Painting 1064

Well, better late than never.

Here's the change of our jewel of the nile to bridle path.

I got things on the driveway about 7:30am and Katy and Paul joined me a little later and we put a full day of painting away!

Painting this stucco was quite the challenge with it being so textured.  Katy did a great job trimming most of the house, Paul did a great job soaking his roller and lathering it on the outside and in all the crevices.  And I did a little bit of both but it was probably shoddy.

Lance joined us later in the afternoon getting the back of the house 99% finished before we ran out of paint.

And we celebrated by going to Lake Minnetonka and eating outside at Maynard's right on the lake.  Well, somewhere on/in/near the lake.

Painting the house

Well, Katy & I are off and we thought about painting the house with four days off.

But the chance of showers is at 30% and it's gray and slightly windy.

And we chickened out a little.

And we want to know what you think about paint colors. What do you think we go with as the main paint color of the house?

Memorial Day 2012

Katy and I had this last Memorial Day weekend off.  It gave us the chance to get a few things done around the house.

I worked Friday night but we got right to checking things off the list on Saturday morning.  We hit the gym and afterwards on our way to pick up some Breugger's we got caught in the pouring rain!  It was the hardest I've seen it rain in a long time!  Once we got home we enjoyed some breakfast and coffee and saw Josh as he was dropping Libby off for us to watch for the weekend.  

At noon we set out to clean the basement with it looking like this.  

Once we broke down all of the cardboard and took it out along with the garbage we found we had started to see some progress.  

We ventured to Costco for some shelving because of the slight leakage in our basement.  I wanted to keep the plastic bins off the floor and not near the wall in jeopardy of a little bit of water when it pours hard for a while.

So, we picked up these shelving units.  

It's no where near as exciting as a flight and a quick few days to Chicago but it was a huge thing that has probably been weighing me down for a long time.  I knew the basement needed to be cleaned up for so long but it was so hard to get down there.  But we did!

And despite it looking great we can still do more.  But this was step one in the successful accomplishment during the rainy and cloudy day Saturday.

Saturday night we went to Green Mill with Paul.

Sunday we went to church, Costco again for some grilling ingredients and enjoyed the warm weather by going to the Mall of America with our friend Emily.  We hit a bunch of stores, enjoyed the wandering and made an afternoon of it.  After the mall we grilled out; hamburgers, asparagus, fruit, mojitos and a fantastic strawberry shortcake Emily made!

We also watched True Grit.  It was a decent, entertaining movie.

"You're no bigger than a corn nugget!"  That seemed to be our favorite line of the movie when True Grit was talking to the 14 year old girl as she was trying to hire him to find who killed her father.

Monday we went running at Como.  I ran twice around the lake and the second time I brought Libby with me.  She ran a 6:40 mile with me however started out much too strong for finishing in a 6:40.  Although she did poop twice causing a stoppage in pace.  I didn't get too many looks at my Garmin to see how fast we were going but at one point early on we were at 5:56  pace.

Our Memorial Day activity took us to Bob & Deb's too.  We grilled out again with them, Bopa and Bob's mom.  Again it was burgers and brats with some wild rice in them.  We also ate potato salad with bacon in it, cole slaw, fruit salad, chips, ice cream and cookies washed down by iced tea or lemonade.

The other activity going on for Memorial Day was once again with my favorite Twin Cities tie company, Pierrepont Hicks, was holding a little challenge to wear their goods and show them off.  So, that is what this outfit resulted in.  Sunday night Emily, Katy and I picked this outfit out.  And I liked it enough to add a khaki blazer and wear it all day to Bob & Deb's!

Pierrepont Hicks bow tie (a sample; meaning I might be the only one who has one, if not I'm one of a very select few who have one)

Pierrepont Hicks Buzzy Pocket Square

J. Crew woven & shorts

Banana Republic belt

Cole Haan shoes

So, I emailed her this picture and I got on the website, just as her challenge stated!

The link to this shot at Pierrepont Hicks.

The link to this shot at Pierrepont Hicks.  Any opinion on who did it best?

These were the looks that didn't pass the test to Pierrepont Hicks.  

And one shot of our new shoes...Katy's J. Crew Soludos and my Cole Haan Franklin Wingtips.  

Katy's Talent

My wife did this this weekend.

What did your wife do?

I worked 1:30-11pm on Saturday & 10:30-7:45pm on Sunday and she pounded out this new headboard for our guest bedroom. She bought the wood, cut it, sanded it, designed it and I'm sure she had alot of fun nail-gunning it.

I think it's fantastic!

When can we book your stay?

A Stay in our Second Bedroom

Who's in for staying in our newly painted second bedroom?

Navy blue & beige with a pop of red.

I really like how it turned out!

Although we are still in a constant battle of storage.  We need to get the basement organized and clean and that might be worth being the next project to get rid of the seasonal items from the closet, bed and dresser.  I know Katy would appreciate getting some of my clothes out of there.  I also need someone to help edit my wardrobe.

We have openings most weekends (though I probably work) though out the summer of 2012.  Just call at least a few hours before and we'll open the room up for your stay (though I may be at work.)

Tree/Bush Down!

Last Sunday Katy, Paul and Nick helped me take down the bush/tree and trim the one closest to the house and the sidewalk.












































































This was the view on June 13, 2011 when Dad and I first started the job.



















This is our new ladder with contributions from Eric & Emily, Bob & Deb. It'll get some painting done on the outside of the house soon.

E4 July 2011

Em and Eric were cool enough to drive through early Tuesday and hang out with me for a visit.

We met at Grandma's and visited with her for a little bit before we got Ellie and Edie down for some rest. Emily whisked me to Target and Herb's for some deals.

When we got back I thought it'd be fun to have them go paddle boating at Lake Como but the heat index of 110-ish closed those plans. We walked out on the dock where Edie slapped at Eric's face and knocked his glasses right off. I remember hearing "My glasses! Edie knocked my glasses into the lake!" I turned saw them sinking as Emily shouted "You're going to have to go in and get them!" Well, as you can see from Em's post, Eric jumped in and was in for a long time. Eventually we went to Target to get a net, thinking that would help. Too bad it didn't.

But we came back and cooked up some hamburgers, barbeque chicken, asparagus, salad and more! It was delicious.

We were still able to have some fun with the hose in the backyard as Ellie and I jumped in our bathing suits, Ellie's more natural, to cool down.

It was really fun to hang with Eric, Em, Ella and Edie. Thanks for stopping guys!

De-humidifying

Mom and Dad,

The dehumidifier is getting some good use in!

The New Kitchen Color Is....?

White!

Katy couldn't decide on a blue that fit the room so she cleaned it up with white; once again I had nothing to do with it because she does most home projects when I'm at work. But the room is very bright; growing up in the Dischinger house you know I like alot of light and brightness, and there was plenty of it on Shuttle Meadow Avenue.






















































She also got some spray paint and spray painted some of our heat and AC vents.

Bedroom and Office Painting

Katy painted our bedroom last weekend while I was at work and we both painted our office in the middle of the week.

We debated on two gray colors one a lighter gray and one a more middle gray. I liked the darker, elephant skin color, and that is what we went with.























































































BONUS!
Here are a couple pictures of the yard and the house as Katy and I have shoveled around the foundation of the house. We did it to try and prevent the snow from melting and seeping into our basement as it did a little bit when it was 50+ degrees in February.

Closet Redo

Well, I guess I didn't realize I hadn't taken the closet redo pictures off of the camera so here are some before and after pictures.




















Katy's closet beforehand.



















My closet beforehand.













Everything's down, ready to paint.













Everything's down, ready to paint.



















A coat of paint, white, to brighten it up.













A coat of paint, white, to brighten it up.













This was the work, measure, measure, cut.













This was the work, measure, measure, cut.



















Some of the installation.



















My closet installed; just missing the shelving.



















Katy's closet has two levels of hanging on the left with shelves above each.



















Katy's right side of the closet has half shelving and a place for dresses.



















Katy's result filled with clothes.



















She liked how she did. She passed.



















Most of my results, though I am missing my shelving.


It was a fun and rewarding first fix in our house. We did just a little demo and built up and empty closet to be pretty close to what we designed.

The challenges were the time consumption of not having enough tools or not getting as accurate of a cut that you want. There was alot of pieces to measure and cut. It wasn't bad, but it was time consuming. It went from a weekend to a week.

Ultimately, I think they both turned out very well. They are good looking, functional and being done with them gives you a sense of accomplishment.

I would have thought out a little more of the design if I did it again. I wish I had a place for my ties and a better place for my shoes but you only have so much space.