God Bless America...

Oh, the 4th of July.

Gotta love it. Good times. Good friends. And fireworks. The house got a flag in celebration. Kinda makes me want to say the Pledge of Allegiance. We spent the day hanging out with Kelly and then walked down our street, literally, to the town's fireworks display and celebration with our neighbors, J.J., Jena and Finn. 

Finn, me and Kelly waiting for the show to begin...

Kis, as Finn refers to him, was also ready...

Awesome...

Getting even better...

Pretty darn spectacular...

And, um...what is that? A new kind of firework? A UFO? Nope, a two year-old with glow sticks. "You have one? Kis have one?"

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.

Rematch...

Taking a break from house repairs, Chris and I headed back to Michigan the weekend after New Years. This time, there were no parties to attend. It was all about the Fliets and the football...and this time it was on home team "turf." Sunday morning we all piled into the 'burb around 8:30 and headed 3 hours east to Detroit. 

 Jack, Carolyn, Chris, Keri (me) & Andy

Ford Field to be exact...which is an INDOOR stadium. Detroit Lions v.s. Chicago Bears, round 2. We had SO much fun!

Chris & I before kick-off

Chris, being the only Bears fan in our posse, took our mild razzing like a champ but there were so many Bears fans at the game that we couldn't say too much...unlike the Bears v.s. Lions game in October that we went to with the Tritt family where Lions fans were few and far (like miles and miles) between.

Andy flashed back to his football playing days and spoke football-ease with Chris while I chimed in when he sounded pessimistic about our beloved team.

Jack gave Carolyn the play-by-play during the game. Mom claims she isn't a fan of any specific football team (but I think this is somewhat for Chris' sake).

While the outcome of this game was the same as the last meeting (sob, tears, sob), it was a well played game and incredible to see in person. And...we now have first draft pick. At least this season's record was better than last. 

I am not a fair-weather fan but I'm not stupid either. I know they have not been good in recent years, "ever since Barry" according to my dad, but is a team ever going to get better if they have no fans to support them? Nope. Plus, I always root for the underdog...which makes the Lions a perfect match. 

Flietstra Family Bonding...

Labor Day weekend is supposed to be a relaxing time, right? Hah. Not around our house! My parents drove down by 7:30am Saturday morning to meet us at Home Depot to rent our hefty floor sanders. Amazingly those don't fit in the *Focus.* Andy and Alysha (round 2 of reinforcements) arrived not long after we got back home!

Major thanks to Jack, Chris and Andy for the Saturday Sanding-fest. Floor sanding with the big rigs took up the majority of Saturday.... they stopped to eat dinner at the cook-out with our neighbors...then back to work till about midnight Saturday. Don't have any pictures of this (sad) but it was too dusty to really see anything.

Sunday was another Sanding Bonanza. More sanding with the smaller sanders. This was more of a collaborative effort- Andy, Alysha, Carolyn, Jack, Chris & me- all inhaling the dust together! We started around 8ish in the morning and it wasn't until Sunday evening that we were able to start the *Bona* flooring finale. My dad and I put the sealer down about 5 pm. Then we grabbed a bite to eat at restaurant in dowtown Batavia - where, between my mom and I, we managed to break a ramekin and spill 2 glasses of water. Around 9-10pm, Jack, Chris and Andy put the first coat of finish down followed by the second around 1:30am.

Everyone worked SO HARD! We really appreciated all the help! It would have never gotten done without all of the fam!