When Alex and I bought our house in August 2010 we knew that our main bathroom had to go. Some people like how it looks but we not only detest its appearance, it simply doesn’t go with the look of our 100 year-old house and it lacks in functionality and quality. Now, five years later, I am about to swing a sledge hammer and begin the demo!
{These sinks are my least favorite part of our entire house. The faucet on the right cracked a few months after we moved in and we never fixed it because we knew we’d replace the whole thing, so we’ve literally had one non-functioning sink for FIVE years!}
Our bathroom renovation starts today and we couldn’t be more excited. It will be a work in progress for about 5-6 weeks, as it’s a major overhaul – we are completely gutting the bathroom and starting over. We hired a local tile contractor who will be coming in for the first 3-4 weeks and handling the demo and working with a plumber before actually doing the tiling. After that wraps up, my brother, who is a contractor in Minnesota, will come out for a week or so and finish off the details, like installing the vanity, mirror and light fixtures, along with painting, doing some trim work and installing all of the plumbing and accompanying fixtures. He’ll have his work cut out for him!
{The layout of the new bathroom will be the same. Our vanity will be white with a Carrara marble countertop. We’re opting to reduce to one sink as a way to increase our counter space. We’ll paint the walls a soft blue/gray to pick up some of the contrast from the Carrara.}
The goal in this project is to make the bathroom look like it fits with the rest of the house and make it more functional and an aesthetically beautiful space. We’ve certainly chosen some fancy extras, like heated floors, but mainly our choices were based on bringing the bathroom back about 100 years. I’ll try to post some “during” photos over the next month and a half to keep you updated.
{Our new tile will be 4×8″ white subway tiles on the wall and 2″ Carrara marble hexagon tiles on the floor. The tile guy will build out some custom shelving in the shower so we don’t have to have a rusty shower caddy as our storage option. We’ll be using a gray grout. I’m also pretty excited about our new toilet – it’s really nice looking!}
So far the process has been absolutely overwhelming in terms of the number of decisions we’ve had to make, but it’s been really, really fun to be able to finally make this happen. Alex and I enjoy doing projects like this together – it’s a lot to manage and keep up with, but we love to work together on improving our home. Now we just can’t wait to see what the finished product will be like!
We’ve got another Leavenworth Octoberfest weekend in the books! This marks our fourth consecutive year making the pilgrimage to Leavenworth, Washington with three other couples to enjoy a relaxing getaway in the mountains.
{the drive through the Cascade mountains at this time of year is spectacular!}
We all arrived late afternoon/early evening on Friday and spent the evening playing games, chatting and eating! Our trip this year was with the same group as last year. This was also our third year in a row staying at the same vacation rental home – it’s a great setup for us with four bedrooms and a great fenced in backyard for the dogs.
{the girls… Mary, Ali, Carrie and Trish! all 3 other girls are pregnant right now, so our group is majorly growing!}
Saturday was our full day together and it also happened to be Ryan’s 35th birthday! We had a really nice time celebrating his birthday in Leavenworth and then at the house as well. The weather was great, too, so we were able to be outside the whole afternoon.
{the birthday boy with his bride}
One of my favorite parts of our weekend is when we actually go into the town of Leavenworth. Leavenworth is a small town in the Cascade mountains that was built with Bavarian style architecture. Each October they host a huge month-long Octoberfest. We learned the first year not to go to the organized event, but instead to simply come into the town and hang out. We typically post up in one of the outdoor beer/sausage gardens and the boys order a stein of beer and we all get sausages for lunch. Typically we split up and the boys keep drinking beer while the girls shop, do wine tasting or visit the art fair. We’ve gotten to know the town quite well and have a good system down.
{Cheers!}{we did some fun photo shoots – the scenery was too gorgeous not to!}{dave with trish who is rocking her baby bump! 🙂 }{photo op in Leavenworth!}
Upon arriving back at our vacation home we realized there had been a power outage! We were less than prepared to deal with that. With our fingers crossed for a quick fix, we dug around and found some candles and then realized that the house’s well was powered by an electric pump, so not only were we without electricity, we were without water, too. That ended up being a much bigger bummer than the electricity. There had been a big windstorm up in the mountains and power and cell service to AT&T was knocked out through the entire valley.
The quick fix to the power that we had hoped for did not happen – that it made it really tricky to cook the sauerbraten for dinner. This is a finicky meal that Mary and Ryan began preparing three or four days earlier. It needed to cook on Saturday night for four hours, but we were sans oven. Eventually we fired up the grill and stuck the dutch oven in there and it did the trick! The power stayed out for the entire night and didn’t come back on until the next morning, so it was a little interesting, but we survived just fine.
{thank goodness for the built-in flashlight feature in the iPhone! this came in SO handy}
It was actually kind of fun to not have power. We huddled around the “candle” table in the living room and Mary kicked off a game of “Table Topics” where she went around in a circle and asked each person a different question from a deck of prescribed cards. While we all know each other really well, it absolutely made us learn more about everyone – like that Patrick had a rat tail when he was a kid! We made some great memories during this trip!
When we woke up on Sunday morning it was an absolutely spectacular day. Since the power came back on we were able to do dishes and clean up from dinner the night before. We all congregated in the kitchen and hung out before breakfast. While some folks watched the Seahawks game, Alex and I took the opportunity to enjoy the hot tub and gorgeous view of the mountains.
And just like that, our fourth annual Leavenworth Octoberfest trip is over. I have to say I’m already looking forward to seeing how dramatically different next year’s will be with a bunch of babies!
My friend Mary is expecting twins this December, so my other friend, Carrie, and I hosted a baby shower for her this past weekend to help get them prepared for life with two baby boys!
{the mama to be in front of “the sweetest pair” sign – the theme of the shower}{Carrie put her creative cap on and took the role of expert decorator – she is super crafty and everything turned out adorably!}{we served a brunch for the 15 ladies in attendance}{Alex helped out by assisting in the making of this yummy pear tart… we went a little nuts with the pear theme and transitioned it into food as well}{Dessert!}
{Mary requested that we not play any “baby shower” games, so instead of that we had people guess when the boys will make their debut.}{As another activity in lieu of games, Carrie put together a block decorating station – this turned out SUPER cute!}{Carrie and me with Mary}{Mary with her mother in-law who came in for the special occasion.}{all of the beautiful mamas-to-be who were at the shower! I didn’t realize it until noticing the photo, but they’re lined up in chronological order from earliest due date to latest. It goes without saying, there will be a lot of babies being born in my group of friends in the next short bit of time…}
{making blocks!}{It’s safe to say that Mary and Ryan are pretty well stocked up for the arrival of the twins!}
{We are so excited to meet these two little boys!!}
The next phase of our big re-decoration and renovation was our bedroom. Aside from the bathroom, this is the room in our house that has taken us a really long time to get to a more complete state. I wouldn’t quite call our bedroom “complete” but it’s getting close and we’re happy with how it looks now.
Here is the progression…
{BEFORE: right after we moved in – August 2010!}{BEFORE: this was taken in late 2013, so there were some improvements since then.}{BEFORE: this was also taken in late 2013 just after we got the rug, but before we got curtains.}{BEFORE/AFTER – new curtains! Still looks the same, minus the table in the corner.}{AFTER – I have learned I am not a photographer! It is really hard to nicely photograph rooms! Hopefully this looks halfway decent…}{AFTER: our funky new nightstands which we LOVE. It is so nice to have more surface area and bigger drawers for storage. These nightstands help jazz up the room and we’re loving the new lamps as well.}{AFTER: I wish I had a better “before” photo of this space because it’s dramatically different, but my photo taking skills are not at their finest here. We got a new mirror which ties in with the nightstands. Who knew how handy it was to have a mirror in your bedroom!? Really, before we’d walk all the way into the bathroom to check ourselves out, so this is really handy!}{AFTER: another perspective.}
Still to come in the bedroom:
A new bed for Jackson
Further styling on the dresser – proving to be a bit challenging
One of my favorite parts of this blog is when I am able to refer back to previous posts I have written and remember things I had completely forgotten about. It also motivates me to take more pictures, which then in turn jog my memory when I’m trying to figure out what to write about.
In today’s case, though, I wanted some “before” photos of what our dining room used to look like, and lo and behold, I had already used some in a previous post.
Before I share these photos, let me set the stage for you…… Five years ago, Alex and I bought our quaint, charming little Craftsman home. We were 24. I wouldn’t go as far as saying we were broke, but we sure didn’t have enough cash to completely furnish our house. Boy am I glad for that because we would be re-furnishing our house now if we had made those decisions at age 24. Our styles and design taste has changed and grown up a little bit since then.
While our house on its own has a ton of character, it never got to the polished/finished point we’ve dreamed about since moving in. Enter our five year anniversary with our house, which we celebrated last month: we decided to take the plunge and move forward with our goal of finishing the decorating projects that we have been planning for over the last few years. Because we’ve struggled with how to pull everything together we opted to take advantage of Pottery Barn’s free Design Services program where they essentially send one of their designers to your home and help you select furniture, accents and different pieces to complete your home decor.
We had such a fantastic experience with Laurie, our Pottery Barn Design Services designer from the Bellevue store, and I can’t wait for you to see the outcome! Our house has come a very long way in these last five years. We’ve done major changes in the living room, dining room and our bedroom, and our big bathroom renovation is kicking off late-October. I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to say it’s “finished” but it sure is close.
Without further adieu, here are some before and after photos of our dining room…
{BEFORE: right after we moved in – didn’t have much to work with.}{BEFORE – taken in August 2013}{BEFORE – taken in August 2013 after mini makeover where we added a few decorative accessories and some new placemats and napkins}{AFTER! We are loving our new chandelier, rug and tabletop accessories. Somewhere along the line we got cushions for the chairs, but that was a while ago.}
Here are some photos of the process…
{Jackson checking out the rug!}{the new chandelier literally had 240 tiny crystals that we had to hang – and that was after mounting the chandelier from the ceiling. I’m really surprised it only took us 3 hours to complete the project.}{tabletop options… this one was too cluttered…}{closeup of the chandelier – our labor of love}
This last weekend sure felt like fall and Alex and I were thrilled to have spent it at home. There is a definite crispness in the air. I brought back the down comforter for our bed since the evenings are getting really chilly. Alex and I have both pulled out our puffy vests and I got myself a new cozy scarf for the occasion. The leaves are just starting to turn, so my fingers are crossed that the next few weeks will be filled with glorious autumn color.
{selfie with my new plaid scarf!}
In keeping with the fall-theme, I have been making some of my favorite fall foods: pumpkin bread, pulled pork, chili and stuffed squash.
{slow-cooker pulled pork is one of my all-time favorites!}{we decided to become Seahawks fans this year, so last night we hung out on the couch with full bowls of chili}
During our relaxing weekend I had two jaunts through the arboretum – one was my first “fun run” since my half marathon last weekend, and the other was a really nice walk with my cousin, Chris, and his family.
{super adorable and unbelievably happy little family!}{baby Henry is going on 6 months already!}{fun to do a side-by-side comparison of my first 5-mile training run two months ago against Saturday’s 5-mile run. During my actual training, my 5-mile run was one of the hardest to complete. Once I pushed past it, it was smooth sailing}
The last several weeks have been big decision weeks for our house. Alex and I are currently undergoing a major home decor renovation and in about a month from now we will be starting our bathroom remodel. Here are a couple of sneak peeks – more to come in early-October:
{Jackson claimed the new pillows on the sofa in the living room}{Major reveal! New dining room rug and chandelier, as well as all new tabletop stuff: napkins, rings, place mats and candles}{tile decisions… stay tuned to see the finished product in November!}{my homemade spider repellent! here in Seattle we have freaking gigantic spiders and I don’t care for them in my house. I think I’ve seen almost 10 in the last 2 weeks, so I’m done with that. here’s hoping this repellent will keep the creepy crawlies creepy crawling outside!}
Life has finally settled down for us, and all is well. It was really nice to catch up on small projects around our house over the weekend and we’re looking forward to a relaxing, low-key fall and winter.
My mom came to visit and watch me run my half marathon this last weekend. It was great to have her out here for a long weekend – she really lucked out on weather, too!
Friday night after she arrived we went out for dinner at Bottlehouse, of course. It was a crowded evening there, but we enjoyed our meal and several glasses of wine out on their infamous patio. The weather was downright perfect throughout the night, so we stayed for a while to enjoy it while it lasted.
Saturday proved to be another gorgeous day. We headed east towards the mountains to Snoqualmie Falls that afternoon, then drove all the way west to Ray’s Boathouse for happy hour on the water. Mountains, ocean and city all in the same day!
{Snoqualmie Falls}
With my half marathon the following day, our Saturday evening was low-key and we were in bed early.
My mom and Alex, along with my friend Mary, made up the only cheering section of the entire race. Thankfully they were loud and spirited and made up for the lack of fans. It was great to have my own cheerleaders!
Somehow my recovery went smoothly and I had enough leg-power to take a long walk through the Washington Park Arboretum with my mom and Jackson on Sunday evening before we settled in for an incredible dinner at Bar Cantinetta in Madison Valley. It was the perfect ending to a great day!
My mom’s visit was short and busy, but I was happy to have her there to spend time with and for her to be a part of my half marathon day. Thanks for coming! 🙂
After months of preparation I can finally say I completed my first half marathon! The big “race” was yesterday and it went really well. My goal was to finish the race and that’s exactly what I did.
I ran the half marathon with my friend Ryan. He and I ran the first mile together, then he pushed ahead, as his pace was much faster than mine.
The weather was pretty much perfect for running. It was in the mid-50s and overcast for a while, which made it really comfortable for the athletes.
The run was out in the country, really in the middle of nowhere. It was on side streets and partially on a highway, then the finish was through the woods around a lake. There was a lot of variety, to say the least. It was a very small event with only around 50 people competing, so that meant it was pretty lonely out on the course. Thankfully I had my own personal cheering section, as Alex, Mary and my mom were there hootin’ and hollerin’ and cheering for all of the runners.
My training really, really paid off, as did Ryan’s expert physical therapy help. The most challenging part of my training, though, was starting to increase my distance. I spent the better part of the spring and early summer running a few 2-3 mile runs each week, then once I started building on that and pushing to a 4, 5 or 6 mile run each week I faced the biggest challenges {every week I did one training run and increased it by a mile from the previous week}. It was during these initial long runs that I realized how tight my IT band and hip flexors were, so thankfully Ryan gave me some stretches that worked wonders on my legs.
After my legs loosened up I got through my 7 mile training run and then the rest of the training really became pretty smooth, with the hardest part simply being the time it took to run each week. During my half marathon, I ran the whole event, except for a quick stretch stop around mile 8. My recovery was quick and uneventful, and I’m feeling great today!
We finished!
My time was 2 hours and 16 minutes, which makes my pace right around 10-10.5 minutes. This was certainly faster than my training time. I came in at 25th place, and 4th in my age, and Ryan finished in 17th place, and 2nd for his age.
I’m really glad I pushed myself to complete a half marathon. It was great to have something to work towards and accomplish!
Our late summer saga continues with this weekend’s visit of my mom, but let me back up and tell you about the last two weeks where Alex’s parents came to visit… Now that Stan is retired and Donna is semi-retired they have a little more time to dedicate to traveling, so they came out to the Pacific Northwest for a 10-day excursion.
Our first day was spent walking around Capitol Hill doing an unintentional bar crawl. We hopped from one bar to the next to dodge the rain.
Donna and Stan hadn’t spent much time in the vibrant neighborhood of Capitol Hill, so we started our mini tour at Melrose Market where we had a glass of wine, then we hopped over to Quinn’s and finished up at Barrio. This was all before we commenced at Bottlehouse for dinner and drinks.
On Sunday we enjoyed an always delicious breakfast at our neighborhood spot called the Hi Spot, then we continued with the theme of drinking wine and headed out to Woodinville to enjoy the tasting rooms. We stopped at Brian Carter, Airfield, and of course, Trust, where we’re club members at. We had a late lunch at The Commons, then headed home for a night in where we watched the awesome movie the Imitation Game.
As a way to see more of the beautiful Pacific Northwest and to break up the trip a bit, Donna and Stan headed down to Portland from Monday through Wednesday. They planned a big wine tasting excursion in the Willamette Valley, rode the cable car in Portland and enjoyed seeing what makes Portland so weird.
After Donna and Stan returned from their trip to Portland we set sail on the ferry and headed to San Juan Island for the long weekend.
The weather was drastically better than we expected! The ferry ride was chilly, as expected, but the skies were blue and it felt like wonderful fall weather while we were there.
Our trip to San Juan Island was really quite uneventful. It was relaxing and we spent a lot of time chatting, playing ball with Jackson, drinking wine {I know you’re shocked}, reading and watching the birds. It’s official. We’re getting old…
One highlight; however, was renting mopeds and/or “scoot coupes” to toot around the island on! I had never been on a moped before, so it was a fun new experience. Other than the woman at the shop giving me the staggering statistics about the accident rate for women and then sneaking in an “oh by the way, there’s no hospital on the island, so it’s an $18,000 helicopter ride if you get hurt.” Thanks for that.
Thankfully we all came away accident-free!
The little house we rented was right on the water {Puget Sound}, which provided endless entertainment for us all. We were shocked at how much the water level changed with the tides! One morning we woke up and half of the bay was dry!
{low tide – all of this is mud}{not a great comparison, but you can see the bay filled with water}
We did take a few outings – Saturday we spent the afternoon in Friday Harbor and visited the farmers market and a few shops before having a very late lunch.
{Friday Harbor and the ferry terminal}{Friday Harbor}
On our last day we spent some time in Roche Harbor, a darling little resort town just north of where we were staying.
It’s not hard to believe these two are going to be celebrating their 35th anniversary next month! We had such a nice time visiting with Alex’s parents and always love when they come to see us. The ten days flew by and it’s hard to believe they’re back home already!
The Willamette Valley wine region in Oregon has been on our list of places to visit for quite some time now. From Seattle, it’s only a 3 1/2 hour drive down to the famous pinot noir wine region in Oregon, so we finally booked a trip and made it happen.
{Alex and me with Mike and Sarah at one of the wineries we went to on our trip to Oregon!}
My friend from Minnesota, Sarah, and her husband, Mike, flew out to Portland and we spent the weekend together in McMinnville, Oregon, right in the heart of the Willamette Valley. We rented an adorable house for the weekend – this house is one of my favorite vacation rentals to date. It was really roomy, had a ton of charm and a fantastic backyard for us to lounge in and for Jackson to run around. The location was just a block off the main drag, or shall I say “the gut” of the town. During our stay in McMinnville, the locals had an event called “Cruise the Gut” where they drove their vintage, sporty, loud or just regular cars down the “gut” of the town.
The town was really cute and had several restaurants, wine tasting rooms and a few little shops. We spent our Friday evening checking out the tasting rooms before settling in at La Rambla, a Spanish restaurant, for dinner.
{Our first tasting of the weekend at Willamette Vineyards tasting room in McMinnville!}
As a way to break up the wine drinking, we headed to Cannon Beach on Saturday for a full-day excursion. Cannon Beach is on the Oregon Coast and was about a 2 hour drive away from where we were staying. We weren’t aware of this initially, but similar to the fires in Washington, Oregon was experiencing several wildfires during our stay. The skies were extremely hazy on Saturday and Sunday.
{The famous Haystack Rock that juts out of the beach.}
{Jackson was having the time of his life!}
{I can’t even describe how frigid the water was!}
{Looking back on the beach from the water – cute little Cape Cod-style houses line the shores in a very underwhelming manor – it’s not crazy overpopulated, which was really refreshing.}{You can rent these little bikes that people were riding all around the beach}{Family photo!}
Cannon Beach was different than I expected. Haystack Rock, the infamous rock jutting out from the beach, was at least three times as large as I imagined. The beach itself was super sandy and the sand was so soft! Most/all of the beaches on the Washington coast are completely covered in rocks. While I knew the beach was enormous, the town was a bit bigger than I realized it would be. There were tons of shops, restaurants, cafes and beach houses. It was really Cape Cod-esque but with a little Pacific Northwest flare.
Our next big adventure was Sunday’s excursion to Dundee Hills, one of the AVAs {American Viticulture Area} in the Willamette Valley. The Willamette Valley looks a lot different than the Washington wine country areas we’ve been to previously {Yakima and Walla Walla areas}. It’s much less deserty-feeling in Oregon, there are more trees, both coniferous and deciduous, and more rolling hills. The haze from the wildfires really prohibited our view – a few of the wineries boast views out to Mount Hood, which we didn’t get to enjoy on our trip.
{First stop… Purple Hands – this was the only winery that was familiar to Alex and me before we took this trip}{This guy is secretly a winery dog…}{Enjoying our picnic at Stoller!}{Stoller had a really cool LEED building for their tasting room. They also had an extraordinary property.}
Each of the four wineries we stopped at on Sunday offered a different experience. We all shared similar sentiments and seemed to favor Purple Hands for wine and service, Stoller for view, Sokol Blosser for space and ambiance and White Rose for overall wine quality.
{Hazy view from White Rose winery}{Jackson ended up getting stung by a bee at White Rose, so we relocated to an area with fewer bees and fewer small children…}
Another thing I was surprised about with our Willamette Valley wine tour was just how much pinot noir we would drink. I guess I had it in my mind that our experience would be very similar to our previous experiences in Washington, where there is quite a variety of wine varietals, but honestly, the only red wine we drank was pinot noir! I like pinots, but they’re not a wine I tend to favor when presented a choice. And similarly, the white grape varietal of choice was a chardonnay, which tends to be my least favorite. We did have a couple chardonnays that I enjoyed; however.
{Mike and Sarah have been together for almost five years if my memory serves me well. That being said, Alex and I have spent a lot of time with him, but we all found out just how much in common these two gents have with each other! That was a really fun highlight of the trip was just seeing how similar they are and how many shared interests they have. Both guys are really easy-going and easy to talk to, so it’s not surprising.}{Cheers! We loved hanging out on the patio at Sokol Blosser}{This guy was an all-star winery dog! He got so many compliments and random head scratches from strangers. He loves hanging out with us and going on outings!}
We had one more winery on our list for Monday, our last day in Oregon. This was a winery I was particularly excited about because it was a more private, intimate tasting, and I had read reviews on Trip Advisor that people agreed it was the best wine tasting experience they had ever had. We pulled up to Soter Vineyards just before our reservation time and were already blown away by how beautiful the tasting room and the grounds were. That was even before we were greeted by our host with a glass of amazing rose – our group favorite of the trip.
{Walking into Soter Vineyards was gorgeous – it was so open and natural. They host a wine tasting only as well as a wine and food tasting where they serve food straight from the farm they have on their property}{This quaint cabin, also known as the home of the winemakers, was where we did our private tasting}{The view from the porch of the cabin at Soter Vineyards}{Our tasting set-up}{Here is what we got to drink!}{The gang! After this experience, we all changed our “favorite everything” to Soter. It was a fantastic, personalized experience, the wine was unparalleled and the service and knowledge that our host provided was top notch.}
Being a big wine lover, I really enjoyed our wine tour and getting to explore this new region we had never been to before. That said, though, one of my favorite parts of our trip was the time we spent in the backyard of the home we stayed at. The backyard was fantastic and the temperatures were so mild that we stayed warm late into the evening. We used that time to catch up and just chat about life. It was really nice to have several days to spend with Sarah and Mike. I think those are the best get-togethers – the ones where you take a vacation and get to spend that much quality time together.
Sarah and I, who have been best friends since high school and served the role of each others’ maid of honor, typically talk several times each day, whether by text, email or phone, and we always know what’s going on with each other even though we only see each other a couple times a year. Technology has been so instrumental in our long-distance friendship. With those visits to Minnesota, I typically only get a few hours with her, so I really enjoyed the duration of time we got to have together. Hopefully we can take another trip soon 🙂
