Most people think of Labor Day weekend as one last chance to relax and enjoy the summer before it's time to hunker down and get back to work/school. For us, the 3-day weekend was all about labor. This was our first weekend in town and without house guests since we moved back in, and since we are having an open house on Saturday, we had lots of work to do. The only time I've left the house since Friday night was to go to Home Depot, Goodwill, and Target on Sunday afternoon. Woo
hoo!
Our yard still has a long way to go, but we can't do much landscaping work until later in the fall. We did a little weeding and pruning to try to spruce it up a bit, and I potted these lovely chrysanthemums to distract visitors from the rest of the front yard.
We also planted the raspberry plants that Steve B gave us along the side fence near our compost bin. Josh mixed some of the compost in with the soil, so hopefully they will thrive in this spot.
Inside, we hung stuff up on the walls. This was a little challenging, as not everything went well with the new paint colors or available spaces.
Now I have a rather dramatic assortment of Tiffany windows in my office. These are actually just pages from a calendar that I put in some $20 frames, but they look pretty cool, and go well with the paint color.
These two paintings were done by Josh's maternal grandmother, Anne
Nasvik Dennison, who was an artist. The one on the right is of a young Josh and his dog, Thor.
And we finally have curtains in the family room. We ordered this curtain rod from Pottery Barn because the old one wasn't long enough (although the old curtains still fit). It came with 5 brackets, and the instruction sheet showed it installed with all 5, evenly spaced, so that's what Josh did. When he asked me to help him put the curtain rings on, I took one look and asked him how we were supposed to open and close the curtains with two extra brackets in between the middle and the ends. "Good point," he said , and removed the two extraneous brackets so we could hang the curtains. No one at Pottery Barn could explain why the instructions showed them installed that way -- or even why they came with 5 brackets at all. Fail!
Many years ago, when Josh and I were visiting his grandmother Florrie at her house in Cape Cod, I was astounded to see her hire an electrician to move the thermostat over a few inches just so she could hang a picture by the fireplace. Now I understand. These two thermostats at the top of the stairs prevent you from taking advantage of what would otherwise be a perfect spot to hang something large and dramatic. Since this framed print wouldn't work anywhere else, we decided to hang it here anyway, but it's quite a bit higher than it should be.
I've had this folding screen in front of the balcony doors in the 'Japanese room' to provide some privacy for house guests, but I needed to get it out of the way for our open house, so I turned it into a headboard of sorts. Someday we'll have to get some proper blinds for the balcony doors and windows in this room, especially since we already have several family members scheduled to visit over the next few months.
Josh also cleaned and organized the basement, but that's hard to capture in a photo. You'll just have to take my word for it that it is a
vast improvement. We have a bunch of surplus and salvaged stuff down there to donate to the
Habitat ReStore -- light fixtures, hardwood flooring, sinks, a toilet -- but since we have to put it all out on the curb for them to come pick it up, that will have to wait until we can recruit some people to help us carry it all upstairs and outside.
We still have some cleaning and organizing to do by this weekend, but we got enough accomplished over the past 3 days that we should be able to tackle the rest in small spurts between now and then... And if not, hopefully no one will notice the difference.
I did get him some smaller, cuter baby clothes as well, but I couldn't resist the tool belt t-shirt!
Logistically, it's a pretty easy commute, since I live close to a Metro station, Discovery is across the street from the Silver Spring station, and I just have to make one transfer. But it can take nearly an hour door-to-door, so I have to leave the house when Josh is just getting out of bed, and don't get home until 7 or so. Of course, just about everyone who works here seems to hate their commute, regardless of where they live, so I guess I should consider myself fortunate that I can take the Metro and don't have to deal with the DC area's notoriously bad traffic.
Well played! Apparently, their 3.5-year-old daughter had received it for her first birthday from Rob's girlfriend, Diana, who got it as a grad school graduation gift from Jessica (the wife of Rob's former roommate and college buddy, Kevin), who got it as a baby shower gift from someone (possibly me). Now the ham will have to lay low for a while until a suitable occasion arises when we can pass it on to another unsuspecting former Melrose resident. It is the gift that keeps on giving -- or at least keeps on being given.
I'm considering keeping the boxes sealed until after the open house this weekend, because there's no way we'll get any work done if we set the game up now. The learning curve will be a bit steep, since neither of us has ever played any other version of Rock Band or Guitar Hero -- nor do we play any actual musical instruments, or sing particularly well, for that matter. I'm sure our initial attempts to play this game will be quite comical. But since I am a huge Beatles fan, at least I'm familiar with all the songs. 
We also planted the raspberry plants that Steve B gave us along the side fence near our compost bin. Josh mixed some of the compost in with the soil, so hopefully they will thrive in this spot.
Inside, we hung stuff up on the walls. This was a little challenging, as not everything went well with the new paint colors or available spaces.
Now I have a rather dramatic assortment of Tiffany windows in my office. These are actually just pages from a calendar that I put in some $20 frames, but they look pretty cool, and go well with the paint color.
These two paintings were done by Josh's maternal grandmother, Anne Nasvik Dennison, who was an artist. The one on the right is of a young Josh and his dog, Thor.
And we finally have curtains in the family room. We ordered this curtain rod from Pottery Barn because the old one wasn't long enough (although the old curtains still fit). It came with 5 brackets, and the instruction sheet showed it installed with all 5, evenly spaced, so that's what Josh did. When he asked me to help him put the curtain rings on, I took one look and asked him how we were supposed to open and close the curtains with two extra brackets in between the middle and the ends. "Good point," he said , and removed the two extraneous brackets so we could hang the curtains. No one at Pottery Barn could explain why the instructions showed them installed that way -- or even why they came with 5 brackets at all. Fail!
Many years ago, when Josh and I were visiting his grandmother Florrie at her house in Cape Cod, I was astounded to see her hire an electrician to move the thermostat over a few inches just so she could hang a picture by the fireplace. Now I understand. These two thermostats at the top of the stairs prevent you from taking advantage of what would otherwise be a perfect spot to hang something large and dramatic. Since this framed print wouldn't work anywhere else, we decided to hang it here anyway, but it's quite a bit higher than it should be.
I've had this folding screen in front of the balcony doors in the 'Japanese room' to provide some privacy for house guests, but I needed to get it out of the way for our open house, so I turned it into a headboard of sorts. Someday we'll have to get some proper blinds for the balcony doors and windows in this room, especially since we already have several family members scheduled to visit over the next few months. 
Josh also cleaned and organized the basement, but that's hard to capture in a photo. You'll just have to take my word for it that it is a vast improvement. We have a bunch of surplus and salvaged stuff down there to donate to the Habitat ReStore -- light fixtures, hardwood flooring, sinks, a toilet -- but since we have to put it all out on the curb for them to come pick it up, that will have to wait until we can recruit some people to help us carry it all upstairs and outside.
Josh also finished staining and coating the bar stools with polyurethane. They match the back of the bar, and our dining table, quite nicely. Josh likes to eat breakfast at the bar while he reads the newspaper.
We've got the "Indian room" set up, and I am definitely re-thinking this peachy paint color. It doesn't really go all that well with the bedding and the artwork that goes on the walls. I think I might repaint this room white, so it doesn't compete as much with all the colorful decor. If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
We bought curtains for the master bedroom several weeks ago when we found some on sale at Restoration Hardware that were a good match for the paint color (despite how they look in this photo), but we didn't get around to ordering the curtain rod until last week. It arrived while we were in Cape Cod, and Josh installed it last night. Unfortunately, Pottery Barn only sent us one set of curtain rings, so they'll look a little lopsided until the other set arrives. At least we have a little more privacy (and less early-morning light) in our bedroom.
I was showing photos of the house to Josh's aunt over the weekend and couldn't find a good view of the shower and tub in the master bathroom, so I took one today to add here. The shower has a fixed shower head at one end and a handheld and built-in bench on the other. It also functions as a steam shower/sauna, so the door and window form a tight seal when closed and the window keeps it from getting musty inside when left open. A solatube provides natural light, and the river rock floor gives you a little foot massage when you stand on it. It is the Best. Shower. Ever.
The walk-in closet in the master bedroom is just the right size for all our stuff, especially with all the shelves, drawers, and multiple hanging levels. I love it!
We also installed a shower curtain rod in the laundry room so we can air-dry our clothes. We had gotten into the habit of doing this before the renovation because our laundry room was in the basement and had exposed water pipes running across the ceiling and a dehumidifier. The thing between the washer and dryer is one of our old kitchen cabinets. I was thinking we could make a top for it with some of our leftover tile, but that's a project that requires a little more time and planning than we've been able to handle so far.
Well, that's all I have for now. We're hoping to get some things accomplished over the long weekend, so maybe I'll have another update or two over the next week.
