Best Surprise Ever!

Matt and I went to the UFC Fight Expo with Rey & Tina yesterday at the Hines Convention Center. I hoped that Chuck Liddell would notice me while I was there and pull me out of the crowd but somehow, he didn't see me! Regardless, Matt and I did get to take our picture inside the octagon! Better yet, when we came home, I found that I have the most fantastic fiance in the world, and he threw me an amazing surprise 27th birthday party. I was completely blown away. I went down to the basement to get something out of the freezer and about fifty people were in my basement.
I have to thank my friends and family for helping Matt with the planning and for keeping their mouths shut and not letting it slip for the six weeks he planned it! It was so fabulous to have so many important people there for me. For those that were there for me, I can't tell you how much it meant to me to have each and every one of you there with me! Thank you!

Me & Joshy - my bestest since Kindergarten!
Di, Jax, Riche, & I
Cassidy
Sam definitely gets the award for traveling the farthest in one night!
Langs, Joshy, Mel, Cole, Di, & Mike
UFC
Me & Cole

Joshy, Cole, & Jax: Typical Party Animals

Veterans Day Mission: Surprise Matt

Matt has been working very hard on the basement for quite some time now. He is in school every night, but it seems every spare moment is working on the basement. I'm so proud of him. The one thing Matt really hates is painting so I devised this plan to completely surprise him and get it done for him. On Tuesday night I impatiently waited for Matt to leave for class. As soon as he pulled out of the driveway, I ran downstairs and began priming the entire other half of the basement. Stupid me bought oil-based primer and no paint thinner, so at 9:30, when I finished and was trying to clean up quickly before Matt came home, I had white speckles all over my arms. I hid in long sleeves and hoped he wouldn't notice the few on my face and in my hair.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with Matt. When he left for work, I bolted downstairs and started with the first coat of our paint. I got the entire half of the basement done in a matter of about 6 hours. I called Matt at work and told him I'd be at my mom's so he wouldn't expect anything at the house to be done. I painted all of both rooms and got everything cleaned up with time to spare. When Matt came home for dinner around 5:30, we sat down to eat together. He talked at dinner about how he had to go down in the basement and get started on painting and how much he didn't want to. It was so hard for me to keep a straight face. I am officially the worst liar. After dinner Matt headed downstairs to get started and, for a few minutes, I thought he was actually screwing with me. He took about ten minutes at the top of the stairs looking at the trim. He finally went downstairs and he didn't notice the paint in the first room because the light wouldn't kick on. He was down there for at least a full minute (which felt like eternity) when I heard him yell "Hey! You painted!" Haha. It was nice to do something nice for him and have it be a surprise. It was one less thing he had to do. :)


Also, because it was Veterans Day, I'd like to make sure I mention how thankful I am for all of our veterans, my grandfather, Mike, Tony, Joe, Kyle, Rich, Andrew, Nate, Jess, and all the rest of the men and women who currently serve and have served our country. It is something that I know I could not do and it makes me appreciate those people that much more. Thank you, Veterans!

The Construction Continues

Matt has moved on to the other half of the basement now. I am so proud of him. Somehow he squeezes in time while he works full time and is taking two college courses at the same time. We had to tear down the ceiling in the tiled room and one and half walls (which were stucco - yuck!) Matt raised the duct to give a little more headroom as well. He's also working on making the unfinished laundry room into two rooms: one unfinished tool room in the back and one finished laundry room in the front. It's really coming along considering the little time Matt actually gets to spend working down there.

Housewarming & Engagement Party

Our housewarming & engagement party was on the 18th. We lucked out with a nice day... a little stickier than I would have liked, but it was still nice and there was no rain - for this summer, no rain was all I was asking for! I think the party went really well. It was really important to me that all of our family and friends be there. I think a few peoples' invitations slipped through the cracks. Some people I think never checked their email invitations. Others I didn't have their addresses. But all in all, the people who we really wanted there, were there (minus a few who were missed). With over 130 people there on Saturday, I felt like I was going crazy trying to see everyone, give tours, be a hostess, and try to enjoy myself as well. By the time I was ready to sit down and relax with a drink, it seemed all of my friends were gone for the night! My cousin Michele and her two boys made the trip from New York out here, as did my friend Spikey Jon. I also had my friend Kelly come up from Connecticut which was really awesome to me. It was really important to me that we have all of our friends and family there with us to celebrate the beginning of our life together in our new home. It wasn't just a housewarming party or just an engagement party to me but a day to have all of our closest friends there to be with us. We had a really wonderful time and it seemed like most other people did as well. We can't thank everyone enough for being there for us, helping out with all of the hard work, and celebrating with us. I know it was especially hard for a few people to put their differences aside and be in the presence of other people where it might not have been very comfortable -- and that means the world to me! I hope everyone had as good of a time as we did. We love you all.

The beautiful and huge cake my parents got us

The 129 Jello shots I made to start us off right..
Our basement - finally (just about) finished!
The bar area of the basement!
Our moonbounce to entertain the kids! (Thanks, Chad!)
Some family & friends..
My friend Spikey Jon from NY was kind enough to remove our swing set for us. (Yes, we really wanted it removed.)
Some of the best friends a girl could ask for.

When It Rains, It Pours

When people say they have a "Case of the Mondays," it must feel something like today. In the past 24 hours, things have been not so good, to say the least. I must begin by saying the basement has been coming out wonderfully. I have been very busy and haven't been updating as much as I should. To begin with, Matt and his dad finished the ceiling and my Uncle Paul did a fantastic job with the recessed lighting. We weren't sure it was going to work out, but he made it work and I love it. We've just about finished the trim and the rest of the basement as well. Matt and his dad spent all day redoing the stairs so that they could be stained to match the rest of the basement. I spent all this time in Home Depot with some guy in the paint department (not my usual Sal or Gary) and he supposedly matched the floor as best he could. It turned out like this...

And Matt HATED it. It was much too dark and he couldn't stand it... so off I went to Home Depot where Sal tried to save my butt by giving me this stain stripper stuff. I spent about 45 minutes on the first stair with my hands in elbow-high rubber gloves and my goggles on... The stair color went about 2 shades lighter.... and I mean 2 very, very slight shades lighter. In the end, we tore up the stairs and Matt redid them. We got all new treads and started over. This
time, I'm staining and polyurethaning them a lighter color which matches the rest of the trim in the room. It will have to be better.
In the meantime, I told you that when it rains, it pours... and I wasn't kidding. Yesterday morning, Matt mowed the front lawn, finished up, headed around back, and the mower seized up. We bought the mower the second week we were here, around the first of May... brand new... and now it doesn't work. Matt has to take it back to Home Depot and hope they'll help us out. Then, this morning, my friend Tom comes over to replace our hot water heater. He goes to shut off the water at the water valve and the valve breaks. I call a plumber to come and help us while Tom decides to come back next week to do the hot water heater. While all of this is going on, the refrigerator stops keeping things cold and Comcast stops working. In less than 24 hours, it has poured, literally outside and figuratively inside. Hopefully, ALL of these issues can be reconciled without too much pain or money on our ends!!

Making the Pieces Fit

Things are finally coming together nicely. After a month and a half, I have finally caught up with all the laundry. All the clothes that needed to be washed from storage are finally clean and most are put away. The house has been coming along as well. Matt and my father have been putting up trim around the basement. We really only have the stairs and the storage cabinet to do before we can put down all of the trim. I think they maybe could have used one more coat of stain but we got impatient.

On Friday Matt and I put the mirror and shelving back up in the bar area. A piece of it got broken, but we're going to trim it out so that it's not noticeable. Matt and his dad put up the rest of the grid for the drop ceiling yesterday. Matt's dad tiled our downstairs bathroom with this great Canyon Slate tile that I absolutely loved at Lowe's. The wood floors bring out a tint of red in it while the paint color brings out a little green and a little brown. I really love the way it looks.
For some unknown reason, blogger won't let me turn this picture, but it's the best view of the flooring so I'm posting it aToday my uncle Paul came over and put up our recessed lighting. We were worried about it but I think it ended up coming out really great.

A Brazilian Cherry Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend proved to be a very busy weekend for us. We spent Saturday celebrating Zosia & Eric's new home with them at a cookout and spent Sunday celebrating the newly crowned Dr. Marissa A. Fast, M.D. However, the house did not stop just because we left! While Matt and I were at this fabulous brunch in Malden & then Josh's house for a cookout in Melrose, Rick (Matt's dad) and his uncle Mike were here putting up the drop ceiling grid. I don't know how long they worked on Sunday but they got the larger half of the basement done and we're so psyched. We got home from Josh's around 8:30 on Sunday night and did the second coat of paint on the walls, just a bit lighter in color. We finished the paint close to midnight and called it a night.
On Monday, Marissa's boyfriend Josh came over and he and Matt began laying the new Brazilian Cherry hardwood flooring in the basement. While they were working, I went and bought a new router at Lowe's and decided to router the edges of some 1x3s for the trimwork in the basement. After one trip to Home Depot and two to Lowe's, as well as a lot of frustrations and two routers, the new router that I finally got figured out was great and I loved it. After all the aggravation though, my head cold was bad and I only got through one piece of trimwork before I had to throw in the towel and stop using power tools. My eyes were blurry, my nose was runny, my head was sneezy and pounding, and things were overall, not looking good. My dad kindly came by and took over and routered all of the rest of the trim for me. Mom helped me to stain it and we put that to the side.
Matt, Josh, and my dad did a pretty good job. They made it as far as they could on the floor before quitting. I've got to get out to Woburn to Lumber Liquidators and get some more vapor barrier so they can finish it this weekend. In the meantime, I love how the basement is finally starting to take shape and I can not wait to get my crap put away!

Paint by Numbers

Matt spent the entire day on Sunday sanding the basement. I [conveniently] had to go to PJ's baby shower and couldn't possibly avoid that to help Matt sand. In truth, I felt pretty awful that I wasn't here helping Matt but in the end, I was glad. I hate sanding! Anyways, Matt sanded everything Sunday and I went down Sunday night and helped him clean. Monday morning, my cousin Tony came over while we were at work and primed the entire basement for us. It took him most of the day but it looked great and we were psyched to have one more thing done down there. We decided to go with a beige color, Stonington Beige, for the basement. It's the same color in my mother's living room and we both like it so I picked up the paint and called in the troops. I was lucky enough to have one of my favorite college friends, my roommate Mal, come out and help us out. Between her and my family (my parents and my cousin Tony), we were able to get the entire basement painted in less than two hours. Apparently painting by numbers really does the trick. I'm not sure about the color yet. It's hard to tell without good lighting down there. Matt didn't like it at first. He and I perceive colors differently and he was sure that at the top of our stairs, the color looked to brown. I saw green. Regardless, I think I might go have them lighten the other two gallons just a little so that when we do the second coat we can lighten it up a bit. It is a basement, a movie room, and a bar room so I don't want it to be too bright, but maybe just a little lighter will be nice.

Rocking the House

The sheetrock in the basement has been the thorn in my side since we bought the house. I'm not the most patient person but I've built houses before from the ground up and I know these things take time... but I can't remember the last time I wanted something done as bad as I want to be done with this damn sheetrock! I just can't quite believe how bad the dust is from the sheetrock. It's everywhere! Even when I hung plastic and sheets and the like in doorways, it seems they disappear before I know it and in comes the dust. There are footprints in every room of my house. I don't know how, but they're there. I make it a point to change my shoes when I go downstairs and I make it a point to put out rugs to wipe your feet on and still.. still there is sheetrock dust in every corner of my house.
That being said, the basement is coming along quite nicely. The sheetrock is now, for the most part, done, but I'm almost scared that suddenly they're going to do something else. Suddenly more dust is going to appear - I just know it. In the meantime, I spent some time on my hands and knees washing the floors and every nook and cranny of the first floor in an attempt to rid myself of the dust and hoped for the best!

The Writing on the Walls

We've acquired quite a bit of trash through all of this demolition. I don't know if I'd be exaggerating if I said that we had about 50 or so contractor trash bags full of drywall and plaster, nails, dirt, and dust under our sunroom. Fifty might even be an understatement. My Uncle Bobby has been awesome enough to get rid of a ton of the trash for us, and so he was here for a few hours today helping out with that. While he was getting rid of the trash, I put my cousins to work. Tiana tested out our new lawnmower. She did a fantastic job on the front of the house, but I think it was a little more tiring than she expected. We'll get to the backyard later in the week. At least our neighbors won't think we're slobs!I decided to put my godson Cory to work as well. I brought him down in the basement to the half bath and let him go to town.

He did such a good job, we even let him write his name on the walls. This may be the only time it is okay, right, and appropriate to write on a bathroom's wall.

Tiana wanted to do a little as well.... get out some aggression, so we let her take a hammer to the wall a few times, too.

Besides Uncle Bobby, Tiana, and Cory, we also were lucky enough to have my mother here cleaning the entire basement out once again, Matt's parents and Uncle Mike working on the basement for a while, and my Uncle Paul and cousin Anthony doing the electrical in the basement. Once again, we've been so lucky and so blessed to be able to count on so many people. We even had our new neighbor, John, come by yesterday and offer us the use of his lawn mower until we bought we one. I told him we had bought one just a few hours previous, but if this was his way of telling us our grass needed mowing, we'd get right on it!