Kara and Mike's Happenings

7/2/08

Moving Furniture

Last night was a BIG night at the Hines household. Mike and I moved the bedroom furniture back upstairs! Wahoo! Other than the fact that we had to do the unpleasant task of moving furniture, it was fun to finally see an end to the madness.

It was wonderful to see how the rooms looked with furniture in them (truly fabulous) and to sleep in our real bedroom again. Ah, the bliss! Of course, we still have tons of work to do to actually get fully moved back in, but it was a great first step.

What's funny is that moving upstairs with the lingering smell of the freshly poly-ed floors brought back lots of memories moving into my first condo in Jamaica Plain, which was almost exactly 6 years ago. There have been lots of joys and frustrations to home ownership since then. It felt so great to enjoy one of the high points last night.

So, here's what's been progressing on the house:
1) They started working on the siding last night where we moved windows and added the mudroom. That's going to be finished up today (I think).
2) The shower door was templated on Monday and that's supposed to be installed in a couple of weeks.
3) Our door hardware has been shipped out and should arrive and be installed next week. It will be great to not have to stuff a towell in the hole where the door handle should be to keep the air conditioned air from flooding out of the bedroom.
4) The floor in the entryway was sanded yesterday, is getting a coat of something (can't remember what) this morning and will be poly-ed tomorrow morning.

There are still tons of little details that need to be addressed, but it's really all starting to come together. We want to have a re-housewarming party July 26th and we hope to have the house done and mostly put back together by then. So, mark your calendars!

Oh, and we finally got our barstools (3 trips to the furniture store, lots of arguing and $70 credited back to us later). What looked like a dark chocolate brown in the store, looks very black in our kitchen. I was a bit disappointed when I saw that but am over it now. They look good, fit all of the criteria I wanted in a barstool (and I've been shopping for them for a year and a half and this is the only one that did) and are very comfortable.

Pretty barstool!

All pretty in a row!

6/30/08

Floors update

Saturday, the floor guy did in fact show up and finish! Sunday morning, we were able to go upstairs and view the new floors. They look shiny and fabulous! So, Tuesday night, we will be busy starting the move back upstairs.

Now, I guess I have to start thinking about window coverings so we won't be giving the neighbors a free show!

A Quick Trip to Portland

So the floor guy actually showed up and worked a very long day on Friday with the promise of finishing up on Saturday. Mike and I agreed that we both shouldn't go to NH because we needed to make sure he actually showed up and worked Saturday. Bummer. However, Mike being the wonderful husband and smart man that he is, he recommended I find someone to go up with me to hike so that I wouldn't be at home being pissed off about being in the construction zone and, in turn, wouldn't complain about it to him. Unfortunately, my search for a hiking partner was unsuccessful. Fortunately, my friend Tamara invited me to crash her plans to go visit our friend Jess in Portland, ME overnight. So, I ran home after work Friday, packed a small bag and headed up to Tamara's place to make the trip with her.

From Tamara's place north of the city, it only took about an hour and a half to drive up there. We met Jess and a friend of her's out for a couple of drinks and then got a semi full night of sleep to prepare for our Saturday morning activity, helping the Friends of Casco Bay do a clean up of Back Cove. Jess's friends from soccer, Vicki and Morgan (with her 14 month old son Sawyer in tow) also came out and the group of us spent a few hours digging for trash!

Tamara, Sawyer, Morgan, Vicki and Jess working cleanup at Back Cove

After doing our good deed for the day, we walked back to Jess's place via the farmers market where Tamara and I picked up some fresh veggies...yum! After cleaning up a bit, we walked about 15 minutes to the old port section of Portland where we had a lovely lunch and did some fun shopping at the great shops that are in that area. The day was very cool and cloudy, but not raining so we all stayed happy!

Self portrait in the Old Port - Jess, Tamara and Me!

After a great day with the girls, Tamara and I headed back to MA. Thanks for hosting us Jess!

Oliver playing with the souvenir from Portland

Luci playing with souvenir (not visible) from Portland

Oliver hitting the kitty crack (aka cat nip) pillow from Portland

6/27/08

Big Fitness Goal Reached!

Most, if not all, of you folks out there know that I've been working my booty off for the last 2 years to get leaner and healthier.

Today, I hit a big goal. In elementary school, I dreaded the part of the Presidential Fitness test that made the gym teachers come after you with calipers. Today, I actually went looking for those scary calipers. That's right, I decided it was time to measure my fat!

As we all know, the scale and height/weight charts (BMI) can only tell you so much....and they normally don't fare in my favor given my short stature, large bone structure in relation to said stature, and pretty beefy muscles (hehe). I wanted a more accurate reading. Luckily, the nutritionist at my gym offers this service for free, so I ducked in her office after my body pump class today. AND......good news! I made my "lean" goal! According to the charts, 18-25% is healthy for women....18-22% being lean. I measure in just under my 22% goal at 21.9%!! Wahoo!

It's cool to see lots of hard work pay off! Want to know my secrets? I'll post my diet\weight loss plan sometime in the future. For now, I'm off to celebrate! Cheers!

You Guessed It, More Delays!

It is so incredibly aggravating to be where we are in the renovation. We are ready to be back in ALL of our house and nothing seems to be going smoothly. Our floor guy has been MIA for 2 days (his boss hasn't known where he is and is baffled because this is very unlike the guy). Word on the street is that he's to show up today (though we heard the same thing the last 2 days in a row) and will still finish by tomorrow evening. I'll believe that when I see it. I'm dreading that this is going to drag on past the 4th of July holiday. Remember, it's 72 hours after the floors are finished before we can think about setting furniture on it!

Yesterday, the guys showed up to build our back stairs and determined there weren't enough materials. They left, more stuff was delivered last night and they were working again this morning.

Our poor contractor has had a big black cloud following him throughout our project which has struck lightening again today. Previous storms have been back pain, followed by back surgery, followed by more back pain and now the promise of another back surgery, the death of 2 family members and his father's house burning down. Yesterday, a week after the house burned down, his father died of a massive heart attack. Our contractor is a really nice guy and it's tough to see so many horrible things happen to a good person in such a short length of time. We really feel for him.

Unfortunate for us, it also means he hasn't been as available to help us with all these problems that are arising. Understandable but not furthering our cause. I cannot even tell you how great it's been to have Mike at home dealing with all of these blows. We're incredibly fortunate that the timing of his not having a job has allowed him to do that....it definitely has saved us a lot of time and money over the project. However, now that it's drawing to a close, we definitely need to get him a job. Anyone know of any employment options in the Boston area?

6/25/08

Solstice Celebration

Last Saturday we decided that, instead of taking a weekend trip to NH, we would take a day trip to one of our favorite MA towns, Rockport, to celebrate the solstice and a beautiful summer day. It's located on Cape Ann, right next to Gloucester (the port from "The Perfect Storm"). It's a quaint seaside town with fun shopping and fantastic views. We parked near the main shopping strip, Bear Skin Neck, peeked in a few shops (I treated myself to a super cute new necklace) and then decided to take a walk, which was a bit longer then we thought, to the old granite quarry turned state park. It was about 5 miles round trip, but we were following the coastline for most of it and got to see some really cool historic homes.

This is a cool stacked wall that separated some one's home from the ocean.

Me in front of the granite quarry

Nice view of the coastline from the quarry

The claim to fame of Rockport - the red fisherman's shack

After exploring the quarry and hiking back, we ate some great seafood then headed back into Boston for the Summers Day Revels celebration. Jim, my brother in law, was a part of the festivities. His band, the What Cheer Brigade, led the parade to the main stage to start the festivities and then played a set there later. Mike and I had a fun time hanging out with Kristina and the boys, Jacob and Corwin. It was perfect weather, there were lots of fun activities around and the kids, as always, were a (tiring) barrel of fun!

What Cheer Brigade leading the parade

(Jim is in the red pants playing the snare drum at the far left side of the picture)

Mike, Kristina, Jacob and Corwin

following alongside the parade

Hanging out

On Sunday, we had a busy social day. Our friends, Sean and Sarah with their 6 month old Owen, came over for lunch. Sean was a friend of mine from Tae Kwon Do. We bonded after we realized we're both from Texas - he grew up in Plano. When Sean decided to go back to school to get his MBA at Wharton, Sarah became my roommate for about 6 months while she finished up her PHD at Harvard. They celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary while Sarah was living with me! Flash forward to 4.5 years later and they're in London, where they've been residing for almost 3 years. It was truly great to get to see them while Sean was in town for business and awesome to meet Owen. He's a cute, smiley guy! Maybe we'll get to meet again in the Dallas area for the holidays.

That evening, we had more family time as all of Mike's gang came to our house for a cook out. They were all anxious to see the renovations. The rain threatened but held out long enough to cook, play in the yard, eat some grub and enjoy each other's company. The kitchen proved very conducive to parties so it was a successful first event!

So, all in all, a pretty perfect first weekend of summer! Happy summer everyone!

6/24/08

Big D to meet Mr. R

Mike and I ended May and started out the month of June in stinkin' hot Dallas. The major incentive to get me to Texas during the summer months was to meet my wonderful new nephew, Ryker. We had a great time laughing with Ryker and playing with Reece and Presley. I think the last time I actually got to hang with R&P was at Jamie and Sarah's wedding last June. Wow! Time flies and those kids grow fast! Reece is turning into a wonderful young man (but still a super fun kid) and Presley, aka "mini-me", is more like me every day - fabulous and stubborn. Since I understand her VERY well, we get along smashingly! I just love those kids!

We did a lot of hanging out and eating that weekend, but we also took Ryker to see his very first movie (Indiana Jones), which he slept through very well, and took a trip to the children's science museum on the State Fair of Texas fairgrounds. I tell Mike every October that we need to plan a trip to Dallas during fair time one of these years....I have such fond memories of it growing up and would really like to get back for it some time. (I actually just got a book of 1000 places in the US and Canada to see before you die and it was even listed there!) So, for those of you that are in Dallas in the fall - definitely plan a trip there.

Here are some pictures from the weekend: