DIY Weekend!

or

???

Instead of going to the beach or having a lazy, relaxing Memorial Day weekend, Billy and I are planning to have a major home improvement weekend. I am very excited about it, since we love working on projects together and continuously trying to finish/improve our house! We are probably being overly ambitious, but here is the plan for now...

GARAGE: Clean out, organize, get rid of things we don't need, and make space for our foosball table (which hasn't seen the world outside of our office attic since early 2007). We figure we'll have some fun getting to use the table again, and that area will be great for parties! (I'll post before and after pictures later :))

PATIO: Still not sure if this will work or not, but we'd like to put in a brick patio in our backyard. We've been toying with the idea of doing this for over a year now (hate to spend too much money when we'd like to be moving out of this house/area ASAP!), but it would be so nice to have a little outside living space other than when we bring the hammock outside and have a few cocktails on it.

PLANTING BED: Behind the porch, we'd like to add a little planting bed possibly filled with hostas, as that area just doesn't seem to want grass to grow in it. It's kind of an eyesore, and a small planting bed would be a nice addition, softening up the brick skirt on the house there as well.

COMPOST: I'm going to start a compost pile this weekend as well, following the directions from this great house-related blog that always has awesome tips for home improvements that save dollars. That will cut down on the amount of trash we generate (we eat lots of produce, which is perfect for composting), helping the environment, cutting down how many trash bags we go through (saving $), and giving our planting areas a little boost as well.

TV STAND: Our big TV in the basement is currently sitting on a little bench that we inherited from Billy's childhood (which would actually look good at the end of our bed with a new coat of paint...don't think that will fly with the husband though :)), so we're looking to replace it with something that will have a couple of shelves for our DVD player, receiver, cable box, etc. and a couple of baskets for clickers, DVD cases, and extra cords. I definitely think we can build one, so that may be in the plans for this weekend as well. This is sort of what I envision (although we'll probably keep it simple and avoid doing doors for now :)) only in a stained wood rather than painted...

(photo from potterybarn.com)

CLEAN OUT THE ATTIC: I haven't done this for at least a year, so it's time again to sort through everything in the attic, organize it, and make trips to Good Will, consignment stores, etc. We have a great walk-up attic with tons of storage room, but that also allows us to put stuff up there without being super-organized or going through things regularly. I dropped the first two bags of clothes off at Good Will today already...first small weight lifted! (before and after pics of the attic to come as well)

Not sure if we'll get through all of this, but we have high hopes of being productive this weekend. I'll post some "after" pictures of what we get done (which may very well just end up being a trip to the beach or relaxing around the house :)). Happy Memorial Day!!

C-ville Weekend

Last weekend, we made the all-too-familiar trek to one of our favorite places, Charlottesville, for my sister-in-law's college graduation. Billy's cousin's wife (cousin-in-law?) also graduated from a master's program, so it was a double-celebration weekend!

Graduation weekend is always fun but also kind of weird...both Billy and I remember it as being a kind of surreal time that flew by but was filled with lots of trying to see everyone that you may not see for several years, hanging out with family, eating and drinking too much, and remembering so many fun times at UVa. It definitely does not seem like I've been out for 5 years (and him for 6)!!

Here are some pictures from the weekend...

Family on the lawn

Hunter & Mika after she "got her hood" :)

At Kendall's graduation ceremony on the lawn

Yay Kendall!!

Jefferson went swimming in the fountain by the Rotunda...he was obsesssed with diving for the plastic lobster!

Victory!! He cried when we had to leave the lobster behind :)

Yay Kendall and Mika! And yay for going back to C-ville in 2 weeks for my 5th year reunion! (even though that makes me feel old :))

Softball!

I've never played on a church softball team, and I haven't played softball since college intramurals, but tonight, we're changing that...Billy and I are going to play for the WRPC softball team. Our friends, Pete and Mollie, talked about the fun they had last year doing it, and we've thought about it in the past but haven't ever made it out to any games, so this should be fun. Now I just need to find my glove and cleats.

I don't totally know what to expect, but it's another way to get plugged into our community here and have a little fun doing something active other than running and going to the Y. Apparently the after-parties are going to be good too...that'll be a little different from high school and college! All I know is First Baptist II better be on their toes :)

One downside to this...Billy found out that on my high school softball team, I was sometimes called "the machine", so I really hope that doesn't come up tonight! I don't think he'll ever let me live that one down :)

And, on a strange side note, my husband who has a seemingly endless supply of funny links to send me during the work day just now sent me this link/picture below that involves some new goings-on at a local waterpark. Can we please get out of this area soon...at least before we have kids who want to go there!!