Aaaand we're back!

I know it has been awhile since our last post and some of you have been waiting for an update ;) I have actually been trying to get this post done for a week now, so sorry for the delay. We have had quite a busy March! All good things though and hopefully I can make it through all of them for you.

I'll take you back a few weeks to where we left off...here's what our place looked like right after the floors were done. We couldn't have been happier with how they turned out!!



Our first big project was moving all our stuff back in after the floors were done. We were pretty happy to be moving all of our belongings for the last time in the foreseeable future!! Thanks again to my dad for all his help--we couldn't have done it without him. Here's our progress of moving stuff in and also what it looks like now that we've settled in and unpacked a little bit.

Jim and my dad put together our new dining room table!

We had a small party the weekend after we moved in to celebrate many March occasions (my birthday, our 2nd anniversary, St. Patrick's day, and our new floors!) It was nice to finally have some people over to see our accomplishments. Don't worry...your invitation to our spring/summer open house blow out party will be on its way in the near future :) Here's a few highlights from the shindig.




I also got some lovely chartreuse roses from Jim for our anniversary :)

Somewhere in all the chaos, we also found time to buy a new car. As many of you know, my little 14 year old car finally had its first malfunctions when it stopped going in reverse about 3 months ago. (and yes, I have been driving a car that doesn't go in reverse for that long--how? it just takes skill and lots of planning ;) Jim equates it to flying an airplane and told me to not make any u-turns that I wasn't sure I could make!) Through my dad's connections at the dealership we were put in touch with a lady who bought a brand new 2009 Subaru Forester 5 months ago who had decided she wanted a different car. Needless to say we got a great deal on a "newsd" (that's Jim's term) car. We're still waiting on the title to get transferred, but we are happy to have it in our driveway and I'm looking forward to driving it soon!! Here's a few pics of it in our driveway. Ben--pictures of the cup holders are in the works.



Last weekend was Mary's birthday and to celebrate a big group of ladies went horseback riding out in the hills of Virginia. We had a great time and then went wine tasting afterward. Here's the birthday girl on her horse!


This weekend we made a trip to Ikea and then spent the rest of the weekend organizing and continuing to unpack. We still have a little ways to go, but we are definitely making strides and everything is definitely starting to come together.

We got this little shelf to go by our front door.

We got these wall shelves and boxes for our 2nd bedroom in the "office corner."

I also ran a 5k this weekend! As some of you know, I've been training to do this race for a little while. I'm not a runner by any stretch of the imagination, but just decided I wanted to cross this off my life to do list. It went really well and I can definitely attribute that to my great friends who were able to join me and keep me running the whole way! Mary even made a sign and some fun letters for everyone to wear that spelled out my name ;) I am happy that I was able to do it without too much trouble and I think I may even sign up for a 10k later in the spring/summer.

We made a list of the remaining projects to do on the house and prioritized them. I think it helps both of us to see it all written down and Jim loves crossing things off, so it's motivation to get stuff done. Most of them are small projects or purely cosmetic things and then some are bigger--like finishing painting the exterior of our house--but only once the weather warms up and dries up! The number one project that I've been wanting done for a while is hanging up our house numbers! The original house numbers were red numeric stickers on the screen door that I think we took down on day #2. The new ones look great! Now just to finish that painting so the house looks a little better.... ;) Soon enough!

Of course Chip has been up to his usual antics. I think he's still getting used to the hardwood floors. It's really funny to watch him scamper around like usual, but slip and slide on the floors when he runs too fast. He continues to "help" us with our various projects, which I think is his favorite thing to do.

Chip helps take the tape off the windows

Chip helps with the laundry

Chip helps put together furniture

Floor plans

We worked hard last week and weekend to get the house ready for getting the hardwood floors refinished. We did a lot of late night painting and moved all our furniture around inside and out into the storage unit in our driveway. We wrapped everything up on Sunday evening. Thanks to the graciousness of Matt and Mary, we're staying at their place around the corner while they are enjoying sunny Hawaii. It's really nice to have a convenient place to stay while this big project is underway and we've enjoyed relaxing this week and catching up on sleep from last week! Here's a look at our work over the past week...


We had to prep the last wall in the living room and finish up the dining room as well. Goodbye old orange mirror square wall!

Here's the dining room, with one coat of primer! It looks like a room again :)

And the dining room, with one coat of Antique White paint.

Chip was being the "helper" that he usually is and got paint on his paw from trying to play with my paint roller. We had to photograph it before he got sequestered to his room.

On Saturday we got a bit of a reprieve and we took a trip down to Charlottesville. We took Chip to vacation at my parents house for the duration of the floor project and we also went to the UVA vs. Wake Forest basketball game. We didn't win :( Our team is less than stellar this year without Sean Singletary. But we still got to see the beautiful John Paul Jones Arena for the first time and it really is an impressive facility...hopefully our team will catch up to that in the near future.



We were back on Saturday night for more painting and then Sunday brought snow! Of course for some reason it always precipitates while we move. Thankfully we took advantage of the break in the storm in the middle of the day to get most of the stuff out. And then we got about 6 or so more inches overnight, which was pretty crazy.
And then the snow delayed our project a day and it started on Tuesday instead of Monday. But we are REALLY pleased with how the floors are looking. For not knowing what we were going to find underneath the carpet pad that was glued to the floors in the living room and dining room, the floor is actually in really good condition. There are a few spots that are a bit damaged/stained, but it's minimal and I think with strategic furniture and rug placement we can cover it. Here's what the floors looked like after the sanding...

And here's what they look like now with the first coat of stain...


They have a couple more coats to do and then we can move back in! I cannot express how excited I am, this is truly the last big step and we can FINALLY unpack all our belongings and really move into our house :) YAY! Seriously though, everything that's left on the main floor after this project is minimal and mostly aesthetic stuff like replacing trim, etc. I'll post again with pictures once we are back in!