Extra Blond in Brussels....Not The 'Burbs

Please forgive the lack of posts. The hubs and I took a well needed vacation to visit a dear friend in Brussels, Belgium. For once, I was NOT traveling for work. Yay! Our trip was full of waffles, beer, chocolate, "European" English breakfasts, moules frites, alot of walking, and a lot of laughs. Here is a recap. My favorite photo is the top right. Vedett Extra Blond beer!

We are slowly dragging ourselves back into the swing of things. Spring is here which means two words....yard work. Our spring cleaning list is pages long and we can't wait for our zoysia grass to green up. It's still a depressing shade of brown. We have some new projects on the horizon, and of course still need to close out a few lingering projects, like our dining room table & chair re-do. Stay tuned!

Adventures in Emmit Continue...shhhh

Someone had a busy day playing all afternoon at grandma & grandpa's house the other day. Emmit was so tired, he fell sleep sitting up on the couch. Thank god the couch arm was there to hold up his head.

Moments like these are few and far between and totally blog-worthy. And, yes, that is a framed picture of him in the background! :)

Sitting Pretty - Update Part 2

Major progress was made on the Craigslist chairs this weekend. I was up to my ears in paint & polyurethane. This being said, I was in no position to pick up my camera and snap photos of my progress. How do you bloggers take such great photos of your step-by-step processes when your are elbow deep in paint and other icky stuff you prefer to NOT get on your camera? 

This project has been a lengthy one...a six step process on 6 chairs = alot of work. (1) Sanding, (2)painting, (3)dry brushing, (4) distressing, (5) glazing, and (6) polyurethane. I have one chair left to sand & paint, ugh. But I am really happy with the outcome this far!


Here is a recap....


INSPIRATION: Queen Anne Upholstered Chair from Pottery Barn

MY CRAISLIST CHAIRS (progression):

I came across these fab chairs from Restoration Hardware and see a lot of similarities too!

The next phase in this chair project is to recover the seats. Stay tuned for an update!

Not The Way You Want to Spend a Sunday

Progress on the Craigslist chairs came to a halt this weekend for two reasons, and procrastination was not one of them. (1) I came down with a nasty cold which knocked me on my butt for 2 days & (2) torrential rain was in the forecast for Sunday (the day which I hoped to paint 2 more chairs).

Instead of painting chairs on Sunday, we spent the afternoon sopping up water in our basement (good times).

We managed to (frantically) borrow our neighbors wet/dry vac (a bonus of having GREAT neighbors in the 'burbs). The hubs vacuumed up most of the water in the basement and the drain that was overflowing outside the basement door. What did I do? Ran and got my camera, DUH.

First and foremost, YES, duck boots were the perfect shoes to wear for such crisis project.

Here is the drain that was the culprit...

It's hard to tell from the photo, but there is a small drain hole outside our basement door (strange, I know, but all the houses in our neighborhood have this). It never gets clogged because this area is included in our screened in porch. Also, I keep a "crumb catcher" thing in it to make sure NOTHING finds its way into this drain. So what seems to be the problem then? We have no clue. Oh the joys of being amateur home owners. 

The hubs was so worried that we'd get more water in the basement that he set his alarm for 2am and got up to check the basement for water. It was dry, THANK GOD. Great way to start off the week, wouldn't you say?

UPDATE: A plumber is coming today to asses this "issue" and look at the drain. Oh joy. Here's to hoping it's a quick and easy fix.


UPDATE #2: Plumber came. We required a new sump pump (which, by the way, is the stupidest word ever). I can think of a MILLION other things I would RATHER buy with the money we just paid for this ridiculously named object.
  

I feel like I should be OOH-ing & AAH-ing over this stupid new sump pump but I am far from thrilled by it. Couldn't they at least manufacture it in PINK?