Surprise 30th B-day Party!

We have come to love our neighbors across the street, Tiffany and Donny. Tiffany turned 30 this year and her husband wanted to throw a surprise party for her so he enlisted us to help out. We anticipated a sunny outdoor party but an unanticipated hurricane decided the party would be fun in the rain.

Since I love going all out for birthdays, I thought big...I printed a slightly-photoshoped life-size picture of Tiffany. Photo below is her (soaking wet)husband giving poster-girl Tiffany a hug.
My co-worker, being a good dad, paid his college-age kid's band to play at our party. They were awesome! They just gave themselves the name "The Chilling Effect." They may be famous some day...to me, they have a Jason Maraz feel.
Our cousin, Diana, and I made these fabulous decked-out chocolate cupcakes. The Hershey kiss topper on some is actually one that has a cherry inside. It was a pleasant surprise for everyone. The 50+ cupcakes were devoured in minutes. I barely had time to take this picture before they were gone.
We love our carport. Because we have a large carport, we were able to have this party rain or shine. We set up two additional canopy tents in the driveway for more space. Let me put it this way, those that wanted to stay dry, were able to.

I am not wearing yellow to make a fashion statement but to stay dry while I went down the slip-n-slide in the rain! Great idea...that it got several others to follow in my stead. Jared's rain gear got a lot of use this day.





Happy Birthday, Tiffany!

All New Doors!

I love our new front door AND I love finding good deals...We found a beautiful solid wood door on craigslist before we closed on the house. We snatched that up for $25 and stored it in our apartment kitchen until it was time to move. The red paint we chose was "oops paint" at Walmart, meaning the paint-mixer-guy didn't get the color right so the customer didn't want it. Although we will never use 1 gallon of red paint, we got it for $3.00. We purchased the dark bronze door handle and lock at a high-end hardware store that went out of business for 70% off regular price. In the picture below you can't see the door handle well but it is really cool. I am not a fan of the screen door but I think the placement of our new house numbers makes the screen door not seem so bad. We prefer screen doors that are completely glass so you can see the entire front door. However, we aren't going to change the screen door unless it breaks or I find a steal-of-a-deal on one we like.Thanks to the help of one of Jared's friends, Simon, the door was successfully hung and locks functioning in a single day.
We bought unfinished interior doors from HomeDepot for a good price but required extensive labor on Jared's part to hang each of them. Check out his muscles below!

This was a messy job!

We replaced all 8 interior doors in our house and added new dark bronze hardware that we purchased at that 70% off sale. Then Jared painted all the doors and patched up the trim work. Picture below is before hardware and paint.
P.S. Although this might not be most new homeowners top project, it was for us because NONE of our doors closed completely...or were easy to open. They were pretty beat-up, highly coated with paint, and ugly. Jared did an EXCELLENT job and has improved the look and feel of our home!

Evolution of our First Garden

I faithfully watered and weeded the garden all summer long. We loved watching our little garden grow. We have been amazed at how easy it was to grow our own food.



Below are the first fruits of our labor. I loved the color variety the garden produced. I wish I had taken a picture of all the cucumbers we got this summer. At one point the entire middle shelf in the frig was packed with them. I made many tomato, cucumber, feta salads along with some other great dishes. No pickles this year. We just have too many projects going on to think about canning food. Jared has informed me and everyone else that we are going to have a MASSIVE garden next year. I am not sure who is going to weed that one! We are definitely going to need to learn to how to can things as well as buy a large freezer if we actually do an over-sized garden next year.


These veggies are soooo small compared to what we were getting later on in the season. Miracle grow really works...our cherry tomatoes were the size of Roma tomatoes and our cucumbers were huge!

No that it is time to pull out the cucumber bush, I am not sure what to plant in its place. The tomatoes and pepper plants are still producing so those are staying for right now. Next year the area in front of our house won't be a garden but full of regular plants...not sure what though. I need to go to a nursery and get someone to help me.

Bathroom Makeover (After Pictures)

I have a few more things I would like to do but for the most part, we are done for now with our bathroom makeover. The place looks ten times better and feels so clean and fresh. Do you like it? If so, post a comment!




FUTURE PLANS....
1. I want to replace the sink with a custom counter top that extends over the toilet. The style is called "banjo." Then we will build the cabinet to support the counter. I am still investigating the cost of a project like this. The added counter top and extra cabinet storage would be AWESOME!
2. I want to add additional storage by adding a medicine cabinet in the wall adjacent to the outlet. Behind that wall is a closet, so we may steal some space from there to make it a deeper-than-normal cabinet. That way we can store towels, toilet paper, etc. in the bathroom.
3. I also want to resurface the bathtub. I bought the supplies from HomeDepot but it is all about timing. Not only does the tub have to be prepped, then painted, the paint takes 72 hours to dry. Since we only have 1 shower in our house, we have to figure something out since I am estimating 1 week if I work efficiently to complete the job.

Bathroom Makeover (Under Construction)

Since this was a makeover and not a complete bathroom renovation, I had to do something about the stark difference of the existing black and white tile...so I decided to paint the black tile using a special primer called Gripper. Then I painted the tile white and finished it off with a shiny coat of non-yellowing clear poly. I also added a thin coat of bright white grout between ALL the tile pieces in the entire bathroom because the old grout was yellowing (no mold). Although this took a LOT of time, it really freshened up the space. After all was done, Jared decided to try his luck in replacing the built-in toothbrush holder and soap dish...this picture shows them painted but in the AFTER pictures you can see that he WAS successful in replacing them. I am so glad he was able to remove them...a real toothbrush didn't even fit in the slot anyways!

We removed the light fixture and medicine cabinet. We found that there are NO existing medicine cabinets that fit the current holes dimensions...so after a week of no mirror AND a lot of hunting around, we decided not to do the extra work of framing a bigger hole for a new cabinet and instead we had a mirror custom cut to fit the entire wall. Surprisingly, the cost of the mirror was not that expensive! Before hanging the mirror, we made a time capsule. If you really want to know what is inside, you will have to buy our house when we are ready to move to find out!

How can a female survive without an outlet in the bathroom! Although challenging, Jared figured out how to rewire the switch to provide an outlet and a separate switch to control the bathroom fan. I am so proud of him!!

Jared did the dirty work of cleaning out the old fan and replacing the duct work in the attic so we didn't have to buy a new fan. It works great!



NOT PICTURED:
1. We replaced the bathroom faucet.
2. We replaced the bathroom door.
3. We patched the walls and painted.
4. We removed all old caulking around tub and tile and replaced it with a fresh THIN coat. They really caked it on poorly in some spots.
5. We replaced the shower curtain rod.
6. Covered the old tile flooring with grout-able stick-down tile flooring and replaced the threshold.
7. Painted the sink cabinet white.
8. Replaced the toilet seat.

Total cost of makeover: approx. $250 (We think is very reasonable)

Bathroom Makeover (Before Pictures)

Check out these BEFORE pictures of our bathroom.




There was a lot of dust on the bathroom fan from sanding the floors. After discovering this, we assumed the fan needed to be replaced.

Who knew we would get so many clicks!?

We usually never make posts without personal pictures but this one is worth a notation at least...Notice off to the side menu that we have a visitor counter. This counter has consisted of mostly close family and friends visiting our blog to see what we are up to every now and again. Since our postings are infrequent and lives are relatively normal, our counter has ticked up quite slowly...until now! The last time I checked, we has around 1,500 visitors since we created the blog but today we had over 11,000 visitors! After giving it some thought, I realized that our last post's title "Crop Circles in our Backyard" may have intrigued a particular interest group when browsing the web. So to all those curious folks out there, "We have had no alien encounters of any kind."

Crop Circles in our Backyard

When we got back from vacation, the lawn was waiting for us. Jared decided to get creative with his mowing pattern. He usually does a diagonal or a cross-hatch...but this time I was getting dizzy just watching him. He is so cute!

Prescription Sunglasses

I told Jared not to let me forget to take my prescription sunglasses on our trip to Oregon and Washington. Since, we both equally forgot them, our first stop in Oregon was at Target to buy a pair of $20 glasses. On our drive to Washington, I felt I was missing the amazing scenery so I created my own prescription sunglasses!

Washington: Bavarian Village

Here is the final post of our trip out west to visit Jared's family. While we were visiting, we drove up to Leavenworth, Washington. It is a great little german-looking town in the mountains. There were TONS of flowers everywhere and the town was so cute...lots of picture ops.

Washington: Hat Shop

While we were in Leavenworth, Washington, we walked around the main street touring the unique shops. My second favorite shop (the cheese shop was my absolute favorite), was a hat store. Who can't resist trying on crazy hats and taking pictures!

Washington: Mini Golf

We went miniture golfing in Leavenworth, Washington. This golf course is right in the mountains. If you look into the backround of the photos, you can see mountain goats and their tracks. We didn't get to pet them. The weather was beautiful and the grass was real! It was so fun. We are pros.

Hair do's: Oregon

I had so much fun doing Abby's hair while we were camping. As all small children have a hard time keeping their hair fixed, I had a great time re-doing her hair in a variety of styles each time it fell out. I couldn't believe how patient she was! She is adorable. This picture is when we were waiting for the 4th of July parade to start. French braids are very difficult for me so I need to practice.

Hike: Oregon

The first three days we were visiting in Oregon we went camping. The last day we went on a hike and saw 2 waterfalls. I was so impressed with the kids for walking as far as they did...although a few needed a little help at times. Oh, by the way, the water was FREEZING cold.

Bugs & Slugs: Oregon

Our niece and nephews love the little critters! It was so cute when I was chasing one of my nephews on his bike when all of the sudden he threw down his bike to turn over a large rock...I laughed and asked what he was doing..."Just checking for bugs!"

Having fun on the 4th

We are in Oregon right now visiting family. We went camping and to the local Independence Day celebrations. At a nearby fair, Jared volunteered to go in the dunk tank for his 2 nephews (ages 8 and 7) to try to dunk him...come on, what were the odds. Then his fair wife, Krystal, took her chance. Here is the evidence....

Jared is the one on the right...

Virtual Tour

OK...obviously we are excited about our new house but you can't blame us for our eagerness to continue posting updates on it. Right now, our house consumes all of our free time, which we don't mind. We are so excited about all the changes, whether small or large, we are making or plan to make on our house. So here are some before and after pictures. The Before pictures are when we did the walk-trhu with the realtor, so the "stuff" in those pictures isn't ours.
Livingroom Before................... Livingroom After.................... Dining Room Before(Notice the ugly built-in cabinet).................... Dining Room After(Ugly cabinet is gone!)..................... Hallway Before.......... Hallway After(The difference is the floors and light fixture)..........
Master Bedroom.......It is hard to take a picture that captures the whole space. We have one other window, a night stand, and chair on the other side of the bed. It is a nice size room. (The painting on the wall is one that I did 2 years ago. It cost a total of $30!)

Bathroom Floors

After finishing the hardwood, Jared and I installed new tile in the bathroom because the old tile was falling apart, literally. We found stick-down tile at Home Depot that allows for spacing to apply grout. It looks so good and it was super easy and fairly inexpensive...maybe $30 total. We spent only a few hours.

Before (both floors aren't finished in this photo)..................


During (hardwood sanded and transition removed)..................


After (yep, it's amazing!)...................

Krystal got a haircut

Jared took a picture of me when I didn't really want my picture taken...my hair is not fixed but at least you can see how short my hair is now. You can stay tuned to new posts and notice my hair when it is fixed.

Installing a fan

My handyman husband installed a fan in our bedroom. Since our house is small, we only considered small fans. What we didn't know was that small fans require smaller-than-normal light bulbs. We purchased the right type of bulb (candleabra) but hoped that the energy efficient bulbs would work...they were too big. So we took them back to Home Depot and bought (again the right type) compact florescent bulbs, which barely fit. The light fixture nearly crushed the bulb...so we took those back and had to buy the inefficient round bulbs because those are the only ones that fit! The love the fan so the bulbs were the compromise.

Before.................

The Handyman in action.............

After....................

Open House Party

Our Open House Party was a success. We had TONS of food, with hardly any leftovers. The party was a blast! We invited our co-workers, neighbors, friends, and people from church. We estimated more than 100 people attended over the 3 hour block. We felt so loved! We definitely have made a place to call home here and we feel like we belong to a community of people who care about us.

Front Yard- Before & After pictures

This weekend we did a lot of work in our front yard. Since we don't have enough time this year to create a garden in our backyard, we found the perfect spot in our front yard for a garden.

BEFORE......................



UNDER CONSTRUCTION.............



AFTER.....................

So wonderful...who knew what we were in for

This is a tribute to my wonderful husband! We hit our 4.5 year mark and I can't believe that much time has passed. It feels like we are still newly weds, except for the fact we know each other sooo much better. Who knew that we were so perfect for one another when we first met! Time has passed and I have never felt so blessed in my entire life to be with Jared, who is literally the man of my dreams. I am so lucky...and happy :)



Jared helps me up with his brute strength...

and he helps me (gracefully) down...

I have so much fun with you, Jared. I love you!

Not really done yet...GMU graduation

I walked in George Mason University's graduation ceremonies but I am not really done with my thesis yet. Anyone who anticipates graduating in 2009 walks in May...I anticipate being done before the end of this year so I walked. I am in the Geographic and Cartographic Science masters program. My thesis is analyzing the effect of foreclosure on neighborhood property values. I am almost done with my proposal and will be presenting it to my committee sometime this summer.



Since I am technically not done yet but I walked, I thought it appropriate to take a picture with my Advisor begging him for mercy...

Krystal's parents visiting for a weekend in March

Yeah, we are so behind on our posts that I am spending this weekend catching up....My parents came to visit the last weekend in March. This was there first visit since we have moved to DC so we gave them the classic tour or DC.

I like this picture of my dad. It is kind of funny...

Of course we had to visit my work.
This is mom pointing at one of my map creations.

Yard Work!

With homeownership comes new responsibilities...and allergies :) Jared spent HOURS mowing the lawn for the first time. We have a large lot for this area. It is nearly 1/3 acre. Since we have a small house, that means more yard. The grass was more than knee high by the time we bought our lawn mower. It seemed like the day we bought our house, the rain started pouring and the grass grew like crazy.

This is our backyard. I am standing right behind our house. Our yard is HUGE.
This was after Jared got the lawn under control and then after one week of growing! We have had a lot of rain followed by sunny humid days.
We found some poison ivy or oak (can't remember which one it is) and I attempted to kill it with weed killer. That worked for the most part.

A much needed vacation

Over a year ago we booked a trip to Florida but it was cancelled due to a hurricane so we booked another for this Spring not knowing we would be buying a house. Initially we thought it was an inconvenient time to take a trip since there was so much work to be done on our new home. However, after sanding the floors until 3:00 AM for a solid week and working full time during the day at our normal jobs, the timing seemed too good. We needed a break! We went to Singer Island, Florida. The island is just off the coast of Palm Beach on the Atlantic side. BEAUTIFUL!!! The weather was ideal, sunny and low 80s with light wind everyday.

We went snorkeling...saw some BIG fish and some other small, very colorful tropical fish...for those of you who know Krystal well, she freaked out and luckily was out of the water by the time Jared saw 2 sting ray.

We rented an ocean kayak and road the waves. That was sooo fun. Jared found a pair of cute Oakley girl sunglasses while snorkeling and they were promptly returned to the ocean when our kayak flipped from some forceful waves :)



Jared jumping over a wave...

Private beach on Hilton Singer Island Resort

View from our ocean view room...



We found a local park and this is Jared getting some air on the swings...

We are Homeowners!

So we closed on our very first home in late-April but we didn't move in until late-May because we were busy refinishing our oak floors. The wood flooring is in every inch of the home except the bathroom and kitchen so we had A LOT of work to do. We spent 1 week sanding and 1 week staining/sealing. We learned everything from YouTube videos and using HomeDepot's tool rental. Like I said, it was a lot of work (really, a lot of work) but in the end, the floors look amazing!!! We have received so many compliments and they are all going to our heads! Here are some before and semi-after pictures. We didn't take any pictures of the final flooring yet but from these photos you can see the improvements. This one has stain on it but not poly. The 3 coats of poly make the floor look amazing. You can see that all the scratches and dark spots are gone. We will post pictures of our open house soon so you can see the final product. Since so many people placed handy instructional "how to" videos online, we thought we would take one of our own...not instructional but evidence of the work we did. It took 36 passes with the drum sander in one spot to get through to fresh wood that had no scratches or stains. The machine weights around150lbs.