coming together...

Our new coffee and end table were picked up yesterday....They came from a furniture store/theme park we have here called Jordan's. The store where we bought these had a trapeze where you could practice/take lessons (yes, really a trapeze). It also had "liquid fireworks" which was a cross between a lite brite and the Bellagio fountains, an ice cream stand and an IMAX theater (yes, that plays real movies).

Despite the silly antics, we can't compalin as the people from jordan's were nice enough to send us a $100 gift certificate as new home owners. Obviously, this did incite us to spend some (though not much) money there!

2 new things

New rug for our front hall...



















New Lamp for our living room - a lovely anniversary gift (in advance) from Linda and Rick - will get a real picture eventually.. The pic doesn't do it justice.

Other new things...

New doorbell and mailbox - far far better than the rusty black ugly mailbox and white, stained plastic doorbell that were there before!












Hopefully this new thermostat will keep the heat from coming on at innapropriate times -

I think this will also make us pick a dining room paint color VERY quickly so we can get rid of the icky damage on the wall from the old one.

Sneak Preview!

His & Hers

For Her
(delivered today!)



For Him
(will be delivered in a few weeks)

Interlude from the housework...

Think these guys can help do some landscaping or maybe rearrange the furniture?




For those of you not familiar, these are "headshots" of the red sox mascots...
We went to a game Sunday and watched the Sox beat Kansas City (finally)....

Arlington Town Day

Mass Ave was shut down for "Town Day" in Arlington -

Steve and I went to explore. It felt like small town USA - Cub Scouts, cheerleaders, soccer players, etc all in uniform to raise money. We saw the high school's jazz band perform and there were free pony rides. There was an asssociation for every park, a PTO for every school as well as a philharmonic society, drama club, youth theater and a million other small local organizations.




Two Tid Bits we picked up:

1) Local teenagers call Arlington "A-Town"
2) Appetizers at one of the local Indian restaurants are "tit bits" hahahaha










There were also a few random minutemen at one of the historic houses shooting muskets much to the enjoyment of the kids.

Visitors

Last Sunday we had our first visitors (Nikki, Rob & Robby) since we moved in...

I figured I better clean out the bills, boxes and picture frames from the ground in the dining room. It is spartan, but it doesn't look too my bad. That said, at some point down the road a larger dining table will be found to fit in the room. Our current table is squished for 4.






They also brought us some lovely sparkling wine - so Steve and I finally celebrated our new house with some bubbly.

YIPEEEEEEEEE

New furniture, at long, long last! I have been hauling around an old couch and wing chair since I graduated college.

Couch (in person it looks the color of the second picture)



New chair!

Are you kidding me ???

Hmm..the former owners said the basement was dry AND there was no evidence to suggest otherwise...




Oh wait.... it is just our BRAND NEW washer that put ALL the water on the ground, and not with the clothes the FIRST TIME we turned it on. (It seems like an internal hose must be disconnected. The water is coming out where the detergent goes in.)

UGH






At least Steve is smiling on hold...

A basement tour (oh, exciting!)

Not sure if anyone remotely cares, but I realized there has never been a picture of the basement on here...


View from the stairs...


Strange, oddly located shower stall (under stairs)


The foot of the "finished" part, it is L-shaped.


The long, narrow part of the finished area.

More "almost" rooms

The office


The guest bedroom



Other things completed this weekend:
1. new shower head installed
2. lots of unpacking and organizing
3. ordered a new mailbox to replace the hideous one we have
4. removed french doors to hallway - it made the living room look 20% bigger, really! (I never thought I would take them down, but it is really a big difference). We will leave the ones b/w the living/dining rooms.
5. set up all computers

Good Omen

We planted this 2 years ago, but it didn't bloom at all last summer, though it did grow lots of green leaves. As soon as we moved in this starting blooming though! *



* No need to comment any of the following:
- If it bloomed when you moved in, the buds had formed long ago
- Red is color of mourning in parts of Africa or the color of communism
- These only flower every other year

Progress (though not much!)

Far fewer boxes, a new microwave....















Looks like a living room, albeit a messy, unattactive one. At some point we will buy new furniture to replace the current stuff, circa 1980 from my step-dad's old house. We need to decide on the best layout first.















Evidence our new washer/dryer isn't yet at the house. We just bought them tonight, they will be here in 1 week.



















At least one of us has been away the last two weekends, so this weekend we should be able to get some serious unpacking done.

We MOVED!

We are all done unpacking.......













Ok, no we aren't .





At least the boxes in the kitchen are empty!

New bedding - Cape inspried

It is far from exact, but we were inspired by the pale blue sky, bright green grass and deep blue /green water.

I actually only bought the sheets, we will just use the plain duvet covers we have already.

pics of floor and lights

refinished floors in bad lighting - they still look great (I think at least!)



This is from my camera phone - sorry for the fuzzines!

The big day is almost here!

We have just a few more days before the big move (Tues. morning) and have a trip to CT planned over the weekend for our friends' wedding. Needless to say our apartment is a mess.

The floors will be done this afternoon, and after the sanding they look amazing! I am SO glad we went ahead and did them. I will add after pics as soon as I remember to take them:)

New lights, hardware and roofs, oh my.

New hardware for the master bath. We put them on the built-ins and on the vanity. Nothing exciting, but better than rusty chrome. We also bought new light switch covers to match.










NEW LIGHTING!
Fact we learned when buying lights - the previous owners literally bought the cheapest of every kind of fixture they could. Great.

We purchased 2 of these lights, one for each bathroom ceiling.














We bought a similar fixture for the master bath, ours has 4 lights, not 3.














____________________________________

New sheers for the office - they match the walls perfectly, and even tone down the color.


















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New valance ($1.50 at the Christmas Tree Shop) and some lime hand towels - cool and crisp for summer. I will use the other $1.50 valance I bought with bolder colored stripes in the fall/winter.



____________________________________
The new roof - isn't it exciting?
(yawn)