Disconnecting

Last week Jared got some unexpected, not-so-great news in regards to his health. It certainly could have been worse, but we still have a lot of questions…he has another appointment in a month and I’m hoping that we will find some sort of peace with the information we get.

So needless to say, I didn’t clean my bathroom this weekend…instead, we went camping.

I probably won’t be posting pictures of our bathroom update until the end of the week now because after I get off of work tomorrow we are going to Duluth, MN to continue our outdoor adventures with three more days of sleeping in the wilderness.

I hate the mosquitos, and sleeping on the ground…but I don’t think there is anything better than being forced to disconnect from technology to enjoy God’s beautiful creation, the INCREDIBLE August weather we are having, and spending true one-on-one time with people that you love. Camping is easily one of my favorite activities.

Dining Room Update: All Ready for Dinner!

In April, Jared and I went out looking for a table for our dining room, and picked up a harvest table for $100 at a antique store in Anoka, MN.

What I loved about this table is that it can comfortably seat six people, and the sides fold down so it can be easily pushed back into the corner of our dining room- which will give our future kiddos a little more space for their daily activities, but can also be easily put back in place just in time for dinner.

The problem was, when we bought the table the previous owner tried to scrape the varnish off the top of the table which left it with a really uneven finish.

So my handy husband got to work…and over the past three months he has slowly stripped, sanded and refinished our beautiful find.

But of course a table isn’t a table isn’t much use if you don’t have any chairs. So I did my research, and decided that I wanted Windsor style chairs.  I then scoured craigslist for several weeks before finding four chairs that were within our budget, and had the thinner spindles and more delicate craftsmanship…

Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of the chairs we bought (for $40) before we spray painted them…but they were in decent shape. They had some nicks and scratches, but the biggest problem they presented was that the color of the wood just didn’t match the table very well and it would have been A LOT of work to sand them and stain them. So we decided spray painting them was a great solution- it didn’t take a lot of time, and gave us the finish we wanted.

All together now…

I have to give most of the credit to my wonderful husband for this project. He did all the labor…I just bought the table, picked the colors, found the chairs, convinced my him that spray paint is awesome, and pushed him to finish.

There are still a few more things I want to do in the dining room before I call it finished (add curtains, put photos on the wall, possibly add a rug or cushions to the chairs), but I’m so happy with how the table turned out! The finishing touches will come with time. I’m just so excited that I can actually use this room now, and I can’t wait to host a double-date, dinner night!

Jared has also did some awesome work in the bathroom, but I need to clean before I share pictures of those updates. I’m still recovering from my best-friends wedding, our trip to North Dakota, my sister-in-law’s bachelorette party/the bachelor party that was hosted at our house the same night, hosting four of my brothers friends at my house so they could attend his wedding (!!!!), and a week of working night shift…so needless to say, I don’t think I am going to be in the cleaning mood until early next week.

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Last Friday my best friend got married…

Then we went to the middle of nowhere…aka Jared’s hometown, and we spent some time at the farm he grew up on.

Then he took me to his heaven on earth…where he hunts.

Now I am back in town…I am hoping to finish updating the bathroom today. I also have a bachelorette party to go to, and I need to find a silver pair of shoes for my brothers wedding THIS WEEKEND!!!!!

Husband & Wife: Conversation #4

Jared: You have pretty blue eyes.
Me: Thanks.

(Pause)

Me: Wait…you meant pretty blue eyes as in I have very blue eyes.
Jared: Well…yeah, but your eyes are pretty too.

Not as planned…

I don’t want to talk about it…but I do want to say that FOR THE RECORD I did not ask Jared to replace the fan/heat lamp in the bathroom. I simply asked him if he thought I could spray paint the old one.

This story will be continued when I know what is going to happen to the hole that is now in my ceiling…

Okay…so maybe I will saw one more thing about the whole ceiling fan debacle. Jared did actually have the new one installed, but when we flipped the switch on nothing happened. After this happened about three times I turned to him, and with a big smile on my face, and said:

“Well, at least it’s quiet.”

After six hours of labor intensive work, and no progress…Jared didn’t think my comment was very funny.

Third Time’s the Charm

Jared and I are in the process of updating our bathroom. I am hoping that by Thursday we will be nearly done…

Originally, I thought we would just be changing the shower curtain and throwing a little paint on the wall…but oh no…it has turned into much more than that.

We changed out the faucet with no problems…it was about a $40 project. But switching out the light fixture over the vanity has proven to be a much more difficult task.

This is how our bathroom originally looked:

…and our original bathroom light fixture (upside down and without the lamp shades):

I didn’t snap pictures of our first two attempts to switch out the light fixture above our vanity because to put it nicely, it would have stressed out Jared…and to be truthful, when Jared dropped the G.D. word on attempt number two I almost peed my pants, and cried.

However, third time appeared to be the charm for us. We finally found a fixture that worked.

The problem we were having is that there is minimal space between our light and our medicine cabinet. The first fixture was an absolute no. The second one should have worked in theory, but the weight of the light covers weighed it down just enough that it made it difficult to open the cabinet doors…and for only $39.88+ tax+ my husbands soul, the third fixture was a winner.