a couple reno projects

 

this fall we tackled a couple small projects, plus put the final touches (for the most part) on the basement after our flood earlier this spring!

when deciding what to do for the floors in the basement we grabbed several samples of vinyl wood flooring. after deciding to go a different route in the basement, we decided to use the vinyl flooring samples in our master bathroom toilet closet. its a tiny space that will eventually be removed and turned into a linen closet. but since we don't know when that renovation will take place, plus the fact that carpet around a toilet is just nasty, we decided to use the samples in there. and when I say we, I mean chris :)

simple changes that made a HUGE difference!!!

I had literally worn shoes (mostly slippers) every time I used that bathroom because it just grossed me out, despite having that carpet professionally cleaned before moving in. its so nice to go to the bathroom without having to put shoes on first! its the little things haha.

chris has worked SO EXTREMELY HARD on this basement and I couldn't be more proud of him!

we just got our new couch yesterday and are waiting for our rug and then we will be putting a tv on the wall to the right. 

if you walk through the two doors on the left, it leads to a second section of basement that will be home to our washer and dryer when my parents live with us (so they will have their own upstairs), a workbench for chris, and also our ping pong table. the door next to the spin bike leads to a small storage room.

and can I just interrupt for a minute and give a shout out to this spin bike?! I AM IN LOVE! chris and I both use this bad boy 4-5 times a week and it has helped us find joy in our exercise routines.

last but not least for our mini renovations was the removal of the "library". we had an entire wall covered in books, plus the three surrounding walls carried a border around the room. I hated that wallpaper passionately. But. because we will be removing these walls down the road, when we moved in we decided it wasn't worth the hassle of removing it for a year. well, fast forward and here we are, over a year and a half later, without our renovation happening. last week I was sitting on the couch and I had one of those moments where I just lost it. I couldn't stand looking at that stupid wallpaper anymore. 16.5 hours of pure torture and the wallpaper is gone!!!

chris was kind enough to spend a day off work spraying the living room white for me. its so much more calm and peaceful now and I actually don't mind being in the living room. we are moving this tv to the basement and getting a Frame tv in here next week and I am so freaking excited! this obviously is not the end of the living room project, more like a phase 1 of a multiple phase project, but it feels so good and I wish we had done it to begin with.

our plan is to remove the window wall on the right and bump it out about 6 feet to give us more space in the living room. in doing that, we will most likely have remove the existing roof, which will allow us to create a slightly higher ceiling and roof line. 

two birthdays and an anniversary!

16 years of marriage have flown by! 

we've had a few downs like most marriages, but i'm happy to say that we've had mostly ups! and I wouldn't trade our life for anything or anyone else's. 

chris took the day off (October 22nd) so we went for an adventurous drive, found a new pizza place (and couldn't believe the size of our appetizer... seriously! it was huge! if there's one thing we love more than good food, its a good deal on good food!), and then I watched chris mow the lawn. and it was a perfect day.

 

the next day was Jack's 14th birthday! 

how in the world do we have a 14 year old?!? truly, it seems like I was transported into an older body and am now living someone else's life. it all happened so fast and I really believe the saying The days are long, but the years are short. 

Jack's birthday was unfortunately on a school day, but because he and chris are both early risers, they had time to go to Aladdin's Diner for breakfast before the rest of us were even awake. ( I did set my alarm so I could wake up and wish him a happy birthday before he left... but I went back to sleep afterwards haha)

jack didn't want much, but he did know exactly what he wanted. because we didn't have much planned, he asked that I set up a scavenger hunt to find his two gifts, which were some new lures and a pull up bar to help strengthen his back for archery.

so Owen helped me set up the hunt and I think it was a success!

afterwards we had dinner and he asked that we have a dominoes tournament followed by cake. what teenager wants to play dominoes with his family on their birthday??? we spent the evening rocking out to all of jack's favorite music which include the Beatles, Paul Simon, Fleetwood Mac, Journey and some new stuff too thrown in for good measure.

it was a lemon cake, with lemon cheesecake and a raspberry curd filling, topped with fondant sushi. all the components for this cake were simple to make, but for whatever reason, the filling kept gushing out of the bottom layer when I was putting it together. I've put filling in cakes before without this happening, so im not quite sure what the problem was. but it tasted good and I was reminded that I need to let go of perfection in the details and just enjoy the overall fun.

on November 7th we had another birthday! after months of literally counting down the days, Owen turned 6!

his birthday fell on a Saturday so we were able to do whatever Owen wanted the whole day. I think that was his favorite part, being able to say "I want to do blah blah blah" and we all happily obliged hahaha.

he started the morning off opening cards from grandparents and aunts and uncles, followed by gifts, which included fishing lures and a tackle box from grandpa and grandma, an rc car from cousin olive, a new fishing rod, and an electric scooter, not to mention his very own money! he yelled "I'M RICH NOW!".

the scooter was pretty tricky to begin with and after his first attempt, Owen was hesitant to get back on it again. but he did and had it down by the end of the day.

after gifts, mom and dad took him to breakfast at Bob Evans. he spent weeks deciding where he wanted to go for dinner, only to switch it up and ask for bob evens for breakfast instead.

after breakfast, jack took Owen on a quick fishing excursion to try out some of his new gear.

the boys were skunked, but they didn't have any time to feel sad because we had a surprise for Owen... we were going to the Columbus Zoo!

its hard to tell with a mask on, but Owen was so excited to see the gorillas! that was the one animal he has been looking forward to seeing "in real life" for a long, long time.

he beat on his chest, hoping to get the leader of this troop to do the same. it brought him closer, but I guess Owen wasn't very threatening because he didn't reciprocate the chest pounding.

the females of this troop made us laugh, they seemed so human! it was almost creepy the way they lounged around, crossing their legs and picking their finger nails.

these kids have Florida in their veins, so the aquarium was another top spot for us to visit.

I've loved manatees since 4th grade, so seeing three of them there was pretty cool, especially the mama and her calf. one of them kept spinning and putting on a show for us. it was great!

the elephants definitely made the kids laugh hard because one of them decided to come relatively close to us and then poop. it goes without saying, our minds were blown by the sheer amount of excrement.

after several hours of animal exploration, we met up with uncle Marc, Aunt DeLauna and their grandkids Kate, Abby, and Jack. 

Ellie and Jack spent some time babysitting these kiddos with DeLauna a few months ago, so they were eager to see them!

by the time we left the park we knew it was too late to go home and cook Owen's requested dinner of steaks and baked potatoes, so we made a stop at Raising Cane's (which was our best visit ever because we drove away and discovered they gave us a box of extra cane's sauce, yes an entire box of about 12 cups of sauce haha... we feel bad if the people behind us paid for all that and they accidentally put it in our order, but we felt like it was a birthday miracle!).

then we headed home for cake... 

a Krispy Kreme donut cake!

the birthday boy was wiped out by the end of his first day as a 6 year old!