Year in Review: Nest Tour, Part Two

Next year I want someone to remind me to do my year in review starting in November.  Ideally, the day after Thanksgiving, before all the shopping ,parties, and gift making starts to get into full swing.  I had every intention of posting three days last week for the house tour and then one or two this week on our wedding.  That’s when I got run over by Christmas.  With all the baking, wrapping, and eating I was doing, Spring Dog This! got the short end of the stick.  So I will try to write again tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday.  We can start the New Year with a final year in review post right?  You can’t see where you are going without knowing where you have been.

I want to apologize right off the top for the picture quality.  My good camera is broken and you can see how much I miss it in low light conditions.  My cheap point and shoot just doesn’t cut it even on a tripod.  Let’s continue on our nest tour, our next stop will be the kitchen.  This was the room in the house that probably grabbed our attention the most when we first saw the house.  The new flooring, bright white cabinets with open glass fronts up top, and dark counters were eye catching.  The space is not ideal, but it definitely gets the job done.

First up, we changed the curtains and wall color in the kitchen.  The original color was green, more of a gray-green and definitely not as green as what we chose.  We went with True Value Easy Care in Shamrock which brightened and modernized the kitchen.  The curtains that were in the kitchen were a bit too country cottage for our style so we chose a black damask type print which we love against the bright white trim and green walls.

The appliances came with the house but we swapped Alyssa’s great grandma’s black stove for the white one that was there.  In the future we may upgrade to stainless and a gas range, but so far we haven’t had an issue to make us want to spend money on new appliances.  The paint on the cabinets is in need of a freshening up.  We have started doing the base cabinets but haven’t got to the cabinet faces yet or the upper cabinets.  We also need to paint the ceiling in here, but it’s a popcorn ceiling so not something easy to paint well.

Our kitchen table.  This was actually the first piece of furniture we bought, even before we had financing for the house.  We loved the bench that came with the table, it let us get a bigger table and still have space in the smaller kitchen.  Someday we will have little tykes to sit back there, but for now the table anchors our eat in kitchen.

This is looking from the kitchen to the living room.  This is our newsed couch.  For awhile, we had one couch and a recliner, which  meant seating was limited when we had guests.  Alyssa’s parents donated this couch to our cause and it makes life much easier.  Again the camera doesn’t do it justice.

There is the other couch.  We are getting another newsed couch and a love seat in February and that one is moving to the basement.   The curtains are a recent upgrade for us.  The original ones, like the kitchen, didn’t fit our style and we searched high and low before finding ones we liked.  The cheap Ikea lamp behind the couch is on its way out after we got a new lamp for Christmas.  We both love the built-in book shelf, it makes us look studious.

Here’s looking at the tv and up the stairs.  We love our little fireplace even if it can be moved from room to room.  The previous owners had one and I tried to get that in negotiations, but lost out so Alyssa’s parents bought her one as a graduation present.  It adds to the atmosphere and adds some warmth to the room.  The major project for the living room is going to be carpeting.  Right now, the color is a gray-green and the color on the stairs is different from the living room which you can see on the picture.  Someday we will switch that out for sure.

This picture is awful but it’s the  best I could get.  This is Ellie’s temporary home while the Christmas tree is up.  I am going to build a shelf of some sort next to the fireplace with the new Kreg Jig I got for Christmas.  We added our own flair to the walls in here as well.  The original color was a neutral tan, but we stepped it up and went with this rich color.  It reminds me of a comfy leather chair, again it’s True Value Easy Care in Loggins.  Another project on our list in here is to repaint the trim, it needs some work and will polish the look of the living room.

Tomorrow will be a longer tour with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a basement.  Don’t forget to come back.

 

Fall is in the air…

This weekend was the first in a while that we really didn’t have any major plans since well before the wedding.  It was nice to have a somewhat lazy weekend free from big projects, travel, or thank you card writing.  Instead of finally getting power run to the upstairs of the house, driving to St. Louis or honeymooning in Traverse City, we were able to have our first quiet weekend as a married couple.  That’s not to say we had 2 full days of sweatpants, pizza, and beer, though all three of those came into the weekend at some point.  Saturday morning consisted of drinking some of my newest hobby, home roasted coffee, and making what is becoming a favorite breakfast for both of us, krapsua.  Both of these will make extended appearances in the coming months at Spring Dog This!.  Seeing as how the Spring Dog doesn’t exactly do lazy mornings we had to take her out to do her favorite pastime, chasing a tennis ball.  Luckily we have some big spaces nearby where we can let her free and she can chase a ball to her heart’s content, or my arm gets tired (usually the case).  Here are a few pictures of her in her element.

Ellie

Elleanore

Saturday afternoon I brewed a batch of Front Porch Brewery beer with Travis.  I still haven’t come up with a name for this beer which is a clone of Furthermore Oscura, a California Common-type beer infused with whole-bean coffee.  Travis is looking to get into home-brewing and wanted a few pointers.  Having help during a brew day is always nice because it can be a long day by myself.  While I was brewing, Alyssa was doing her best Suzy Homemaker impression, cleaning and organizing in the house.  It’s a never-ending process that you take for granted growing up.  Saturday night we hit up the Hitch-N-Post for a party celebrating Alyssa’s sister, Erika’s, boyfriend returning from Afghanistan.  Mike’s family had a shin-dig there for him so we went with Alyssa’s parents to welcome him home.  Let me tell you how thankful I am that I am not a single guy trying to find a woman at bars like that, slim pickings is an understatement.  Alyssa had some more colorful words to describe the girls there.

Sunday consisted of church, organizing the pantry so my vertically challenged wife can reach the necessities, and priming the walls in our bedroom.  We are FINALLY getting close to painting it to suit our tastes.  We have had bedding for over 2 months now, but choosing colors for the walls has been a project in and of itself.  We’ll be sure to post pictures of the paint when it actually gets on the walls.  After priming it was time for pizza, football, and a nap.  To round out the weekend we went to Alyssa’s parents for a small birthday party for Erika where we watched Philip Rivers single-handedly lose against the Packers.  It was tough being the only non-Packer fan there.

Here are a few pictures from the brew-day on Saturday.

Wort