Touristing

Since J's parents were visiting this weekend, we decided to pose as DC tourists and see some of the sights.

We started by checking out the White House. Since the recent security breach, extreme measures have been taken. A half-height modular fence was added with yellow signs. Don't mess with the Secret Service, people.

Next, we checked out the Washington Monument. Thanks to blue skies and partial cloud cover, the photos turned out gorgeous.

We also visited the WWII Memorial which offers a nice view of the Lincoln Memorial as well.

And no trip into the city is complete without a meal at the Old Ebbitt Grill.

We even discovered a top secret bathroom on the main level of the restaurant. But you didn't hear it from me.

Guest Bath Transformation

We've painted our first room and are thrilled with the results!

Remember what the guest bathroom looked like when we bought our house?

After installing a cabinet and new towel bars it looked like this.

And here it is after changing the wall color from taupe to gray.

In addition to changing the paint color, we've also gone from a flat paint to a satin paint which should be so much more durable and cleanable.

One room done, six more rooms and a hallway to go!

Paint

Thanks to a 40% off sale running this weekend, we're now the owners of 14 gallons of interior paint.

After trying ten different paint samples, we settled on five different colors to use in the house. All of the colors we chose are Benjamin Moore colors that Sherwin Williams matched using its database of color codes.

Living Room, Hallway, and Kitchen: Edgecomb Gray
Master Bedroom: Manchester Tan
Man Cave/Guest Room: Revere Pewter
Office: Muslin
Bathrooms: Stonington Gray

I'm so glad we got testers and put up color swatches on the walls in each room. Otherwise, I think we would have been REALLY surprised at what some of the colors looked like in different lighting situations.

For example, I thought Moonshine was going to be THE color that we would fall in love with and want to put in as many rooms as possible. As it turns out, we didn't like it anywhere at all.

I was also really surprised with the Muslin color. It looked much different on the wall than it did on the swatch, but it's a really cute color to complement our beach-themed home office.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we feel really good about getting an excellent deal on quality paint.

Goodbye, taupe pink walls!

Project Palooza

We've had some time to recover from our initial round of "must do" house upgrades after moving in. Now we're moving on to "would like to do" types of upgrades. The great thing about these projects is that we don't feel the need to do them immediately and we can take our time making sure that everything is exactly how we want it.

So look for us to do some of these things in the future.

1. Install wood flooring throughout the house.

We've gotten a number of flooring samples from Home Depot and several more samples should be coming in the mail soon from other companies. We're especially excited to see the bamboo flooring samples that should arrive any day now.

We had been thinking about wood flooring for a while now, but after recently finding out from the allergist that I'm SUPER allergic to dust mites it seems like an even better idea to replace our wall-to-wall carpeting.

2. Repaint the entire house (except for the laundry room which we already painted after moving in).

Every wall in our house is currently a flat taupe color (everything was sprayed the same color before we bought it). Unfortunately, the flat paint is terrible when any kind of mark needs to be cleaned off of it and the taupe color has pink undertones in certain light.

After looking at Behr and Benjamin Moore paint chips, we've found a few colors we're leaning towards for certain rooms but we still need to make some decisions and get some samples to paint test areas.

3. Get a bigger shed for the yard with electricity.

Okay, so I don't think our shed will be as fancy as the picture, but you get the idea. J would LOVE to have room for a workshop in a new shed as well as some extra storage space for tools and such. And frankly with as much maintenance as he does around the house he deserves one.

Now that I look at this list, perhaps I should look into a part-time job at Home Depot for the employee discount!

Birthday Recap

I had a great birthday today! Thanks to everyone who sent cards, gifts, emails, texts, etc - you really made me feel special! I ended up with quite an impressive display of birthday cards and, bonus, the below photo includes a sneak peek of the wood flooring samples we've been considering.

One of the personnel ladies at work delivered cupcakes to me this morning and I got a free birthday pizza from a nearby restaurant for lunch. J brought me flowers on his way home from work as well.

And since I can't pass up a free sub on my birthday, we had a fancy dinner at Firehouse Subs. However, this weekend we'll be going to a legitimately fancy restaurant to celebrate. Tequila lime shrimp and polenta, here I come!

Surprise Party

My new workplace is right around the corner from my old workplace, so I'm still able to meet my former co-workers for lunch. One of them asked me to come by for lunch today, which I was happy to do.

It turns out that a surprise birthday party had been planned (one day early), complete with decorations, pitchers of fruit-infused water (yum), amaretto cheesecake, and birthday cards. I can't tell you how surprised I was and how much it meant to me.

Although I now work elsewhere, I feel so fortunate to have such thoughtful friends at my old workplace.

First Week In Review

I survived my first week (well, three days since I started on Wednesday) at work. There was a lovely flower arrangement and note on my desk awaiting my arrival. What a thoughtful touch.

I also received a number of calls and visits from folks wanting to welcome me to my new position.

Nothing is broken (that I know of) and I didn't make anyone run away in terror (that I know of) so I'd call it a successful first week.

Labor Day Trip

For Labor Day weekend I escaped DC...

... and enjoyed some rest and relaxation in beautiful Pensacola, Florida!

It was good to be home. Thanks to my parents for their great hospitality as always!