This year for my birthday I worked 2/3 a day, which was just about perfect. So another girl worked my last 4 hours and I was able to come home and we could go out for dinner. We went downtown to the Mills and I had salmon and sweet potato fries. Well, I probably only had half my salmon because August wanted it all! Man, restaurants make salmon so good. Mine is always dry :(
Walked to the Cupcake Station for dessert, they had 2 minis of my favorite flavor left, the German Chocolate. So good!
We drove by my grandma's old house on the way home, which had been for sale again the last time I drove by. This time there was a man in front, so I made Doug pullover and we talked to him. So many of the old houses on the block have been torn down and turned into these huge lot-filling monstrosities. (But understandable because in a very good city). Anyway, I asked him if he planned to knock it down and he said no. So I was glad. I told him it had been my grandma's house, but I didn't mention I had lived there for 10 years so was special to me too. And how my grandpa built the back section of the house, and they raised 8 kids in a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house, and mostly before Grandpa build that back room! Also interesting was the house used to be the back part of the house that is now next door. I wonder if he knows that since I didn't tell him? So I thought maybe if I drive by again I'd tell him some of the history, I think it's pretty cool. Or, I know the address, maybe I'll just send a letter so I don't seem like a stalker!
Put this little guy to bed and ended the evening watching Only the Brave, a movie about those hotshot firefights, so of course it was a tear fest, but a very nice birthday.
The next evening we had birthday dinner at my parents.
With Liz and Mark and boys over for icecream and cake too.
The next day we headed off on our weekend getaway.
We went to Hocking Hills, Ohio. Which once I got there, I'm pretty sure I'd been there with Andrew, but it seemed like a new place.
We stayed at this great little cabin
And spent a little extra for 2 separate sleeping areas so we could put August down early and do our own thing. Which was WONDERFUL! Otherwise it's like everyone has to go to bed at 8pm or he'll see us watching movies or want to be with us. So that was great.
The weekend was a great mix of hiking, coming home to relax midday while August napped, more hiking, dinner out or at the cabin, and relaxing at night in the jacuzzi and watching movies.
Doug was a trooper carrying the baby backpack for mile after mile, and up and down all the stairs. But I think he doesn't quite agree with my thought of, I carried him for 9 months, you can carry him now! Haha. He gets heavy!
I can't hate on his independent spirit, but it's much easier to carry him that walk at a slow baby-pace when he's contantly stopping to pick up rocks and sticks. But he kept saying 'walk! walk!"
* heart melting *
I lost track, but I think we did 5-6 of the major hikes. It was really beautiful, I highly recommend.
And back home again. A great weekend!
Ol' porty did the job, but it was a pain wheeling it over to the sink, you had to be around when it was running because otherwise the water would keep dripping, and it was taking up a lot of floor space too.
Porty in action
Here's how our kitchen looked before the dishwasher install. And yes, it was a very hard decision to lose 3 drawers in a small, storage lacking kitchen!
Handyman Doug creating the space for the dishwasher
The new dishwasher! We had a narrow space so had to get an 18 inch wide dishwasher instead of the standard 24. This will mean it has to be ran more, but we figured it wouldn't be a huge deal. This specialty size was a little more expensive, but we had some Menards rebates back since we did that new deck this summer also. So that was nice.
The dishwasher in it's spot where it remained for several weeks until Doug actually had time to hook it up! We had an electrician out to get electric wired under there, and eventually Doug was able to route the plumbing and get it in there with minimal leaks :)
So of course that meant I had to find another storage solution.
Enter my CraigsList find china cabinet.
This baby is actually a metal cabinet, which could be a pro or con, I don't know. It has a wood grain and looks like wood, but is a little lighter and seems pretty durable.
Of course I couldn't keep that ugly brown. And in a move unlike white-furniture-loving-Anne, I went for a nice pop of color in an aqua.
Naive Anne threw 2 cans of spray paint into her cart thinking that ought to do it, but 7 more cans later I was finally done! Followed by 2 coats of polyurethane.
Sprayed the handles with oil-rubbed bronze
I don't think you can see it there, but I lined the cabinets with a patterned paper too. Then we secured it to the wall so it won't tip on August, and there's a hole in the back going to a thin USB charger thing to charge all our devices. It's working out pretty nicely.
Our final project has been building a kitchen helping tower so August can be at the counter while we make food.
We followed this tutorial, but added hinges so it could fold away for storage. I cut all the pieces and sanded them, and Doug helped assemble.
Stained and sealed
ready for a helper!
And nicely folds away for storage.
Little steps at a time to make our home more efficient for us :)
