Friday, April 15, 2011

Training

I've been running. It feels like I'm running all the time, when I actually only go 4 days a week. I'm doing a modified version of this program, recommended to me by a friend up here. It is a 12 week program and you're supposed to do a stretch/strengthen day as well as cross training. I skip the stretching and count skiing as cross training. That works, right?

My body hurts all over. Is it normal for your sides and back to ache as well as your legs? Good thing I'm only doing the half marathon - I'm not sure my body would forgive me if I tried an actual marathon. Perhaps the lack of stretching is my problem? I started today after my 11 mile run. Better late than never!

I also tried one of these on my run today.



My sister recommended I try some sort of gel or cubes when training. It made me feel GREAT. It almost felt like I was cheating the system or something with all the caffeine and sugar! Perhaps I'll eat 2 of those during the real race.....

I realized this morning that I haven't set a goal time for the race so I'm going to put it out here for everyone to know. Hopefully it'll spur me on. I'm going to try and run in under 2 hours (which is around 9 minute miles). I ran 9:30 miles today and I'm really hoping the adrenaline will kick in on race day to help me go a bit faster. Any tips from the experts out there (MEG?!)?

I run May 1st! Wish me luck!

Kitchen Inspiration

When we thought about buying this house, part of the deal was making sure we could afford to do some renovating afterwards. The biggest thing on my list was the kitchen. Let me clarify before I start posting about the renovations, I have NO IDEA what I'm doing.

I'd never heard anything about the different styles of cabinets, custom vs. stock options, types of countertops, lighting, the "triangle" working area, AHHHH. I've found the decision making sometimes pushes me over the edge.

Anyway, my mom recommended I start by finding pictures of kitchens I liked and work from there. I typed "kitchen inspiration" into google and got started.









I'm sad to say I've been saving these forever and have no idea where I found them! Most I found as I said above on google images with searches like "kitchen inspiration," etc.

I also think it'd be really cool to have a chalkboard wall...that door is pretty amazing too.



After I spent a few weeks looking through the pics, I found a few similarities. Looks like I'm going with white kitchen cabinets and some type of dark/wood countertop :) I have been able to move forward from there and we actually have a design now - I'll share at some point. If you have any other great ideas be sure to send them my way!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Decorating with Grass

I LOVE this idea I found over on re-nest today. Even though my sugar mold is currently sitting in a box somewhere, I'm inspired to dig it out and look for some of those super cute clay pots and grass on my next Lowes run.



My friend Liz also sent me a super fun planting idea she found on Design*Sponge. Another project on my list for when I replace that light fixture in the hallway.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Moving

Moving is painful. I don't think there is a way around that. Moving in town from one house to another is better than trying to move thousands of miles for sure. Hiring movers makes the process go MUCH faster and in my opinion is worth the couple hundred dollars it costs. So - the past few weeks of moving haven't been quite as bad as I thought they would be.

Anyway, we're in the new house and totally out of the old one. We're living out of boxes (and our new walk-in closet - hooray) since we're starting renovations soon.

All of our furniture is in the house, but we still have 3 rooms that are completely empty. Ha! I guess that's a good problem to have?

We took Willow over to the new house to introduce her before we actually moved. Warning - the quality is poor so this video might make you feel sick.




On the day of the move (and for a few weeks before) we cleaned out the rental house...



Willow was once again confused.



They packed everything into this truck. We didn't nearly fill it.





Then they unloaded it. Pretty standard moving day.



It took four hours. Our house will be in shambles for quite a while, but at least we can enjoy the neighborhood. We now live close to a bike path and miles of uninterrupted running off of a main road (which is nice for my half marathon training). One HUGE winter bonus to our new location is living close to a golf course. The golf course is kind enough to open its gates in the off months for cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and off leash dog playground time :) We arrived on the late end of the season this year. The arrival of spring is a bit bittersweet as I know the locks will return to the gates any day now and our close doggie playground will disappear for the summer months. There's always next year!

Here is a video of Willow having fun on the golf course.




I guess that's it for now! Happy Wednesday!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Weekend Update

Happy Sunday everyone! Did you spend a lot of time this weekend watching the Masters? I can't help but think about how different it looks there than it does outside my window. Oh well. We'll get there. It was a gorgeous weekend here in Vermont. The temps FINALLY topped 50 degrees, climbing to 62 today! We had plenty of sunshine as well. After spending a weekend moving, Matt and I were itching to get out and enjoy the weather.

Saturday we did some skiing.



You know it's sunny when you see something like this waiting in the lift line :)



We climbed to the top of the fire tower (at the top of the resort) to check out the views.



I hesitated a bit looking at the ladder and thinking about climbing in my ski boots.



It was worth it - the views were spectacular. We counted at least 6 other ski resorts in view! Wow.













Saturday night cousin and some other friends came over for cocktail hour to see the house. We got a good glimpse of how the house would feel with a 4 year old wandering around - we'll have to figure something out with all these stairs :) Wish I had a video!

Sunday we switched gears (hehe...literally) to spring and went for a bike ride. There's an awesome bike path less than half a mile from our new house so we wanted to check it out.



We also did some (desperately needed) work in our new yard :) It has three things in abundance.

Trees. There are 20 in the backyard alone. I can only imagine what fall will be like.





When you have 20 trees in your backyard, you also get acorns. We filled 6 large trash bags with acorns and leaves and finished about half the yard.



Sticks. Again, there are 20 trees.





One thing it doesn't have (yet) is grass....Hm. We'll have to wait and see.

We did manage to uncover some early signs of spring :)



xo!

Friday, April 8, 2011

The Kitchen

If you thought the rest of the rest of the house was dated, just wait until you see this. Our kitchen still has the original cabinetry from the 50s - it's metal. This was a state of the art kitchen in its prime. It features rounded and glass front cabinets, a built in wall oven, electric range, and even a pull out mixer stand!

Check it out.







These photos were taken when the previous owner still lived here, but we haven't changed a thing so far so that is how it still looks....

That oven works!! I used it Wednesday night (but I had to slide my casserole in there length-wise as it didn't fit sideways)! The dials light up when you turn it on.

Now. Let me show you a picture of my dream kitchen (Sorry - I can't remember where I found this online).



Scroll back up to the real kitchen. Then look at my dream kitchen. I'd say they are about as different as you can get...

SO - I decided if we were going to buy this house, the kitchen would be the first thing to go.

One day during the purchase prcoess we were in with our builder and home inspector. Guess what? They both LOVED the kitchen. They couldn't figure out why we wanted to replace it! I was flabbergasted. They both told us how vintage it was, in great condition, yadda yadda. Then they mentioned that it was worth some money and if we absolutely wanted to tear it out then we should at least contact the local salvage store to see if they'd be interested.

The phrase "worth some money" of course made me interested. I did some research online and came across this website.

Turns out these cabinets are super popular! Who would've thought? Ours are Geneva, which was one of the nicest brands in the 50s. I emailed pics of our kitchen to the forum moderator and she priced them for me.

I then emailed the local salvage store, who told me they'd give me half that amount. Haha. Matt (who hates going through the hassle of selling anything) told me that I had to take it. So we did! They're coming to remove them in a few weeks. Whew! Here I thought we'd have to pay to have them removed and turns out we can actually make money on them...

I'm going to try and talk them into taking our "vintage" toilets as well :)

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Interior House Tour - "Before"

Hello friends! I have to apologize for the delay in pictures...I've had lots of requests but moving has really thrown me for a loop this time! We are loving the house and neighborhood so far, but we have a long way to go. We're going to be starting some major renovations on the kitchen/den so I've had to make a lot of decisions (let's face it - I'm not good at that so it's a hard process for me).

Anyway, here are some of the before pics. If there was a prize for authentic 1950s decor, I think we'd win. I apologize for the poor quality/angles, but I took them in a hurry when we were here looking and right before we moved in.

Here is what you see when you walk in the front door. You walk up about 5 steps (it's a tri-level, have I mentioned that?) to a main foyer. You can't see where I'm standing, but it's a small lower foyer with a slate floor and a coat closet.



If you walk up the stairs and turn around, this is what it looks like. Sorry, this pic is from when the previous owner was here...we don't have a grandfather clock :)



OK imagine you're back at the front door. Instead of heading up the stairs, you turn to the left as if you're walking to the garage (2 car - heaven for a VT winter). You see what I'm calling the "blue room." Again, this pic is from when the previous owner was here.



The blue room comes with a low ceiling and this lovely wallpaper.



One other bonus the blue room offers are doors like this. Aren't they pretty?



I have big plans for this room, but unfortunately they will have to be in Phase II of renovations (not sure when Phase II will start...2 years? 5?).

I won't show you the garage...it's pretty typical. Concrete floor. OH but it is painted purple. OK if you're in the blue room, you can access the full basement. Here it is (with the previous owner's stuff).

It's big.

It has a bathroom that I'll never use.

OK - pretend we walked back up to the main foyer. If you turn to your right, you see the den.



It's huge. It's in Phase I. Yipee! We are putting down hardwood floors (wish that carpet was covering up some lovely hardwoods but it's not). We are replacing that very inefficient bay window with a flat one. We're ripping off that wallpaper and taking down that mirror. I think we might keep the drapes as they match the ones in the dining room, what do you think?

If you turn to the left, you enter the dining room.



Same plan for this room as the den. So, the kitchen is off the dining room. I'm saving it for a separate post because I have a story to tell you about it.

Heading back to the main foyer (the hub of the house I guess), if you turn left instead of right, you head upstairs. This is a pic with the previous owner's furniture again.



You've already seen the black and pink themed bath that's off this hall. There are 2 other bedrooms that look like this.

Then the master bedroom.



Yes, it's a tri-level, so the windows are all high and short. I have plans for them, just wait and see :)

The master has an amazing walk-in closet - I can't believe it!



As well as a bathroom.



I didn't get a picture, but it has a shower stall and a blue toilet with a padded seat and multi-colored swirled lid. Matt won't use it so he's cramping my space over in the black and pink bath :) Something has to be done to remedy the situation...Although, I must say the psychedelic wallpaper is growing on me.

One last picture - the backyard! This isn't our furniture and the snow is all gone now, but you get the idea. It needs to be fenced for the nug.



OK that's it for now! I'll be back soon with the kitchen and some in progress moving pics - I promise!