Day One

Today. This Morning. Was the start of the 2009 Minnesota State Fair!!! I have been without a carnival corn dog all year and cannot wait to go through the gate, to the left past the water ride and up the hill 200 feet to give $4 for a fresh hot crispy corndog (with mustard only).

At home (with our completely remodeled and finished fantastic bathroom)we are piking-up and polishing the whole house and yard to get ready for the Great Backyard BBQ we are hosting this weekend. It is so nice to have such a big, dusty, garbage producing project done (as a bonus we get to use a second bathroom) and now even nicer to get the house in tip top shape for visitors.

I hope everyone far and near can make it to the state fair, or at least have a great summer BBQ experience (corndogs required)

(photos to come soon)

Botanical Calling

So in anticipation of my cousin Clay seeing our house and yard for the first time I went out to check the garden. The day before I had eaten fresh green beans and seen HUGE green peppers on my landscape-architect cousin Nichole's gorgeous plants. Wouldn't you know it, amongst the weeds we had two huge zucchinis and many more blossoms, over a dozen healthy green tomatoes, progressing green onions and peas in the pod that I thought died months ago.

I guess 4 years of botany education plus 3 months of weeding neglect can still pay off!

I have said all along that next year I will focus on gardening instead of just plopping plants in the dirt. Now after a few meals of fresh cilantro & onions and seeing Nichole's low-key high-yield garden I am looking forward to it! Besides we are making good progress with that dern bathroom downstairs, with no more big remodels planned I will have a whole spring to dedicate to my botanical calling.

Newest Newlyweds & Gnomes

This weekend our family welcomed our newest legal member, Katie! She has been apart of our family for a long time, and on July 3rd at Harvard in Boston Katie and Adam got married. We celebrated the next day with fireworks on the Charles River, and a Neil Diamond and the Boston Pops Orchestra concert. Fantastic weekend, congratulations to the newest newlyweds on the block!

So while I was away, the garden grew (can you find the tomato plants?), the bathroom stayed naked, there was another bacon explosion, and my new friend Rossgnowme guarded the backyard.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July and is enjoying a wonderful summer! July means it is almost August, hope to see you all soon!

It's June already!?

To catch up on the last two months:

-We got new (amazing) windows upstairs
-We fought and won the war of the dandelions
-We have 2 tomato, 4 pea, 3 zuchinni and 2 gabazillion mint plants in the garden
-All four hop plants are reaching 5 ft high
-I gave Brewer a haircut at home, we still love him anyway
-I mowed!!! (once) Jeremy mows lots (we both love it!)
-Jeremy hauled and split 2 full cords of wood (4ft hi, 4 ft deep, 16 ft wide) WOW!
-I finished a massive stretch of two busy months at work
-The downstairs bathroom is amazingly destroyed, but making progress
-Visker Electric came by again and successfully installed new lights in the closet
-We are happy, healthy and thankful for such a wonderful home.

No Rest for the Married

Almost two weeks of wedded bliss. After the wedding weekend it felt great to bust out the paint brushes, chisels, chainsaws and rakes. Before the wedding we spent a good month getting the house ready by putting the finishing touches on all the projects we started. While it is awesome to have all those details done, it is even awesomer to get started on some big projects we have been looking forward to.

I painted my office starburst pink. Jeremy started chiseling tile off of the downstairs bathroom floor (1/2 inch by 1/2 inch). We purchased the new vanity and counter top for that bathroom, as well as a lawnmower and a patio table with gift cards. And lastly Jeremy climbed our tree, hoisted up a chainsaw and clean cut two huge bad limbs from our large maple. He is now relishing in the promise of firewood, and splitting those limbs with his new axe. All is well in homeowner land. I hope spring is just as promising for you!

More Celebrations

Today was my first day in the world as a Mrs. I went to work, changed my name, email address and marital status. My wonderful coworkers threw a wonderful party for me with tons of decorations, punch and an official three tiered wedding cake! It was great to share photos and stories of the weekend.

I plan to put the wedding cake topper on all our meals for the next week at least!

Mr & Mrs

On March 27, 2009 Alison and Jeremy were married in the presence of their grandparents, parents and siblings at their home. It was a beautiful ceremony on a sunny yet cool spring day. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant and ended with a fantastic round of cosmic bowling and drinks. We are filled with love from our families and all the support we have received from our extended families and friends. We plan to have you join us in celebrating later this summer.

All our love,
~Mr & Mrs.

The Moat

If you can believe it, Minnesota reached above freezing for four days in a row. It sure felt good to leave the winter coat in the car, but each hour of melting temperatures our moat grew. The house is on a hill, to say the least, and water goes downhill. So with the melting and raining we got a moat. Luckily the water was a moat around the deck and patio, and not a pool in the basement. BUT, being the first time homeowners we are, we decided to do our best to remove the moat so it didn't ever make it to the basement.

How, do you ask, does one remove a moat from the yard in the winter? Shop-vac. Yes, we vacuumed our backyard for about 4 hours last night. Honestly made some progress, Brewer can now do his business without watching for crocodiles. But I cant get the image of Eddie at Christmas out of my head.

Fashion Statement

So the bathroom looks the same as it did last post. Anyone surprised? But the rest of the house has changed dramatically. Over MLK Jr day Jeremy and I painted the entire basement, our bedroom and the living room upstairs. The basement and the bedroom look fantastic, the fashion statement is the blue painter's tape still on all the walls upstairs. Dreamsicle Orange walls look better under the Home Deopt lighting, and although Kahki cream covered it up, I am still not convinced it is the color for me.

I can't tell you how gratifying this last and somewhat simple renovation step was. The downstairs feels so warm and cozy, and even the Kahki cream upstairs feels less stale. We were able to show off our painting job (including the blue tape) to 25 friends that came over for Superbowl. We also celebrated Brewer's One Year Old Birthday with my family. I will be sure to post photos of the walls, the party and the puppy.

and then...

Starship sang it best, Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, which may be why we started demolishing our downstairs bathroom to get rid of the (hopefully) last of the foreclosure-gunk. What was going to be a clean and paint project has (predictably) turned into a demo moldy drywall, clean and refinish walls and cabinets.

One weekend, two garbage bins full and a heck-a-lotta squeals by Alison cleaning mouse poop and parts got us to the phase shown in the photos. So far it looks like all of the water problems are fixed, and with each surface we Killz paint removes more mold. I'll keep you posted with the progress...all the HDtv I watch has inspired big design ideas.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

With the house all decked out in Christmas wreaths, garland and lights we had Alison's family over to bake cookies and have Christmas Day Celebration Part I. Alison's brother Adam and Katie flew in from Boston for the week & got to play in the snow, have Hao Bien bun in St Paul, see the North Star Rollergirls, and play some good video games like Rock Band and everything Wii.

Jim Halloran also stopped by the house and met Brewer for the first time. It was an honor to host such a famous New York actor at our home.

All in all it was a great holiday, I hope yours was too. Today (New Years Day) I am taking down the decorations and reminiscing about family and friends and all that has happened in the 2008. I can't wait to see what 2009 has in store. I'll do my best to keep you posted...

A Minnesotan Good Time

Thank you all who put on the snow tires and restocked their emergency car kit to make it to our open house in a blizzard! We had at least 7 inches at the house, plus sub zero temps, plus blizzard wind conditions. It was great to see some neighbors stop by who have watched our house change for 30+ years. We were also able to show off our progress to THE BEST REALTOR IN THE WORLD PETE RATHJEN who helped us find, inspect, purchase and even repair parts of the house.

Lots of other family, friends and coworkers made it over to see before and after photos, have some home brew IPA on tap and take home prizes for the best homemade sweater, best P.C. sweater and most embellished sweater. It was a great start to the holiday week.