It's been a while...

Well hello there....

I know, I know... it's been a while...too long in fact.

I come back to you with my tail between my legs for having been gone so long.  I had no intentions of letting it slide like this. For that you have my utmost and sincerest apologies. But as most of you know, fixing up a new home is a time suck... let alone jotting it all down on paper, having a full time job and attempting to cook more often.

We even snuck in a vacation with our friends in The Cape!

Recently, things have started to simmer down a bit.  Summer is winding down and there are no more random Tuesday night trips to Ikea. (Getting home at 11 and dropping into bed. We pretended they were "dates".) No more filling the water pitcher from the tub. (More on that later...)  Life is, happily, getting back to normal.  Now, I have time again to relax in the evenings after work and lately I have been wanting to write and fill you all in on the nooks and crannies of the new homestead with my handsome man-friend.  Isn't he handsome?  *swoon*

Hold on to your seats kids, this is going to be a long one....



So, I guess I'll start back at the beginning... or I guess at the end from where I left off in July...

As moving day approached, my anticipated early move in to the house was postponed. Our unit was much more dated than the unit below and just not ready for us yet.  (The house is a 2 family that we share with Matt's brother and his girlfriend.)  Our unit started with horrible wall to wall carpet and wallpaper galore.

Yikes.  This is what will eventually be Matt's office.

So on closing day the boys went in and pulled up the old nasty wall to wall carpets. That only took a couple days, but the worst was yet to come.  Next up was to remove the wallpaper. The boys (being teachers had dedicating their summer to fixing up the place) spent day after day in the sweltering heat, with a steamer and scraper, peeling wallpaper.  Brutal.

Can you see that little floral print?  How about the other 3 layers underneath?

Hats off to them for that.  Then we had a team of gentlemen that had beautifully replaced our dilapidated back yard fence also refinish our hardwood floors.  It seemed like a fantastic idea at the time but we figured out that hardwoods are a finesse job, whereas fences are a little more "outdoors-y".  They didn't sand the floors before adding super high gloss lacquer that didn't look quite right.  They left bare patches all over and we just weren't happy with how they came out.  Luckily, we were referred to a hardwood specialist who sanded down whatever it was they did and fixed it up like the first job had never happened.

Finally, the boys started painting.  We considered hiring someone to do it but it just wasn't worth the expense. Again, the boys, slaved away morning, noon and night painting all the rooms of the house. Now, you may be asking "I don't understand, Gina, where are you living during all this?"  Good question.  I had intended on leaving my apartment about a week before my lease ended.  I figured it would be easier to rent a truck on the 9th as opposed to the 15th of any month.  After all, who moves on the 9th??  All the utilities were set to cancel on the 9th but as that date got closer, we realized we wouldn't be moving into the house until well after the 15th. So I changed all the cancellation dates and decided to stay the extra week. I moved all my crap (Which was a lot.  No I mean WAY too much.  To the point that people were coming over to see it, drop jawed at the amount of crap I fit in that old apartment.  Matt was not a happy camper.) into the basement only to bring a suitcase to stay in Matt's condo with him and his brother until June 26th, when they closed on their condo and had to be out.  In the end, Matt gave his bed to his sister to be in her office/guest room and left most all the furniture for the new owners.  Which meant when we moved into the new house, we were sleeping on my full size mattress on the floor in our master bedroom until we eventually bit the bullet and upgraded to a king sized bed.  But that debacle is a whoooooole other post.

Birds Eye View of the Finish Line.  I dare you to find me in the crowd!

Then we had the pleasure of going on vacation.  (See first picture for the happy, out-of-a-construction-zone couple!) Sweet, sweet vacation.  A gaggle of our friends descended upon a vacation home in Falmouth Mass in the middle of August to watch Matt, his brother and our friend run the New Balance Falmouth Road Race and hang out for 8 full, and glorious days. While we were there we also celebrated Matt and his brothers 27th birthday! We celebrated by grilling.  Lots and lots of grilling.

Yummmmm

Sadly, it rained most of the week but gave us some time to just hang inside, take lots of naps, watch bad TV and and drink some beers.  Matt and I had gotten the lucky draw of the master bedroom with the it-must-have-been-larger-than-a-king-sized bed. It was so high it must have come up to my chest. I had to pull the ottoman that was in the corner of the room, to the bedside, to climb in.  I also have to add, I was in l-o-v-e with the way this house was decorated.  It was a very chic beach feel.  The whole house was West Elm, Pier One, Ikea and Antiques. With the colors reflective of the ocean side surroundings with blues, grays and turquoise it made you feel cozy and at home in a cottage but in a high end, chic way.  They meshed the styles together perfectly.  They even had my favorite capiz chandy over the dining table. It may have even convinced Matt to use it somewhere in our house too! But we'll see.

I can't imagine this was cool.  Even in the 70's.

When we finally came home from our trip, things started truly taking shape.  The bedroom came together, the living room was almost there but most importantly, the 2 week-turned-5-week horrific blue bathroom reno was almost over.  That's right, our bathroom was blue. All of it. As you can see above.  But not for long.  For 5 weeks we were going downstairs to shower, use the powder room and even fill up our Brita filter.  You see, the same time they did demo'd of the bathroom, they also removed our kitchen counter tops and sink, leaving us completely running-waterless!  Those are the kind of times that build character, I suppose.

We're keeping the solid wood cabinets but we removed all these appliances and counter tops.

We have since finished the bathroom, and had the kitchen counters replaced with granite and replaced the appliances.  We are still removing all the green with pink hearts wallpaper that adorn the walls and will be adding a new tile backsplash and new tile floors.  But again, more on that to come.

So that's about all I've been up to the past few months!  I will fill you in with the "after" pictures shortly, however, over vacation my camera met its maker and is six feet under. So you may have to bear with me with cell phone shots for a bit until I can afford a new camera or until I get this one fixed.  I promise with all the tough stuff behind us, I will be posting much more often and again, I'm sorry for the extended absence.

So... whats new with you guys!? DISHHHHH!!!