Weekend Things: The Start of the Kitchen Remodel

Ladies and gentlemen, an ode to my husband who single-handedly installed our new kitchen sink this weekend!

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To say I’m in love (with the sink, but also with Joey) would be a huge huge understatement.  Long story short, we finally got around to ordering new countertops last week and they’re coming to measure tomorrow so the sink suddenly needed to be installed and more importantly, level.  Sounds easy, but when your house was built in 1908, nothing is really level.  Look, I don’t know how he does it, but he always gets it done.  And THE SINK.  Would you just look at it?  I’ve never been so excited to do dishes in my life.

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In other weekend news, you know you’re 25 and married when you do your grocery shopping on a Friday night and look forward to staying in to eat dinner in your sweatpants and watch TV.  Oh wait, that’s what I do every night.  Did you know John Mayer hosted the Late Late Show for three days last week?  Yeah, as in a singer/musician with no hosting experience was running the program.  IT WAS THE BEST.  Those of you who aren’t crazy Mayer superfans probably don’t know that he is FUNNY, but seriously, he is.  Also, he had a “Croon Cam.”  Nuff said.

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Saturday, when Joey was starting the kitchen work — hey, for the record, I did help carry out the old countertop/sink — I was extra excited that I had a massage and facial scheduled.  And they both felt so amazing.  I had a half hour between appointments, so I took myself out in the miserable 70 degree weather and enjoyed some reading in the sunshine.  I’m in the middle of Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness and it is extremely fascinating and well-written.

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My mom bought me an amazing orchid and this is what happened when I tried to drive it home with the windows rolled down on the highway.  I thought the highway was just really dirty, then I looked over and realized it was all the soil from the plant.  Oops!  But it was actually pretty funny and it also forced me to vacuum out my car, which I’ve needed to do for… uh too long anyway.  And now my orchid is living a happy life in my bedroom and I’m determined not to kill it.

P.S. Please note that bag of cookies in the first picture, that my mom also gave me.  White chocolate chip oatmeal, mmmmm.

P.P.S. We rented The Judge on Saturday night and while I liked the movie, I didn’t think anyone individually gave an Oscar-worthy performance.

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Totally wasn’t going to get all hopped up on caffeine yesterday, but Joey suggested we take a walk to our favorite coffee shop and who am I to argue with the person who gave me the farmhouse sink of my dreams?  Followed by a day of feeling anxious, distracted and irritable.  Oh and pretty sure I didn’t sleep last night.  Fun times!  After consuming this, I took myself to the gym.  It was sunny and in the 60’s but it was also WINDY and I’m such a baby about the wind.  I mustered two whole miles before calling it quits.

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When I got home, Joey and I cleaned ourselves up and went to lunch!  I am forever torn between my desire to cook in my own kitchen and to try all the amazing restaurants we have in Denver.  Dining out won that day.  We went to the Slotted Spoon which is a meatball restaurant that offers subs, pastas and salads using those meatballs.  I got a chicken meatball sub and I kept getting an occasional taste of…dirt?  I think it was just some herb in the sauce that my taste buds weren’t liking — Joey thought I was crazy — but otherwise, we loved this place and I already want to go back.

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When we got back home, Joey proceeded to hook up the actual plumbing for the sink and I proceeded to wash two days worth of dishes in the bathroom sink.  Such fun!  Not.  And then I somehow cooked dinner without countertops or running water in the kitchen.  I’m magic!  But it really wasn’t so bad.  And I can sum up the rest of our night with one word… Grammys!  I tweeted all the tweets and probably don’t have any followers left.  I couldn’t help it!

What did you do this weekend?

House Tour: 11 Months Later

Ay yi yi, is it Friday yet?  We’re officially at 30 days until the wedding so it’s crunch time and conveniently we are crazy busy at work so life is feeling a little like a whirlwind lately.  But I’m headed off to New Orleans this weekend for a little bachelorette excursion and I could not be more excited.  Methinks a few days away from the office are just what the doctor ordered 🙂

The fact that it has taken me SO DANG LONG to write/publish this post is proof that life has been a little busy.  So it’s taken me 11 months, but I’m finally sharing before and after pictures of our house!

Living Room Before:

Okay, sorry, I only seem to have “in progress” pictures of our living room.  Basically, it was just a teeny tiny room with a teeny tiny doorway to the kitchen.  The very first thing we said the first time we saw the house was “this wall has to come down.”  Kind of blows my mind that in the 100+ years that our house has been around, no one else said that same thing.

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See that tiny hole I had just made?  Thus concludes any real help I contributed to the tearing down of the wall.  Don’t you wish your girlfriend was helpful like me?

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And on the other side of the room…

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At one point it was a lovely shade of green plaster…

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But now…

Living Room After!

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In case you’re keeping score at home, that’s -1 wall, -1 drywall/plaster layer on another wall, +1 kegerator, +1 Ikea shelf system and +1 giant TV.  That TV was on Joey’s wish list since day one so who am I to deny him?  Also he tore down a wall, exposed the brick on another, built a little column between the kitchen and living room, built Ikea furniture, and fixed a vent in that room so I think he earned a new TV 🙂  Also, I am IN LOVE with that exposed brick wall!

Kitchen Before:

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Kitchen Now:

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Yeah, I think I like that better.  We upgraded appliances, took out the tile (ourselves… never again please), had hardwood put in, switched the pantry to the other side of the kitchen, painted, put up a pot rack that Jory made for us 🙂 and added an island.  We still have a few finishing touches to do, but for the most part it’s done in here.

Bedroom Before:

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If you can believe it, this room was once two rooms.  Two TINY rooms.  Luckily, someone had made it one pretty decent sized room long before we lived in it.  This was the first place we painted/unpacked/set up with furniture.  The rest of the house may have been a dusty disaster for months but at least this space was organized.

Bedroom After:

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I guess I should’ve taken a picture of our closet but then everyone would know that I only own like 5 shirts that I just wear over and over again…

Bathroom Before:

I already did a full post on the bathroom makeover, so I’ll be brief.

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And I’d like to announce that I officially don’t even remember what it was like not to have a tiny bathroom and have a hard time fitting two people in it in the mornings.  That readjustment was tough!

Hallway & Spare Room Before:

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Hallway & Spare Room After:

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Okay, so maybe that back room still isn’t the most exciting thing and we might have a piece of wood under the end of the bed to compensate for the slope in the room but it makes the perfect “getting ready” space for me.  Those built in shelves in the hallway kind of threw us for a loop (what do we do with these?!) but I think they look pretty cute right now!  I’m loving our growler display!

And that’s all, folks!  It’s small, it doesn’t have air conditioning, the basement is literally made of dirt, the floors aren’t even and the doors shrink and swell depending on the weather, but we’ve put so much work into our little house — it feels like home and I LOVE every inch of it 🙂