Irene is mean

Forgive my absence: it's been a crazy week! Never thought I’d be reporting on two natural disasters in one week but here goes!

Again, we are safe after Hurricane Irene blew through Richmond this weekend. We’d already been through a hurricane in college (when we lost power for 3 weeks!) so we prepared for the worst. To say grocery stores were a madhouse is an understatement - I grabbed literally the last pack of bottled water after work Friday. Mike got home Saturday morning and we hunkered down.

The worst of the storm was expected Saturday night but it rained all day long. The wind blew like crazy. I watched as the trees in our backyard tottered dangerously over our little house. Our power flickered and went out for good around 4pm.

I am so happy Mike was home. I swear to you, I have the greatest husband in the world. I tend to freak out when we lose power and within minutes of us going dark he had a board game out and was playing music on his phone. We planned dinner with a back-up approach in case we didn't have appliances. Thank goodness for our grill!!

Reason #1,208 why I love Mike:

Just grilling in the middle of a hurricane. No big deal.

Dinner was delicious (even though we couldn't see it!)

And we entertained ourselves with some more board games (PS-Mom, Mike is a ringer at Rummy-O!!) and other time wasters

Sunday was not a good day for me. Mike left for work and I was alone without power. Estimated time of restoration was 2 WEEKS. I tried to keep busy with shopping, hanging out at a nearby grocery store and even going for a run – which was a terrible idea because there wasn't air conditioning to come home to!!

By the afternoon I had a mini panic attack and was pacing around the house. I met some friends for drinks, grabbed dinner at Whole Foods and hit the hay early. Miraculously, our power was restored at 1:30 Monday morning!!

After looking at pictures of the damage I realize how extremely fortunate we were. No real damage to our yard or house. The only real loss we suffered were some dairy products in our fridge. Other Richmonders haven’t been so lucky:

Please send thoughts and prayers and hopes that no more damage occurs as our beloved city rebuilds.

One thing’s for sure: Hurricane Irene sucked.

Sources: here  here and here

Fireman Fred and Panicked Patty

You know what’s not fun? Waking up in the middle of the night to a strange alarm going off in your house.

We’ve lived in our house for almost 2 years and are used to the sounds it makes. Little bumps and squeaks are common but I was not prepared for what happened last night!

Around 1:30 am I woke up to Mike walking around the room. I rolled over and was just about to fall back asleep when I heard it:

“SCREEEECHH!!! SCREEEECHH SCREEEECHH!!! SCREEEECHH!”

I jumped up and yelled “What is that?!” Mike had already heard the noise so I joined him as we snuck into the kitchen trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

It was confusing because the noise went off sporadically and sounded distant. There was no freaking way I was going upstairs--I was fine standing in the kitchen with the knives for protection, thank you--so Mike went upstairs and discovered the culprit.

Now Mike is a fireman and I am not an idiot--the noise did not sound like a smoke detector. But the battery was dying and it decided now was the perfect time to notify us.

The hubs took the battery out and said he would get a new one the next day. We had just crawled back into bed when the chirping started. I was then treated to a lesson in fire safety as Mike explained that since the smoke detectors are on the same circuit, the beeping would continue until we replaced the battery.

I offered my ear plugs but Mike was already putting on shoes and asking where the nearest 24 hour store was. It’s pretty obvious he’s the responsible one in this marriage.

He said he’d be back in 10 minutes but there was no way I was staying in that demon house alone so I went along for the trip. Our neighbors must’ve thought I was nuts as I walked out the door in pajamas with my crooked ponytail at 2 AM.

I did say as we were getting in the car that this would make such a good blog story. Mike gave me a firm “NO.” Whoops.

A pack of batteries and a cold car ride later (hello Fall!) and the smoke detector was back in action.

We both had to be up 2 hours later. I hate today.

Images found here here and here

Ding dong the pink flowers are gone!

The guest bathroom is finished!!

Before:

After!

It's really hard to capture the space because it's so tiny but what a difference!

New tile that Mike laid down like a pro

New hardware

And the art from our Picasso exhibit adventure

Now we just need company to come visit!

Fickle flora

I really need to stop being such a braggart around here.

A few weeks ago I was flapping my gums about how our herbs were thriving.

Weeellllll……

Womp womp womp.

I really do not get what happened!! The basil is chugging along but the cilantro just hit a wall and won’t do anything but shrivel up and die.

And seriously jalapenos, where you at?!

Mike tells me those little buds are the start of the peppers growing but I have my doubts.

The real tragedy here is my beloved tomato plant -

It grew and grew and grew some more. Until one day it could grow no more without breaking in half.

The hubs rigged some old deck lattice to the stem but it still wasn’t strong enough to withstand the hellacious rain we’ve been getting lately.

And our plants out front?

 

Guess what was growing under those monstrous evil holly bushes?

WEEDS.

I can’t handle all this maintenance. Somebody hire me a garden boy.

The Powerwashman

Mike powerwashed our house last week and at the last minute decided to tackle the deck.

Guess it was a good decision; apparently that lighter color is what it's supposed to look like!

Home Sweet Home Goods

Oh Home Goods. You evil temptress.

I love me some Home Goods - it always has such an eclectic mix of stuff that I never know I need until I visit the store. And it’s cheap! Win win.

We have guests visiting in July and the guest bathroom needs an extreme makeover. I went in with the intention of buying a shower curtain, but I wandered around for too long and spotted this guy:

I did not buy him. But boy did I ever want to!

I did pick up this curtain and toothbrush holder but couldn’t find a deal on a trashcan :(

By then I was shopping for the whole house and found this frame, which I think will live on the side table in the guest bedroom.

But the real deal came when I saw this huge piece of art:

Immediately I imagined it in our bedroom since the colors match perfectly with the existing art. And it was only $25!! I couldn’t buy just a frame that size for $25!

Looovvvveee it. Maybe it needs to hang a little higher?

All I needed was a shower curtain. Home Goods wins again.

I am woman hear me roar

I did it!!! Guest bathroom = painted.

Before

I got to Home Depot bright and early to get my supplies. I flirted with the boy at the paint counter for a bit in hopes that he would offer to paint for me but no dice. By 9:00 am I got started.

I would like to apologize for anyone who has ever stayed with us and had to use that bathroom. I had no idea how disgusting it was! I swear it was from the previous owners; not us.

I spent a good 30 minutes like this -

Just trying to get the walls clean! And I didn't know about the cobwebs. Please forgive us!

I rocked along to my Ipod as I painted the trim. Painter's tape is my new love. I might try to convince Mike to name our future child 'painter tape' - that's how much I love it!

It took me forever to paint the trim. Like hours. But once I figured out how to use the tape I was rolling! Totally helped when painting this guy.

I would also like to thank Jillian Michaels for her yoga DVD because I had to bend in all sorts of angles to paint that room! What a pain.

Bye bye  pink flowers!

And thank goodness it was a bathroom I was painting so there was a water source nearby when stuff like this happened:

I wish this was a joke. It's not!

I trudged along and really didn't want to paint the ceiling but my brush slipped one too many times so that's the plan for tomorrow. I miss my 6'5" hubby! That is supposed to be his job!

We still have to replace the floor tile but check out the results (so far):

It's not that bright of blue. More like a gray-blue.

I'm pretty darn proud of myself. I didn't give up and it looks decent! The paint job is by no means perfect but neither are we.

I thought this would take me 2 hours to complete. Mike said 4. It took me 6 and I was covered in paint!!

Oh well. Just need to get the small things installed and we'll be ready for company!

Weekend Warrior

This weekend I take on an adventure.

I am going to paint the guest bathroom…by myself.

Mike is out of town with friends which leaves me a weekend full of free time. My mind immediately drifted towards this room - I can’t wait to get my hands on this pink floral disaster!

We picked out a color a while back and just haven’t pulled the trigger. Have I ever painted a room before? Nope. But I’m gonna try!

Have to save the tile for another day though...

I don’t have too high of expectations for this project; I just want the room to be presentable for company. I’ll honestly be surprised if I get more paint on the walls than on myself.

Or I may just scrap the whole idea and work on my tan! It’s supposed to be pretty nice this weekend…

Herby Hancock

(Can you tell Mike has been picking out post titles lately?)

While we were in Alabama it was crazy hot in Virginia. So hot that we came home to some major plant growth.

A few weeks back we planted an herb garden and tomato bush. The cilantro and basil have been flourishing and when we got back Monday we were faced with this:

We have been happily snipping fresh herbs for some time now but I have never seen them flower before!

We're still holding out hope that the jalapeños (middle plant) will bloom but so far no luck.

But look what DID finally bloom!

 

I may have been doing a happy tomato dance as I plucked these off our little tree. They were so fresh and delicious I will never buy tomatoes from the store again!

Cross your fingers for our jalapeños!

Won't you be our neighbor?

Some neighborhood news to share: our next door neighbor is moving.

I was surprised and a little saddened when I saw the ‘For Sale’ sign appear in the front yard. He is one of the few neighbors we have met and actually chat with. He is clean and quiet and the thought of someone new moving in is a little unsettling. Is this how he felt when we moved in?

Time will tell who ends up being our new neighbor. In the meantime I’ll continue to spy on everyone who tours the house, secretly judging them until I decide to show up on their doorstep with a plate of cookies.

Source

Appliances do not convey

When we bought our house we were pretty naive. Don't get me wrong; I LOVE our house and wouldn't have chosen another. But our house is about 15 years old and things have aged. Mostly it's nothing a coat of paint and some nails can't handle but repairs are still required. We were proud of our homeownership skills until the appliances started to fight back.

First it was the washer and dryer. I'm still too scarred to talk about that experience. Then a few weeks ago Mike was emptying the dishwasher and said "There's still food on this...." Last year we had a hiccup with the dishwasher so I felt the impending doom.

We tried cleaning the filters, changing soaps, washing the dishes before we loaded them--nothing helped. It was to the point where it was useless to even run it because nothing was getting cleaned. So back we went to HH Gregg. We found a dishwasher we liked and would you believe it: we forgot to measure. Again. The salesman tried to tell us they are all the same size but the Possanza's are only fooled once. Back we went to the house to measure and back we went to HH Gregg.

We walk in and Mike goes "We might as well get a stove while we're here too."

Mind you, there is nothing wrong with our stove. It's just old. But we're so over having to deal with all this appliance nonsense that it made more sense to replace it and the hood now instead of four months from now. Call us crazy but it made sense to me.

Everything got delivered Saturday (when I was out of town....I told you all our weekends are busy!) and all day long I got excited updates from Mike. The general message was that our kitchen is now 'epic.'

I have to say I agree:

Tell me you aren't drooling right now.

I'm so excited about these appliances. I've wanted a flat top stove forever and now I don't have to worry about the wonky burners spilling everywhere. And I love that you can see into the oven. And our dishwasher is wicked quiet.

The little things really excite me.