Poseidon's Post: My Room

Poseidon is our chipin (Chihuahua/ Minuature Pinscher mix). Since he’s a big part of our household he likes to give an update on his life every now and then. 

So parents have gone on and on about their new floors. Personally I wasn't as excited as my mom. I had to spend a lot of time outside or upstairs away from the dust because my mom said she didn't want my little lungs to inhale any dust. But really she did not like my dusty paw prints on the bed. 

The best part of the whole ordeal was when the floors were done and I could once again the roam the house. The second best part was that my room got a mini makeover. Yes, you read that correctly I have my own room. Laugh if you want but I'm an only child. I know I'm totally spoiled. 

Anyway it's not really a whole room. The area under the stairs is open so my parents stuck my downstairs bed, toys and food dishes there. My mom said my stuff is not decoration and doesn't have to be out in the open so she stuck all my stuff there. The couch blocks the entrance except for a tiny Poseidon sized gap so it is actually pretty private. My mom also added some wall art because that's what she does. 

Pretty cool right? 

Baseboards, Nosing & Thresholds

Check out our finished floors!

It's been about three months since I posted anything. I don't really have an excuse. We haven't been busy redoing our kitchen or away on a fabulous vacation. I took a little blogging break but I'm back and I'll be posting about stuff that happened months ago. Better late than never right?

Back in December I shared our flooring progress. Even though we finally had gotten around to actually laying down the floors we still had work to do. As much as Jonathan and I both wished that laying the actual flooring down would have been the whole project it wasn't. We still needed to install baseboards, stair nosing and thresholds.

In same ways this was the more diffcult part. First of all, choosing our baseboards was really hard. We wanted to get some that were on the taller side to cover up the damage our leaky fridge caused. There are so many options and I was having a hard time visualizing how it would all turn out. Once I picked them out we had to get them home. Neither one of us has a car big enough to fit them (they are 16 feet long) so we had to borrow my dad's. Jon and I also liked the look of a thicker baseboard. Baseboards only come in certain measurements so to create the effect we decided to add quarter round in front. Then everything had to painted and obviously it didn't just need one coat.

After all the prep work was done Jon could start measuring, cutting and nailing everything in. Since we had only purchased a little bit more than we needed he had to be really careful with his cuts. Jon and my brother went around the room installing the baseboards. My mom and I followed with caulk to cover all the nail holes and to fill the gaps along the top and at the corners. Then we did the same thing with quarter round. This part probably would have taken us forever to accomplished if we hadn't borrowed a nail gun and air compressor.

We did all of that the weekend before Thanksgiving. Since we were getting ready to host (for the first time!) we had to get it all done before our guests arrived. So we were up super late every night that week. And we still weren't done.

Our living room has a little step down and Jon decided to install nosing there. First he had to cut, line and adhere the laminate pieces against the step. Then he could proceed with the nosing. It looks like the curved part of a stair tread and had to be glued down. This meant we had to be sure the flooring we had laid down was perfectly aligned on both edges of the step. If it wasn't done right then the nosing would be off. Jon cut it, applied tons of glue and laid it down carefully. Then we held it place trying to move it move it at all. This took forever since we had to work in sections.

You can also see the threshold pieces Jon installed in between the living room and kitchen. That part was pretty easy. He cut them to size and pushed them. He added a little bit of adhesive to prevent them from lifting up.

We went to bed at 3am that night (Wednesday night/ Thanksgiving morning). Jon got up early Thanksgiving morning to finish installing one section of baseboard and then started on the turkey. It was a mad dash to the finish line but it so worth it. My mom came over to help to me clean and remove all the dust and we finished with just enough time to serve dinner.

Looking back we probably should have started this project a little bit earlier but I'm so glad we had them done in time. Our home looks so much more warm and inviting. Such an improvement over the old white tile.

Munich

The last part of our European Honeymoon I shared was our day at Oktoberfest. Obviously we didn't just go to Munich and drink. We also did some sightseeing.

The second day we were there we went to Dachau. Located a few miles outside of Munich, Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp and is now a state run memorial site. Dachau opened in 1933 when Hitler rose to power. At first Hitler used it to hold his political prisoners and then all enemies of the Third Reich. It has also the distinction of being the training camp of for the SS. All of the worst leaders of SS spent time there.

They're torn done all but one of the barracks but you can still see some of the old sleeping quarters and grounds. When we were there we noted how close was it was to the town. Jonathan and I were shocked to see that German people could deny knowing what was actually going on at the camp. Also it was so cold while we were there and it wasn't even winter time. It really made us picture the type of horrible conditions the camp's prisoners were subjected to.

We also did a little sightseeing in actual city itself. It was really cold that day and we had do a little souvenir shopping so we didn't get a lot of photos but here a few of my favorites. 

And that concluded our time in Munich. Next Salzburg!

The Year In Review: 2013

Happy New Year!

Even though it's the first day of 2014 I still don't feel like a whole year has passed. Compared to 2012, this year was a year of settling in. 2012 was a year of change; we got engaged, bought our first home and got married. 2013 wasn't as crazy but it was still exciting. Poseidon came to live with us and we finally took our long awaited European honeymoon.

I dislike doing the traditional resolutions for the new year. You know... lose weight, save more money... but I still like making a resolution. I try to come up with ones that I can actually keep and ones that will actually make my life better. A few years ago my resolution was to be more adventurous. That year I went in a hot air balloon (big deal when you're scared of heights) and shot a gun. This year my resolution is to be more present in the moment. I want to stop stressing the small stuff and just enjoy the moments as they happen. I mean is it really a big deal if the dirty dishes are still in sink?

Anyway if you want to see how 2013 went for us you can check out our monthly roundups here.

The Month In Review: November and December 2013

I am a slacker. Obviously I haven't been keeping up with my blog posting but here is a little round up the last two months. We...

• Finally finished painting our hallway
• Celebrated our first wedding anniversary
• Dressed up for Halloween 
• Showed off our house decorated for fall and Christmas 
• Shared photos from New York, Dublin and Oktoberfest
• Tore up our old tile floors, survived our own dust bowl and fixed a leak in our wall so we could lay down new floors

Merry Christmas!

Even though Christmas is the 25th my family and I celebrate on the 24th. We eat dinner, hang out and at the stroke of midnight we start opening presents!

Soooo on what I consider to be Christmas... Merry Christmas! The floor project sorted of sidetracked us and I didn't have time to send out our Christmas card this year. But I figured I can still share it here with all of you!

Under "Happy Holidays" it reads "Sending merry wishes to you and yours, Jonathan, Berennisse & Poseidon Stubblefield." 

Our photo with Santa was taken at our local Petsmart. They take photos with your camera, give your furry friend some treats and all the proceeds go to help homeless animals. The best part is that there was no line! Jonathan and I are seriously considering going to see this Santa instead of the one at the mall when we have kids. That way our fur kid can also be in it. 

The top right photo is from our trip to Salzburg, Austria. We are posing in front of the Mirabell Gardens  which some of you may recognize from the Sound of Music. On the bottom you can see us at Oktoberfest enjoying our first liter of the day. 

Merry Christmas! 

Halls Decked!

Our home is finally ready for Christmas!

Our stockings are by the chimney (with care, of course). Poseidon's bone shaped one is in the middle. 

To decorate our coffee table I spayed painted beer bottles with gold glitter. Yes, glitter comes in the form of spray painted. I sealed the bottles with a coat of clear acrylic (also in spray paint form).  I already had the long red and gold branches and Jonathan purchased the short leafy ones. 

I added a nutcracker (free on Black Friday!) and silver acorn to our side table. 

To accommodate the Christmas tree I had to move the console table into the dining area. I placed underneath the mirror and placed two of the dining chairs on either side. I made the wreath with some leftover deco mesh and bought the wooden "S." It also got the gold spray paint treatment. On the console table there's a faux tree that I bought for $2 from Big Lots five years ago. Next to it is a piece of  Styrofoam that I wrapped last year to stick all of the Christmas cards we received. We got a lot last year so I didn't use it this year. On top of it is a big salad bowl filled up with extra ornaments. 

Jon helped me move the dining table around (which I actually like a lot better) to make room for the console table. I left the tablecloth from Thanksgiving on it and added a black runner with gold snowflakes on it from Target years ago. My brother gave me the wine box and I just stuck in the six poinsettias I got on Black Friday. The red and green matched perfectly so I left it alone. 

I wrapped deco mesh, garland and lights around the handrail of our staircase. I added ribbon and decorative picks along the way. I also saved all of the holiday cards we received last year and hung them in between the spindles. 

Originally I wanted to put this little tree by the staircase window but the cord wasn't long enough so I had to place it here instead. 

Outside Jon opted for the traditional color lights but it was my idea to place the tree outside. 

Now all we're missing is some presents under our tree... but I don't really feel like wrapping them all just yet!