Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Happy 2010!

Wow, a new year already! Time to dig our heals in for those New Year's resolutions. John and I have resolved to sort through and downsize on all the clutter we have collected. At the moment we are sticking to this idea, but I'm sure by the end of the month we will have forgotten. I think the true motivating factor (at least for me) is that we could use some nice new carpet in our upstairs, I wonder if my husband know this? He does now!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. It seemed like a crazy- grab you by the seat of you pants -whirl wind kind of December, but our Christmas was great. Santa was right on cue here, which is fabulous because I don't have the patients to wait in those super long return lines!

It seems funny to me as I sit here and write that our life is super busy right now, but there is not a lot of things worth sharing. Just goes to show the fact that the small things really do add up! Any way, I'm back to sorting and filing 4 years of paperwork.

~Melissa and John

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Gearing up for the Holidays!

I love this time of year. The beautiful colors of the leaves, the crisp cool air mixed with warm sunshine, the smell of the wood stoves burning once again after a warm summer... This season also puts me in the baking mood- pies, cakes, cookies (all the usual suspects). I'll have to scout out some new recipes to try before the holidays.

We've been getting things buttoned up outside in anticipation of the winter. The new driveway is in and boy does it look awesome- feels nice to get out of your car and not fall off the side of the driveway! The leaves are starting to pile up in the backyard again, I just raked them last week! We don't have a lot of trees on our property but the neighbor's leaves all seem to head in our direction. A few more quick things in the garden and we're all done outside. Yesterday I just picked the final crop of green beans and now I just have to clean out the beds.

Moving indoors, what an improvement! The trim in the living room is painted, I have new curtains up and the new couches look great. Its starting to feel like a real home for the first time. John is working on installing the chair rail and baseboard in the dining room, then we will paint all the woodwork. I am keeping my eyes open for a new dining room set and a china cabinet (a place to put all my wedding crystal and china!). A little bit of wood work in the kitchen and then we can start dreaming about that second bathroom!

I noticed on the way to the grocery store that the Christmas music is already on the radio! Now for anyone who knows me- I am all about the Christmas season, the holiday music, the traditions and the family gatherings etc.- but come on! Lets enjoy Thanksgiving first! That reminds me, I have to pull out the Christmas lights and get those suckers out before its cold outside! (no we don't turn them on until Thanksgiving night!)

Hope all is well. I'm off for a walk to try and nip the holiday poundage in the behind!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Hi to all!

John and I thought we would catch up to the times and finally start a blog! Been think about it for a while, so here it goes...

Over the past few months John and I have been working outdoors and in the garage trying to get things settled for the upcoming winter. We have a new foundation in our garage, a new garage floor, the walls are all insulated/plywooded, and the electrical is complete. There are more outlets and lighting fixtures out there than I have in the entire first floor of the house! Well John always said 'you should do it right the first time', with a little help from my brothers Jay and Matt (thanks!) we can now call the project "done". Now if we could only get all the tools out of my house we could call it a job "well done'.

The next project is our drive way. For anyone who doesn't remember our driveway was a mixture of crushed asphalt and crabgrass (no joke), and boy was it tough to snowblow! We spent an entire week literally shoveling up our driveway into recycling bins and taking it to Boro (thanks Uncle Arthur!) I have spent today (my day off, lol) cutting back grass along the sides in anticipation of starting the forms. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks we can get a concrete truck in here and get this thing poured!

Finally, our rainy day project (we always have 10 things going on, the key is actually finishing them!). We recently purchased a new set of living room furniture which should be delivered in 3-4 weeks. John is so excited for the motorized recliners, I am excited to have couches where the cushions actually stay in the couch. As for the rainy day project, we are currently putting up trim, filling and painting it in the living room. We hope to finish before the couches arrive. In August we finally put in a new front door with a beautiful oval glass window, I still fall in love with it every time I walk by. My first floor is finally starting to look fantastic!

Besides being busy at work in Rhody and John working long days at his shop nothing else is really going on out side the home. We spend the evenings with our three cats, aka 'the boys', dreaming about the day we have extra money and can spend it on something besides our home!

Love to all,
Melissa and John