Clean Pup

We took Rocco to the dog park on Saturday to deal with some of his crazy 8 month old puppy energy. It was super muddy and since he loves rolling and laying, he came home covered in mud. We had to carry him in straight to the shower. We used our glassed in shower this time so he couldn't escape.

Here's a cute pic of him drying out with a bone reward. He is deathly afraid of the blow dryer so he just has to air it out for several hours. The life of a dog!

Spout It Out

This post is about faucets. :-) I got a little creative with that title.

Much like many home projects, our kitchen is a work in progress. When we moved in, we transformed our totally 90s cabinets into a brighter and more modern look with paint and new hardware. We replaced the floors too - from a beat-up light engineered wood to a medium brown real wood. These changes alone made a huge difference.
 

Kitchen before. Hello oak wood.

Sorry for the dark pics - these are from my iphone!

Ahh so much better. Even with the old appliances.

Phase 2 of the kitchen involves a new sink and faucet. Our shallow, grody white sink is out. As is its best pal - a leaky, dirty, cracked faucet. Thanks to my sister's wonderful BF, we have a new, shiny, deep stainless steel sink to install! We are trying to decide on a faucet. We want something that

1. Fits our modern taste
2. Is sleek with clean lines
3. Will last - we are looking at quality brands since the sink gets the most use out of anything in your entire kitchen

We've narrowed it down to three options. Which do you like best? Have you owned any of these brands?

Kohler Simplice

Delta Trinsic

Moen Reflex

 
Phase 3 will be new appliances (praise stainless steel!), paint, under cabinet lighting and a tiled backsplash which we'll attempt to DIY!

Who's The Boss?

Things get real tense in our house when we have to hang stuff. Nothing makes us more frustrated than this seemingly simple household task. Something about the measuring tape and drill gets us stressed and we always end up snapping at each other. I think it's because we want the project to turn out perfectly and not have to spackle and paint giant holes in the wall.

Well, we took on our most daunting hanging task to date on Sunday afternoon - six vertical hanging wine racks from Crate & Barrel. And we lived to tell the tale!! I credit this miraculous fact to two things: our love of wine and THE BOSS.

THE BOSS (see below) is a giant, contractor grade level that my dad was smart enough to make me take home for this project. I tried to decline the boss not one but twice...but Dad insisted so I took THE BOSS mostly to get home. Oh but THE BOSS was wonderful. It allowed us to mark straight lines all the way up the wall and all the way across. So thankful for Dad's collection of every tool imaginable 5 minutes away.

 

We are so proud of ourselves! Every time we got one rack up and the level showed we did it right, we jumped up and down and high fived! Yes, hanging things sucks this much at our house. Haha.

Now on to the beauty shots...the wine racks are on an empty wall in our dining room. We couldn't put a piece of furniture here because the room is a little bit narrow to fit a table, hutch and a sideboard or something similar on this wall. We think it turned out great and matches our style.

I painted the art piece on the wall too! After some serious Pinterest searching, this blog inspired me and I attempted the project. It feels cool to have something hanging that I painted - feels a little more unique than my usual HomeGoods art prints.

Now we just need to fill up those racks with some vino! Who wants to go to Napa? ;-)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We had a fantastic time celebrating at home with friends and family. It was such a nice change from the bars and the impossible task of catching a cab home in the city.

We decided to do wine and game night and it was a blast. I would like to introduce you all to one of the most hilarious and ridiculous adult party games I've ever played (introduced to us via friends L & N.)

Cards Against Humanity

This is an adult version of Apples to Apples for people with wicked senses of humor. Highly recommend accompanying this game with alcohol. You will get to know new friends pretty quickly and you'll love how much you know your existing friends' twisted senses of humor! It's currently sold out online (unless you want to pay $70 for it) but you can print off the cards and make your own set here.

So wrong but so right.

Happy 2013 to you and good luck remembering to write this in dates. It typically takes me three months of the previous year before I actually get in this habit, ha!