Tuesday, February 16, 2016

the one with all the running.

once upon a time, (about seven years ago) I ran four miles, and it was a complete accident. I was a senior in college, and there was this boy. every evening after dinner, he would go to the fitness center on campus to work out. so I started going to the fitness center after dinner to work out. because in my little twitterpated mind, I figured that if we worked out at the same time that we could finish working out at the same time and probably walk back to the apartments at the same time. it would be a chance for conversation that would be totally organic and natural and not at all forced. (ha!) as a bonus, I would get to watch him lift heavy things from my post on the treadmill. win win win.

except that said boy worked out for a LONG time. which meant that I stayed on that treadmill WAY longer than I ever anticipated. and then suddenly I had ran four miles and given myself shin splints and only managed to have one tiny conversation by the water fountain with said boy about how I probably needed to buy new running shoes. and then i stopped going to the fitness center after dinner.

about 2 years later, I married that boy. win.

in 2 weeks, I will run four miles again, and it will be on purpose. and then I will keep going. all the way up to 13.1 miles in Yellowstone in June. if all goes according to my training plan, I will end up somewhere near 250 total miles.

my registration is in. my plane tickets are bought. my running buddy is 5 weeks ahead of me in her training. there is no turning back.

#YSHalf. here we go.

Monday, February 15, 2016

project update: the guest room, still.

I have started this post no less than three times, and just had to erase it all and start over, because it was all whining. poor me, this project is taking longer than I thought it would. poor me, my husband is doing all the work. poor me, he is very focused on all the details so these rooms are going to be completely amazing when they're done.

pathetic.

so instead of that, let me tell you all about our new door!


the door showed up in the hallway right before the weekend of snowpocalypse 2016. Mark wanted to make sure we were fully prepared for every possible scenario that might have come along with being snowed in under two feet of snow for a few days, so we stocked up on milk, bread, rock salt, and pre-hung doors.

one of the many, many little details in this project was the doorway threshold. even though this doorway was original to the house, it had already been turned into a plain old wall when the hardwood floors were installed in the hallway, and then it was still a wall when the floors were refinished last year, so we needed to add a few boards in the new doorway so the transition into the room looked intentional and like this door had always been here.


we had plenty of hardwood left over from the kitchen renovation, as well as the stain and poly, so we didn't need to buy any new materials to make this fix. it's one of those little details that probably won't ever be noticed when everything is all done, because Mark did a really good job with it and its really pretty seamless.
 
once the hardwood was all patched in, Mark installed the door and trim. he was able to reuse the trim that he took off the old closet, so it is a perfect match to the rest of the trim in the hallway.
 

side note: every time the air compressor kicks on, I jump like three feet in the air. scares me every single time.

look at that! a real-live door filling the door-sized hole in the wall!


of course, Mark promptly took the door right back down to paint it, and then he only got to paint half of it before we ran out of semi-warm days and it got too cold to spray it outside, but the paint gun makes a much nicer finish than brushing and rolling, so now the half-painted door is hanging out in the living room with the box spring and the giant roll of carpet that got delivered over the weekend. we are nothing if not super classy folks, y'all.

up next: painting, painting, painting, and then carpet!