lights, camera, action!

The laundry room now has lights!

Andrew and his dad put up the drywall ceiling the other night and Andrew installed some can lights as well. Andrew is a fan of can lights. As in, he basically puts them in every room possible. He did in Ohio, and he’s doing it here. He’s gotta be some sort of expert by now…

There’s been a lot of action in there tonight–loud sawing noises and burning smells and wafts of dust coming from that general direction–so I’ve hunkered down in my office upstairs for some much-needed computering.

I cannot tell you how excited I am for this weekend–so I can get things done. Lord, let there be enough hours in the day!

labor day

We dropped our house projects for the long weekend to host our dear friends Emily and Dan and Jen and Dave and their baby, Aiden!

They arrived Friday night and we (not-so-promptly, according to Emily) ordered Pasquale’s pizza and wings:

Early risers Hadrian and Aiden hangin’ out the next morning:

After a circuit-training workout (led by Emily!) at the park across the street, we walked to Charlie’s for brunch, then to Fisher Price (headquartered in my NEW hometown!):

Followed by refreshments at Taste!

(Aiden got ahold of my earring…)

Miss Emily posing while we walked FROM OUR HOUSE TO MAIN STREET (how awesome is that?!):

Dinner on Saturday was beef on weck and homemade salad, which we devoured before I got a chance to snap a photo:

I made a cocktail for the girls of cake-flavored vodka and chocolate coconut water, a recommendation from a cousin. It was amazing!

Andrew made a fire in the backyard and we roasted marshmallows:

(In the interest of journalistic integrity, I feel I have to divulge this: the fire department and police may have shown up. Well, there is no ‘may’ about it; they did. Turns out a neighbor called our fire in, but YES, we are allowed to have a fire in our backyard. The authorities wished us well and left almost as soon as they arrived, somewhat puzzled as to why they were called in the first place…)

The spread the next morning:

Homemade bagels and blueberry donuts!

We headed off to Niagara Falls (because what else do you do with visitors who’ve never been?!), then proceeded on to Crystal Beach (also in Canada) against our better judgement. It was a bust, Aiden was hot and fussy–heck! We were ALL hot and fussy–so we scrambled back across the border as fast as possible!

We were welcomed by the familiar sights and smells of Wegmans, where we ordered subs to-go and picked up Bar Bill wings on the way home. After some showers, some grub and puttin’ our feet up, I’d say we all fully recovered from the crowded Falls and beach trip. Emily and I made a second pilgrimage to the caboose (our local ice cream joint), where we waited for what seemed like an eternity while the post-college returnee staff was still learning the ropes…

Our company left this morning after feasting on leftover breakfast and loading up the car. We said an enthusiastic goodbye, knowing it wouldn’t be the last.

Andrew and I wasted no time in getting back to the grind; he worked tirelessly in the laundry room (ready for ceiling lights and drywall!), while I picked up, repotted some plants, did laundry at the Layers’, organized the pantry and prepped for school.

I think I need more sleep…

demolished

So…a couple days ago, Andrew decided to demolish our almost-perfectly-good-laundry room.

Took it right down to the studs.

In his defense, it really was the right thing to do, at the right time–which just happened to be an inconvenient time. Ideally, it would have been great to use the laundry room as-is until we side the house, THEN begin giant laundry room remodel project.

However, I haven’t been able to actually DO any laundry, because we have an electric dryer and the hook-up is for gas. We had an electrician come at the end of last week to install a plug for us, and his inability to fix the problem that day (turns out that directly below the laundry room is a walled-off area in the basement which prevented him from working) was a blessing in disguise.

Andrew started poking around in the laundry room, and the more he saw, the more he disliked. It was full of shoddy construction, cruddy built-in cabinets and it was super cramped. We’d thought of taking the door out before (hence waiting until we side the house) to make more room in there, but shelved the idea for now in favor of getting laundry capability sooner rather than later.

Well, it was now-or-never on the laundry room re-d0, and I chose to lose my door (there are three OTHER doors to use to get into the house) and my utility sink (sad, but I have one in the basement, so I can’t complain too much), in favor of getting A TON more space and changing the set-up from a galley-style, narrow room to a more square version.

Andrew has taken almost all the drywall down and has to do all the plumbing and electrical work (putting it all inside the wall rather than outside, like it was before), before he can put up new drywall.

I won’t have laundry for a little while, but it’ll be worth it in the end to have a roomy workspace and not feel claustrophobic every time I go in there! I have extra paint from the kitchen, entryway and dining room, so I’m sure I’ll use some of that to paint in there and make it bright and happy. There is even enough room for a small cart for some extra storage since we won’t be putting up cabinets. The blue tape shows where a window will be (yay for natural light!), and I’ll have a bar going the length of the room on which I can hang clothes that don’t go in the dryer.

Thankfully, I have the option to do laundry at Andrew’s parents’ house just down the road until this room becomes functional…