the dearth of blog posts is due to the craziness of getting ready for a wedding! i'll post more here next week, but for now, i am running around getting plans ready, keeping the soon-to-be bride happy.
before tim and my dad came this past weekend to replace all the carpet, i tried to paint all the trim around the room. i figured it would be a ton easier if it painted it with the old carpet, that way if i accidentally got some on the carpet, i wouldn't care at all!
after we (and by we, i mean tim) finished putting down the new carpet, we started putting stuff back where it belonged. soon after, my mom and diana came down to see us. they had a wedding shower that morning in grand rapids, when it was done they both headed down together to see what we had been doing. my mom hadn't been down to the house since all these renovations had taken place, so she was thrilled to see all the new improvements. both of them really loved the new carpets! tim headed out after the work was done because he had plans back home that night. the rest of us soon began bringing stuff back in from the shed, but didn't get too far because i needed to repaint the bedroom and office before filling them back up with stuff.
we needed to get a few things, so we headed out to target. after that we went out for dinner at bennigan's. the light rain from earlier in the day quickly changed to a terential downpour as we tried to get to these different places! we had a nice dinner with the four of us and got to talk through a bunch of plans for the following weeks leading up to the wedding. after dinner mom and dad headed back home (thanks again for all the work you guys have put into the house and our transition into marriage!!!). we headed back to the house for a bit, then i brought diana back home- quite a long (but productive) day!
bright and early saturday morning my brother-in-law tim and my dad arrived at my place ready to work! the plan was for my dad to finish up the little odds and ends left over from replacing the trim, and tim (bless his soul) offered to replace all of the carpet in the house! i had done the preparation needed to have the floors empty (almost, some of that stuff was too big and heavy for me to move by myself). as soon as they got there we got down to work. papa pulled out his saw and started getting the trim ready, tim decided to start in the second bedroom, which diana and i have started calling 'the office'. we moved the bookshelves out and tim started tearing up the old stuff. before long it was down to the tile, and with lightning fast speed it suddenly had a finished and completely new carpet! dang, that guy replaces carpet like its his job or something! we moved my bed out of the bedroom and zoom! it was done too. by now papa had finished all the trim details and all three of us helped out with the living room. we decided to take a lunch break, but were quickly back to it. we emptied out the living room and tim whipped out a new carpet in no time! the whole process, start to finish, only took about four hours! they were amazingly fast, and now (along with the new wood laminate in the kitchen and bathroom) i've got a house with completely new flooring! diana is so spoiled...
this past week i spent a ton of time cleaning out my house. i dont mean cleaning up, i mean cleaning out! my brother-in-law and dad were planning on coming down to work on the carpet, so i needed everything off the floor. in the second bedroom that meant a ton of stuff! i got a bunch of boxes from school and spend a couple nights this week packing them up and putting everything (and i mean everything!) into my shed. i had to empty out all the bookshelves and everything else i had into the shed- i felt like i was packing to move or something! it was a lot of stuff, but i got it done,and boy was that shed full.
oh, the intrigue... i got a new car in the spring because my old one pooped out on me. i would have traded it in, but they were only going to give me fifty bucks or something for it. i figured i could get a better deal than that. its been sitting in my driveway ever since. i feel a bit like white trash... over the summer i called a junk yard to ask them how much i could get for it, but they only offered a hundred bucks. i figured i could get a better deal than that. it still sits in my driveway. i've put it on craigs list a couple times, there are a bunch of people interested, but then they never call me back to come and see it. every time my dad comes down to help with the house he gets visibly upset that its still there. finally this week i decided to actually clean it out in case one of the people i talk to from the craigs list posting actually do want to see it. ive got two more weeks to get rid of it. maybe i should give that junk yard a call again...
saturday morning we didn't do much of anything, but it was still a great time. i got to sleep in for the first time in too long, which is always good! we hung out at the house for most of the day watching some shows i tivoed, listened to some music, talked, argued, and danced! i even gave jeffry lee an instructional lesson on how to wear a scarf.
this past weekend the guys came down to see me for one last bachelor weekend at my place. over the years the guys have come to visit 2 or 3 times a year and we always have a great time. usually its a pretty low key event, we mostly just stick around the house and play video games and watch movies, and this weekend was no exception. aaron and jeffry lee came down after work friday. they arrived around 9:00pm. soon after they got here we realized we were hungry, so we went out to bennigan's for a late dinner. we hung out there for a while, and then headed back to the house. we chatted and hung out till about 2:00am. by then we were all completely exhausted and figured our time would be better spend sleeping, that way we could wake up at a slightly reasonable time on saturday!
this past week i spent a bunch of time cleaning up the house. i have a girl moving it soon, so i know i need to prepare! i've been going through a ton of my old junk and throwing away what ever i can. aside from going through all the old boxes of stuff i also took some time to just clean everything- do the dishes, dust the living room, clean the bathroom. all that stuff that can get neglected and add up quickly! by friday night i had the place looking pretty good! it doesn't happen very often, so i made sure to take some picture as proof at i do know how to clean, i just usually choose not to...
sunday afternoon diana and i headed back. it was really good to just have some down time in the car together- the weekend had been so busy that we hardly even got to talk just the two of us! when we got to her house there was about 4 inches of snow on the ground. so i did the manly thing and grabbed a shovel. after about 10 minutes of shoveling, she popped out of the house dressed in a full body snowsuit ready to help! she looked so cute in her get up! she planned the timing right too, there was only about two minutes more of shoveling to do- very sneaky! soon after it was time to go. its always annoying to have to say goodbye. well, i guess we've only got a few more weeks until we don't have to anymore!