Goodbye Good Friend

In a few days, my best friend Allison is leaving on a big adventure. Her and her boyfriend Georg are leaving for Vienna, yes the Vienna in Austria. I wish them all the best, but the selfish side of me wishes they were staying so we could share many more dinners and bottles of wine together.
Allison and I are planning on corresponding the old fashioned way, which is so exciting! I can't wait to get started. I have some wonderful things to create and send to her. I also thought of a cool idea. We could decide on a book to read and only talk about it in our letters. We could make the choice a classic or we could just read a modern chic lit, or as per our previous conversations something societally important.
To my really good friends, Allison and Georg I hope you have a safe and speedy trip to your destination. We have thoroughly enjoyed your company and we will miss your witty banter and insights into a world so few of us understand.

An Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Everybody's Gotta Start Somewhere

Today I started something completely new in my life, a new job. I am a bit overwhelmed with all the new information and the overachiever in me is dying to consume it all and show everyone that I am the best person they have ever hired. I keep trying to tell myself that I can't win that race on the first day, and that "everybody's gotta start somewhere".
This advice is applicable to a lot of the things in my life right now, including this blog. After several name and layout changes, I think I am right where I want to be...for right now. I hope that I don't decide to change the name again, because I would like to have a few readers that return and recognize the blog they visited on that earlier occasion. My next goal is to get some people commenting.
Today, I also realize even more the importance of the "everybody's gotta start somewhere" mentality. September 4, 1999 I met my soon to be husband my first week at college. This day marks our 8th anniversary together. Its weird because sometimes it seems that it has been forever and other times it seems like it was just yesterday. Its amazing to me how far we've come from those first years of our relationship.
Tomorrow, September 5th we will celebrate our 3rd year of marriage. Marriage is not easy, and we have more than our share of problems. However, our relationship is stronger now than it has ever been. I love you, monkey and I always will. Happy Anniversary.
There have been so many times in my life when I have felt overwhelmed and didn't think that I would ever get over that feeling of chaos and instability that comes along with starting something new. Now I can see that I just need to tell myself "Everybody's gotta start somewhere".

A New Beginning

In the past few years I have had many new beginnings in my life. First, I got married, whoa, what a new beginning. As a matter of fact, our anniversary is in 4 days. The second new beginning was buying a house, which really pushed me to the limits of new beginnings. And now, I have finally transitioned from a college "job" to a career. Once again, a new beginning for me to journey through until the new beginning pops up, and for anyone that knows me you know what that is...
I had my last day at a job that I love on Friday. The people that I worked for are real gems, and they are blessed with a great life because of it. And this is what finally restored my faith in the thought that nice people really do finish first in this life. I wish them all the luck and happiness this world can provide.
I start my new job on Tuesday, after a long weekend of painting and furniture moving. I'm excited and scared. This is my first real chance to show what I'm made of in a "real" job and make a mark on the company and on the world. I hope I am successful, but with all the wonderful support I've received from friends, family, and my former employers, I tend to be on the optimistic side about everything.
I hope all of you have a great new beginning soon in your lives. Some of us tend to run away when we see it coming, but my advice is to sit down, relax, and enjoy the ride. Now if I could just take my own advice!

Sale Tip: To all of my Louisville readers, Kroger has Hardy Mums 3 for $10! Go out and get some to beautify your house for fall!

Some More After Pics

BEFORE

AFTER








These are a few after pictures I took of my house this afternoon. As you can see from the before pictures we have worked on the front hardscape and landscaping quite a bit in the two years we have been here. First, we pulled out the old sidewalk that had been horribly cracked by our large maple tree. We decided not to spring for actual flagstone for the walk, and so instead we used the pieces of concrete from the original sidewalk. Then we filled in with the cheapest gravel we could find. We lined the walkway with landscaping timbers, and we also made two flower beds out in front on the little hill (that was a pain to mow) with the timbers. Of course, as you can see my plantings in these beds are sparse at best. I have no excuses really. All I can say is that next year will be better.

These last two are just pictures of some of the things I have on my porch, which you can't see from the sidewalk shots. The white chair I got at an awesome yard sale last year, and the blue pot and metal frogs were gifts from my mother in law.




















In other news, as of tonight we have started repainting the hallway and the living room. Repainting you ask, well, its a long story (as all things are with me of course), but to make a long story short, I hated the color of the living room/hallway from the moment we started rolling it on. However, there was no time for new paint, and most importantly no money for new paint. So, now two years later I'm finally repainting. I have been struggling with the color choice for awhile now, but thanks to the trusty Cottage Living Magazine I have been inspired. We are doing a three tone scheme. Its hard to explain so I'm providing some pictures. The first wall is far from finished (the darker color definitely needs a second coat) so this is a work in progress pic. I absolutely love the colors, and I think it will do lots for brightening up the living room and the hallway in the house.

After Pics!

Okay, finally I have some after pics. These are of the kitchen. My new puppy, Ryan decided he needed to also be in a few of the shots.
I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom for the shots today, and I even made Daniel adjust some of the cabinet doors so that they looked just right. He was grumbling...but it was worth it.
Then we went to Target and got a few things for our bedroom redo. I'll have those after pictures soon also.
To tell you a little about the kitchen let me begin with the fact that the previous owner of this little cottage kept his dogs in the kitchen most of the time. I'm guessing that he left them in there for extended periods of time, because when we pulled up the vinyl along the wall there was dog urine that had seeped into the subfloor underneath the vinyl. We had to sand the subfloor to remove the stains, and then we primed the floor for the new vinyl tiles.
Along with the new floors, we also painted in the kitchen and made some other small changes. We replaced the refridgerator with a much larger one, if you got the space why not use it right? We also placed a cabinet in the corner beside the table which we use as a pantry. Soon, I hope we'll be getting something with a bit more character, but for now this thing works.
We painted the walls SW Clary Sage, which is a color I am absolutely in love with. The previous owner had the walls painted a forest green, and with only one window the kitchen was so dark. The lighter color helps alot, but what I wouldn't do for another window!
Okay, I know you've been dying to see some after shots, so I won't hold out on you any longer.

...While visions of crafty cottage blogs danced in her head..."

I'll admit it. I'll do it right now......I'm a perfectionist. There I said it. Lately, I've been perusing other people's blogs, trying desperately to gain some insight into the way in which they express their ideas and how they establish themselves in this "sphere" that I know little to nothing about.
I feel like I have a lot to say, but the perfectionist in me requires that my blog background, pictures, and banner be perfect before I can really start blogging. I feel as though I will not
be taken seriously without the shiny, slick layouts that I see on a lot of other blogs.
Alas, I am not the type of perfectionist that gains motiviation from my perfectionism. I am the type of perfectionist that is overwhelmed by all the options (I now have approximately 50 blogs in my Favorites folder) and I freeze, unable to move forward and unable to go back to my original plan of something simple and straightforward.
I really wanted to get some after pics for you guys this weekend. However, the house wasn't clean enough for me so once again I will put it off. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe the next day, who knows, but they will come.
Okay, I just noticed something. My blog says that its unlisted. What does that mean? Argh, something else I need to figure out! Blast, this is more trouble that I had anticipated.

Before Pictures -- September 2005

When we bought our house it seriously needed some major rehabbing. We have been working on it for two years now, and we still have a long way to go.
The two major problems at first were the awful carpeting throughout the house (including the bathroom) and the rotted floor in the laundry room. As you can see in the before photo slideshow, we had a lot of work ahead of us!



We didn't know whether the house had hardwood underneath the carpet until we started pulling it up on the first day of work. We were so surprised when we pulled up the corner of the carpet and there they were, the original hardwoods from over one hundred years ago! We can't be sure of what kind of wood they are, but they have a gorgeous red tint to them. The first pictures of the hardwood floors are also included in the before photo slideshow above. Some of the floors were very damaged and our "expert" sanders got most of the imperfections out before we began to polyurethane. We used a natural stain, but the floors are so old that it soaked it up and it became very dark. We still like it though, and we wouldn't have that gorgeous red tint without it.

The slideshow below shows some pictures of the work as it progressed and I have a couple of pictures of the floors after we had finished the polyurethane on them.



I hope you enjoy looking at the photos of the beginning of our cottage renovation. A complete set of after pictures will be coming soon! Don't turn that dial!