Moving On...

We are finished fixing what we undid on the fireplace. Definitely true sometimes you have to make a mess to clean up.

And, proof that I helped!My painting skills just keep getting better and better.

So, without further ado, the before and after. Or, really the before, middle and after. :)
Time to move on and start taking down the ugly stone ledges. Yay!

Pee Pants

Franklin has really been in the running for worlds' worst dog lately.

Not only did he completely demolish his bed a few days ago...
...but also peed on Andrew in our living room. He has been potty trained for months now. And, I'm pretty sure I jinxed things when Vanessa and I were talking about male puppies vs. female puppies and how boys like to mark everything. "Oh no, Franklin never did that."

Whoops.

Guess he tried to mark Andrew as his own. Now he's been marking several leaf piles along our daily walking route. Because those are obviously his pile of leaves.

How embarrassing.

Family of Four

Andrew and I made a quick trip to Hiawatha on Friday to meet Baby Brynnan. She is just so teeny and precious!
It's so crazy Noel and Hillary now have a family of four. Things have really changed over the past three years, but obviously in such a great way.

This picture is getting very familiar...
I am very excited to go back in a couple of weeks to see her again. Of course it was so fun playing with Quinn, as well. She is just funnier every time we visit. While we were waiting for Daddy, Mommy and Brynnan to come home from the hospital on Saturday morning we tried out several new hair dos...got to make the most out of her mullet. :)

We tried a couple of head bands, many barrettes, but the best was her little piggy tails. Too bad she didn't like them. They definitely came out right after we snapped a quick picture.

Another fun game is putting on all of her big girl panties at once. (Really Quinn's idea.)"Could I be wearing any more clothes?," Chandler Bing/Quinn Boye

Brynnan Louree

Noel and Hillary had baby #2 three weeks early yesterday. Baby, mom, dad and Quinn are all doing well.

Introducing Brynnan Louree. :)

Can't wait to go meet her - 6lbs, 9ozs, 18.5 inch long.

Baby #2

Holy babies....Andrew and I are an aunt and uncle again! Early!

More details to come tomorrow. :)

Brendan Brown

One more cute pic of Brendan...awake and not sure what to think of Andrew. Had to document Andrew wanting to hold a baby - he thinks they are icky. :)

Manly Men

I am surrounded by manly men.

Franklin loves to sit and look out the front door. And, I love it too because the squirrels, dogs, people, whatever that walk by keep him entertained in the afternoon while I work. Friday, I realize he has been awfully quiet for a while, and I find him like this:

So sorry to interrupt you Franklin. Please pull as many pillows off of the couch you need to lay on the floor with.

Totally random, but I asked Andrew before Christmas if he needed gloves for the winter. He said he had some. I later realize, he wears my $1 Target striped-gloves to work every day.

Baby Brendan

Friday morning I got a text from our friend Jenny...baby Brendan arrived early that day, one day after his due date. So, so exciting!

I sent them well wishes and promised to visit all three Brown's later that afternoon. After all, they had been up all night and needed some time to nap.

Andrew and I made it to the birthing center around 5pm on Friday to meet Brendan. He is so precious and just perfect!

So thrilled for Daddy Mitch and Mommy Jenny, plus this is the first time Andrew and I have ever gotten to see a baby so brand new and in the hospital so we were pretty pumped, too. (Disregard my picture, gross.)

On Saturday, I decided to make them some homemade cinnamon rolls as I knew they were going to have a lot of out-of-town family guests over the next several days, and it might be nice to have some extra food around their house.

So, as Andrew was working on tiling our family room, I was playing Betty Crocker in the kitchen. Yummy!
Have a baby, and I'll make you treats. :)

We are on our way now to drop them off, and I'm hoping to get a few more pics of the little guy. Stay tuned...

Let's Do This

Andrew and I started to tackle our biggest home renovation project to date - the family room.

You have never seen our family room before. That's because it's ugly. I mean, technically, our house was move-in ready. We didn't have to make any changes; however, I will readily admit I'm picky and very opinionated when it comes to house things - color, material choices, etc. So obviously I had a list of things I wanted to update, and this was the grand daddy of them all to date.

So anyways, our family room has looked like this for about seven months now.

Blah. Don't know what to look at? Yeah, that's the problem. There is so much going on. The room has just been added to and added to. Timeout. Let's start over.

I really like exposed brick. However, I would really like to talk to the person who designed an entire wall of brick and decided, "yeah, I think the fireplace looks really awesome on only one side of the wall with these three sweet stones staggered across the wall. this is totally functional and aesthetically pleasing. there is an obvious place to hang stockings, and people are really going to want to gather here."

And, then definitely need to talk to the next person who decided, "this space is really lacking storage. I'm going to build a well-quality corner cabinet with all different types of angles, screws, nails, etc. Obviously, half on the brick and half on the wall is the way to go."
And, really, really would love to chat with the person after that who said, "time to update the floors, definitely going to tile around this cabinet - wouldn't want to tear it down, it's just too valuable to the house. never mind the carpet and fancy linoleum underneath; that's just adding character."
Come on people.

So, last weekend we started the demo. I am already feeling better.

Remove the shelves, remove the rest of the cabinet, remove the nasty carpet, remove the linoleum, ahhhhh....
This weekend, we are repairing and painting the wall where the cabinet used to be, and Andrew has been tiling the corner of the room shown above.

I have to say, Andrew is really awesome at DIY. He's very resourceful and willing to entertain my crazy ideas. Plus, he really likes it because he gets to buy new tools! So far, during our last two projects he has gotten a 10 pound sledgehammer...

pry bar...plus, a shop vac and tile saw. He's currently researching table saws for the last part of the fireplace reno - actual built-ins against the open brick wall of the fireplace. Exciting!

Anyways, that's where we are right now. I need to get one more coat of paint on the wall, and Andrew has to wait two days for the adhesive on the tile to dry before he can apply the grout.

I am pretty pumped. For one, this has been the eyesore of our house...the one room that we haven't touched (besides the hall bath) and that isn't complete. For two, once we finish the projects in this room, we can buy furniture! YAY!

A Marley Moment

We had a bit of a Marley moment earlier today. Or two...

*Photo courtesy of boston.com.


Franklin had just enough food for lunch, but was definitely going to need a new bag before dinner tonight. I like to take him with me to the pet store when we pick up his food because he gets really, really excited, and it wears him out. We had just gotten back from cleaning our car so I opened the door to the garage and told Franklin to come with me, and I figured he would just jump in the car like he always does because he LOVES riding in the car.

He tried to jump in (and always does this with no problem), but for some reason he got stuck on the seat - body in, back legs stuck on the ground. Andrew was standing behind him so I figured I would just walk around to the other side of the car, and Andrew could help him in.

Wrong.

All of a sudden, Franklin realizes that crazy cat lady across the street is having a moving sale. There are tons of cars parked along our street, and people walking to and from the house. Franklin takes off towards the cat lady's house, and is strutting his stuff like no one's business. He is jumping on people, licking everyone and swishing his huge tail back and forth all over the place. I am afraid he is going to knock over tables, boxes and piles of junk in her driveway. Somehow, he didn't.

I grab his leash and wrangle him in after a bit, but felt completely embarrassed that our dog was so out of control.

Franklin and I get in the car (finally) and head to the store. I role down his window a bit so he can get some fresh air and soon enough he has his two front legs stuck in between the car and the window. I am forced to roll the window down completely. Okay, we can do this. He is on a leash; I can hang on to him. No big deal.

A few seconds later he is hanging out the window, Marley-style. Luckily, we were still in our neighborhood so I stopped and drug him back in. He only got the window cracked open the rest of the trip.

Scaredy Cat

Franklin and I were on our morning walk today and were towards the end of our route when we got some major excitement. We had just passed an intersection in our neighborhood when Franklin saw a cat a bit down the road. He completely stopped in his tracks and freaked out. He was making these weird barking noises, and his hair on his back was standing straight up. I thought he would be really excited because he loves playing with the barn cats at Andrew's parent's farm. However, he literally would not move to get close enough to this cat. It was probably a couple of hundred feet away and Franklin was terrified. We ended up turning around and going home because I just could not get him to walk any further down the road.

I thought cats were supposed to stay away from dogs?
Frank is such a weirdo. Definitely a mama's boy.

Hello, Sunshine

Per my teaser from Monday's post, we have finished our 2nd major reno project! Well, almost finished. Andrew promises he will complete the threshold on Saturday. Regardless, we are close enough to share pictures with you. :)

Our living room (front of the house) and family room (back of the house) are separated by one load-bearing wall. And, they used to be separated by a door, which we took off its hinges right after we took possession of our house at the end of July. That helped the flow of our house, but the doorway was still so limiting. So, we decided to enlist the help of my brother Noel, (helps to have a contractor in the family), to widen the doorway this past weekend.

I am so, so pleased with the results. I don't know the details of the project as Hillary, Quinn and I were gone for most of the project, but wow - what a difference it made!

The before's:
View from the family room...
View from the living room...
The afters!
NEW view from the family room...NEW view from living room...
Top Five Reasons I Love the Outcome of This Project:
1. Our house flows so much better.
2. The amount of sunlight that shines into the living room from the back patio doors has really increased. I love sunshine!
3. You can see our TV from the backyard. Just kidding, that is weird, but now true. Hope our neighbors like to watch the same shows we do.
4. Andrew's man chair doesn't really fit in the space it was before. YES! Definitely going to start looking for a cute chair/ottoman set for the living room. Man chair will be banished to the family room. One step closer to the man cave.
5. Once we completely finish this project, we can move onto the fireplace/family room! Don't lie; I know you noticed the empty room with zero furniture.

I love a good before-and-after. :)

Winter White

I don't really like winter, except for the holidays, but I'm having a slight change of heart with last night's/today's snow. It's just so pretty!
Now if only I had a snow day.