Rock Chalk Trail Work

This morning we volunteered at Green Mountain Park with the University of Kansas Alumni Association Denver Chapter.  Met some nice people and it was good to get out and check out the park and get a little exercise.  We used pick mattocks to remove a berm from the trail to cut down on water erosion.

Chris's birthday continues...

Chris already got a Keurig as an early birthday present. Today things got even more exciting. Chris won kaizen of the month at work. He knew about that, but what he did not realize is that along with the awesome paper certificate came a brand spanking new iPad 2! Fun, fun, fun!!!

Hanging Blinds

This morning we got up and Erica worked for a few hours.  She is traveling this week and needed to get some things done before she left on her trip.  Then we went to Home Depot and picked out cordless cellular blinds.  We have been debating this for a while now, just like almost everything we purchase for the house.

We also got a few sheets of plywood and a sheet of drywall with the Home Depot truck that we rented.

After that, we painted the inside of the window sills which we didn't when we painted the living room for some reason. And washed windows.  Now we are hanging the blinds. We ran into a little bit of trouble - we had the blinds cut based on measurements for hanging on the inside of the sills.  But when we got home, we found out our storm windows don't really make that possible.  So, we had to hang them above each window.  They should be a little wider than they are, but they still look just fine.

The curtains will not go back up in the living room. They will get to stay in the dining room.  The bathroom also got a new blind.

We still need to get blinds for the wine room and upstairs bedrooms, but we got the last few sets from the store and will have to wait until they get more in.

All in a day in our exciting lives :)

All Put Back Together Again

We painted the bathroom walls French Silver by Behr and the trim was painted Ash White, also by Behr. The trim has a subtle tone of gray to it. Chris re-hung the doors today and Erica washed the tile walls and floor and scrubbed all the grout with a toothbrush. 

Our replacement tile came in the mail this week and we are very happy with the color.  Not sure when we are going to install them yet.
 

The next step is getting a shower curtain, a new bath mat (we like a few at West Elm), a blind for the window (the one that came with the house is nasty dirty) and some cool art for over the toilet and getting the light fixture installed when it arrives.

A new bathroom issue is the in-wall medicine cabinet is not centered on the new vanity and we can't move it over because duct work is in the way.  We have been looking for a 30"x40"ish mirror to hang instead.  We haven't been able to agree on anything yet.  Chris wants it to be framed in some way and all of the framed mirrors we like are super expensive - like these at Restoration Hardware.  Erica wants a simple mirror with a 1" bevel which is also almost a 1/3 less than the above mentioned RH mirrors.

Here is the bathroom from multiple angles - it is difficult to capture such a small space.

Buried

While we have the patio dug up, we are burying the overhead power to the garage.  The electrical guy is coming today.  

Mediterranean Night

We marinated chicken breasts in Greek Olive dressing, grilled them, and served them with all the fixins: hummus, lettuce, tomato, whole milk feta, olives, pita bread, and homemade tzatziki.  And wine.

Tzatziki Recipe:

Non fat Greek yogurt, strained (about 1 C.)

1 Cucumber peeled and grated

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 Tbsp onion, finely chopped

Heaping tablespoon of sour cream

Fresh dill

Salt to taste

Mix and refrigerate an hour before serving.

Bathroom Progress

Things are moving along!  The bathroom has been a bit of a hot blogging topic.  You can read about our ideas for the space here.  Or how "easy" we thought knocking out a few tiles would be and our subsequent search for replacement tile here.

Chris finished installing the vanity and hooking up the new faucets today. The Ikea faucets came with built-in braided 1/2" in connectors so it took a little finagling to get them to US standard 3/8" size. Crazy Europeans. 

He also primed so we are ready for paint! The dark vanity and the absence of the yellow/orange faux paint on the ceiling and walls already make the tile look so much more neutral. 

Here is a bathroom "action" shot for ya! Erica ordered the tile this week. For about $25 we are expecting a square foot of tile any day now. Once they arrive, we have a little more work to get the missing tile areas cleaned up and prepped. 

We also ordered a new bathroom light fixture today:

The Birthday Boy

This past month, we celebrated Jim's birthday. One of his birthday gifts was a single cup K Cup coffee maker. Ever since Chris saw this, he has been looking at K Cups non-stop and has been scoping out all of the K Cup makers for the best deal. 

Yesterday, he decided would be the day to make a purchase. As you may know, Chris has a birthday coming up in a couple months and things like this make it extremely difficult to shop for him. So, Erica told him this was his birthday present. 

The inaugural cup was made last night - almost as soon as we had gotten it home. It also came with the my K Cup so we can use our own ground coffee. 

The Birthday Boy opening his present.

Here it is in action with one of Erica's Coffee Cups.  Chris said he will let her use it every once in a while ;)

Demo is Done

The patio guys were gone before lunch. 

The new patio will be larger.  It will end at the corner of the garage and the end of the fence.

Patio Demo

Wet sawing and patio brick removal so far.  

In addition to the patio work, we are also having him do sprinkler work.   The sprinkler box and the one way valve you see in the yard there are going to be moved to the side of the garage in the sidewalk.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

If it were up to Chris, we would have been on a road bike ride already.  But, our patio is being demolished today and we aren't quite sure when the patio guys are showing up to start.  So, we are sipping coffee and snacking on some Cap'n Crunch which was bought on a whim this week.  That stuff isn't cereal, it is like candy! 

We have big dreams of getting a lot of stuff done around the house this weekend (this is what we say EVERY weekend, but this time we really really mean it!).  We finally picked out our master bedroom and upstairs bath paint colors.  I am not sure we are going to paint necessarily, but Home Depot paint is on sale, so we might as well take advantage of that.

And, the patio crew just pulled up...

In the meantime, Young House Love recently posted this "Messy House Tour" that makes me (Erica) feel much better about the state of our own house.  Chris says he just doesn't ever feel embarrassed about the house which he admits is half the problem.  He also just proclaimed he will be drinking a K cup tomorrow morning - more on that later.

C & E at the Bike Race

Here we are hamming it up at the bike race last Sunday.  Thanks for the picture Jim!