Various Celebrations and Activities

Since we got back from the trip we've been up to a number of different things.

We celebrated Miran's 33rd birthday on the 13th by going to a Japanese steakhouse. The food was pretty good and we enjoyed the "show" - there was fire and flying food.

For our anniversary we just ate at home - but we used a tablecloth and candles, drank wine, and Miran bought flowers - so it was definitely a special dinner.

We got a very welcome new-to-us car because Mom and Dad generously gave us the CR-V. I installed the console (that we bought Dad for his birthday) between the driver and passenger seats.

 

There isn't usually much wildlife in my posts (unlike Margaret and Lindsay's) but last week we did see a hawk (we think) in our front yard, who had killed a squirrel that seemed to be a little to heavy for it to fly off with. It kept trying to take off and would just land a few feet later. It dropped it on one of these attempts. It was just sort of hanging out in the yard trying to figure out what to do. Eventually it hop / dragged the squirrel into the trees across the street and started eating it there.

And yesterday Miran designed, built, and installed a filter holding box to cover our air intake. This has been something we've been trying to figure out since we moved in because its just open ducts. Until now we've just duct-taped a filter to the wood, but that never held very well. This new system will hopefully work better.

Saranac / Boston Trip

I'm quite late posting these pictures from the trip - but do want to put them on the blog for the record.

Finishing Touches

In the past few days Mommy helped me finish up a couple more little projects - including removing the wallpaper from the hall bath, applying lots of sheetrock to repair and patch, the wall, and re-painting that room.

She also helped me paint the pocket doors to the kitchen as well as the front and back doors black - something that didn't happen when the rest of the doors were painted black a few years ago. Now all the doors are coordinated.

And finally, yesterday our new living room rug arrived so I could remove the towels from the floor. Now I just need a coffee table and I'm done with the house ... until November when the next flurry of activity will take place.

The big reveal ...

Mommy has been here about 36 hours and we've finished up most projects in progress and started some new ones.

Here is the guest room as we prepped it for painting yesterday and after we got it all set up this afternoon. Miran helped nail in the quarter round this afternoon. Its a bit sparce and I didn't bother hanging all the pictures again because this room will become the bird room in 6 months when Milada arrives and their room becomes her bedroom. (it will become the bird room / Miran's office when and if we ever have children).

And most excitingly, here is the living room ... with sofas, window seat, pillows ... and a couple towels on the floor as a mock rug and the leaf from our dining table as a mock coffee table.

And I casually mentioned to Mommy that I'd eventually like to paint the dining room gray as well to help tie the two rooms together. Two hours later the dining room was gray - and now I've got the pictures rehung in there as well.

 Compare the new living room to my design ... pretty close, huh? (note the light fixtures, pillow fabric ... I got the dimensions/proportions of the sofas off a bit though - and we won't be ordering that coffee table I picked out because its much lower than the sofa seat height and so won't work well).

And mommy relaxing in our new window seat this evening.

Floor Refinishing, Part 2 ... and the new Office

Here are a few shots of us finishing up the floors, including Miran putting down the polyurethane,  then after I painted the walls gray and repainted the baseboards white, and we put in the quarter round molding. I even painted inside the closet because it was pretty scuffed up and yellowed.

We are proud and satisfied with the finished product, but its a little different than the rest of the house. Our theory is that the rest of the floors were finished with oil-based polyurethane instead of the water-based that we used. Apparently that is a little thicker, shinier, and smoother. The only place the difference is really obvious is right at the doorway where the two floors meet.

And then we moved the office furniture in and got it all set up. We even hung a few things on the wall. We are already very happy with our new office - its especially nice to have a closet in the office to stick all the random stuff in and keep it out of the way. My desk (the smaller one in the lower picture) will eventually be removed and replaced with a sleeper sofa as this room will be both office and guest room after Milada arrives in December and we don't have a dedicated guest room anymore.