Invasion of the Boxes!

I have a lot of stuff...A LOT of stuff...far more stuff that anyone my age should have. From childhood memorabilia to holiday decorations to family collectibles, I have boxes that easily fill two-thirds of my basement in Bethesda.  And this is in addition to having enough furniture to fill a single family home and enough everyday items to make it unnecessary for us to buy anything other than groceries when we officially move in. I refuse to call myself a pack rat though. Instead, I think of myself as a practical, albeit sentimental, person who over the years, has deemed these items worthy of saving. And while I try to reduce the amount of boxes I have every time I move, I still have quite a bit. So, in an attempt to not be moving lots of furniture and tons of boxes (and trunks of shoes) all at once, we decided that it would be a good idea to slowly start moving these boxes up to Delaware. We filled Mike's truck and the FJ (my current ride that we lovingly referred to as "The Thing") and successfully moved them into the new house. It is already feeling more like home now that I have my mementos close by.  Yet, it makes me a bit nervous to see we only put a small dent in the amount I have stored in Maryland.  Maybe another attempt at downsizing is in order!

Temporary Furnishings

As we are spending every weekend at the house now, we found it necessary to add to our earlier set up of a pair of camping chairs and an air mattress.  We added the new mattress a few weeks ago and Mike has even put up a big car poster over the bed to make it feel more "homey" as he calls it.  (I'm hoping he knows that is only temporary, but I'll let him enjoy it while he can!).  We have also added a futon to the living room (thank you, Jackie and Greg) and then added added my patio table and chairs to the sunroom.  Maserati even got his own piece of temporary furniture when Mike built him a perch so he could look out the window...a perch made with boxes salvaged from the liquor store.  All in all, the house truly looks like it is inhabited by squatters!  We are thinking of picking up a few milk crates to complete the look :)  As fun as it has been, we are really looking forward to moving in the actual furniture at the end of the month.  Enjoy the pictures!

Apparently Maserati likes the camera as he somehow managed to make it into every picture!

Thanks Dad!

This past Thursday I got a call from my dad asking if he (and his truck and trailer) could stay at "the Delaware house."  I called and asked Mike if it would be alright if he stayed the night and being the great guy he is, he agreed.  And then my dad informed me that not only was he 50 minutes away in the middle of the work day, but that he actually meant that he wanted to stay for the entire weekend.  Okay, no problem according to my wonderful fiance, he even left work to go let him into the house.  So I took off of work Friday and headed up to see my dad since I knew he would be bored out of his mind with Mike at work and nothing in the house to entertain him.  As soon as I got there I noticed white patches all over the house and learned that my dad in fact did entertain himself and took to spackeling all the holes and rough spots in the kitchen and living room.  The next day he sanded it all and added another coat.  Mike and I both appreciated his help and I was excited to cross one more thing off our to-do list.  Now if only I could get him to come up and do the second floor...

Mission: Closet- Part 1

Master Bedroom Closet...before

Halfway there!

After a lot of thought and discussion, Mike suggested that we do something about the closet in the master bedroom.  It was not a bad size and was perfectly liveable, but you could tell that it was an afterthought of the previous homeowners and that the work on it was not the best quality.  Plus, it really intruded into the room making the bedroom feel even smaller than it is.  Mike wanted to restore the room to what he thought the builders originally intended by knocking out the closet and wall between the master and guest room and taking over one of the closets in the guest room since it had two.  Being the diligent guy he is, Mike researched and found the original blueprints of the houses in the neighborhood.  We discovered that the room was originally supposed to have a walk in closet, but the previous owners opted to put a full bathroom there instead.  And just as Mike thought, the closet that is there was in fact not part of the original plan.  So it was decided, the closet was coming down.  On the first day we removed the doors and all the trim and the following day we removed all the drywall.  Up next, the framing comes down and the new walls goes up!  Yes, I'm sure it will be that simple.
To be continued...

Demo Weekend One- Complete!

Girls and Tools!

This past Saturday Mike was in desperate need for a "car day."  He has been putting so much time into finding a house and now fixing up the house and he was definitely past due for a manly day of grease and grime.  Not one to be content with losing a day of home improvements, I had Mike make a list of things that I could do that would be helpful.  I thought he would come up with window washing or gardening; things I know need to be done but tasks that I would still roll my eyes over since they just don't seem that exciting.  To my surprise, he came up with 1) removing the trim from the kitchen walls and 2) sanding down the lovely lime green stripes in the eating area of the kitchen.  What?  You mean I get to use the precious, perfectly maintained tools without supervision??  GREAT!  I roped my friend Lauren (or as we lovingly call her, Delaware Lauren, not to be confused with Roommate Lauren) into helping me out for the day.  Her husband, Dave, was going to be working on the car with Mike so it was the perfect opportunity to hang out with her and get margaritas work on the house.  We got a bit of a late start, but Lauren and I finished everything on Mike's list and more.  We muscled off the trim in the kitchen and in the master bedroom closet (more on that project later) and we sanded the kitchen wall like pros.

Lauren- Wall Trim Master

Leslie- Expert Sander

It was so much fun to have a girls day and we were thrilled to get that much done in one afternoon.  We even had time to reward ourselves with a few glasses of wine while we waited on the guys to finish up their day!

Photographer- Check!

Mike and I finally reached a decision on a photographer and I just sent the contract and retainer out the door!  Yay!  One more thing to cross off the wedding to-do list!  We are going with Photography by Leah and could not be happier.  She really has amazing work and was so nice when we met with her.  I'm really looking forward to working with her and can not wait to see the pictures we end up with.  Hmmm, at 421 days to go, I better try and get that patience thing to kick in!

Sleeping Like Kings

Another one of our "firsts" this past weekend was the purchase of our first big piece of furniture- a brand new mattress!  For the past few weekends we have been rotating sleeping on an air mattress and sleeping on a futon.  Neither are super comfortable and neither results in us being happy campers in the morning.  We have always planned on buying a new mattress when we moved in since mine is old and his is old and tiny.  Even with the big move over a month away, we were in desperate need of a good nights sleep and with all the Labor Day sales, it seemed like a good time to buy a mattress.  We know that we are going to be working on the upstairs bedrooms and the main level for a while, so the logical place to set up our new "bedroom" wound up being the downstairs family room.  The previous owners used it as an in-law suite so it already has a closet and there is a full bathroom right there so it really was perfect.  We shopped for a mattress on Saturday morning and first up, we were evaluated by Sleepy's computer system that calculates your sleep and body styles to recommend the perfect mattress.  It turns out we are closer than we thought in what we need in a mattress AND it turns out I was right about Mike thinking he needs a firmer mattress than he really does- you know I just had to mention that!  Mattress shopping really is fun and Mike and I wondered around the store with pillows that they gave us trying out different beds.  We found one we both liked and I made my first real attempt at haggling.  So not only did we agree on a mattress, we ended up getting it for about half off the listed price!  Double win!  By noon that day, Mike and I had officially made the fastest decision we have ever made as a couple and we scheduled our delivery for Sunday.  Everything was delivered and set up on time and we only got a few strange looks when we requested that our new mattress be placed in the family room.   As soon as it was delivered I wanted to jump up and down on it and could not wait until it was time to go to sleep.  My mature side took over and we decided that simply laying on it was good enough for the time being.  Well so far we are happy with our first big purchase; we slept great Sunday night and as I sit here typing this I really can't wait to get up there this weekend to sleep on it again!

Now We're Cookin...

This past weekend marked a few more "firsts" for us and the new house- including making our first home cooked meal.  After a few weekends living in the house and surviving on Wawa breakfasts and takeout dinners, we decided that it was time to move in some cooking supplies and take advantage of having a mostly functioning kitchen.  We have a working stove, oven and microwave and now, thanks to Mike's friend Dave, we have upgraded from a cooler to a mini-fridge.  I also brought up my patio table and chairs from Bethesda to give us a place to eat other than our usual picnic spot on the living room floor.  So after a long day of errands and shopping on Saturday, we hit the grocery store for some essentials and planned out a menu for the weekend.  It was hard at first to keep reminding ourselves of our limited space for cold items, but in the end everything worked out and I have a feeling that when we finally get a normal size refrigerator we are going to feel down right spoiled!  We ended up making spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner Saturday night.  I'm not sure if it was because we were so darn hungry or if it was because we were excited to finally be cooking like real homeowners, but it was so yummy!  We even continued the cooking trend and followed it up with a breakfast of scrambled eggs the next morning.  We might not be making the most glamorous meals, but it beats having to pay for takeout food every weekend- both in the wallet and the waistline!

Our fancy set up...at least we swapped out the plastic cups for real wine glasses!

To Kitchen or Not to Kitchen...

That is the question for this week and next. Mike and I are considering updating the kitchen before we move in. With the lack of storage space and the yellowing, outdated cabinets, the kitchen will need to be remodeled at some point over the next few years. The question is, do we do it now or later? If we do it now while we are doing everything else, we will have a new kitchen to move into and immediately get to use the added storage space. Since we are not living there right now, we would be less stressed and have time to update everything without the inconvenience of trying to live there without a functional kitchen. We are also laying a new floor throughout the kitchen and living room and if we do the kitchen cabinets now, we would be able to match the new cabinets to the new floor. On the other hand, waiting would allow us to focus on everything else we have going on and ensure that everything is done on time. The cabinets and countertop are in decent enough shape, and we could probably live without the additional storage space for a little bit. But if we wait, we will be living in the house when we redo everything and it could be chaotic to be without a kitchen for that long. Also, if we wait, the new cabinets might not match the new floors that we are laying now. Oh decisions, decisions!