Matt - The Plumber

A quick bathroom update. Matt didn't want me to post pictures of the "master" bathroom until he was finished with his little project. The bathroom vanity was approximately 27 inches high (try washing your face in that!) and had an extraneous shelf attached on the side. The landlord said she wasn't attached to it so we replaced it with an inexpensive one from Lowes.

I have to say Matt has redeemed himself for the days he spent skiing while my mom was here. He received instructions from the salesperson at Lowes and put everything together himself (and it works)!

I can't say the wallpaper is my absolute favorite but things look a lot better in there!

Here are the before pics:





Now for the new and improved version!

A Place We Love

We're not strangers to Vermont. I've been coming up to visit in the summer for as long as I can remember. My grandparents and my parents have lake houses that are open from May-October. Except for the summer that we were married up here, Matt and I used to get about a week or two of Vermont lake vacation a year. Now we can drive to the lake house in under 30 minutes! Willow loves to go now because there is no traffic and she can run around off her leash. It's like her own personal dog park!





Even though it's still cold...(see evidence below)



Willow can't wait to swim.







We are also enjoying the opportunity to see views like this even when it's grey and cold outside!







On another note - So there all you Duke haters! Final Four bound! Go Devils! I've been listening to the fight songs on my Ipod in anticipation (no joke).

Our new house!

I can't believe we've already been here a week! Everything just feels so NEW. New job, new grocery store, new house, you name it. It has been so great to have my mom here helping us put it all together! She has also been the chef and maid (as she says) since I started work on Thursday - which has been very helpful :) We love the house we rented. It's slowly feeling more like home now that all of our things are up. While we've both been working hard, Matt has been doing a lot of this.



Haha he really has helped some BUT his goal is to try out all the resorts in this area before the end of the season. Hello - isn't it about time for things to get warm?! Snow, snow go away - it's almost EASTER.

One good thing about this house is that we never have to worry about knowing the temperature outside. Every room (I'm not kidding) has one of these hanging outside the window.



We do have to be careful though, because looks are deceiving. On the sunny side of the house you may find this reading...



Unfortunately, the real temperature was over on the shady side. Brrrr. This was around noon, after it warmed up! The low was 8 degrees last night!



It's OK because the cold weather has given us a good excuse to stay inside and decorate. Here are a few rooms before and after...

Living room before:



After:





Our bedroom before:



After:







Here are a few others...

Front Entry



Kitchen





We also have an awesome (DRY!) backyard. Willow spends a good portion of the day lying at the back door crying to go out. It wasn't quite fenced in all the way, but Mom and Matt fabricated a temporary solution so now Willow can go out back and chew sticks to her heart's content.







Even my birdhouse has a place in the new yard.



OK...just so you don't think everything is finished, I'm offering up a "before" photo of one of our bathrooms (Matt won't let me put the other one up because he has big plans for it). Don't expect to see any after photos anytime soon because I have a LONG way to go before I can get this one looking like I want. I'm open to suggestions.



Work for me is fun but VERY busy! Matt joins the work force again on Tuesday. My mom leaves tomorrow so we'll be on our own again in our NEW place...

Getting Settled

Monday morning we finally fully moved in! The movers had us unloaded in under 2 hours.

Another tow truck came to pick up the big yellow monster.



Most rooms in our house looked like this.



I don't have too much to report because the past few days have been spent between the house, grocery store, Home Depot, and (of course) a few antique shops. We've taken the furniture in and our of our bedroom 3 times because we had it painted and carpeted, on 2 different days.

We received some beautiful flowers! Thank you Meg :)



Willow is thrilled that most of the windows/doors are at a dog-friendly height so she can keep watch over the front yard.



When we left Virginia it was 75 degrees. Here is what we woke up to this morning.



I'll post inside next because we're almost done! I'm joining the working world again tomorrow (it's been a while) so wish me luck.

The Big Move - Part 2!

Let me just say Sunday started rough. In case you don't want to read the whole post, it ended like this.



To begin...It's not fun to sleep in a hotel with an anxious dog that barks whenever she hears someone outside the room. Our hotel also had quite happening nightlife, and we spent the night afraid someone would drunkenly block in the moving truck. Nevertheless, I still felt optimistic the next morning.

We made it about an hour and a half down the road before things got really bad. We were riding along, slowly, in our caravan when the moving truck slowly ground to a halt. Matt reported hearing a grinding noise. "What did it sound like (as if I could diagnose the problem myself)?" "Metal on metal." We called Penske and they said a technician would come out in the next 15 minutes.

We waited here for about an hour.



My mom entertained Willow while I pouted and Matt called Penske.




Finally, a technician came. He was SO nice. We spent the next hour like this. At one point, he thought he'd fixed it and we drove another mile down the road.




He couldn't fix the truck. We called Penske again. They told us one option might be to send another truck and unload the contents of our truck into it. Our response? Absolutely not. I think it would have ended in a first class meltdown for me. They gave us special approval to tow the truck to our destination. Usually, they only tow if it's within 200 miles. We were 268 miles away.

We spent the next hour and a half waiting for the tow truck. We had a new view but Willow couldn't get out of the car. She was furious and cried the entire time.




Willow finally worried herself to sleep. The tow truck finally came. I thought - YES - We're finally on our way! The "towers" were a father/son team. After waiting in my car for 30 minutes for the truck to be loaded, I went up to check on the progress. As I walked up, I heard the tow guy make a derogatory comment about President Obama and refer to Vermonters as f'ing hippies. Matt shot me a look that said please don't make a comment and just go back to the car. No hard feelings - he did tow our truck all the way to our house and was very pleasant about it. A total of five hours later, we were on the way again.




It was supposed to be a 5 hour drive, but turned into 12. Wow. The upside is that we've arrived! Our truck is unloaded and cable and Internet are installed! Things are looking up. I'll post soon with more.

The Big Move - Part 1!

So the journey begins...The day(s) we've been waiting for! Pack in VA. Drive. Unpack in VT. We're about halfway there.

The packing phase began when this pulled up in front of our house.



I mentioned that we hired movers. Well, our movers weren't quite what I expected. We opened the door Friday to a woman named Lulu. Lulu? Are you here to help us move, you're sure? Turns out Lulu was an excellent director. She spent most of the morning "bossing" the 2 men she brought with her from her perch on a chair in the moving van. I was doubtful things would proceed quickly, but they packed our entire house in 3 hours. I loved her for it. I think she was happy with the result as well. She not only left an hour early, but also made out with 2 plastic Adirondack chairs and a bottle of vodka I was planning to throw away.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning and were finally ready to head out. Willow spent more of the day wondering where all the furniture went and worrying that she might get left behind.



Saturday morning the road trip began. We pulled out of town in a long caravan.

Matt drove the big guy.



My mom drove Matt's truck.



Willow and I brought up the rear.



We spent the majority of the day in this state.



Poor Willow, she's just so confused and anxious. She spent her first night in a hotel where we ordered pizza and watched NCAA. This is how she passed the time.



We're excited to finish the drive and pull up to our new house! More to come...