yes, two years!

hello..

it's been a while but we just wanted to say hi! we hope to have more frequent updates and let you know whats been going on. but for now, we say happy cotton anniversary to us!

No hard hat required

We're still getting things finished in the house, slowly but surely. But the place still is little bit of a construction zone. Paint, brushes, caulk, stud finders, nails, and battery always in the charger are in constant rotation in this house. But that doesn't mean we're still not trying to make life as normal as possible around these parts.



The one normal constant that has returned to our lives that we are most happy about is cooking! We're not making big huge feasts yet, but little things like making and enjoying tea in the kitchen while eating your cereal as the sun shines on you is an awesome feeling.



Being able to whip up an awesome meal on the fly without much thought has also been awesome! This weeks awesome on the fly meal was breakfast pizza, complete with two eggs on top! Aside from the eggs being nearly hardboiled, it was two thumbs up and husband approved (for the foodies: i'm gonna work on that egg timing issue and thinking i'll crack the eggs over the pizza with 5 minutes left on the clock)!



It's also been awesome to bake in the kitchen, too! Despite the fact that only one of our vintage mustard double ovens work, the lower one works quite well! (I've never used an electric oven before and this thing is pretty accurate in terms of temperature control and consistency). papaFasu got a batch of his favorite biscuits for Father's Day. The oven hasn't failed me so far, so let's hope that when we call the repair guy to come check out the upper oven, it doesn't screw up our appliance luck and karma (we promise we won't bad mouth your vintage mustard yellow charm anymore). Now only if we can get our dishwasher to stop spitting water all over our counters.



The next normal constant I can't wait to return to is doing laundry! Our washer and dryer is still sitting outside but we're ready to move it back in. Soon there will be no more trekking off to our parents to wash a load. But it's a great reason to go visit our parents (just don't tell them we really miss them a lot).



And with that we wish you a Happy Monday and don't forget to tell your parents and loved ones you love them!

feeling more like home

We've been in the house for over a month now and we're still in a state of moving and fixing. It's funny because just a few weeks after our bodies vacated our parents' house, all of them have been asking when we'll be taking the rest of our stuff with us! Now just to keep the record straight, we were in no way overstepping our stay with them. If my parents had it their way, we'd just be living with them straight out. But besides the point, we're out now and they want our stuff out. Rumor has it, my parents will turn my old room into a putting green. heh.

So how's it been living in the house? It's great and we love it! Even though we don't have all our stuff here yet, our living area looks like we're setting up box fort and we still don't have a decent sized mirror (though we did upgrade -- we can see our entire face now!), this place feels more like home every day.

I think the biggest part of that was upgrading from our dorm kitchen (microwave and fridge access only) to having full use of the kitchen. And I have to thank Dinner Club for that. There's nothing like a deadline to give you the kick in the butt you need to get your sh*t in gear.



We took the paper off the floors (to uncover the awesome original linoleum flooring), and gave everything a good cleaning and dusting.



We started stocking our shelves. What's going to be a challenge is figuring out what to do with all the stuff we got from our wedding. It's looking like we won't have a lot of room in the kitchen for it all!



We also put up some familiar and lovely faces on the fridge. I think it was that that did it for me. This is our fridge, our awesome, "vintage," mustard yellow fridge and we can put anything we want in it and on it. I love discovering all the little things that are really turning this house into a home.

And yes, that is a liger.

aaaaaaand we're in!

Just a little drive-by blogging to announce that we're in the house! We've moved our bodies, some clothes and some of the little furniture we have last Monday and have been sleeping there ever since. We'll be moving in the rest of our things slowly as we continue to finish up the rest of the house, the major projects being putting in the baseboards and painting our kitchen counters. So far it's been a little ghetto, hotel, single guy living experience, but it's such a GREAT feeling to be and go HOME every night!

Bare bones living has made us appreciate a few more things about having a well-equipped and functional home.


Proper window covers that stay open and shut without the aid of adhesive tape


Full-size toiletries


A well-stocked refrigerator


A full-size mirror (this is the only mirror in the house and it's is for shaving, make-up and hair-do'ing).

Our living situation is a little quirky, too, in that not all of our the wonderful amenities of the house are there. We can only use 2/3s of each our bathrooms. The downstairs bathroom has a toilet and shower/tub but no sink. The master bathroom (upstairs) has a toilet and sink but the shower/tub needs to be regrouted before we use it. Our doorbell doesn't work. We can't cook yet because our counters aren't finished. We don't have internet. We don't have a TV. But we do have everything that matters right now. A bed, a toilet, a shower, running water, electricity, heat, clothes and each other (wah wah waaaaaaah).

Move..

Wow, one month since our last update? Sorry for the radio silence. But we'll be back with more updates soon. We might be a little busy over the next few days transporting things. It really does bring a tear to our eye, at least my eye! The work on the house still isn't over. We'll catch you up soon!

Whitewashin'

We're working hard over here trying to get our kitchen painted while the real painting crew finishes up the rest of the house.



Miraculously we were able to decide on the colors for our kitchen in less than an hour, less than an hour, people. That is a miracle! We got started last weekend with the ceiling and the cabinet faces.



It might have looked like one of use worked harder than the other.



But I can assure you, we both did our fair share.



And now we're onto the color. But before I forget.. please, please, PLEASE fill out your census form!



That is all! Have a great weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Tutorial! How to Remove Stubborn Contact Paper

We're excited about our first tutorial! Part of our kitchen update is to repaint our cabinets, including the inside. The previous owner lined all of the cabinets and drawers with contact paper which was a b*tch for us to take off. After scraping and picking off contact paper from 10 boards, we discovered a technique that speeds up the removal process and eliminates the need for scraping and picking!

The actual tutorial starts at 5:05 so skip straight there if need to know how to remove stubborn contact paper right now (I actually recommend starting at 4:38 so you can catch Benito singing a romantic song). The first five minutes is take one of our tutorial which was a total fail because the contact paper wasn't cooperating. Semi-entertaining with our random husband and wife banter, but where we spend most of the time theorizing what can make contact paper so damn stubborn to take off sometime.