Expanding Our Family

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a dog lover of epic proportions. My five year old black lab Nina and I are the bestest of BFFs. She meets me at the door every night when I come home and she stares after me longingly when I leave for work in the morning. We play, we swim, we take long walks every night and I come home from every trip away loaded down with new toys and treats. Lately, Mike and I have been talking a lot about getting a second dog. And by “lately” I mean for the last year or so. And by “a lot” I mean nearly daily. Last week we found out about some golden retriever pups, one of whom has a minor “defect” and was having a little trouble finding a good home. We decided to go visit. I fell in love. She’s nine weeks old and about 15lbs right now. Oh, and it should be noted, she’s hopelessly adorable.

Now begins the great doggie debate in earnest. Should we add a second dog to our family? Nina loves dogs and I think she’d genuinely grow to love a companion. But it’s a lot of extra work, a lot of extra hair to clean up, and potentially a lot of extra money if any health issues should arise. Plus, I don’t want Nina to feel like we needed a replacement doggie because she wasn’t good enough. And who am I kidding? I also worry that Nina will love the new pup more than me and my little buddy will be preoccupied. Does anyone have any experience with adding a second dog to the family? I’d love to hear your advice!

Adventures in Pool Ownership

It has been a regrettably long time since I last showed my face ’round these parts, but after a few crazy months I hope to have much more frequent updates moving forward. We have spent the spring dealing with a lot of unexpected personal issues, plus juggling baseball season (Mike) and traveling a lot for business-related matters (me) so we’re looking forward to getting things moving again around the house. We have a whole summer of honey-do lists in the making!

The first step toward making progress was writing a bunch of emails in response to a number of Craigslist ads after a local pool company stood us up not once, but twice, when they were scheduled to come open our pool for us. It’s hot (pushing 90 several days this past week) and in Upstate NY, hot = disgustingly humid. It’s pool season! Not having the slightest clue how to tackle this ourselves, bringing in a professional was clearly in order. (Thus the previously scheduled appointments with the no-show company, but I digress.) So last Sunday I emailed a bunch of people and then waited to hear back. After taking a number of calls, I ended up on the phone with a woman who seemed really helpful and asked a lot of good questions. She offered to come by and get started the next day and I excitedly agreed.

When the process started, our pool looked tame enough. She was nestled neatly under a blue safety cover, which attaches to the concrete patio with grommets and big springs resembling those on a trampoline. When I left for work last Tuesday morning, I had no clue what would await me. Kelly came over, removed the cover, got the shock of her life by all accounts, dumped in a bunch of chemicals and said she’d be back in a couple of days to see where we were at. Little had we known, below that cover had awaited Swampthing. The water was black, thick and full of rotting leaves and debris, all of which the previous owner had failed to tend to before closing the pool up last time.

So I get home, innocently enough, not quite prepared for what awaits me. When you buy a house, especially in winter, you’re basically taking a gamble on a lot of things, the condition of the pool being one of those. It was hard to tell what the condition of the pool looked like beneath all the sludge and we weren’t even yet able to run the filter until we had some of the leaves cleared out so we still didn’t know the condition of the filter, pump and water lines. I panicked. I think I tweeted something crazy about wanting to sue the listing agent for telling us the pool was in great shape. Kelly came back the next day, got the fitler running, added more chemicals which made the surface all foamy and things went from looking crazy to looking even crazier. (Although we breathed a huge sigh of relief to learn all the mechanical bits of the pool are in good working order.)

Over the next few days we emptied the filter basket at least 100 times. Kelly came by at least 100 more times to scoop leaves off the surface, check chemical balances and reassure me that the pool was going to be fine. Finally, the water started to clear up, the leaves stopped bobbing to the surface from the depths of the deep end, and slooowly the money pit in our backyard began to resemble a pool instead of a swamp. We then left for the long holiday weekend, not quite sure what’d we come home to. Low and behold, as of today our pool is leaf-free and a nearly pretty jewel green color.

Kelly assures me we should be swimming by the weekend. We’re officially in the vacuuming stage, which might take a couple of more days and then we should be good to go! We can hardly wait to float around in the pool and I’m looking forward to making morning laps a part of my regular workout routine through the summer months. In the meantime, if anyone is in Central New York and needs a great pool pro to tame a Swampthing of your very own, let me know and I’d be happy to share Kelly’s info.

Mission: Furnish and Decorate a Home On the Cheap

As we inch ever so slowly closer to home ownership (a process plagued with hurdles and numerous hoops through which we’ve had to jump), I’ve taken to stalking Craigslist like it’s my job. A couple of weeks ago I scored this pair of solid oak end tables for $50. I basically stole them they were so cheap. Eventually they’ll be painted and get new drawer pulls, but for now they’re languishing away in our den waiting to be moved to the new house. Once they’re all gussied up, they’re going into the master bedroom where we’ve always been sadly lacking nice bedside tables.

Once I had acquired the tables, I couldn’t get lamps out of my brain. I fell in love with these jade colored glass lamps from Pottery Barn when Ashley of Ashley Brooke Designs posted a photo of her bedroom (and subsequently, the lamps) on Twitter. I was even tempted to get them when I wandered into Marshalls on a whim. Low and behold, they had two gorgeous turquoise lamps, perfect for the bedroom. They were $29.99 each, but only set me back $45 after using a merchandise credit from a return. The much pricier Pottery Barn lamps, at $99 each, were momentarily forgotten, but I think I have a plan for them in our living room down the line.

So I got home last night from shopping and running errands. Mike is out of town for a few days so I decided to watch Julie & Julia and bake cookies. I got dinner on the stove and was trolling around Craigslist, yet again, when I happened upon a table with four chairs for $150. The table in our house currently is our landlord’s so I’ve been keeping an eye open for a decent set that wouldn’t set us back thousands of dollars. With Mike out of town, I impulsively decided to call up the guy who had listed the table and chairs to explain that I wasn’t sure they’d fit in my Volkswagen Rabbit. He graciously offered to deliver them and an hour later I had a table and four chairs showed up at the front door. For $150. The chairs are my favorite part – they’ve got great Quaker lines, which I adore.

So there you have it, my recent cheap finds as I attempt to block out the stress of actually buying the house itself by dreaming up lots of renovation and decorating ideas. And stalking Craigslist on a very regular basis.

DIY Clipboards

This post all about clipboards on Desire to Inspire made me really happy this morning. I love clipboards and now I have all kinds of fun ideas on how I can incorporate even more into our house and possibly in my workspace at the office. I have a cluster of six that hang over my desk in our little home office currently. I used scrapbook paper and decoupage glue to give them a little personality. This photo was taken when I first made them about a year and a half ago. They are now covered in all kinds of goodies I can’t part with – photographs, movie stubs, greeting cards, scraps of ribbon and paper that have inspired projects and so much more. Clipboards are really quite handy and they’re super inexpensive – I think this was about a $15 project, including the paper and glue.

{Photo by Cyd Converse for A Year of Marriage.}

Love = Pottery Barn Quilted Velvet Stockings

A couple of months ago, we returned a wedding gift we received to Pottery Barn and in exchange got a nice little merchandise credit with which I had no clue what I wanted to buy. None of the remaining unpurchased items on our registry were inexpensive enough to pay for in full with the credit and I didn’t want to spend it just to spend it so I decided to hold onto it until something good popped up and bit me. Today, I was bitten.

I warned you the other day that I was approaching full-on holiday mode. And I may or may not have mentioned in the past that aside from summer, the holidays are my favorite season. (Yes, the holidays are officially a season in and of themselves in my world.) So today I went hog wild and ordered monogrammed stockings for Mike, the dog and I. Mine is the ivory quilted velvet stocking with dark green embroidery. Mike’s is the matching ruby quilted velvet stocking with white embroidery and Nina is getting the green velvet stocking with red cuff embroidered in white. We are all very excited. (Or maybe I’m the only one who is excited, but I’m excited enough for all of us so that counts!)

Through tomorrow, Pottery Barn is offering free shipping and free monogramming on most of their beautiful stockings bringing my total cost, after using the merchandise credit, to $2.34 for three monogrammed velvet stockings. I’m seriously giddy enough about this one to spend the rest of the day singing holiday jingles to myself. Don’t believe me? Just ask Mike. He can testify to my complete and total obsession with the holidays.

{Photos from Pottery Barn.}

Framed Photo Inspiration

I have always loved the idea of a gallery wall in our house and as it is, there are a whole lot of framed photos in our house. For me, photos are a major part of making a house a home. And I take a ridiculous number of photos on any given day at any given event. I’m that friend who people tend to groan at because I’m insisting on yet another group photo. The result of that though is that I have a lot of photos of great moments, great people and great memories and I would definitely love to start showcasing them in a more special way. I stumbled upon these images of this living room on Apartment Therapy and instantly fell in love with the stunning yet simple grouping of photos on the side wall. Don’t you love this?

I’m thinking I’d love to do this on one of the large blank walls in our living room choosing favorite photos from our engagement session, wedding and honeymoon. I would probably stick with all black frames, but I’d definitely switch up sizes and styles. Perhaps some are ornate with traditional white mats while others are clean, sleek and modern. I love groupings of mismatched but alike items so I like the thought of a dynamic photo display that, over time, would likely evolve as our lives do. So the architect in me (practicing or not, you can’t shake 4 years of architecture school and obsessive measuring) is thinking I might grab a level and a chalk line and start blocking out a wall and then from there let it grow organically. Heck, soon enough I might even have a disc of wedding photos so I can get this party started right.

Anyone else put together – or looking to put together – a gallery wall in your house? I would loooove to see pictures!

Fishing

While he fishes from the dock, I sit to the side with a book and the perfectly mixed vodka tonic. With a fresh wedge of lime. I live for these moments.

Overrun with Wedding Gifts

When you get married, your well-organized and tidy house becomes a whole new world. Stacks of boxes and random small kitchen appliances you never knew you always wanted take over your domain. And so begins the process of figuring out what to do with all of this stuff…

Lakeside Campfire

We’ve been meaning to have our first campfire for months, but weather and wedding obligations have kept us from doing so. Tonight we finally prevailed. A fire, a bottle of champagne and two camp chairs proved to be the perfect Saturday evening.

Mostly Steel Chardonnay

The week before our own wedding, we traveled to the Northfork of Long Island for a wedding. This bottle of chardonnay came home with us from The Old Field in Southold. Tonight it was the perfect end to the first week back to work after a honeymoon I already miss.