Last Days of Summer

Maybe it's our inner child taking over, but we are really in the mood to slow down and enjoy life lately. With Joey's 30th birthday yesterday, we totally took the last 72 hours off to celebrate him entering his 30's and ignored the massive mid-project mess our house is this very moment. We started the celebration early Friday with a small group of old friends, and even a couple new ones. The place? A bar called Home Sweet Home in the Lower East Side. It just seemed so....fitting.

So with doughnuts from Doughnut Plant, our friends and some drinks, the fun began. After a few hours of hanging out and avoiding the rain outside, we headed to Freemans for some yummy food and stories.

The next morning (a wee bit hung over) we somehow accomplished to get up and drive to Philadelphia where I had arranged a fun day via Living Social Adventures. We were to show up and meet a group at a bus to drive to the Delaware River by 12:15pm for a fun day of tubing + pub party. Keep in mind that's a two hour drive from Westchester and I was on 2 hours of total sleep. Somehow we made it and had a great time being lazy on the river and met some pretty nice people along the way. It was a long day. We didn't get home until almost midnight. Lucky us, we got a little tan.

Sunday we totally expected to take it easy and celebrate quite style as it was Joey's actual birthday. Seems we had a little spark left in us, so we headed to Williamsburg, Brooklyn with some friends. We had lunch at Fornino's, which looked really good but I stopped eating three bites in because it seems a spider committed suicide in my watercress. Appetitelost. After that we shopped around and Joey picked up a tambourineand I got some light cages (so we can turn them into something, of course) and met up with more friends at a bar we use to go to all the time, Levee. We then ended up at our friends house where I cooked us dinner and we watched bad movies for the rest of the night.

It was nice to take some time "off". Almost like a vacation. So what ever happened to the guest room? Lucky us, our friend rescheduled, but here's where we are at:

Super close! I had to order more of that chevron fabric to make more curtains and today I am on "mission-wood-collection-at-all-costs". We have to be done by this weekend, so hang tight! We will have finally finished our third room in the house!

We're Sinking

Yep! Cabinets are 99% done. Counters have been picked out. Backsplash in the house, and oops! I forgot to say "hi!". I'm all out of sorts! Well, hello there. How is your week treating you? I hope you have been having an easier time than us with whatever your ventures are! We learned: If you are going to paint a room when it's raining outside for three days straight, it's going to take a realllllly long time for the paint to dry. Eesh... But this isn't what we are sinking about. Back to the good 'ol kitch!

So, yea. All is in order, except the sink. We picked out this faucet from Brizo, and now need to find this pretty little lady a companion. 

I want a farm sink. I want a farm sink so bad. Ohhhhhh, I want a farm sink! I want a sink I can wash the puppies in. I want a sink I could wash a baby in. Ohhhhhh I want a farm sink. Yes. This is what I said to Joey. So yep, we are getting a farm sink. But which? We posted a while back about ideas we had for the kitchen. A lot has stayed the same, but we edited some color choices. This is where we landed.

Ok. Faucet, check. Colors, check. Sink, let's figure this out....

  

So these guys are pretty similar. The pop out a little but further than the counter and cabinets. They are deep and white and work well with similar style faucets we will be using.

To me, this is the classic farm sink. One big porcine tub. Love.

While researching, I can across a slew of options I didn't know existed. 

Like this beauty. We are not set up for this at all, but goodness. She's a pretty lady.

I had a moment when I was checking out stainless steel sinks and thought it could work.

...but then as soon as I looked at the white shiny goodness, I was over it. 

I think our micro-moodboard works well with our final decision. Now where to adopt one of these is a new mission to check off the list!

 

drool.

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

O-Me-G

That's what's been in my head about every thirty minutes for the past week. Our to-do list is a bit outrageous. Ever bite off more than you can chew? That's what it feels like. If I don't have time to blog about it, too much is happening at once. At least that's my theory. So let me introduce you to pure, unadulterated chaos. Are you ready for forever change your opinion of us?

While working on our mini-kitchen renovation, we had to bring a bunch of stuff out to the dining room. It's been weeks since we have eaten at the dining room table. 

This is the breakfast-nook as we turn it into a formal storage/pantry area. Not looking too fancy yet.

This is the kitchen as Joey repaints (not matte white this time!), and refinishes the cabinets. Notice the pizza box? Yep pizza and Chinese food. All week.

And that, my friends, is the guestroom #2. Yep. I haven't seen Joey in days. While he is downstairs in the kitchen, I am upstairs pounding the pavement on this room. We have a guest this week. Maybe that's why a lot of this has been going on...

Flattering, eh?

So the gem in all this madness is a little trick Joey came up with while working in the kitchen. He took a "break" from the painting and cabinets to work on something else. Let me pass you over to him so he can explain.

Greetings again friends. Lana and I are going through a relatively large DIY kitchen remodel right now and I want to share a little slice of what we're doing to help save some cheddar during the process.

We have these gold door knobs that came with the doors in our kitchen. Lana and I looked into changing them to brushed aluminum, or steel, or whatever people make door knobs out of these days, and for the model we have Home Depot wants a bit over 200 bucks plus a few weeks to order and ship. So during a moment of clarity I decided to see if I could just refurbish the existing ones. After all, they aren't made of gold or I'd have sold them already.

Turns out, my theory was correct. Not made of gold. I just removed the face plates and door knobs and busted out the trusty Dremel.

With a coarse sanding attachment for removing the apparently micron thick layer of faux gold and the steel brush attachment to polish the rough bits, this is what you get.

Be sure to do two things while attempting this project. 1. Wear a face mask and eye protection. Little metal bits are not good for your respiratory or ocular systems. 2. Tell your significant other what you are planning on doing. Little gold bits look like glitter. And you are going to be covered in it, and we all know how that conversation goes.

Have fun. Save some bacon. And make an old tired part of your space feel new.