Tres

Marielle is three months old today.

She still has the furrowed brow, serious side of her but is showing a little more of her light-hearted side these past couple of weeks.  She also has a serious double chin.

Lots of improvements and finishing touches have been going on around here.

Remember the buffet?  

There was a space between the two cupboards where the old radiator used to be.  Because we switched from radiant to forced air, we decided to put a shelf in this space to put that space to work.  The carpenter put in the shelf today.

He pried the original baseboard off the back wall and moved it to the front.  It needs a good scrub-down, but I wanted to post this anyway (trying to keep it real here).

I'll likely use it to store cookbooks once I have it stained.  

We're also getting the fence put in this week.  We have the back fence in and the front fence will likely be built next week.  I felt awkward snapping photos of the crew while they were building it in the backyard so all the photos I have of the fence so far are "stalker shots" that I took of the progress through the window.  I'll post new fence photos next week.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

                                                                                                                       

Most Improved

We haven't done that much to the exterior of our home.  The biggest change, taking the boards off the windows, was actually free!  We also put on a new roof and one of our neighbors crafted two window boxes for the front of the house as a housewarming gift.  I also put a couple of perennials in the front bed and some stucco work is currently being done.

A couple of months ago, one of my neighbors handed me an application for our neighborhood's Most Improved Home contest.  I submitted the application, along with a photo of our home from the day we closed on it:

I also submitted some photos of our home from a couple of months ago, even though the stucco work hadn't been started.  

The contest was judged by a panel based on some unknown measure of awesomeness.  I received a letter this week indicating we had won 2nd place!  What a great surprise.

Although most of the work we've done in the house has been on the interior, it's nice to look back through the photos and see what a difference the little changes can make.  

It was so great to see the other winners' before & after photos as well.  Some people did some landscaping, others some painting, and others added water features or retaining walls.  Such a great idea….can we have an interior improvement contest as well?  If so, count me in!

Thank you to our neighborhood, BMO Harris Bank, Lowe's, and Bank Mutual for sponsoring this event!

Trophy Weekend

Ahh…the weekend was wonderful.  Greg's parents took the kiddos and we were able to go on a date, go to Urgent Care (Greg, not me)*, go to a costume party, and attend the Emmy's in Chicago.

On Friday night, we went to dinner at Kil@wat and had a wonderful dinner. I ordered the salmon and we even splurged and ordered a lemon custard with berries for dessert!  

So pretty. And tasty.

On Saturday night, our neighbors had a Halloween party.  Their haunted bungalow was decked out with creepy severed hands under glass and loads of great food.  They served a drink called Dragon's Spit, which was a jalepeno martini with rosemary and lime.  I wasn't daring enough for a whole glass, but had a taste and it was actually very good.  This was my first time dressing up for Halloween in probably 15 years.  We went as Wayne & Garth and partied on.

On Sunday, we got all gussied up for the Midwest Regional Emmys.  Greg was nominated for the work he's done on the ItsAaron.com project (yes, that's a plug. It's my blog).  

My handsome date

We arrived at Alhambra Palace and there were four Rolls Royces (Royci?) parked in front, strictly as props.  Being easily impressed, I took a picture so that I can tell people that I once saw four Rolls Royci.  

Our friend Jeremy reminded us that, should Greg win, the acceptance speech protocol is to remark, "Boy, these things are heavy!"  And, in the event that Greg does not win, he should clap and smile graciously and then punch our waiter in the mouth when he makes eye contact.  (Although Greg did not end up winning, the waiter was not harmed).

It was a wonderful date night!  Wow.  Two dates in one weekend.  We should be set for the next year! 

*Greg was bitten by a spider on Friday night and had red streaks running up his arm from the toxins.  He spent several hours doctoring and getting meds on Saturday.  Not fun.