The Cooler Side of Life

So, life here in the Midwest had been pretty toasty lately. Downright stifling. People ask "Don't you have central air?" My response "Hahahaha." We have boiler heat through radiators so there isn't the duct work for central air. Our humble abode came equipped with two large air-conditioning units - one in the living room window and one upstairs built into the wall of the future baby's room. Not a one in our bedroom. And this is not the summer for sleeping in the heat...due to being my own oven with a bun inside.

Memorial Day Solution? Home Depot + parents visiting = project. 

Got to love Home Depot... 

and Chris and Jack who install new a/c units in your bedroom!

 Making sure it stays on the second floor is always good!

Nice work guys! Now, you may have noticed, the only problem is the 48" wide blind stops above the a/c unit...leaving plenty of window, um, very visible.  I temporarily taped paper in the gap because, hey, it works. Looks terrible (except that it's cute scrapbooking paper) and I'll probably head out to look for two separate blinds to fit this weekend. But honestly, it depends how much the taped-paper look really gets to me. 

When we were at the great Home Depot, my pops decided they were going to purchase a lil' unit for the "guest room"...which he and my mom were going to be inhabiting that night. Maybe they did not want a sauna experience. Either way, we were happy about it! 

By now, Chris and Jack are pros at a/c unit installation.

Third time's a charm. This one is actually the third unit they've teamed up on. The first one was in the heat of the summer in our 450 square foot apartment in Champaign, IL.

 Well, you have to make sure it works right? 

Just for the record, we do not put everybody to work that comes to visit us...just a few lucky ones. And, they offered.

Housewarming Party!!

Last Saturday morning, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut-off...giving half-intelligible directions of what to clean, where to chuck/hide masses of things, etc to Chris, my parents and my grandma. Why? It was H-day...Housewarming party day. And, thirty or so friends and family would soon be knocking to come in and take a gander at all of our work on our *new* home. 

And they did! We had a great time getting to show people the house and changes and catch up with some friends we hadn't seen in a while! Our realtor, Jackie, stopped by too and got to see all the changes since she'd last seen the house in August...a lot. I think everybody had a pretty good time too...I was told of a few meatball-induced food comas following the bash.

To be very honest, there is not a chance that Chris and I would have pulled off such a party without some major help from both our parents and Grandma Versluys. Nope, not a chance. We are very thankful for all their help! Unfortunately, I didn't get any picture evidence of their work. Actually, I didn't get any pics of during the party, guests, etc. Here are a few pics that I got before the party...

 

Dining room bookcases (finally *pretty-ified*)

 
 

First floor *guest* room 

 
 

Living room area (which is now crawling, 7 month old-approved)

 

A tidier landing/shelf (above the front door, 

we think the stairs were moved to their current spot) 

Office upstairs sporting the vintage wallpaper...which was fairly popular with guests!

 

Tada...Master bedroom. 

(We spent so many hours in the 3-4 weeks prior to the party on this that it is deserving of it's own post...soon. )

Fast forward to this beautiful, sunny Saturday morning...I am slowly sipping my coffee in my pajamas, listening to country music on Pandora and blogging from the comfort of the EXTORP. And...thoroughly enjoying it. 

We've been constantly working on the house since we moved in in August...and now we are going to take a little sanity-induced break from major projects (organization and decorating are still fair game) for a month or so. We need a little time to regroup and enjoy all the love and sweat equity we've doused the house with so far. And, maybe I can catch up on blogging some of the improvements in more depth, future ideas and life in general in this vintage home-sweet-work-in-progress.

Now you see it, now you don't...

In preparation for sanity and a few special visitors who will need a place to sleep next weekend, Chris and I spent the day working on cleaning/clearing out the *guest room* which had been aptly nicknamed the *furniture barn/tool shed* until today. Here's a little peek at some of the progress...

Now you see the shelves....

Now you don't. Thank goodness.

Now you see the dust-crusted curtains...

Now you don't. But you do see the neighbor's house...which means they can see you and you need to run to Target for some blinds. 

Now you see the blinds...

 Now you don't. Uh oh. Apparently, these blinds are meant to give the illusion of privacy...if you are inside the house. There's no mistaking the fact that you can see clearly into the room from the outside. Good thing Chris decided to check.

Now you see...the reason I convinced Chris to buy the blinds and the curtain rod just in case the blinds didn't fit (or provide privacy?)...I must be psychic...

Now you don't...see into our house, thanks to some extra curtains from the last apartment. 

P.S. Wallpaper and suspended ceiling, your days are numbered.