cover up

This post is old. It was supposed to go up last week, but my computer and camera haven't been seeing eye-to-eye recently. But don't worry! We held hands and sang kumbaya last night and everything's fine again. So here's last week's post today. 

Long long ago (you know, when we started this project 13 months ago), I resigned myself to the fact that we’d have to build another (albeit much smaller) bump-out to cover our collection of pipes running up our kitchen wall.

These were originally housed in a broom closet that we tore out to make room for a full-size fridge. (Picky, I know, but I had just graduated from college and kinda wanted to move past the dorm-size fridge stage).

Original broom closet. Photo from 2008!

So then we (and by we I mean my dad and Nick) built a sweet new home for the pipes.

 And then we tore that out as part of our second kitchen demolition.

So naturally we made Dad come back to build another bump out. Except my dad is always thinking and had a better solution. Get those babies hidden in the wall.

Dad, I love you.

While I was doing yoga and planning baby showers with my sister and mom, Dad was at our house brainstorming and making things happen. When I got home Saturday night the pipes were hidden. Gone. No longer an eyesore.

We’ll have to build a very minor cover at the top of the wall, but it’s nothing compared to what we had planned on running up the entire wall.

Plus? Dad came over with his own list of things to do while at our house for the day, which included cleaning our kitchen window.

We’ve actually had a strip of duct tape stuck to the window since our demo-days….last year. And we hadn’t actually cleaned the window in over a year. Compared the disaster that was our entire house, I guess a dirty window and fragmented duct tape didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me anymore.

Until he cleaned it.

I’ve literally been doing double takes every single time I look out the window. It’s so…..clean! And you can see out the whole thing! No duct tape right smack dab at eye level. I think what I learned from it is that a) I should clean all of our windows (or bribe my dad to do it) and b) sometimes the little things can make a huge difference. Even when the rest of the house is a disaster.

Thanks, Dad.

secret's out

Nick and my dad spent all of Saturday working on our kitchen. They made AWESOME progress, which we'll get to later.

Dad also gained some insight into why our timeline for everything is times two.

Dad: So this is why you never get anything done around here.


Nick: Pretty much.

thrifting

Remember that time I spent an entire weekend with two of my favorite bloggy buddies (Kim and Michelle) and we went thrifting?

Well. I just so happened to come home with some treasures.

First up, this sweet little canister. I was drawn to every single red item we saw that day (natural side effect of being a redhead), but when I saw this one it was love at first sight. However, since I have commitment issues when it comes to spending money I walked around with it for another hour before biting the bullet and actually buying it. (It was $6. I have issues.)

Anyway, I think it will make a lovely addition to our (yet to be created) open shelves in the kitchen. 

We also hit up the local Salvation Army, where I spotted this soap dispenser for $6.75. And since I'd been using Kim's identical dispensers all weekend and loved them I snatched it right up.

I'm pretty sure it's a step or two up from the plastic Aldi dispenser in our bathroom right now.

Two tangible reminders of a stellar weekend with friends!

That adventure also confirmed that I'm a better group thrifter than I am a solo thrifter. I easily get overwhelmed by all the STUFF, but exploring with friends was the perfect way to enjoy huge antique malls. We got some good laughs out of what we found for sale, but also dug through the piles and found some treasures.

Any good thrifting finds recently? Are you a solo thrifter or do you prefer to thrift in groups?

our steam mop

You guys are great. I love all the random facts from Friday's post! But apparently my love for our steam mop brought up a lot of questions, so I thought I'd tackle them in their own post.

To start things off, I absolutely love our steam mop. We started thinking about getting one last Summer, but I spent way too much time reading reviews online and got really discouraged. There were pretty split reviews for every mop I looked at. One person loved it, one person hated it just as much. Plus, is a $150 mop really that much better than a $40 mop??

But I was intrigued by the idea that a steam mop could actually sanitize the floors, because with our current microfiber mop I felt like I was just pushing dirty water around the floor.

So when everybody slashed prices on their steam mops on Black Friday we decided to pull the trigger. We ended up getting the Shark Steam Pocket Mop for about $60. It was honestly kind of an accident. We had gone in with a different Shark model in mind, but they were sold out (we weren't exactly busting down the doors at midnight), so we scooped up this one instead.

We also bought an extra pack of the covers, which I HIGHLY recommend, especially if your entire house is hard surface floors.

So here's what we love:

• So easy to use. Plug it in, give it 30 seconds, then push it around the floor. BOOM. Instant clean.
• Really long cord, so I can do our entire main level without plugging and unplugging.
• The pads are really easy to clean. Toss them in the washer and you're done. You can't machine dry them, but that hasn't been a big deal for us. They're not snow white anymore (as you can see in the picture above), but they still do the trick.
• The pads are reusable, so we're not constantly buying new ones (like we did with the Swiffer). Shark recommends buying new ones every 6 months or so, but I'm guessing we'll stretch it out quite a bit past that. Plus, if you're the crafty type (I'm clearly not) you could probably even make your own!
• We're not using any chemicals on our floors. With 87 year old hardwood floors I'm always hesitant to douse them in chemicals, so I love having an alternative that works. 
• Our floors are clean. Like, whoa, clean. (Well, until the dogs come in to see what's going on.)
• The floors dry instantly. Since we use it on our hardwood floors, I really like the minimal water left behind and the fact that it's dry almost instantly. 

A couple things we'd change if we could:

• Add an on/off switch. You turn it on by plugging it in, which is fine, but it'd be nice to be able to turn it off from the mop itself.
• I do have some trouble with streaks on the floors, but that's usually because the pad is a little too dirty and I didn't want to switch it out again. If I run over the same spot again with a clean pad that seems to clear it up. Or, I could probably just mop the floors twice a day and that would eliminate the issue. 

Honestly, I think those are my only complaints. We've only been using it since the beginning of December, so it hasn't been long, but we use it a couple times a week. Obviously, I have no way of testing to make sure the floor is actually sanitized, but they're definitely clean. Really clean. In fact, I think our grout lines are actually getting a teeny tiny bit lighter as we keep using the steam mop. 

I guess the caveat to that is that sliding a steam mop across the floor is not the same as getting on your hands and knees with a scrub brush. The deep texture in our kitchen tile traps dirt really easily, so to truly get every last bit of dirt out of them I need to get on my hands and knees. But since we all know that's not going to happen often (ever?) I'm thrilled that we found a way to keep the floors clean with minimal effort.

What am I forgetting?? What questions do you have? We would definitely recommend the mop, but I'd also recommend googling around for a deal. Amazon typically has a pretty good deal on this particular model.

Anybody else have a steam mop? Love it? Hate it?

To be clear, Shark has no idea who we are or that this post exists. We just found a product that makes our life easier so we thought we'd share the love!

random thoughts with Cindy

Ready for this? I’m feeling super random right now (or…..always), so here are some thoughts from my random brain to yours.

I prefer my coffee black. My favorite roast is Starbuck’s Café Verona, but their new blonde roast is also really tasty. I also love Starbucks mugs. I’ve read every book about Starbucks that I can get my hands on.  I’m downright obsessed with Starbucks, let’s be real.

Our new steam mop makes my world go ‘round. Or at least it makes our floors squeaky clean (for 10 seconds).

I love John Denver. No road trip is complete without him. On our recent trip to Utah I had the same JD CD on repeat for approx 7 hours. Nick discovered I do indeed have every last word memorized. He was thrilled.

I was born in Louisiana.

I would travel every month if our bank account would allow. The thought of staying in the state of Minnesota for an entire year makes me twitch.

I never been to Disneyworld. Or Disneyland. I’m not actually bothered by that fact, but we do occasionally give my parents grief for depriving us of that experience. But I actually don’t like crowds, especially on vacation, so I don’t think it’d work out very well. I’ll stick to National Parks.

I didn’t own a pair of heels until my sisters bought me a pair in college. Now I wear heels every single day and my favorite is a pair of 4” heels.

I want to paint our bedroom walls gray, but our comforter (that I adore) is chocolate brown. I’m not so sure those 2 colors work well together.

I don’t take naps. They make me cranky. REALLY cranky.

I actually don’t enjoy sleeping. My mom made a rule when I was a kid that I couldn’t set my alarm any earlier than 5:30am.

I’m always cold. Which is perfect, since we live in Minnesota. It’s so balmy here.

Ok, your turn! Tell me 3 random things about you. Or that you’re thinking right now. Or heck, what you wish you were eating right now.

Aaaaaand go!

in real life

Sometimes following through on a crazy idea really pays off.

A couple months ago Kim and Michelle were planning a last-minute rendezvous via Twitter (lucky ducks live really close to each other!) and I jumped in and voiced my jealousy that I couldn't participate. They were both quick to point out I should just hop in my car and head south. So in January I sent them an email with the subject line "Where I invite myself over to your house." And then on Friday I went ahead and jumped in my car and headed south.

And it was awesome.

We ate a lot of food. We shopped at antique malls and thrift stores. We squeezed in lots of puppy snuggling! We saw each other's houses in real life for the first time (AND LOVED THEM).

We talked about houses and husbands and paint colors and puppies and jobs and dreams and what we liked to eat.

And we laughed.

And we snuggled puppies again.

Without a doubt, the people are my absolute favorite part of blogging. The relief of knowing we're not the only ones tiling until late at night, or spending our date nights at Home Depot. Getting a "you can do it!" over Twitter when I'm so done with the mess and the chaos. I love the community this creates. But taking it offline and bringing it into real life has to be a million times better. Or at least it is when you're hanging out with these two ladies. (Plus, their puppies were even cuter in real life.)

This weekend was so.much.fun. The seed has been planted for a sequel to the story up here in Minnesota, so I'm hoping to coerce them to come visit me soon. Feel free to encourage them to that end in the comments.

Kim and Michelle, thanks for introducing me to your hometown and hosting an incredible weekend! I'm so glad we made it happen and can't wait for the next one.

Check out Kim's post about the weekend here and Michelle's post about the weekend here. All photos are courtesy of Kim, because we only took 3 pictures the entire weekend between the three of us. And by "between the three of us" I mean Kim took 3 pictures. I carried my camera around the entire time but failed to take a single picture. Impressive!

Have you ever arranged a meet-up with another blogger? Were their puppies as cute as Ike, Franco and Lola?

my view

Almost anytime I'm taking a picture I have to finagle around this view:

Yup. Beemer's head.

Our big furball is a total cuddlebug. If I'm kneeling/crouching/sitting/doing push-ups on the floor he has to be in the middle of it.

And let's be real. I absolutely love it.