Parents Work & Wine Weekend

This is the type of house that feels the best when it's being completely used. Every single inch. With both of our parents here this weekend, it was just that!

We had such an amazing weekend, and I still can't believe how much we accomplished

My parents came on Thursday with a truck load of firewood for our fireplace. Perfect timing for fall! Dad and I unloaded it and I convinced myself that I was training for the Tough Mudder:

Both Ben's mom and my mom brought mums, which look so festive on the front porch. All I need now are some pumpkins:

Ben's mom helped wash the walls and tape off the dining room to paint the trim:

I sanded the trim and began painting:

My mom faithfully worked on scraping the radiators:

Mom preparing to paint the radiator and scraping off with a drill and min crowbar

And the guys worked on jacking up the porch and re-supporting it.

Ben's dad smoothing out the ground and stacking patio stone as a new foundation

We reserved a private booth at Matchbox on Saturday night:

After dinner, I kidnapped the moms and took them to Coco Sala chocolate lounge for dessert. Decadent!



Sunday morning was a coffee and get-to-work kind of morning.

We ended the weekend with a little impromptu neighborhood dinner party at our house. Ben cooked out on the grill and our wine weekend continued. I think we were all exhausted by that point, and it was nice to kick back with a burger. Both sets of parents left Monday morning. All in all, a fun and successful weekend with the parents!

Our Roommates Build Furniture

It's pretty much amazing and really impressive.

Hannah built a nightstand for next to the bed. It has holes for electronic chargers so chords don't get in the way.

John is building a coffee table with basket storage:

They are the cutest:

DIY Fail: Painting Curtains

Sometimes you win, and sometimes you don't. There is a whole lot of DIY going on around this place, and sometimes we must accept our failures.

I started with big dreams and measuring a cheap pair of IKEA curtains.

Would things have turned out differently if we didn't spray paint? Maybe if we used a roller this would have worked, but we may never know:

After a few tedious hours, the finished product had spray paint in all the wrong places!

Filling out the Kitchen

We have a new piece of furniture, and the kitchen layout is finally making sense. We really enjoy the built in corner cupboard, but it does create an awkward space.

My coworker, Sandra, kindly hooked us up with a piece that fits in really well with the existing cupboards:

John let us borrow his truck so that Ben and I could pick it up. I don't know where we'd be without the generosity of our friends.

John & Hannah are HERE!

No one has earned their space in our house more than John & Hannah.

They've slaved for days (in the heat wave) removing the wallpaper from their room. Here is some during & after:

I can't believe the transformation this room has seen! The gray accent wall was the perfect choice; it's the best looking room in the house!

I am so sick of the bathroom

And Ben is even more sick of it than me. We're been working on this bathroom for the past month and it still looks like hell.

First, we removed the old medicine cabinet. This part was easy:

Then Ben spent a week shaving with no mirror:

After many attempts, the medicine cabinet is finally installed correctly.

With the bathroom sink & mirror installed, next we'll be working on:
- patching around the edges
- painting the bathroom a bright white
- hanging a second medicine cabinet above the toilet
- laying vinyl flooring
Our quality time in the bathroom has just begun. Here's to hoping to more luck (and lower temperatures) for our next projects!

Our New Bathroom Sink

Despite all of the blunders we made in How Not to Install a Bathroom Sink, we did finally install one:

Before

After

Carrying our 150 lb porcelain sink downstairs was not a challenge; it was a victory march.

We took shots. And then we turned the water back on.