demolition begins!

It's now official - we are redoing our 1/2 bathroom!

We got home from a busy holiday vacation in NY with enough hours left on Sunday to being our bathroom remodel. From start to finish it only took about 3 hours to take out all the doody-brown tiles and mosaic tile flooring. The hardest part about the whole job so far was getting the "new" sink out of the bathroom without damage. Aleks has quite a lot of plumbing ahead of him.

So, as you can see from the pictures, we had no problem getting the wall tiles out. This included the chunky paper towel holder, toothbrush holder, and soap holder all in the ugly shade of 'nasty' that it was. Since we recently replaced the vanity and light fixture, that's staying as is!

The floor wasn't as bad as it could have been. The tiles were laid in almost an inch of concrete. Because it was done over half a century ago, everything seemed to flake apart and came up easily for us. We're now down to the sub-sub-sub flooring of thin wood planks. Not much, if anything, separates this room from the basement at this point!! (No exageration! I can see our washer/dryer from a hole next to the sewer pipe!)

So there you have it. Our next steps include laying a sub-floor high enough to match up with the sewer pipe (which all has fancy industry terms and names that make me laugh but I can't remember). We've already picked out the tile we'll lay on the floor, but you'll have to wait until next weekend for updated pictures and stories about that. Once the floor is in we plan to put beadboard on the walls to cover where the tile used to be. We'll finish that off with some chair rail and baseboard. Then Aleks has the fun job of getting the sink back in (de-ja-vous) and a new toilet which we'll be shopping for on Wednesday. After the final paint is complete we'll have a much improved DIY bathroom remodel!

We hope you'll all make a trip up north to visit us soon and see all this hard work in person! In the mean time, enjoy our pictures and updates. Stay tuned. We've only just begun.....

Happy Holidays!

We want to take a minute to thank everyone for keeping us in mind this holiday season. We got an overwhelming amount of holiday cards, photo's, and family updates. It warms our hearts to know we have so many great friends and family!!

Here's a sneak peak at our dining room table filled with holiday cards. We didn't do much to decorate the house this year except for two vases filled with ornaments and the menorah we lit the first few nights of Hanukkah we were home. It has been a very busy season with work, a new niece, the snow storm, and traveling to NY. ...but we wouldn't have it any other way.

We hope everyone's well and enjoying the holidays. Stay tuned for a post about our house projects. Like I said, it's been a busy December 2008!

Cheers!

digital upgrade

Aleks and I are planning to upgrade our digital camera. We had the opportunity to demo a Nikon D40 from his office this weekend. I love it. It's definitely towards the top of my list - just a bit more research to do on a few others that friends highly recommend. If you are reading this and have any suggestions please let us know.

I was really pleased with the D40 and how quickly and easily I was learning about all the features and settings. I played around with it a lot and used Mason as my test subject, of course. He was great because I could practice in all different lighting conditions, and with movement, portraits, and so many other features of the camera.

The only hesitation for me right now is the shutter speed. Nikon has a D60 which is almost identical to the D40 but with a faster shutter speed. It also offers a package deal with a second telephoto lens for zooming in on objects much further away. We'll check out prices and see what we think is best.

For those who might not be clear on what impact shutter speed could have, check out this filmstrip picture I've attached with 6 sequence shots of Mason getting up from the kitchen and running towards the camera. All I did was hold down the button and the camera automatically took a sequence of shots. With a faster shutter speed I would have more incremental pictures of this action taking place, which would be great.


Enjoy these pictures, some of Mason and his friend Brady, a 5 month old mini-Mason who lives in our neighborhood and is Mason's new best friend. They played so well together and had a blast, we hope for many more puppy-play-dates in the near future.


ps - for those of you who haven't heard yet... Mason is a move star! He's premiering this Christmas in "Marley and Me", you may have heard of it. You should check it out - get a sense of what our world is like since adding Mason to the family!! ;)

Ice Ice Baby

Vanilla Ice Ice Baby. To go. To go. ...sorry for the horrible early 80's flashback for those of you to cool for school.

So, as usual, we were busy around the house this weekend. Aleks got a water line from the basement to the new fridge, so we now have ice! We haven't had a freezer before this one that made it's own ice. I'm liking it a lot, and Mason too, he loves ice treats. ooo, and check out the awesome linoleum floor hidden in the alcove where the fridge goes. Clearly Harold (the previous owner) didn't move his fridge when installing the floating wood floors. Busted!

I'm also including some pictures of the mirror we just hung in the dining room. Aside from a new dining room furniture set there's nothing more we can possibly do in that small room! Since we moved in we got the chair rail up, painted floor to ceiling (including the ceiling and the cabinet), installed a new light fixture, hung curtains, added the three panels of wall art, and now the mirror to finish off the space. Oh wait, I lied. We can still have the wood floors redone - it's on Aleks's wish list. ;)

For those of you who haven't seen the house yet or haven't been here in a while - and that's EVERYONE - plan a visit! We'd love to have you stay with us. We promise you won't have to do work around the house while you're here.

Be sure to send us pictures of all the kiddies dressed up for Halloween this year. I think Mason might wear the raindeer antlers he got at Christmas last year, but that's about as far as we'll go.

Happy Halloween!

home sweet home

We're behind on our posts, being so busy with house projects and traveling on weekends.

Two weeks ago we got to play with Jenna for a bit. It was the week before her birthday so she (Jess) got to open some new books as an early birthday celebration. We were in NY the weekend of her first birthday.

We're also including some pictures of our new living room curtains. ooo, exciting, i know. At least they match the style of the dining room curtains, should keep some heat in throughout the winter and provide some privacy (if we ever close them), and add some nice contrast to the bright white molding and beige wall color. What do you think?

We also bought a mirror for the dining room wall! It's still on the floor of the living room, but we'll get it hung this weekend. I've included a preview picture of that. Otherwise, just the usual stuff going on here.

For everyone who's been asking about Mason and how he's doing - see for yourself in this video. He's been doing great. He limps every once in a while, but it typically doesn't last long and we've been having lots of fun going on long walks and run-time like this video on the field behind our house.

We hope everyone's having a great week. Yipee- date night tonight for us! No food in the house means a nice dinner out for 2 (Paparazzi).

Making Strides

Thank you sis! You got me involved in the fight against breast cancer!

I can't thank you enough for getting me involved. It was fun getting donations and trying to raise money for such a great cause. The best part was the event itself this past Sunday. It was a great experience walking with you and some friends, and thousands of other people in Westchester, NY.

Now that I've done it once I want to make it a priority to be involved every year and not be so hesitant to send out emails to friends, coworkers, and family. My goal this year was to raise $500. I got pretty close and hope to exceed this goal next year.

The weekend was really nice for us overall, although our hearts were with so many others who are going through some very tough times. Our love to you all.

Jelly Making

We had such a great farm weekend!

We arrived at 10:30 Friday night and tried sleeping in a 50 degree house. Don't ask. Aleks finally got out of bed to get extra blankets around 1:30 AM as we were turning into popsicles. Even the digital clock was partially frozen - we kept ignoring Mason's gentle whines because our clock said 6:30 AM around 8:00 AM! oops

We had fun making Jelly on Saturday. It was great to have Lisa and Mike come for the day to help out. At one point Aleks even took Mike to cut down some trees. I think we made at least 5 batches of jelly. I don't know how many jars or cups that comes to, but it was definitely not record breaking.

On Sunday Aleks and I took Mason to go apple picking and get pumpkins, which was fun. The house got winterized with storm windows, removing ACs, Aleks' 4 hours of lawn mowing, bringing fire wood onto the porch, and all that "fun" stuff.

Mason definitely had a blast running around and playing with Sherlock. It was great to see them getting along, for the most part. Thanks everyone for a great weekend and another great year of Jelly. It's hard to belive that it was already three years ago that Aleks proposed (October 1st, 2005 on our "jelly making weekend"). WOW, how time flies.

Here's a link to a few of our weekend pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=11551223241916560/l=428470817/g=8006030/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Mason says Hi

It's me, Mason!

I just wanted to say hi to all my friends, especially the ones I haven't seen in a while.

Hi Lauren. Hi Sarah. I miss you girls and I hope we can see each other at the farm again soon. I had so much fun when you were there. Staci and Aleks are taking me there this weekend to run around in the stream and all the fields, but it won't be the same without you.

Hi Andrew. Hi Jacob. Andrew, I've seen some of the fun waffles and pancakes you get for breakfast and if I was there with you I would eat those right off your plate! It looks like you're having fun playing with your train set and all your lego's. I miss watching you ride around the farm on the tractor with Aleks. I've also heard that you're a great big brother. I can't wait to meet Jacob soon.

Hi Madeline. Hi William. I'm glad your mom shows you my notes so we can stay in touch. I saw recent pictures of William at the race track - that looked like so much fun! You are getting to be such a big boy with such a great smile. And Madeline, you were doing some high kicks in the pictures we saw - it looks like you are really enjoying all your activities. Which one is your favorite?

It's that time of year when everyone heads back to school. We hope you have a great school year and have fun with your friends. Hopefully we can see each other soon so I can give you big, wet, slobbery kisses and Staci and Aleks can give you big hugs.

Lets talk soon! Enjoy some of my recent pictures. Roof roof.
Love, Mason

Rusty & Barbie's Wedding

We finally got back to Rangeley, ME!
This is the area we went camping a few times, not far from Mooselookmeguntic Lake, Bald Mountain, and many other places we enjoy. Even Aleks goes ice fishing in these here parts.

We stayed at a beautiful condo on Saddleback Mountain where the wedding was held. The views were spectacular, it was exciting to see the leaves changing color but not so exciting to think about getting home and digging out all our winter gear from the basement. It's about that time of year. Happy Fall (as of Monday).

Here's the "G" rated version of the weekend:
Friday Aleks and I spent the day driving up, stoping in Kittery for some shopping and lunch. We had dinner with friends at The Inn before heading to the rehearsal dinner party where they served home brewed beers and wine.

Saturday we were all up bright and early (4:30 AM thanks to loud neighbors in the condo below us - boo) and went golfing with the wedding party. Actually, the guys golfed and the girls drove golf carts around the course all morning. We left the guys for lunch, then met back up for the 3:30 ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. The wedding was beautiful and everyone had a great time, dancing through the night. It was great to see so many people. We especially love the personalized tooth brushes and trees they gave to all the guests as party favors.

Sunday we got up early again, had breakfast in town, then hit the road, stoping at the Small Falls for all of 5 minutes. It was great stopping at the Trainor's to meet baby Abigail for the first time! She is beautiful and both Shannon and Jeremy seem to be naturals when it comes to parenting.

We picked Mason up in the late afternoon and we're thrilled to announce that he's not limping much for us this time!! The ladies at Lynda's are fabulous and gave him just the right amount of play time with all the other dogs and enough rest to keep him healthy. He'll be sleeping through this entire week from all the excitement, and we love it!

Here's a link to our pictures from the weekend. Enjoy!
http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=111231222177939431/l=428210833/g=8006030/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Lizzie's Bridal Shower

I'm slightly behind on updating my posts from this past weekend. I was down in White Plains for Liz's bridal shower on Sunday and got to spend time with lil sis. As a bonus, Aunt Janet and Uncle Stephen were in town for their Yonkers High School reunion.

Saturday afternoon I was busy helping Lisa finish some favors for her friend Betsy's bridal shower this coming weekend. It was almost fun stuffing Chinese take-out boxes with pink confetti and hugs & kisses she put labels on earlier. Tying all the ribbon into neat bows was a bit much, but the final product was well worth it! And it was fun spending some sister time together. (check out the picture above)

Sunday was the shower for Liz and I wish I took more pictures of the girls. It was so great to see Tracy, Debbie, Lisa and all of Lizzie's friends for the afternoon. FUN!

Our 2 Year Anniversary!

What a way to spend a Tuesday!!

We went whale watching, leaving right from the Boston Harbor, and it was fantastic! The water was extremely rough (plenty of people on board got sick just getting out there.) The whale feeding ground called Stellwagen Bank is barely an hour via high-speed catamaran and provides prime whale watching this time of year.

We learned a lot about the feeding habits of whales (primarily humpbacks), and why this area is a popular spot along their migration route - but I won't bore you with those details, you can google that info on your own. The few pictures posted here are to give you some perspective of how close some whales got to the boat and how rough the water was.

One of the marine biologists on board was talking to us about how rare and unexplainable it is that humpbacks will occasionally do a full-body breach out of the water. Just as she's saying there's barely a 1-in-10 chance of people seeing this (and she's been on the water every day for the past 3 weeks without seeing one) we got an upfront close encounter of it with our own eyes!

A humpback whale flew out of the water, head first, and came crashing down on it's back. It seemed to be just feet from the boat and where Aleks and I were standing. It was amazing! We saw it again for a second time, a bit further out, and then a tail or fin crash the surface. It was spectacular!

We were so caught up in all the excitement we didn't capture much on the camera. We got enough shots of some backs arching out of the water, blow-holes as they surface, and a few tails as they dive back into deeper waters. There's nothing like seeing a full whale breach the surface in person out in the water with you!

We were glad we took the day to enjoy time together and experience something in the Boston area we wouldn't ordinarily do. Enjoy these short video clips of what little action we caught on camera....

brrr... it's finally here (no, not winter. our new fridge!)

We got our new refrigerator delivered yesterday! Thanks to Aleks who worked from home and kept Mason company while the delivery guys got to work. Take a look....

It was easy getting Mason to sit by the fridge for a picture, and surprisingly just as easy to get Aleks to model it for us...
I love the french doors to the fridge! If you look closely, you'll see we have an obscene amount of condiments that fill the entire left door, and plenty of sodas for a block party - or anyone who wants to come visit...
Good old Eggo's and frozen veggie bags fill the freezer. And if you're really looking closely and now very curious, that's a bag filled with frozen bananas on the top shelf for when I make banana bread ...mmmm....
The only thing left now is to get a water line hooked up for the automatic ice maker! FUN! (It's a race to see who gets to it first, me calling a local plumber or Aleks having a day at home to do the work himself).

Thanks for letting us share. We can't wait for you to come visit and see for yourself in person. You're always welcome ;)

Kristen & Jesse's wedding

Despite hurricane Fay lingering around the gulf coast of Florida for 5 days we had a great weekend in Bonita Bay (my first time in the gulf). Most of this blog is going to be pictures that highlight the weekend. There's a link at the bottom to our Snapfish album if you want to see more.Aleks and I are sure we belong in the north! The heat and humidity kept us from walking much but we made good use of the rental car's AC. Here's a picture of Aleks at the Promenade by our hotel.
We got very lucky all weekend with the weather! The few times we were outside walking around there was a break in the clouds, most times we were indoors for food or other activities it was storming outside. Here's a picture of Kristen with Erik and Shirley at dinner Friday night.Everyone looked beautiful all weekend. Here are a few pictures from the wedding. Karyn looked amazing in the maid-of-honor dress (bridesmaides wore the same dress in blue), Kristen with her parents walking down the isle, Kristen and Jesse walking as a married couple, and Aleks and I goofing around.

And of course a vacation would not be complete without a trip to Bass Pro Shops! Luckily for Aleks it was on our way back to the airport (and luckily for me he had a time limit of 1 hour!)For the entire album of pictures from the weekend, copy and paste the link below:
http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=813241219628506771/l=421504888/g=8006030/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB