Monday, November 23, 2009

Fun and productive weekend highlights

Sometimes we spend our weekends having fun. Sometimes we spend our weekends doing productive things. But my favorite weekends are when we have fun AND do productive things. That was the kind of weekend we just had, and it was great!

I had a relaxing Sat morning drinking coffee and flipping back and forth between "
Sell This House" and "My Big Amazing Renovation" (shows Spouse would rather not watch) while he was at his personal trainer appointment. After I showered, fed and walked the dog, and ran the dishwasher, Spouse came home and we went to lunch before doing a little shopping. We bought an old, dark-stained oak chest of drawers from an antiques and collectibles shop for our bathroom.
This will give us easier access to all of Spouse's health and beauty products. Although I'm usually not a big fan of oak furniture, this piece is stained dark and really coordinates nicely with the wainscoting and vanity.

I changed the sheets on our bed and then put on the new king size duvet and bedskirt we bought last summer, right after the addition started. Its amethyst in color, with a bronze border, and looks really nice with the area rug in our room. Since I still loved the queen size comforter set we used to have on our old bed, we decided to swap out a lesser quality comforter set upstairs with the one from our bedroom, which included taking the mattresses off the beds to change out the bedskirts. Definitely a 2-person job. Next I put up some temporary (paper) shades in the bathroom and closet windows so Spouse would finally start using those areas. Despite the fact that no one is looking in our windows, and even if they were they wouldn't be able to see us from the street on the 2nd floor, he feels every window should have a covering. I am temporarily obliging him while the stain glasses panels are being made.

Next we went to the storage unit and finally brought Big Ella home to live in her new garage. We'd been planning to do this for 2 weekends, but were unable due to my being sick one weekend and the film festival and rain the following weekend. She fits beautifully in her safe and dry home, with plenty of extra room for storage.

Our friend and neighbor Jared went with us to a glass blowing exhibit at Deb Appleby's studio. Then we had cocktails and a great dinner at Rigby's. I had pumpkin risotto with wild mushrooms, Spouse had beef stroganoff, and Jared had pasta bolognese. It was a really enjoyable night.

Sun morning Spouse & I had breakfast, then did a little more shopping at Wal-Mart and our fabulous Dollar Store. On the way home we stopped at the stained glass studio to get an update on our window inserts. They'd ordered a specific glass color they needed and had been told it was on back-order. Then when the supplier was ready to ship it there was some problem with having it delivered. The long and the short of it is that it will be at least another month before the window inserts are ready.

Once home, Spouse & I sorted through all of his health and beauty products, which had been temporarily stored in laundry baskets when the addition project began. Some stuff went into the trash, while the keepers were placed in clear, rectangular, plastic containers (from the Dollar Store) and then into the drawers of the new chest. We propped a vintage etched glass mirror on top to see if we like it before mounting it over the chest. Then I placed clean towels and new rugs (from Wal-Mart) in the guest bath, in preparation for our Thanksgiving houseguests. I washed some dishes and wiped off the counters before going to Five Guys for burgers and fries. Spouse was in the mood for cheeseburgers and I was in the mood not to cook them or clean up afterward.

And while all of this was going on, our yard guy Ray powerwashed the exterior of the house, our bikes, and all the porch furniture from both porches. What a difference! Its unbelievable how dirty the exterior of the house got from the neighbor's construction last year, the street reconstruction earlier this year, and our addition. But it looks clean and beautiful now.

So that was our fun and productive weekend. What did YOU do?

Crush du Jour: Pascal Elbe

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The photos look great! This weekend was good for me. Spent time with friends going out to eat, shopping, seeing a movie. So it was really nice. :-)

A Lewis said...

She's home? Finally! To live where she belongs!!

Stephen said...

I am in my weekend right now.
I went the gym, for a dog walk, to Ikea & now I have the house to myself.

Paul Benjamin said...

I really like the antique oak chest. The dark stain that is applied looks really nice in that space.

Kyle Leach said...

Love the chest Mark. I'm glad you pulled in an old piece instead of just installing more modern cabinets. It looks perfect for the space.

behrmark said...

I agree; the antique chest is gorgeous and from the photos is the needed touch for the bath area. Good job!

Larry Ohio said...

The pumpkin risotto w/wild mushrooms sounds fantastic. I think I'm going to have to round up a recipe for that one.

anne marie in philly said...

went to a norman rockwell exhibit on sat, and an open house party on sun. an aside - the house party had wine and chocolate and gossip!

hope big ella is happy in her new home!

Peter Maria said...

The chest looks loverly! A thought: would changing the drawer pulls to match the ones on the vanity be too matchy-matchy? It might pull everything together even more.

Rick said...

It does look good and how nice to have a bathroom so large it can accommodate a chest. It looks great.