Ok, so things haven't been going so well with keeping up the resoultions. Part of the problem is that I sit in front of a computer all day so I don't really want to sit in front of one again when I get home. Lousy excuse, I know. So if you'll recall, these are our (my) resolutions for 2011:
1. Blog at least once a week.
2. Get healthy.
3. Practice yoga at home.
4. Come up with and use a chore chart.
5. Finish the "Year of the House" list.
Results:
1. So, as previously mentioned, resolution 1 is not going so well. I think I'm going to have to start finding a few minutes to blog at work if I want to keep up with this one.
2. This is going well. I've definitely been eating healthier since the year started. Less pizza and Chinese, more cooking at home. I've also started working out a couple of times a week. I'm in the process of getting signed up with a personal trainer and I'm really looking forward to that because I definitely need to get in some strength training. I'm also signing up for the Komen 5K in June.
3. I took that "growing your home practice" workshop and so far, I've only done yoga at home once since then. I'm hoping to do it tomorrow morning so as to get in some home practice for this week. I need to increase this. Even if I do 10 minutes a day at home, it would be better than nothing.
4. I have neithe come up with nor used a chore chart. This needs to happen though. We've been really busy and this would be a good way to keep ourselves on track with keeping the house clean.
5. We're doing decently on the House list. We have painted the office! The only problem is that the previous owners either didn't know about or chose not to use painters tape when they painted so we have to touch up around the ceiling and baseboards. The next project is going to be to organize the basement storage area. There will be new storage shelving involved. There will be some throwing away and donating involved. There will also be some gathering of items for a yard sale involved.
All in all, not a total fail, but we're not doing great either.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Chicago
I spent my childhood heading to the northern suburbs of Chicago at least once a year to visit my grandmother and cousins, but in the many, many years of doing this I think we only actually went to do anything in the city of Chicago twice. One time, I was little and we went to some sort of children's museum or something. The other time, I was probably in college and my brother and I went down into the city with one of our cousins so we could see the Shedd Aquarium. So prior to our trip to Chicago to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary, I couldn't really say that I had ever really seen the city of Chicago. I don't even remember how we decided on the Windy City, but I'm really glad that we did.
We flew up on a Saturday morning and headed immediately to our hotel to at least drop off our bags. Luckily, our room was ready when we arrived so we were able to drop off our bags and get cleaned up before heading out and about. Our hotel was in an excellent location. We were right by an L station and were within a 15 minute walk to Navy Pier. Since it was a fairly nice (although colder than we had expected) day we decided to walk along Chicago's Riverwalk to get out to Lake Michigan. The walk was really nice, but the closer we got to the Lake the clearer it became that Chicago truly is the Windy City. We got over to Navy Pier and picked up the tickets for the Architecture boat tour we were going to take that afternoon. Then we headed in to Navy Pier for lunch and had our first Chicago food - a Chicago Dog.
I don't usually eat hot dogs and I don't know who thought that all of these toppings would possibly work together, but they do and this delicious concoction was worth every bite. I would absolutely eat another Chicago Dog. After lunch, we spent a lot of time browsing the shops and pretty much just trying to stay inside. It was really cold along the water that day and we were not really prepared for that. We had fleece jackets, but they were not thick enough for that biting wind. We had the smart idea to get coffees before boarding our boat tour, but that warmth only lasted so long. I was shaking with cold by the time our boat docked again. The boat tour was really cool. It was a great way to see the city and hear about some of its history. I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Chicago. Just make sure you have weather appropriate clothing. That evening we drank wine at the hotel's complimentary wine hour and then went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. We were both fairly disappointed with Chicago's HRC. The food was decent, but the shop was terrible and the rest of the place was a bit lacking.
It was SOOOO cold at the game. I had to buy more clothing and I had to drink coffee without creamer just to try to stay warm. It was bad. We didn't even stay for the whole game because we were just too cold. After the game, we headed to a sportsbar in the near our hotel so we could watch the Redskins lose. Again. ::sigh::
We flew up on a Saturday morning and headed immediately to our hotel to at least drop off our bags. Luckily, our room was ready when we arrived so we were able to drop off our bags and get cleaned up before heading out and about. Our hotel was in an excellent location. We were right by an L station and were within a 15 minute walk to Navy Pier. Since it was a fairly nice (although colder than we had expected) day we decided to walk along Chicago's Riverwalk to get out to Lake Michigan. The walk was really nice, but the closer we got to the Lake the clearer it became that Chicago truly is the Windy City. We got over to Navy Pier and picked up the tickets for the Architecture boat tour we were going to take that afternoon. Then we headed in to Navy Pier for lunch and had our first Chicago food - a Chicago Dog.
I don't usually eat hot dogs and I don't know who thought that all of these toppings would possibly work together, but they do and this delicious concoction was worth every bite. I would absolutely eat another Chicago Dog. After lunch, we spent a lot of time browsing the shops and pretty much just trying to stay inside. It was really cold along the water that day and we were not really prepared for that. We had fleece jackets, but they were not thick enough for that biting wind. We had the smart idea to get coffees before boarding our boat tour, but that warmth only lasted so long. I was shaking with cold by the time our boat docked again. The boat tour was really cool. It was a great way to see the city and hear about some of its history. I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Chicago. Just make sure you have weather appropriate clothing. That evening we drank wine at the hotel's complimentary wine hour and then went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. We were both fairly disappointed with Chicago's HRC. The food was decent, but the shop was terrible and the rest of the place was a bit lacking.
The next morning we spent a little time exploring the area around our hotel before heading to the L station so we could board the train and head to Wrigley Field. Our hotel really was in a great area. We were near great food and shopping and the neighborhood just had a really great feel to it. Joe and I agreed that, if Chicago wasn't so cold for so many months each year, we could totally move there. We arrived at Wrigley fairly early for the game so we walked around outside the ballpark for a while and then we headed in. Joe was so excited to finally be in a historic ballpark. Here's the view from our seats:
It was SOOOO cold at the game. I had to buy more clothing and I had to drink coffee without creamer just to try to stay warm. It was bad. We didn't even stay for the whole game because we were just too cold. After the game, we headed to a sportsbar in the near our hotel so we could watch the Redskins lose. Again. ::sigh::
Monday was a big, long day. We got an early start and headed down to the area of the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, and Soldier Field. We got down to that area pretty early so we started things off by taking a walk all the way around Soldier Field. I wanted to take as many pictures as possible for my Dad who gew up a Bears fan. The Bears were hosting Monday Night Football that night (against the Packers!) so things were hopping around the stadium. The pro shop was also open so I got to start my Christmas shopping early. After we finished shopping, we headed over to the Field Museum. Living just out of DC for my entire life, it was odd to have to pay to go into a museum. We had a good time strolling through and looking at their dinosaur bones. We had lunch in the museum - they had a Corner Bakery in there - and then we headed over to stand in line to get into the Shedd Aquarium. Yeah, we had to stand in line. They days that are free to go into the main part of the aquarium. No dolphin show or anything cool like that is included, but it's free. We opted to pay so that we could go see the dolphin show and some other things. They have the COOLEST dolphin habitat and show area. It looks like you're in the Pacific Northwest. And they have Pacific White Sided dolphins which are so much prettier than the dolphins you usually see.
After leaving the aquarium, we took a walk up through Grant Park (wher the Married with Children fountain is located) and Millenium Park. Then we realized we were a lot closer to our hotel than we thought so we just walked back to relax for a while before heading to dinner. We decided to head to Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza for dinner. Lucky for us, the Bears MNF game was keeping the crowds down. We took the waiter's recommendation as to what we should order and he was OH so right. The pizza was amazing. I don't think we can ever eat at Uno's again because nothing they could offer us will compare to this pizza:
Tuesday was our final day and we had just a few things to wrap up. We had breakfast at our hotel and then headed to the John Hancock Tower. The views were so amazing! And David Schwimmer did the voiceover for our "guided tour". We got a little touch screen thing with headphones at the top and it walked you through the whole observation deck and pointed out things you might have missed otherwise. Definitely a good time. After that, we walked down the Magnificent Mile and window shopped. Finally, we headed over to Portillo's for Italian Beef Sandwiches. I grew up with Italian Beef Sandwiches from Portillo's being the food to eat when we headed to Illinois and I couldn't wait to share the experience with Joe. It took a while to get our sandwiches, but they were so worth the wait. And they sandwiches were so good, I forgot to take a picture of them until after we had both finished. Oops.
Resolutions
Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged, but since it's a new year I think it's time to start anew and make a conscious effort to blog on a regular basis. So, I'll start with my resolutions for the year.
1. Blog at least once a week.
-I (we) have been really bad about blogging. The thing is that I don't really feel like we do enough on a regular basis to blog daily, but we could do a blog a week.
2. Get healthy.
-This is more than just "lose weight" or "exercise". This is all of the above. Lose weight, exercise, change the way I eat and what I eat, take my vitamins, get enough sleep, and so on. I'm going to be 30 this year and I want to make sure that I start the next decade of my life off right.
3. Practice yoga at home.
-I take a yoga class once a week and I love it, but I think I've only actually done yoga in the house once. I really need to change this (part of the whole getting healthy thing) because yoga is just so good for me in so many ways. I have a couple of yoga DVDs and the WiiFit. I just need to use them. Also, my yoga instructor is offering a workshop in a few weeks all about how home practice and I think I'm going to go and see what she has to say about that.
4. Come up with and use a chore chart.
-I have a tendency to let certain chores go far as long as I can stand and then I spend a whole day cleaning. I really need to get in the habit (and get Joe in the habit too) of doing things on a regular basis so we don't have to scramble to clean the house if people are coming over and so I don't get so fed up with how things are that I spend the day cleaning like a mad woman.
5. Finish the "Year of the House" list.
-We're close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades so there's a lot to be done. I'm looking forward to our house being done.
I think that's enough for now. And I think all of these resolutions are things that I can accomplish.
1. Blog at least once a week.
-I (we) have been really bad about blogging. The thing is that I don't really feel like we do enough on a regular basis to blog daily, but we could do a blog a week.
2. Get healthy.
-This is more than just "lose weight" or "exercise". This is all of the above. Lose weight, exercise, change the way I eat and what I eat, take my vitamins, get enough sleep, and so on. I'm going to be 30 this year and I want to make sure that I start the next decade of my life off right.
3. Practice yoga at home.
-I take a yoga class once a week and I love it, but I think I've only actually done yoga in the house once. I really need to change this (part of the whole getting healthy thing) because yoga is just so good for me in so many ways. I have a couple of yoga DVDs and the WiiFit. I just need to use them. Also, my yoga instructor is offering a workshop in a few weeks all about how home practice and I think I'm going to go and see what she has to say about that.
4. Come up with and use a chore chart.
-I have a tendency to let certain chores go far as long as I can stand and then I spend a whole day cleaning. I really need to get in the habit (and get Joe in the habit too) of doing things on a regular basis so we don't have to scramble to clean the house if people are coming over and so I don't get so fed up with how things are that I spend the day cleaning like a mad woman.
5. Finish the "Year of the House" list.
-We're close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades so there's a lot to be done. I'm looking forward to our house being done.
I think that's enough for now. And I think all of these resolutions are things that I can accomplish.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
We like to travel
One of the things we like to do (like most people) is travel. Since getting married, we've been to Vegas, LA, Thurmont, Orlando, Williamsburg, and Fenwick Island and we have 3 trips (mostly) planned within the next 14 months.
Vegas and LA was our honeymoon and it was an awesome trip. We loved Vegas. Everything we saw was just amazing. You truly don't have to gamble to have a good time there. Of course, we broke the cardinal rule of travel and didn't force ourselves to stay up until a normal hour our first day there. We got to Vegas, cleaned the travel funk off ourselves, got some food, walked around our hotel a bit and then attempted to watch some of the prime time football game. Unfortunately, we barely stayed awake for halftime which meant we were wide awake by 6:00 am. Even the buffet in our hotel (Mirage, btw) wasn't open yet. This unfortunately started us on a bad cycle of getting to bed early and then getting up early. This was nice because we got to see Vegas in the cool and quiet morning and that was great. The streets weren't exploding with people, there weren't illegals trying to hand us cards for escorts, and the streets were actually pretty clean. We did miss out on the crazy Vegas nightlife though. Maybe next time. I'd tell you more, but, you know, what happens in Vegas... :0P On the Thursday of our Sunday to Sunday honeymoon trip, we hopped a flight over to LA and spent the rest of our honeymoon there. Our hotel was in a great location - just a hop, skip, and jump from the Chateau Marmont where Lindsay Lohan and all the other young starlets get their party on. We took a tour of the Warner Brothers Studio which was just awesome. We got to see a lot of locations they used to film Gilmore Girls, we got to hang out in the Central Perk, and so much more. I definitely recommend the WB Studio Tour. Other highlights of our tour included walking the Santa Monica pier and the 3rd Street Promenade, dipping our feet into the frigid Pacific Ocean, seeing the craziness that is Venice Beach, a drive up the PCH, saw the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre, visited the Griffin Observatory, and had an AMAZING meal at The Palm in West Hollywood where we saw Adam Duritz of The Counting Crows and Emmy Rossum.
Just a few weeks after getting home from our honeymoon, we went on Joe's very first camping trip. Every year in Thurmont, MD there's a huge craft festival called ColorFest. The streets are basically closed down and everywhere you look is a tent with crafts, sports memorabilia, fair food, or someones own personal crap. Yes, everyone in the town uses this event to have a yard sale and get rid of some of their own junk. My parents had reserved 3 cabins at Cunningham Falls State Park. Joe isn't really into the whole camping idea so having a cabin with electricity to sleep in definitely worked better than a tent. We spent most of our time hanging out with my little brother Jonathan and his awesome girlfriend Jessica. We walked the town checking out the trinkets, took a drive down to Frederick to tour the Flying Dog Brewery, walked around the Catoctin Furnace, and hiked to Cunningham Falls. All in all, it was a good trip. The weather was good, the company was great, and it was nice to do something different.
In December 2009, we took a weekend trip to Orlando to visit our friend Casey. Casey was one of my bridesmaids and, at the time, she had an awesome job at one of the amusement parks down in Orlando. She now works for the other amusement park in Orlando. We had a great time (despite the fact that is POURED for our first day and a half there) and Disney at Christmas is just beautiful. Our least planned of our upcoming trips is back to Florida. We're be going to St. Augustine for my cousins Stacey's wedding (I'm a bridesmaid), down to Ormond Beach to visit Joe's grandparents, and then we'll head back to Orlando to see Casey again, visit Universal Studios (HARRY POTTER WORLD!!!!!), and maybe see Disney at Halloween which I've heard is also really cool.
In June of 2010, we took a trip to Williamsburg, VA. This was our second trip to Williamsburg together and we were pretty excited. We LOVE Busch Gardens. The park is impeccably clean and the rides are fantastic. We're roller coaster buffs and the coasters at BG are top notch. Other highlights of this trip included lots of outlet shopping, a day at Colonial Williamsburg, and a tour of the Williamsburg Winery. We got a number of great deals at the outlets (they had Coach AND Lucy!), Colonial Williamsburg was much more interesting than I remember it being, and the winery was awesome. Williamsburg Winery is now our new, fun local (ish) wine.
Our most recent trip was to Fenwick Island, DE where my Aunt & Uncle have a beach house. It was a very short trip (not even 48 hours) and it was also the hottest weekend of the year, but it was really nice to get away for a couple of days, catch up with family, and eat some crabs.
To continue our preview of upcoming trips, I'll tell you that we're planning to spend a weekend in Philly and a long weekend in Chicago. Joe's best friend Kevin and his wife Erin live there so we're going to visit. As our plans currently stand, highlights of the trip will include cheesesteaks at 9th and Passyunk and ice cream at The Franklin Fountain as well as time hanging out and catching up with our favorite Eagles fans. :0) Our trip to Chicago is for our 1 year wedding anniversary. We have tickets for a Cubs game and we're planning to eat at a Chicago dog, an Italian beef sandwich at Portillo's, and some deep dish pizza. Other than that, it's mostly up in the air. Stay tuned for trip recaps.
Vegas and LA was our honeymoon and it was an awesome trip. We loved Vegas. Everything we saw was just amazing. You truly don't have to gamble to have a good time there. Of course, we broke the cardinal rule of travel and didn't force ourselves to stay up until a normal hour our first day there. We got to Vegas, cleaned the travel funk off ourselves, got some food, walked around our hotel a bit and then attempted to watch some of the prime time football game. Unfortunately, we barely stayed awake for halftime which meant we were wide awake by 6:00 am. Even the buffet in our hotel (Mirage, btw) wasn't open yet. This unfortunately started us on a bad cycle of getting to bed early and then getting up early. This was nice because we got to see Vegas in the cool and quiet morning and that was great. The streets weren't exploding with people, there weren't illegals trying to hand us cards for escorts, and the streets were actually pretty clean. We did miss out on the crazy Vegas nightlife though. Maybe next time. I'd tell you more, but, you know, what happens in Vegas... :0P On the Thursday of our Sunday to Sunday honeymoon trip, we hopped a flight over to LA and spent the rest of our honeymoon there. Our hotel was in a great location - just a hop, skip, and jump from the Chateau Marmont where Lindsay Lohan and all the other young starlets get their party on. We took a tour of the Warner Brothers Studio which was just awesome. We got to see a lot of locations they used to film Gilmore Girls, we got to hang out in the Central Perk, and so much more. I definitely recommend the WB Studio Tour. Other highlights of our tour included walking the Santa Monica pier and the 3rd Street Promenade, dipping our feet into the frigid Pacific Ocean, seeing the craziness that is Venice Beach, a drive up the PCH, saw the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre, visited the Griffin Observatory, and had an AMAZING meal at The Palm in West Hollywood where we saw Adam Duritz of The Counting Crows and Emmy Rossum.
Just a few weeks after getting home from our honeymoon, we went on Joe's very first camping trip. Every year in Thurmont, MD there's a huge craft festival called ColorFest. The streets are basically closed down and everywhere you look is a tent with crafts, sports memorabilia, fair food, or someones own personal crap. Yes, everyone in the town uses this event to have a yard sale and get rid of some of their own junk. My parents had reserved 3 cabins at Cunningham Falls State Park. Joe isn't really into the whole camping idea so having a cabin with electricity to sleep in definitely worked better than a tent. We spent most of our time hanging out with my little brother Jonathan and his awesome girlfriend Jessica. We walked the town checking out the trinkets, took a drive down to Frederick to tour the Flying Dog Brewery, walked around the Catoctin Furnace, and hiked to Cunningham Falls. All in all, it was a good trip. The weather was good, the company was great, and it was nice to do something different.
In December 2009, we took a weekend trip to Orlando to visit our friend Casey. Casey was one of my bridesmaids and, at the time, she had an awesome job at one of the amusement parks down in Orlando. She now works for the other amusement park in Orlando. We had a great time (despite the fact that is POURED for our first day and a half there) and Disney at Christmas is just beautiful. Our least planned of our upcoming trips is back to Florida. We're be going to St. Augustine for my cousins Stacey's wedding (I'm a bridesmaid), down to Ormond Beach to visit Joe's grandparents, and then we'll head back to Orlando to see Casey again, visit Universal Studios (HARRY POTTER WORLD!!!!!), and maybe see Disney at Halloween which I've heard is also really cool.
In June of 2010, we took a trip to Williamsburg, VA. This was our second trip to Williamsburg together and we were pretty excited. We LOVE Busch Gardens. The park is impeccably clean and the rides are fantastic. We're roller coaster buffs and the coasters at BG are top notch. Other highlights of this trip included lots of outlet shopping, a day at Colonial Williamsburg, and a tour of the Williamsburg Winery. We got a number of great deals at the outlets (they had Coach AND Lucy!), Colonial Williamsburg was much more interesting than I remember it being, and the winery was awesome. Williamsburg Winery is now our new, fun local (ish) wine.
Our most recent trip was to Fenwick Island, DE where my Aunt & Uncle have a beach house. It was a very short trip (not even 48 hours) and it was also the hottest weekend of the year, but it was really nice to get away for a couple of days, catch up with family, and eat some crabs.
To continue our preview of upcoming trips, I'll tell you that we're planning to spend a weekend in Philly and a long weekend in Chicago. Joe's best friend Kevin and his wife Erin live there so we're going to visit. As our plans currently stand, highlights of the trip will include cheesesteaks at 9th and Passyunk and ice cream at The Franklin Fountain as well as time hanging out and catching up with our favorite Eagles fans. :0) Our trip to Chicago is for our 1 year wedding anniversary. We have tickets for a Cubs game and we're planning to eat at a Chicago dog, an Italian beef sandwich at Portillo's, and some deep dish pizza. Other than that, it's mostly up in the air. Stay tuned for trip recaps.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Master Bathroom
So #1 on our list for "The Year of the House" is our Master Bathroom. (1. Update Master Bathroom - new paint, flooring, fixtures, sink, vanity, mirror, medicine cabinet, lighting, vent colvers, toilet, and ceiling fan.) We actually did this back in February, but since our list started this blog off, we should probably post about everything related to that list.
The only thing in this bathroom that we really liked was the faucet. We actually kept that. The shower was also fine. We replaced the showerhead and showercurtain, but that was it. Here are some more pictures of what the bathroom used to look like:
We took care of most of the demolition and all of the painting ourselves to save some money and hired contractors that we've used before and whose bathroom work came highly recommended and over the course of 3 days, our bathroom became this:
We love our bathroom and we know we've added a good amount of value to our house simply by doing this somewhat minor renovation. There's much more to come over the course of the year and this blog though, so stay tuned.
When we bought the house, the master bathroom was just awful. Stick down linoleum tiles that didn't line up properly, green rag-painted walls, a sink that looks like it belongs in a gas station bathroom, green vents in both the ceiling and floor, really ugly towel racks, and clearance rack medicine cabinets and lighting.
The only thing in this bathroom that we really liked was the faucet. We actually kept that. The shower was also fine. We replaced the showerhead and showercurtain, but that was it. Here are some more pictures of what the bathroom used to look like:
We took care of most of the demolition and all of the painting ourselves to save some money and hired contractors that we've used before and whose bathroom work came highly recommended and over the course of 3 days, our bathroom became this:
We love our bathroom and we know we've added a good amount of value to our house simply by doing this somewhat minor renovation. There's much more to come over the course of the year and this blog though, so stay tuned.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Year of the House
Welcome to "Houdini Lives Here"...
A little bit about us - we're Katie & Joe and we're newlyweds who live in suburban Maryland. Both of us have lived in Maryland our entire lives, we went to Catholic school for 1st-12th grades, we both went to college in the Baltimore area, and we both have jobs related to the federal government. A match made in heaven, right? We thought so which is why we got married September 19, 2009. A few months before getting married, we bought a house. And a few months after getting married, we adopted a cat named Houdini. He's pretty awesome so when we decided to start a blog, we knew he would be talked about a lot and so would our house so we decided on the name "Houdini Lives Here".
We closed on our house almost a year ago and it was pretty much move-in ready. Sure, there were things we wanted to change about it, but the only thing that was so offensive we had to change it before we moved in was the wallpaper in the master bedroom. You can see why below.
So, over the course of 2 weekends, we removed wallpaper, cleaned the walls, spackled, sanded, primed, and painted the bedroom. Many thanks to Jake, Liz, Justin, Bernadette, and Katie's parents and brother Jonathan who helped us out those 2 weekends. We should really take some pictures of what it looks like now. We'll do that and post a side by side compairison sometime soon.
So after we got settled in and got Houdini settled in, we decided to come up with a list of the things we want to do to our house and we decided that 2010 was going to be "The Year of the House" so that we could enjoy as many of the changes we wanted to make for as long as possible. A lot of what we'll blog about will probably revolve around this list so here it is:
1. Update Master Bathroom - new paint, flooring, fixtures, sink, vanity, mirror, medicine cabinet, lighting, vent colvers, toilet, and ceiling fan.
2. New windows and sliding door.
3. Update Office (3rd bedroom) - new paint and carpeting, organize closet, put artwork up on walls.
4. Finish Master Bedroom - new blinds and maybe some valances, put up pictures and/or artwork.
5. Finish off Main Floor - valances for kitchen & possibly porch door, put together DVD shelf for living room, find a side table for living room, put artwork/pictures up in living room, dining room, kitchen, powder room, replace TP holder in power room, get new towels, rugs, soap dispenser, etc. for powder room, replace brass light domes, fix living room couch.
6. New appliances - dishwasher, dryer, range hood, washer (?), back-up power source for sump pump.
7. Finish off Guest Bedroom - go through boxes in closet and get it organized (totally Katie's job since all of those boxes came from her apartment or her parents' house), put up curtains and put some things up on the walls.
8. Basement storage - organize crawl space & storage area, get some additional shelving.
9. Update basement - new carpeting, paint paneling, put stuff up on walls, get new blinds or curtains, big TV & stand, possibly surround sound, get CD on shelf, organize Katie's office/craft area, electric fireplace (?)
10. Outside - new pots for front porch, power wash concrete in front and back, get a lawnmower, fix up planter areas.
Yeah, we know, "The Year of the House" might end up taking more than 1 year. So we'll be posting blogs & pictures of what we've already done in between blogs about what we're doing, blogs about Houdini, and blogs about life in general. We hope you enjoy!
A little bit about us - we're Katie & Joe and we're newlyweds who live in suburban Maryland. Both of us have lived in Maryland our entire lives, we went to Catholic school for 1st-12th grades, we both went to college in the Baltimore area, and we both have jobs related to the federal government. A match made in heaven, right? We thought so which is why we got married September 19, 2009. A few months before getting married, we bought a house. And a few months after getting married, we adopted a cat named Houdini. He's pretty awesome so when we decided to start a blog, we knew he would be talked about a lot and so would our house so we decided on the name "Houdini Lives Here".
We closed on our house almost a year ago and it was pretty much move-in ready. Sure, there were things we wanted to change about it, but the only thing that was so offensive we had to change it before we moved in was the wallpaper in the master bedroom. You can see why below.
So, over the course of 2 weekends, we removed wallpaper, cleaned the walls, spackled, sanded, primed, and painted the bedroom. Many thanks to Jake, Liz, Justin, Bernadette, and Katie's parents and brother Jonathan who helped us out those 2 weekends. We should really take some pictures of what it looks like now. We'll do that and post a side by side compairison sometime soon.
So after we got settled in and got Houdini settled in, we decided to come up with a list of the things we want to do to our house and we decided that 2010 was going to be "The Year of the House" so that we could enjoy as many of the changes we wanted to make for as long as possible. A lot of what we'll blog about will probably revolve around this list so here it is:
1. Update Master Bathroom - new paint, flooring, fixtures, sink, vanity, mirror, medicine cabinet, lighting, vent colvers, toilet, and ceiling fan.
2. New windows and sliding door.
3. Update Office (3rd bedroom) - new paint and carpeting, organize closet, put artwork up on walls.
4. Finish Master Bedroom - new blinds and maybe some valances, put up pictures and/or artwork.
5. Finish off Main Floor - valances for kitchen & possibly porch door, put together DVD shelf for living room, find a side table for living room, put artwork/pictures up in living room, dining room, kitchen, powder room, replace TP holder in power room, get new towels, rugs, soap dispenser, etc. for powder room, replace brass light domes, fix living room couch.
6. New appliances - dishwasher, dryer, range hood, washer (?), back-up power source for sump pump.
7. Finish off Guest Bedroom - go through boxes in closet and get it organized (totally Katie's job since all of those boxes came from her apartment or her parents' house), put up curtains and put some things up on the walls.
8. Basement storage - organize crawl space & storage area, get some additional shelving.
9. Update basement - new carpeting, paint paneling, put stuff up on walls, get new blinds or curtains, big TV & stand, possibly surround sound, get CD on shelf, organize Katie's office/craft area, electric fireplace (?)
10. Outside - new pots for front porch, power wash concrete in front and back, get a lawnmower, fix up planter areas.
Yeah, we know, "The Year of the House" might end up taking more than 1 year. So we'll be posting blogs & pictures of what we've already done in between blogs about what we're doing, blogs about Houdini, and blogs about life in general. We hope you enjoy!
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