree, we both share a love for copious amounts of bleach...probably what makes this relationship work. He scrapped off all the old grout, bleached it, bleached it again, and then we waited for it to completely dry out:

After he was sure that it was ready for the new grout, he did it. Yay!

So fresh and so clean. It does make the shower look even more yellow, but that really can't be helped. I am just happy that the whole thing feels cleaner.  This was a good week for Chris doing things around the house, which is good because with my final, I did next to nothing this week on the house. That being said, I have high hopes for this weekend as we transition from summer to fall.